Ryan Adams- Easy Tiger

At 32 years of age, Ryan Adams is already one of the more prolific songwriters in the business. With 9 albums under his belt in a meager 7 years, Adams has become one of the most renowned alt-country artists on the planet. Sadly, many of the 9 albums he's released are average at best. In fact, it could be argued that everything since 2001's Gold has been dismal.

The final verdict on Adams' latest isn't clear just yet but Easy Tiger does mark a slight maturation in the ex-Whiskeytown frontman's bibulous twang, with the New York native putting forth crisper, more refined songs than ever before. While this album does contain instances redolent of the Come Pick Me Up era, Easy Tiger sadly suffers from the flaws Adams can't seem to shake from his more recent work.

Easy Tiger kicks off with a rock n' roll bang as dizzying guitar lines introduce Adams on Goodnight Rose. There is a prevailingly positive theme on the album's opener as Adams claims "Don't live your life in such a hurry, life goes by us so so fast. And the sun will come up again and I will be here. If you get scared, just hold my hand". Solid lyrics and a catchy chorus has me hoping Goodnight Rose may serve as this record's New York, New York.

The next song to capture my attention is the all-out rocker Halloweenhead. That's right Halloweenhead; I couldn't believe it was the name of a Ryan Adams song either. The songs preceding it were fairly pleasant yet forgettable tracks and when the guitar comes chugging in seconds into the fourth song, it was clear that this was to be one of the record's standouts. Chugging guitars and dirty rock n roll vocals is most certainly a departure for Adams but he pulls it off with surprising swagger and aplomb. The track is so damn enjoyable that I feel compelled to exclaim "guitar solo!" every time the second chorus comes to a close.

Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. follows Halloweenhead and despite being a mellow acoustic number, doesn't drag the album down and does a nice job in preventing Easy Tiger from losing any steam. The pleasant acoustic guitar-driven track finds a more self-aware Adams claiming "I'm open all night and the customers come to stay/And everybody tips but not enough to knock me over."

Things then take a turn for the worse. Tears of Gold is memorable for all the wrong reasons as the group vocals seem out of place and distracting while The Sun Also Sets has loud, busy choruses for the sake of cacophony.

Thankfully for Adams and his faithful fans, Off Broadway isn't far away and enthralls listeners with haunting vocal harmonies and dynamics that perfectly conjure melancholy. The brevity of the song (2:32) is its only shortcoming as it effectively manages to redeeem what was rapidly becoming a worrying situation.

Adams has clearly grown musically and while progression is to be commended, he happens to be one of the few musicians for whom regression would likely be the wisest artistic move.

Easy Tiger is a documentation of how far Adams has come and where he hopes to be as he clearly dabbles in all of his prior work on this release.

Hints of the more subdued, pensive moments from Gold can be found on Off Broadway and the throwback song-for-a-rainy-day aesthetic from Heartbreaker manifests itself on Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. Unfortunately, the poorer songs' faults outweigh the encouraging signs as far too many tracks take cues from Adams' less interesting releases.

No stranger to heavy criticism, he should get his fair share for Easy Tiger, a generally enjoyable, focused effort from a musician who's finally coming of age. Thing is, it was Adams' inebriated, unfocused ramblings that constituted the essence of his appeal.
5.7/10