Add Date: December 7
Artist: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Album: Cardinals III/IV
Label: PAX AM
Genre: Alt-country
Comments: Ryan Adams knows how to hit home runs, and he knows how to strike out. He knows how to win a race, and he knows how to burn out an engine. He knows how... OK, enough of the analogies. Adams has, over the years, come to define the popular genre that is alt-country. Some of his attempts have been more successful than others, and here, with the release of Cardinals III/IV, we have a release that earns him a tally somewhere between the "win" and "lose" columns.
These albums come from the same recording sessions that generated Adams' last studio LP, Easy Tiger. Essentially, then, these two discs are the B-sides of that album. The fact that some of these songs were rejected from Easy Tiger is no surprise. In fact, this disc has enough good music, intertmingled with some "flops," that I can't seem to figure out why Cardinals III/IV isn't just Cardinals III.
Such is the story of Ryan Adams. He writes, records, and releases such a mass of music, that some of it necessarily won't be as good as others. Cardinals III/IV fits this story, and serves as a fine example of Adams' work since his heyday (I'm thinking Gold, Heartbreaker, and his Whiskeytown work). Start with tracks 1, 2 and 8 on III, and 1 3 and 6 on IV.
Artist: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Album: Cardinals III/IV
Label: PAX AM
Genre: Alt-country
Comments: Ryan Adams knows how to hit home runs, and he knows how to strike out. He knows how to win a race, and he knows how to burn out an engine. He knows how... OK, enough of the analogies. Adams has, over the years, come to define the popular genre that is alt-country. Some of his attempts have been more successful than others, and here, with the release of Cardinals III/IV, we have a release that earns him a tally somewhere between the "win" and "lose" columns.
These albums come from the same recording sessions that generated Adams' last studio LP, Easy Tiger. Essentially, then, these two discs are the B-sides of that album. The fact that some of these songs were rejected from Easy Tiger is no surprise. In fact, this disc has enough good music, intertmingled with some "flops," that I can't seem to figure out why Cardinals III/IV isn't just Cardinals III.
Such is the story of Ryan Adams. He writes, records, and releases such a mass of music, that some of it necessarily won't be as good as others. Cardinals III/IV fits this story, and serves as a fine example of Adams' work since his heyday (I'm thinking Gold, Heartbreaker, and his Whiskeytown work). Start with tracks 1, 2 and 8 on III, and 1 3 and 6 on IV.
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