nodep5

That cover is fantastic.

but is it as cool as the My Morning Jacket Evil Urges album cover?

I don't think it's an insincere record in any way, or particularly derivative. It does hold up pretty well live. But to me, Cardinology just sounds like a depressed guy making a depressed record. There are some lovely melodies, but overall I think it lacks a vital spark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinology sounds like a depressed guy making a depressed record?

 

How do you feel about Love Is Hell?

I've said this before and I guess I'm saying it again. When I want stupid fist pumping rock (which is so who I am usually not) I put on ANY KOL album. Why the hell is that so wrong. If I want serious introspection I have 1000 records to fit that bill. I give them credit because they get my toe tapping, but I never feel guilty about it (like if it was a U2 record).

Jim Derogatis top ten of 2008

What does it mean to not be a huge live music guy? Does that mean you don't get out all that much to see live music? Or does it mean you don't like live music? And if it's the latter, what the heck is wrong with you?

I don't have time to explain what all is possibly wrong with me, but I've noticed in the last 5 years that I don't get that awesome anticipatory/intensely crazy feeling when i'm at a show (maybe because i no longer rush up to the front). Also I also think live albums are kind of like (it sounds better on the studio album) why do i want a weaker version with poor sound quality. Anyway. I'm a studio album comfort dude. I use to have my mind blown by Wilco live, now I just think this is me an my wife's big night out.

This is not as depressing as it sounds!

I haven't been able to stop listening to Cardinology and it was my second favorite record of the year. Once again we'll never agree. I find it optimistic in a sincere way. Which is the weird thing about how I view Ryan Adams. Many critics feel like he is a big poser who just imitates styles. I think he is freaking ball of energy who sincerely feels what he produces and has the ubertalent to back it up musically. He never struck me as insincere just as why I'm drawn to Tweedy. I think Ryan Adams was sincerely a mess and now sincerely is trying to piece himself back together.

I saw Dead Confederate at Sasquatch (Where I also saw/heard Fleet Foxes for the first time). If you want to talk about derivative then Dead Confederate are your band. They came off like a southern Nirvana even in the lead singers way of holding the guitar. But they didn't completely piss me off either. I can do derivative. The Explorer's Club were one of my favorites this past year and they completely rip off the beach boys in every way. That being said, I'm not a huge live music guy, but the fleet foxes at Sasquatch were really swell.

The Grand Archives album is solid, nice to see it get a mention hear.

glidemagazine.com

 

 

i've tried and tried to get into that fleet foxes, but it is so derivative and boring. not to mention the guy is so trying to imitate jim james. even with his inflections and phrasing. sad.

You forgot to mention how you felt about the Fleet Foxes................................

That was my favorite record (s) this year. I guess we'll never find that common ground.

Not only this performance, but can they please put out the Whiskeytown and Old 97's performances from way back when or any of the Wilco ones. I guess the bands have to agree, but please oh please

"Lie Down in the Light"

I was searching the database for a thread on this and couldn't find one. What do you'll think of this album. I've only listened to it once so far, but I really didn't care for it. He is hit or miss for me, and kinda creeps me out, but I love Sings Palace Music and I thought The Letting Go had some realy standout tracks, but this one feels confusing to me. I read all these reviews about the country folk rollicking nature of this album, and i swear they must have only listened to the first song. Anyway, what am I not hearing here?

oh yeah, Kings Of Leon should get an honorable mention (They are who i turn to when I need some stupid fist pumping rock)

These are only the albums that I couldn't stop spinning this year. I think I will like Blitzen Trapper from what I've heard so far, but am waiting till XMAS to ask for a vinyl copy (if subpop has put it out). Anyway,

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes ( I saw them play two sets at Sasquatch this year and I'm not a huge live music, esp big venue guy, but this was incredible in that setting) I just put this record on again last week after a few months of taking a break from it, and it sounded even better.

2. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cardinology ( nothing amazing here, but easily the record i've played the most this past year, for whatever reason I can't get enough, it is positive and uplifting and I dig it)

3. Avett Brothers - The Gleam II (Sweet sad songs, so beautiful, I love these guys and I really hope the big boys don't screw them up)

4. Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State - (This was my sleeper/out of nowhere album. I've always been ambivalent and thought just another decent singer songwriter, but this album has it)

5. The Explorer's Club - Freedom Wind (Ok, shameless Beach Boys rip off, but the songs are so sweet and it is like the mid/late 60's Beach Boys just released another record. I love every bit of it)

Honorable Mentions: DBT - BTCD, Hayden - In Field & Town

Favorite Song Not On An Album I Cared Too Much For: Asking For Flowers - Kathleen Edwards

Those are my favorites and I'm sure I forgot someone

Do You Realize? - The Flaming Lips

I think this song is inherently sad at it's core. The line "Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face" ALWAYS gets me.

