Ryan Adams & TheCardinals - Cardinology

Mon 10th Nov, 2008 in Music Reviews

Ryan Adams may be renowned for bratty antics, but it’s hard to say he’s anything but supremely talented. He makes up for all the tantrums by releasing at least one album every year, making the fact they’re not always perfect understandable. The biggest problem with being so prolific has always been his editing. Great songs and very ordinary songs have often been raced through together on bloated releases like Cold Roses, but it seems to be something he’s started to address.

It became clear he’d recognised the problem on last year’s Easy Tiger, a sublime record that showed off a brilliant return to the bare elegance of his first two albums. While he wanted to release it as a Cardinals record, his label refused to hide their drawcard.

But the former Whiskeytown singer is doing his best to raise his band’s profile on Cardinology. With lyrics full of darkness and light, the new album sticks pretty close to the formula of Easy Tiger: it’s not flashy, but the quality speaks volumes. Opener Born Into a Light treads along a minor key slide guitar into a gospel-flavoured chorus, and Magick picks up from somewhere between Halloweenhead and RockNRoll.

He seems to cover every part of his palette, pleasing the rock fans and the country fans equally. His trademark gentle guitar saunters are back – brushes on the drums and all. As with all his albums, there’s a sense of depth that will let it grow every time you put it on.

Ryan Adams is definitely centre stage, which becomes clear when you consider how little difference there is between any given Cardinals album and his solo work. This album doesn’t change that, but why force difference for its own sake? The great strength of the Cardinals is that the gifted songwriter in Adams is complemented by a sensational band.

There’s some new sounds here – like the pounding drums and crash cymbal majesty of Cobwebs – but it’s no epic leap in a different direction. With Cardinology, Ryan Adams has managed to stay in pretty much the same place his last record came from, but it sure sounds like a place worth staying.

Cardinology is out now on Lost Highway/Universal.