Ryan Adams: Gold

It seems I am about 5 years behind the time. I've been trying to find the time to take this album down, but I just now got to listening to it, front to back. Turns out I've actually heard most of these tunes in random places before because the rest of humanity has known about him for a while. Sorry, I've been under an Irish rock called U2 for a while.

The interesting sound of Adams ends up being sweeter Bob Dylan, with hints of country built in. At points, the music is almost painfully Dylan-esque. It's a wonderful sound that you should all mock me for not enjoying sooner.

Gold keeps a nice rhythm, rising and falling in what feel like, all the right places, and adding a banjo for good measure. Because, really, when does a banjo make a song worse? The answer, obviously, is never.

New York, New York starts the album off in a nice pop-rock way, with a love song to ol' NYC. I've heard Rescue Blues so many times, and it never stops being beautiful. When the Stars Go Blue is a tune I know from the Corrs/Bono performance moons ago. I didn't know it was Ryan Adams' at the time, however, and his version is much better. The slow country feel of Wild Flowers works just right, I feel, and gives me a feeling of a being at a house in a wide open field.

In the end: holyshitw00t! Ryan Adams' Gold is amazing. Front to back, it's a solid album. Anything more or less than that just wouldn't do justice. This guy is amazing, and, from what I understand, his more recent work is even better.

On the Web: Archive.org currently has 68 Ryan Adams bootlegs for legal, free download.

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