Ryan Adams - Rock N Roll

The first time I listened to this CD was when I overheard it on my roommate's Mac, blaring from his room on a weekend morning. I peeked in and said "Jesus, this is the worst cock-rock schlock I've heard in a while." To my surprise (and horror), I was informed it was Ryan Adams' new CD, Rock N Roll. Yikes. I always loved Heartbreaker, thought Gold was a singer-songwriter masterpiece, and I could swallow Demolition as a b-sides CD. But this? After the initial disappointment gave way to curiosity, I loaded the CD onto my iPod. On the subway, songs off the CD would pop up randomly. Not knowing what they were, I'd still find my head bobbing and my foot tapping. After a while, the riffs to the songs became burned in my head and I'd find myself humming the melodies at work. Next thing I knew, I was making sure I was listening to the CD in full on my commute. That's the power Mr. Adams has on this: a knack for catchiness. You won't find anything really folky or country on this like his previous releases (hence the title of this one). You won't find anything ingenius or what people are praising at the next revolution in music. You won't find anything that will make Ryan Adams an indie rock genius in all the hipsters' minds. What you will find are slightly recycled riffs that he manages to make his own really cool versions of, and catchy lyrics you'll find yourself singing along to unwillingly. I've read other reviews that claim he pulls too much from the Smiths for this one, but instead I see a lot of the Replacements and bands like that in this one. You'll bounce from a great riff in "Luminol", to a heartbroken rocker in "Burning Photographs", to a slow, boring-but-still-beautiful title track, to a Parker Posey appearance on a real (and pardon the cliched term) "balls to the wall" rock song in "Note To Self: Don't Die". And I haven't stopped hearing about how great and catchy the single "So Alive" is, so I just won't even bother writing anything else about it. You may find it boring and uninspired on first listen, but after a few times around you might fall for this one just like I did. At times really clever and at some times a bit redundant, its still a pretty decent CD. If you think of it as Ryan Adams putting out a really tongue-in-cheek album while wearing his influences on his sleeve, you might find a genuine appreciation for this one. [www.ryan-adams.com]