CD Project Thing #3 - Ryan Adams pt. 2, Air

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - "Cold Roses" (2 discs)

Ryan Adams released 3 albums in 2005, the first two under the name "Ryan Adams and the Cardinals". The first was "Cold Roses", a double cd (although I think it could have all fit on one). This is good, solid (albiet unspectacular) alt-country. I do like it, although I'm finding I don't really have a damn thing to say about it.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - "Jacksonville City Nights"

Next up was "Jacksonville City Nights", again with the Cardinals. While the previous one could be called alt-country, I would be hard pressed to call this anything but hardcore old-time country. It's probably more country-sounding than any other cd I own, and that includes cds by Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline. That doesn't mean I don't like it, though - it's actually pretty decent, although I don't think I like it quite as much as "Cold Roses". It'll be interesting to see if he puts out more with the Cardinals in the future.

Ryan Adams - "29"

Ryan's last album of 2005 (and his last album to this point) is this solo album consisting of 9 songs, mostly long slow rock (with a little country thrown in) Dylan-esque story songs. Not sure I have much to say about it. Not great, but good enough to keep. And I'm sure everybody's as happy as I am that we're through Ryan Adams. Moving on...

Air - "Moon Safari"

Air are a two-person French band (it says it right on the cd cover - "French Band") who do really great poppy electronic music. This cd is a mixed bag of stuff - a few instrumentals, a few songs with (usually strange) vocals by one of the members (best example is their biggest hit, "Sexy Boy", which is sung by a guy although you probably wouldn't know it), and a few songs sung by a guest female vocalist ("All I Need" and "You Make It Easy" were both prime contenders for places in our wedding, although in the end neither made it). It seems strange, but it all works in the end.

Air - "Talkie Walkie" (with bonus DVD)

Before and after "Moon Safari", Air had a few albums and EPs (the best title was for a remix ep from the "10000 Hrz Legend" album - "Everybody Hrz"), and I owned them all at one time, but none of them came close to "Moon Safari". They were all were too electronic or too instrumentaly or whatever. Air must have realized this, because their latest album, "Talkie Walkie" went back to the exact same formula as "Moon Safari", and at least in this case going back and copying an album was a very good thing. It didn't have any big hits, but there's probably a pretty good chance you've heard some of it in a commericial or as background music. I have a import version with a 30 minute live DVD, and, well, can you imagine how boring it is watching a 2 member French electronic band play songs mostly from their bad albums? I don't have to imagine, I own it!

CD Project Thing #2 - Ryan Adams pt. 1

Ryan Adams - "Gold" (and "Side 4" bonus disc)

I think I was affected less by 9/11 than just about any other American. You always read about how everybody was affected and nobody was ever the same, but I really can't say that I was. Sure, I thought it sucked, but it didn't especially surprise me, and I don't think my life changed one bit because of it. The closest I came to knowing somebody who died that day was Marisa's friend's uncle, who I didn't even know existed before that. So, I thought most of the 9/11 tribute things were really silly. The one thing that DID almost get me was the video to "New York, New York" by Ryan Adams, probably because it wasn't originally intended as a tribute - the video was filmed on 9/7/01 and heavily features the World Trade Center. Besides that, though, I thought it was just a really great song.

Ryan Adams had a few albums with Whiskeytown and a solo album before this, but I don't own any of those so let's pretend they don't exist. "Gold" is a sprawling 21-song (counting the bonus disc) album that just sort of goes all over, but works really well, too. I'd actually forgotten how much I like it, there are a few songs here that are just really wonderful. I get the impression that some hardcore fans don't like this album or think it's a sellout or something, but for me he's never even come close to it again. Also, sadly, after this album he's never again taken the "let's throw everything out there on a disc" approach again, instead issuing multiple albums featuring his different sides and themes and stuff. That might make the albums a little more consistant sounding, but, I dunno, just not as interesting to me.

Ryan Adams - "Demolition"

Following "Gold", Ryan Adams did the classic "low-key followup to lower expectations" trick with the release of this collection of demos (get it? DEMO-lition? Ha ha? Yeah, I didn't think so). It was actually rumored that this would turn out to be a 4 disc box of demos, but in the end it's just this one disc (and my question is, how did two people get producer credits on it without producing a single song on the disc?).

The songs here mostly lean more towards country, and sound more like studio tracks than you'd expect a demo to. There are a handful of standout tracks here, but a lot of forgettable ones, too, and it just never FEELS like a real album. Of course, that might just be me feeling that way because I KNOW it's not a real album, but I suppose we'll never know.

Ryan Adams - "Love Is Hell"

"Love Is Hell" was supposed to be the official follow-up album to "Gold". Problem was, Lost Highway didn't want to follow-up his hit album with an album that's slow, depressing (and very good!) like "Love Is Hell". Eventully, a deal was worked out where "Love Is Hell" was released as two EPs around the same time as another album, "Rock N Roll" (see below). Then, a year later, they released the album on one disc as intended (with a bonus track). Normally that might have slightly annoyed me, but my various sales and purchases actually netted me a profit, so it was all good.

And the album, that's quite good, too (although it's no "Gold"). One of the highlights is his cover of "Wonderwall" that sounds nothing like the Oasis version. There's plenty of good originals too, but I'm really tired and don't know what to say about them, so let's just move on, shall we?

Ryan Adams - "Rock N Roll"

When Lost Highway wouldn't release "Love Is Hell", Ryan went in and knocked out the exact opposite, apparently only in about two weeks. Like the title implies, "Rock N Roll" is a straight rock record. Problem is, it's just not very good. It's not embarassing or anything (I think he's saving that for his rumored Hip-Hop record), but it's about the most generic sounding album possible. Most of the songs just sound like filler that any band could do, and there aren't any big singles or anything between the filler to make the album at all worthwhile. It's so forgettable, in fact, that I might just put it in my sell pile and forget I ever owned it...

CD Project Thing #1 - ABBA, Absinthe Blind

ABBA - "Gold"

Man, right off the bat I'm probably losing all my credibility with most of you. And it's true, ABBA does have some really cheesy bits, but then also have some really great pop (in the good sense of the word) singles, and luckily they all seem to be on this disc(I briefly owned "More ABBA Gold" and it didn't do anything for me at all). Say what you will, but it's hard for me to believe there's anybody out there jaded enough not to get some enjoyment out of songs like"Waterloo", "Take A Chance On Me" and "Does Your Mother Know?"

Absinthe Blind - "The Everyday Separation"

Absinthe Blind were the current hot new thing on theChampaign rock scene near the end of my college days. This was their fourth album, which was current at the time. I believe this was their first with co-ed vocals, which tell me that I wouldn't much like the first two, since the co-ed vocals were my favorite part of the band and I don't really think they used them enough. I'm not sure I ever specifically set out to see them, but I did end up seeing them a few times opening for or following bands I did want to see, and I remember them putting on a good live show (they must have, for me to buy the cd). I wouldn't call it a great album, but it does have a few great songs. The band broke up after their fifth album and I think the members are in a few other bands now, including Headlights (who I've never heard, but I gather are getting somewhat popular).

The Rules

The rules for the project (which I reserve the right to violate at any point, because they're my rules):

I will listen to all my cds in order, alphabetically by artist, and chronologicaly within each artist. Various artists compilations will be done at the very end, single artist compilations will be played where they seem to best fit. I will then post something about every cd.

Any questions?