Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – III-IV
PAX AM: 2010
The opening track from Ryan Adams & the Cardinals’ double-disc leads with the chorus of “I get my dreams confused with wishes and bad ideas” and I can’t help but think it’s a perfect sentiment for the record. Throughout much of it, Adams gets his best artistic intentions confused with indulgent wishes and bad song ideas.
The result of left-overs from his Easy Tiger sessions, the 21-track record is both dense and sluggish. At the record’s best, the prolific and temperamental bard is a brilliant crooner – his rock voice catapulting the steady Cardinals into rarefied air. Opener “Breakdown Into The Resolve” is a promising beginning, even with its prescient chorus.
“Dear Candy” in the second slot is a clever ballad (even if I don’t necessarily buy Pitchfork’s reading that it’s about Mandy Moore). “Numbers” is another keeper, taking a sly stance on radio airplay. With instructions to sing along to it’s chorus of “We’re fucked,” Adams doesn’t have to worry about this track being bastardized into a radio hit or worse yet, a Gap commercial.
The second disc is better than the first but too many of the songs are forgettable, overly-polished, and clichéd. And if you are going to make an album with two discs, you better bring some heat. The record begs of needing a better producer – or at least another creative voice or two in the recording process. It sounds as if Adams came in with the songs and the band learned them and that was that. There is nothing particularly challenging, engaging or moving here and not much that suggests Adams continuing to grow as an artist. (Perhaps it is worth mentioning here that III/IV is his 12th album since 2000’s Heartbreaker.)
One of the latter tracks “P.S.” apologetically belts, “I’m so sorry that I let you down again.” And while ardent fans will likely be disappointed, they won’t have to wait long for Adams’ next move. There are already rumors swirling of another release in the near future.
2.5 out of 5