Oh, Oh, Oh,

White Daisy Passing- Rocky Votolato amazingly sad

I Called You Back - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy from the Letting Go

I only listen to this song once in a blue moon, because I don't want to ever hear it without crying.

Yeah, I saw it on Pirate Bay but try to avoid torrents if I can help it. Plus, I'm a bit more hesitant about downloading RA stuff after that incident with Jacksonville City Nights or whatever record that was.

What happened?

To further show my stupidity. What is a torrent? How does this work, does it download like an mp3 or do you have to do something to get it to work.

the Elizabethtown sessions are out there now!!! haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but its rumored to be one of the best RA recording sessions ever.

OK, I need some information here. I'm a very very upstanding citizen and have downloaded maybe two songs in my life off the internet that I didn't pay for. That being said, I'm a huge Ryan Adams fan, and I love Words from the Elizabethtown soundtrack. So I'm feeling the desire to explore these sessions and I have found them on the internet. How does this work, is it safe for your computer, is it illegal? Am I paranoid? Anyway, if this is standard stuff and I won't catch 1000 viruses let me know

I'm enjoying the hell out of the new album. Pretty solid effort to my ears. Also don't understand all the haterade around Magick.

Completely agree about not understanding the hatred for Magick. Let's face it, Ryan can throw out radio friendly rock if he wants. If this doesn't get released as a single then Lost Highway isn't even trying to market him. I don't care about the buisness end, but I'm just saying that song is crazy catchy in a radio rock way. I think the hatred for the song is likely just indie rock too cool stuff. I think i'm right because I'm usually like that and am trying to view music more on a level playing field. You know, like does that make me feel good in some way, and less of a wow the production value is so interesting and the use of to oboe in the third verse is so cool kind of way. No i'm not just going to like any pop song that gets shoved down my throat, but I'm trying to be more open minded. That being said, if U2 would have released Magick I would hate it. I'm a hypocrite, but Ryan Adams never once got under my skin like Bono does.

i'm not feeling that song at all. it sounds like something they made up in the green room. i think it would have been fun if they'd all swapped instruments, or tried playing it in some interesting new style, but i just feel like they've lost their groove at the moment, and by that i mean they're not groovy anymore - it's not a metaphor.

Now granted I only listened to it last night and I had the volume down a bit not to wake my son, but I thought it came off as a last minute idea which I found a little disappointing. That being said I try to never give an opinion after one listen. More over, I'm still just taken aback when I hear the SBS criticism. It was like I was saying about the new Ryan Adams, sometimes straight forward rock is ok. I guess I'm not needing the wheel to be reinvented every time out, I just want songs that connect with me. I got that old Wilco feeling of goosebumps when i first heard "Either way" and "You are My FAce". So the album was nothing new and crazy, In my mind, the Flaming Lips Soft Bulletin was the last album that made me truly rethink things. Those are one in a decade type albums, can't we just have good songs the rest of the time. People are always holding up Radiohead as this prototype of genius because they push the limits. They also sound tone deaf w/o melody half the time to my ears. I'm going through this phase where I want good songs that stick with me, not just cool ideas that never stick in my head for longer than 5 minutes. I'm not saying I want mindless pop, but just solid tunes. Ok enough of that

I really like the final chorus/ "The Ennnnddd" part of the The End.

 

Lyrical that song always seemed to me to be like Oh My Sweet Carolina pt. 2 (kind of)

I agree with the singing on the End at the end. Sometimes Ryan goes for it vocally, there are some nice parts on the new album where he lets it fly and they fade it out with the production as the next line starts. Really cool stuff. The boy can sing, sometimes he is so good he begins singing like other people instead of letting his natural voice take over. I'm singing country, no now i'm the smiths, no now i'm paul westerberg, on an on, and he pulls it off.

"And I'm still there in the banqueeeeet hall where the gunnnnn went off in the Carolina Rain"

 

Gets me every time.

 

Bummmmmmer. I just found out my copies of 29 and Easy Tiger are no longer on my computer/ipod. I guess I'll have to rip the vinyl.

