Week 1

Week 1
Tuesday 6.26.2007

Ryan Adams
Easy Tiger

Bought this one off iTunes. I missed the window on the pre-order, and the site wouldn’t let me buy it at midnight. The midnight release seems like a missed opportunity for iTunes, I distinctly remember piling into a car in college and driving down to Tower Records on Newberry Street in Boston to buy Pearl Jam’s Vs. at midnight. That’s the good stuff man, when music reaches Christmas morning euphoria. We may never see those days again. Think about it. 4 guys piling into a car at midnight to drive to a music store and all buy the exact same CD to which one will be ripped open and played (loudly) and dissected on the way home.

I picked up Easy Tiger off the iTunes Tuesday morning. Had to settle for the digital booklet as opposed to my glossy liner notes. I had been going away from digital as of late trying to get back to buying CDs with their booklets and their tangible matter. Like many of us I had fallen victim to the Case Logic craze in the ‘90s trashing my jewel cases and losing my ability to build a proper Wall of Sound CD room in my adult living space. And sadly, I have the music to do it. I could have alphabetized that shit and had one of those weird little library ladders on the wheels to reach the top shelf where I would have the Audioslave, Avril, Angels and Airwaves. . .

. . .and yes, Ryan Adams.

Day one I listened to Easy Tiger in my Jeep Wrangler on the way to the health club, on the treadmill, and on the way to and from the Minneapolis airpor.t. I was through the entire record before 9am. Here was my initial take: on a few songs:

Track 1
Goodnight Rose

Oddly enough, “Goodnight Rose” sounds like morning. And while not a defining song on the album, it serves its purpose as a great opener. The track almost sounds like a clock radio that’s popped off. Adams recently worked with Willie Nelson on Songbird, and the influence is noticeable from the first vocal. Trouble is, “Goodnight Rose” sounds a bit like a Willie Nelson song on a scratched CD. There’s something about the pacing of the track that’s a bit too frenetic to really get into it. But it gets your attention to start the album.

Track 2
Two

Now Adams gets into it here. As a musician Adams is a chameleon, capable of mimicking anyone. To some this has become a negative as they deduce that the reason Adams always sounds different is he doesn’t know who he wants to be—or worse yet, that’s he’s a poseur. I disagree, I think there’s more swagger to it than that. This cat is a musican’s musician capable of pulling anything off. On “Two” Adams assumes the character of Ryan Adams, at least the Ryan Adams most of us know and love. For the Whiskeytown and Gold set, “Two” finds Adams playing the part of loveable alt-country mutt. Like “Does Anyone Want to Take me Home” and “Come Pick Me Up” before them, Adams is the puppy dog with two different colored eyes begging you to take him home from the pound. “Two” is vintage Ryan Adams, a song that sounds like a favorite flannel even in the middle of summer. From “the sink is broke, it’s leaking” this track is broken-in on the first listen, and worthy of immediate download. Lyrically it’s interesting as well, as Adams dissects new love, “it takes two when it used to take only one.” He seems to be begging an independent woman to take a chance on him. Trying to hitchhike with someone who has grown comfortable doing it alone and is struggling to adjust to a new mate. A woman who perhaps has had the taste of the selfish life, and love feels as inefficient as two city workers leaning on a shovel. Especially when his hair is in his eyes and his pockets are empty.

Track 4
Halloweenhead

Wow. The high water mark for the album comes at song 4. It appears Adams has built upon some of the experimentation of recent records to find a way to throw the throttle down in a way that sounds more authentic. “Halloweenhead” has a short fuse, exploding into a Semisonic, Killers-like arena rocker in the first 5 seconds. It’s so good it will rott your teeth, “Halloweenhead” ebbs and flows with a swagger. Even Adams “Hi I’m Johnny Cash” like command early in for the “Guitar Solo!” has it’s collar up. Whether it’s kids looking for candy or junkies looking for their fix, “Halloweehead” holds the excitement of backyard night-games eventually finishing with some haunted house train sounds and a bit of piano that will make one wonder if Michael Myers himself is in goal. The only knock on “Halloweenhead” is common to all the songs on Easy Tiger—it’s a bit brief. Ryan Adams makes blue jeans music, and blue jeans music needs to come over the tops of the boots, long enough songs to get frayed at the ends. Yet most of the tracks on Easy Tiger are tapered to around 3 minutes. If the goal was to make you long for more, mission accomplished. But the net result isn’t a good one as blue jeans music in some cases is reduced to the just plain wrong –jean shorts and no one wants that.