Ryan Adams — Gold

Former Whiskeytown leader and budding alt.country bad boy, Ryan Adams has finally released a post-band album. Adams did release a solo album, Heartbreaker, in the autumn of 2000, but that record was a rushed affair, recorded in less than two weeks with a bare minimum of instrumentation, which was the crux of its charm.

With the latest record, Gold, Adams wields his mighty prolific songwriting weight behind an album that's more Whiskeytown than Heartbreaker. Adams shifts through different moods and musical genres through Gold. His patented hurtin' country-folk songs are here with "The Rescue Blues" and "Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd." His lighter poppier side is present with "Firecracker," but there's an ominous feel that pervades this whole album. Songs of despair and sadness slide into nastier, hurtful songs that reflect Adams' reported troubles with women. This mean-spirited temperment comes out in the lengthy "Nobody Girl."

Overall, the album slides into and out of genres without any sense of direction or conscious decision-making. Adams is a prolific writer known to compose memorable songs after soundcheck and perform them to a stunned crowd hours later, but Gold suffers from Adams' all encompassing mission statement.

The addition of a limited edition six-song EP called Side 4 does make a strong statement on Adams' songwriting prowess, but says nothing about his editing skills.

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