After a kind of long and unintentional hiatus I am returning after purchasing a bunch of new albums and with a new game plan. I am going to go through my album collection alphabetically and give my thoughts on each of the albums. So it begins...The first album is Ryan Adams' "Gold." His best album, if I am concerned. At the time Adams was touted as the next big thing in music and while he never really lived up to that title and at times purposefully avoided it this is still a solid recording. Released just a few weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks the album gained popularity because the first single and lead off track was coincidentally titled "New York, New York." Which is an excellent catchy Stephen Stills style number that propelled the sales with its chorus of "Hell, I still love you New York."
I originally purchased the album because I really liked the "New York, New York" song but I found a number of other great tracks. Upon first listen I only really liked a few songs but something about the sound made me want to listen again and I slowly found that most of the songs are winners. There are, however, three songs right at the album's center that should have been left off: "Enemy Fire" is terrible, "SYLVIA PLATH" is largely forgettable, and the nine minute long "Nobody Girl" is simply average. Other than that the album is pretty solid, Adams stays largely in the Alt-Country style that gained him fame as part of Whiskeytown but here he mixes it with 70s style rock/pop and 90s sounds. While Adams did not live up to the promise of this album, he would not make another consistent album until 2005's "Cold Roses," "Gold" is a fine album and so far Adams' best.
No comments:
Post a Comment