Ryan Adams & The Cardinals — Cardinology

Part of the problem with Ryan Adams & The Cardinals' Cold Roses, as great as it was, was that it was two discs of music clocking in at more than 80 minutes. Cardinology is like a more focused Cold Roses — it's one disc with jammy material and a few more anthemic tracks thrown in. As batshit insane as Adams is, he's a hell of a songwriter. Sure, his back catalogue is stylistically all-over-the-place, but he's actually managed to focus himself here. This is Adams' strongest album since Cold Roses, and the quality of the tunes may actually rival some of his better, more classic albums like Heartbreaker and Love Is Hell. Adams' lyrics are also better than they've been in a while. "Fix It" is probably the most radio-friendly track Adams has ever written, and nicely creates a metaphor linking the desire to fix a broken relationship with crooked gambling ("I'd fix it if I could/And I'd always win/And you'd always lose"), while "Magick," with its "what goes around comes around" uses a record as a metaphor for karma. "Go Easy" has one of the catchiest choruses and verses Adams has written in a while. But the quieter tracks are the disc's best. "Cobwebs" has a soaring, lovelorn chorus which recalls earlier U2, while the subdued, acoustic "Crossed Out Name" is a beautiful melancholic tribute to loving someone and is probably Cardinology's best track. This is the album Adams has been trying to make since the release of Cold Roses, and if it takes him coming off the shit to do it, then I want more of this as soon as possible, please. You could tell he was reaching towards this on Cold Roses, and he seems to have found it here.

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