First Impressions: Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

   
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger (Lost Highway Records)

Release Date: June 3rd

Tracklisting (in no particular order):

• Goodnight Rose
• Everybody Knows
• The Sun Also Sets
• Halloween Head
• Off Broadway [key track]
• Two Hearts [key track]
• Tears of Gold
• These Girls
• Two
• I Taught Myself How to Grow Old
• Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
• Rip Off
• Pearls on a String

First Impressions:

• Resisting his recent habit of dividing different sounds amongst different albums, Adams runs the gamut on Easy Tiger, giving his Grateful Dead fascination just as much room to breathe as his pop skills and country roots (although this LP leans toward the latter just a little). 
• The production isn't flashy at all. The vocals are way up in the front of the mix and they sound crystal clear.
• The studio versions of the songs are reasonably faithful to the live versions he's been playing on tour, but with less wanky guitar parts and more thoughtful lyrics.
• Songwriting is the name of the game, and it takes center stage here. No failed flamenco experiments abound, and Adams comes off as focused and feisty.
• Sounds a bit like what Cold Roses would be like if he wrote it at the age of 40 instead of 30.

Noteworthy Info:

• He's tapped into his gigantic vault of unreleased material and resurrected a whole song as well as a bridge from one of Suicide Handbook's better ballads.
• His hip-hop alter ego DJ Reggie (who's posted several albums on ryan-adams.com) exercises little to no influence.

Prediction:

• Easy Tiger looks like it might be the only Ryan Adams record released this year, and by disarming the army of critics who swear that he needs an editor, Adams songwriting prowess will come under the spotlight and win back some hearts.

Comments

[lj]

less wanky guitar, eh? I like wanky. wanky wanky wanky.

aka, what does that mean?

his lyrics are always thoughtful. june can't come quick enough.

[Jeff]

Of his last three records, '29' was the only one that seemed kind of hit or miss. It had some really good songs, but a few fell flat, that weird flamenco thing in particular. But this promises to be good stuff!

[James G]

the flamenco song rocked, ryan rocks, I want to marry him

hi Jane!!

[spew]

who doesn't want to marry him?? three albums in 05 and then nothing last year... torture!! hurry up June.

[patrick]

well... sounds good... :) looking forward to june and more ryan adams... and the flamenco song is just great.
rock on...

[buttnutt]

the "flamenco song", my good people, was called "The Sadness", and it was one of the stand out tracks of that album. But you're right, June can't come quick enough. Hopefully we'll get some decent tour dates this time...

[randy]

chicks

[ot]

the sadness is by far the best song of that album and possibly better than anything on cold roses. that isn't a slam at cold roses but praise for the sadness. absolutely incredible tune, shame he doesn't do it live.

[ot]

the sadness is by far the best song of that album and possibly better than anything on cold roses. that isn't a slam at cold roses but praise for the sadness. absolutely incredible tune, shame he doesn't do it live.

[J. T.]

Flamenco, yes, but did you hear the refrain on, "The Sadness", the break where it hits a sweet sad chorus--"Please have mercy let me go..If only a day to let her know..Without her love I'm nothing at all." It's beautiful. Anyone who expects the same old routine will always be disappointed with prolific songwriters.

[scott orrick]

ryan adams is a great songwriter. I look forward to his new album. However, The Sadness sucks

[Mark C G]

Ryan is old hat. It's just tired, alt-country misery played by a guy who's been living off Heartbreaker for far too long. It is baffling why Ryan still gets so much attention. Craig Finn does hellraising with so much more charisma and Will Sheff writes country tinged rock that Ryan would probably cream himself over if he didn't spend all his time wanking to his own albums. He's cliched, over-rated and self-indulgent. Leave him to carry on pretending to be the bastard child of Paul Westerberg and Jerry Garcia and go buy some Shearwater or Okkervil River instead. It's dishonest of him to keep selling records when he knows that people only buy them out of the forlorn hope that he'll have returned to form.

[Jimbo]

loved cold roses and Jacksonville city nights... saw him in Charlottesville, VA last summer and he played one of favorites by him "Meadowlake Street" I was on cloud nine when he was playing it. Seeing him again in July, can't wait!!!! In love with his old bassist that has since left the band :-( ... She was smokin'!!!

[Production?]

"The production isn't flashy at all. The vocals are way up in the front of the mix and they sound crystal clear."

what ? did you really listen? compare the new album, which songs are great mostly, to Gold, Heartbreaker, or even all the cardinals records and you will notice one very unusual thing. the drums are what is mixed upfront, with little ambience only and for my taste way too loud. almost unlistenable on headphones. the vocals are way behind these harsh sounding drums sitting in a nice bed of plate reverb, and they blend perfectly together with the rest of the instruments. all of the record is sounding pretty vintage but the drums aren´t and that makes it not fit together. all the adams records sound fine and are a pleasure to listen to, but this one destroy the intimacy of the songs with a flawed production and makes listening somewhat painful. this sucks man, why is that?

[Ry]

Ryan's best work is "Pneumonia" & "Heartbreaker". But this one seems promising... "Off Broadway" sounds like Whiskeytown in their finest moments. Yeah, think it's gonna be a great one...

[Ry]

QUOTE: "Off Broadway" sounds like Whiskeytown in their finest moments. /QUOTE

Euhm, not "Off Broadway", I meant "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc". Mixed up the titles. Uhm. Well. Yeah. Whatever. Etc.

[Shambo]

man, like it or love it this shit is all real. you can't sit and gauge from album to album. easy tiger is great. i would suggest it to a non-ra fan over certain records. but buy them all if you can. see him live if you can. he was in houston not long ago, sober (nytimes) and was awesome. 10 times better than '05 tour during the 3-records-in-one-year stint. he will not say he is the best, because we all know he is not. but turn on the radio, i will take any ra cd anyday. inspiring. and i don't think we have seen the best.

[burt]

I hate easy tiger cuz it sounds shallow and uninspired. Most songs are bad crafted, with weak parts where it's clear he forced himself to complete the jigsawpuzzle without nailing it. "Goodnight Rose" and "The sun also sets" are for me the only 2 outstanding productions, they reach out for something higher spiritual and deeper emotional. Ryan Adams needs guidance, a good producer with a view like Daniel Lanois, who is very strickt, and is able to create a vibrating universe of sound and aura.