You know what gets me every time?

The first few notes of Jacksonville City Nights. It is like this is the country record I've always wanted. Also while i'm in the mood the verse in Magnolia Mountain :

"They burned the cotton fields down in the valley, and ended up with nothing but scars, scars became the lessons they gave to their children after the war" Chills

I had a few other thoughts that no once cares about.

29 is also probably one record of Ryan's that I find challenging. It strikes me as a concept album with the focus on the whole and not individual tracks. I think Ryan is so good at individual tracks that sometimes I don't always want to hear a long story song like Carolina Rain. I appreciate the attempt and really enjoy 29 on vinyl when I have the time and mood and patience, but it is not a get in the car and drive to work album.

I mentioned earlier that Cardinology had a few songs I'd rank up with some of his best and for me those songs are "let us Down Easy" and "Like Yesterday" I really dig these two and have played them over and over.

luckyyyyyyyy

 

BT + Horse Feathers here a week from this Sat should be great too tho!

 

 

blah blah blah (a lot of shit i don't care about, Winona, tabloids, Crank Ass, etc.). i've said above i don't like Pitchfork.

 

i wasn't generalizing, it came out of my mouth (err fingers), therefore it's just simply my own personal opinion... do i need to post a disclaimer? i'd think that's obvious for anyone who has ever posted on a web forum in their life...

 

i personally love Cold Roses too, and even Easy Tiger to a lesser extent. now i do think he's yet to put out an album as consistently great as Heartbreaker, but if you trim 3-4 songs off Cold Roses, it'd probably be up there for me.

 

the only truly bad album he's made for me would be 29. and that one isn't bad music, just very very dull (yet beautiful at times) and hard to listen to all the way through.

I was responding to pitchfork, not you, I just used your post as the place to do so. I thought that may get confused. Sorry! But you do bring up another issue that critics always throw out there about Ryan. This whole idea of he should trim his stuff down. Ya know, i never understood that until Cardinology. It was the first time I truly thought 10 songs rather than 12 with two awful songs. Anyway, I can't think of a song on Cold Roses I wouldn't want. But this is nothing new, go back and listen to early Byrds records. I always wish they would have left David Crosby's crap off the record. Almost everyone puts out some songs on each record that we probably could have lived without, so why does Ryan take that hit? Because he's willing to put more out in a short time span. That sucks! I love waiting 3 years between albums.

while i hate Pfork too, this is not a great record by Ryan's standards, i'm sorry. it's a very average one by his own standards.

 

they got it right w/ the new Blitzen Trapper (even though it's closer to a 9 than an 8.5 imo), just lame that it took them over a month to review it

Ok I have now read the Pitchfork review and I need to get some things off my chest. This is not to defend Ryan or this album, but to just speak to stupid record reviews. First of all, I hate when a reviewer generalizes things like Ryan has "consistently disappointed". I have never felt "disappointed" by a Ryan Adams release and I know people who think Cold Roses is his best album and I personally think Love is Hell is his best album and enjoy every record he has put out there. So please don't speak on behalf of me or anyone else by generalizing your own opinion. Secondly, since when do we hold a musicians cranky ass attitude against them. It seems to me that if a musician is an ass they usually get reinforced, but for Ryan it somehow reflects on his music. I'm not saying that I agree with Ryan and the way he chooses to act or be (I don't know the man), just judge the music and stop getting caught up in tabloid crap. I don't care who he dates and I never once listened to a song and thought "Is that about Winona?" Third, this whole review is based on the premise that he is overly self involved to the point that his music doesn't connect. If there is one thing that has never been a struggle for me personally (and just speaking for myself) is to connect with a Ryan Adams song. Afterall how many musicians are out there truly speaking for the masses and not just projecting their own crap. For what it is worth Bruce Springsteen is suppose to speak for "us" and his music rarely touches me on a personal level. Once again don't generalise your own opinion on everyone and base an entire review off of a faulty generalization. Anyway, is Cardinology the greatest thing ever? No, but does it make me happy, feel optimisitic and have some tunes I rank up there with Ryan's best? Yes. It unforuntaetly also has two songs "sink ships" and "natural ghost" that I can't really listen to and that has never happened on a Ryan Adams album for me. Once again, I'm not defending this album, I just hate pompous lazy reviews. Ok Ryan Adams can be difficult............are the songs any good? That is all I want!