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| Not my new car, but close |
I’ve got a new
car. It’s black*, compact, very sporty, and it’s all mine – as opposed to being
the “family car”. It feels a little bit like the middle-aged male equivalent of
the “little black dress”. I mention this mainly because it also has quite
easily the best car audio system I’ve ever had the pleasure of using on any
regular basis, and it’s changed the way I’ve been listening to music over the
past couple of weeks. I’m in love with it, and I’ve been driving it as much as
possible. Every day, even. I feel like I’ve finally arrived in the 21st
century, yet for all of its other-worldly-state-of-the-art-ness, that car audio
has also seen me take a step back in time; back to CDs and (whisper it)
mainstream radio. For whatever reason, music on disc just sounds so much fuller
and crunchier than that found on my rather extensive – and admittedly far more
convenient/transportable – collection of mp3s. In the past week, I’ve even gone
out and purchased a couple of brand new CDs specifically for the car audio experience.
I know, right? Who does that these days?
The first of these
was the recent Ryan Adams album, (Ten Songs) Live at Carnegie Hall. I picked this
one up because next week I’m attending a Ryan Adams gig here in Wellington and
I wanted to get a feel for what Adams is like on stage. The Live at Carnegie
Hall album features music from two New York gigs in November 2014 so it’s all very
recent and I saw it as being quite relevant to what we can expect on this
current tour. I’m really pleased I have this one on CD (as opposed to other
forms) because it really does sound immaculate – crisp and lush – and it’s a
genuine keeper. (note: I’m not saying all CDs sound this good *generally*). The
second CD purchase earlier this week was the much hyped Jamie xx’s ‘In Colour’, but I’ll cover that off in
another post.
I’m a relative
latecomer to the music of Ryan Adams. I’ve had a copy of his acclaimed self-titled
2014 album for a while now, and I’ve listened to that a fair bit, but I’ve got
nothing from his vast back catalogue, not Heartbreaker or Gold, and not a thing
from the Whiskeytown or Cardinals eras. For many years I only vaguely knew his
music. I saw Adams – perhaps incorrectly – as something of a flagbearer for Americana,
and I always felt he was far too prolific in terms of output to have any sort
of quality control filter in place – I mean, there was something like 13 albums and seven EPs in
a dozen years 2000-2011 …
Nope, for me,
Adams was just another one of those artists “other people” raved about. But
that 2014 “comeback” album, after a three-year hiatus, changed all of that. So
ahead of next week’s gig I thought I’d offer a short review of that album, and
something similar for Live at Carnegie Hall. I’ll just as likely have a review
of his Wellington gig in a couple of weeks. You might say I’m now a fan, but
let’s wait and see.
Ryan Adams – Ryan
Adams (2014)
Hearing ‘Trouble’
(the third single off this album) more or less instantly changed the way I felt
about Ryan Adams. Or at least it led me to this album, which ultimately had
that effect. Here was an authentic slice of unpretentious rock n roll music
packaged up in a sumptuous sonic burst lasting less than four minutes. Yet,
with the benefit of freshly-acquired hindsight, ‘Trouble’ probably isn’t even
the best tune on the album. That mantle surely rests with the superb
(Grammy-nominated) opener ‘Gimme Something Good’, which sets things up nicely
for what follows – an almost perfect blend of mid-tempo guitar-driven 70s-tinged
rock, and a collection of slower softer jams. In the former category we have
tunes like ‘Am I Safe’ and ‘Trouble’ itself, while the latter description
covers off songs like second single ‘My Wrecking Ball’ and the more plaintive ‘Shadows’,
both of which succeed in bringing Adams’ singer-songwriting skills into sharper
focus. Adams co-produces with renowned multi-instrumentalist Mike Viola, and
the album features cameo appearances from ex-wife Mandy Moore (vocals) and
Johnny Depp (guitar). This album has been slow burner for me, and it’s really
only over the past few months that I’ve started to appreciate just how good it
is.
Ryan Adams – Live at
Carnegie Hall (2015)
When I say I
purchased Live at Carnegie Hall on CD (above), what I actually mean is I picked
up the short 10-track version of a much larger set. Not the actual 40-plus-track,
200-plus-minute, six-LP box set. So I’m reviewing the abbreviated form here,
not that massive career-spanning overview (life’s too short). This version covers
snippets from the two nights at Carnegie Hall in November 2014, just five
tracks from each night (ten in total). Nonetheless there is a nice mix of the
old and new on offer – three tracks from the recent 2014 album (as reviewed
above), three tracks from 2001’s Gold, two from “solo” debut Heartbreaker
(2000), and two “brand new”/previously unreleased songs which present a
slightly more folky or pastoral version of Adams. All of these songs are
stripped back acoustic versions, all are quite lovely, and all benefit from
pristine production. The sound is so clean and pure in places you could
probably hear a guitar pick drop. Heartbreaker’s ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’ and Gold’s ‘Nobody
Girl’ immediately draw the listener in and work as an ideal one-two to kick
things off. But the highlight here for me is probably ‘My Wrecking Ball’ off
last year’s effort. There’s also some great between-songs dialogue from Adams,
some self-deprecation about the depressing nature of some of his music, and
some hilarious stuff about weed smoking. Quite aside from his talents as a
singer-songwriter-musician, Adams comes across as quite the entertainer. This
is a great sampler, and I can only hope next week’s performance comes close to
the sense of anticipation created when listening to this. Though, to be fair, I
suspect the upcoming Wellington gig will feature a full band.
*My much suppressed inner-goth
has always coveted a jet black car, which probably stems from being a teenage Knightrider fan.
I’ve long been a
fan of Belgian Techno/EBM giants Front 242. I blogged a little bit about that
once before (here). Front 242 enjoy a massive cult following – and have done for
some 30-plus years – but are almost completely unknown in mainstream music
circles. Anyway, I note the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page is offering a couple of
free tracks to download ahead of 242's acclaimed No Comment album
getting a 2015 reissue/makeover. 
Ryan Adams doesn’t
muck about. Either getting on stage (9pm sharp) or between songs, and from the
moment he launches into beefed up opener ‘Gimme Something Good’ it's
immediately apparent the near-full Opera House is in for some magic. ‘Gimme Something Good’ is more
a statement of intent rather than a request, and for the next two hours Adams gives us a lot of good things; material from his most recent album is the
most familiar for me, but there’s a wealth of older material to draw from,
and Adams is only too happy to cherry pick what surely amounts to something close
to a greatest hits-type set.
Emerging out of the netherworlds of Boston’s so-called “new wave” scene in the late Seventies, The Cars hit paydirt almost immediately with this self-titled debut album, and it remains even today one of the most identifiable landmark (read: mainstream) albums of that period. 
Ah, 1980: Jimmy
Carter was still President of the USA, Margaret Thatcher’s reign of terror in the UK (ahem) had only just started, while mainstream pop culture fiends on both sides
of the Atlantic still tended to favour bell-bottoms and platforms over bondage
pants and Doc Martens (but not for long). If it hadn’t been for an American
boycott of the Moscow Olympics that year, Bruce Jenner (aka Caitlyn) would just
as likely have retained his title of “the world’s greatest athlete”. In short,
it was a bloody lifetime ago.
