CD Reviews

Ryan Adams | Ashes & Fire

PAX-AM/Capitol (2011)

By MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | October 4, 2011

3.5 Stars

Historically, Ryan Adams has released, via labels or for download, every idea he's put down on tape. The dude barely has a filter. Some consider him prolifically gifted, others annoyingly egotistical, but then when he waits a couple of years to drop something new, the anticipation is that much greater. Ashes & Fire is as close as it gets to the brilliance of his first post-Whiskeytown offering, Heartbreaker. It's a subdued affair, rarely breaking much more than an acoustic guitar– and light-piano sweat, except on the honky-tonk jangle of the title track. But Adams's songwriting has long been his strong suit, and his lyrics here are more than enough to carry the weight. A song like "Dirty Rain" — with its "Waiting outside while you find your keys/Like bags of trash in the blackening snow/City of neon and toes that freeze" — paints such a vivid scene, it's like getting lost in a sonic picture book. Even the sappiest lines ("I will shelter you with my love and forgiveness") are saved by an unwavering earnestness and, given Adams's melancholy recording history, dispense a positively restrained sense of hope.

Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008
Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.
Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968
More than three years in the making, the most recent installment of Rhino's legendary archival garage-rock series offers an amazingly comprehensive excavation of an absurdly fertile scene.
Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970
Girl-group records are great and everything, yet the countless compilations out there were becoming a little hit-or-miss until 2005, when the great Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set finally gave this diverse genre a proper taxonomy.
Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010
The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.
Bearstronaut | Broken Handclaps
There's a distinct absence of wildlife or astronauts on Lowell electronica quartet Bearstronaut's latest release.
Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo
Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.
Coming soon, unfortunately
Despite last month's record sales (the lowest since anyone's been keeping track), some artists still don't get the picture: nobody wants music anymore .
Review: Brandon Flowers | Flamingo
Brandon Flowers has gone on record saying he brought the songs on Flamingo to his fellow bandmates for the next Killers album and was given the brush-off.
Review: Kevin Dunn | No Great Lost: Songs 1979–1985
Casa Nueva Industries (2010)
Review: Crocodiles | Sleep Forever
With remarkable swiftness, Crocodiles tick off all the key characteristics of a band in the thriving lo-fi indie/punk/garage scene.
Review: Teengirl Fantasy | 7AM
If the demise of traditional record making is designed to foster any band’s fruitful existence, it’s that of Teengirl Fantasy.
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Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Ryan Adams, Ryan Adams, More

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