RYAN ADAMS & THE CARDINALS cardinology

This 2008 album is the most recent 'proper' album to be released by Ryan Adams. This is curious, because he has a reputation for being prolific. According to Adams' Facebook page, he has finished working on two unreleased albums, Blackhole and Cardinals III/IV, and is currently recording new albums in both New York City and Los Angeles. In the meantime, this is how he sounded two years ago... 

Those who witnessed Ryan Adams’ dummy spit at the Enmore recently will agree that he can be a royal pain in the arse (‘royal’ being the operative word. He was a spoilt princess that night). But when he lets his music do the talking, all is forgotten (if not entirely forgiven) because Adams has a rare gift for songwriting.

In much of Cardinology, that gift is perfectly blended with a talented band and a remarkable vocal performance. ‘Go Easy’ is an early highlight, with Adams’ impassioned voice soaring across a gentle beat, electric guitar and piano. That’s followed by ‘Fix It’, another mid-paced heartbreaker, where Adams shows that nobody can sing about petty, dysfunctional relationships quite like he can.

What’s also pleasing here is that Adams has delivered a more stylistically diverse album than, say, Jacksonville City Nights. Yes; there is still a big dose of lonesome cowboy pedal steel on tracks like ‘Natural Ghost’ and ‘Evergreen’ but there’s also a return to convincing rock n’ roll on ‘Magick’ (quite a relief after the awful ‘Halloweenhead’ from his last record). Not to mention the simple, stripped back instrumentation on ‘Crossed Out Name’ and ‘Stop’.

While the quality does dip occasionally (the fine musicianship on ‘Sink Ships’ is scuppered by clumsy lyrical metaphors) this album shows enough to suggest that Adams is on track to deliver a fully formed masterpiece again one day.

By Andy McLean. Copyright held by author.
First published in The Brag, Sydney, 2008.

Cardinology is available through Highway Records.