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Cold Roses

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cold Roses Audio CD

A fair review of the Ryan Adams & the Cardinals "Cold Roses" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Ryan Adams & the Cardinals reviews here, or go back to the Ryan Adams & the Cardinals tabs.

Band: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Title: Cold Roses
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-05-03
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Magnolia Mountain 2: Sweet Illusions 3: Meadowlake Street 4: When Will You Come Back Home? 5: Beautiful Sorta 6: Now That You're Gone 7: Cherry Lane 8: Mockingbirdsing 9: How Do You Keep Love Alive 10: Easy Plateau 11: Let It Ride 12: Rosebud 13: Cold Roses 14: If I Am A Stranger 15: Dance All Night 16: Blossom 17: Life Is Beautiful 18: Friends

An instant classic - a great rock album!!
Ryan Adams is a brilliant, if not somewhat manic, songwriter, known for a seemingly unending stream of music filling his head. Cold Roses is a raw, stripped-down set of music ranging from Rock, Folk Rock, Alt Country to Mellow Rock. Cold Roses perfectly demonstrates Adams' styles and competence, and there is something here for everyone - an absolutely awesome album. This is a magnificent set of CDs that everyone should own. GENRES: Rock, Mellow Rock, Alt Country.

BUY IF YOU LIKE: Lucinda Williams, James McMurtry, Neil Young.
MUST HEAR TRACKS: "Cold Roses," "Magnolia Mountain," "Easy Plateau," "Rosebud," "When Will You Come Back Home," "Cherry Lane. ".

We can't be wrong
I listened to this for a few months before writing this review and even though it sounded familiar the first time, now its just like an old friend. When the wife and I both love an album it Must be great!!! This is a refreshing double disk set Full of wholesome tasty nuggets. Its kinda like The Grateful Dead come to Life. I always kinda liked the Dead but none of their albums were among my favorite albums. Ryan Adams takes a very GD sound and brings new life and just plain better writing to it. I have or have heard most all of his music and this one for sure is the very best. Great great album, and I must say i'm amazed to have never heard of this guy just 6 months ago, today's music industry is truly weird. Back in the 1970's I could hunt the record shop and find good music by the album covers LOL, today you have to do research to find good music, meanwhile people with Zero talent are selling millions of pop and rap albums LOL ps: If you get a chance listen to some of Bill Mumy's music, I have recently and am enjoying it very much. .

Not a masterpiece, but his first great country album since Whiskeytown
His most country-tinged album since the breakup of that band, Ryan returns to his musical roots on this double album (which really could have been just one long disc, a la Gold). For all the tens of people yearning for Ryan Adams to reform Whiskeytown, this is probably the closest you'll ever get.

Ryan pulls a Neil Young and credits the album to "Ryan Adams and the Cardinals," a band formed for the purposes of recording it. Despite its obvious country tilt, this album will have something for all Ryan's differing fans, the country - "Magnolia Mountain," "Let It Ride," the rockers - "Cold Roses," "Beautiful Sorta," and the ballads - "Now That You're Gone," "How Do You Keep Love Alive. " The latter song is one of his loveliest and would not be out of place on Heartbreaker or Love Is Hell, I wouldn't doubt if it was recorded during the sessions for LIH.

Ryan explores his relationship with God and nature in detail on this album. He starts by talking about "the rocks of the mountain my saviour made" in the opener, "Magnolia Mountain. " The album is peppered with these sort of references. "Close my eyes, see the glorious sunset/Through the windows of a store and I want it/Anyway, if I ever felt haunted/You were there for me. . . " "Hear all them bells ringing out in the street/Oh, hammer strikes the metal and it makes me believe/'Cause if I don't believe in love/Then I don't believe in you/And I do"

Church bells? There are numerous references to God, angels, and souls, for example, in "Let It Ride" - "Let it ride/Let it take away all of this darkness/Let it ride/Let it rock me in the arms of stranger's angels until it brings me home. . . " He's not being preachy to any extent, but I get the sense that this album is Ryan's declaration of his faith. It's not the only theme, but it is a theme.

This is not Ryan's best work, but that is Heartbreaker, and few have reached the greatness of that album. It is, however, stronger than its most obvious comparison for length and variety of songs, Gold. With two more albums released in 2005, it was a fine year for Ryan Adams fans.

What a great album!
Loaded it on my mp3, played it on shuffle with other songs riding with my wife. Bought this one on hearing Sweet Illusion, what a beautiful song.
Everytime a song from the album came up she asked who it was. it really is that good.

So bad on some many levels
It really goes to show how taste differs. I was strongly urged by a friend to give Ryan Adams a listen. My friends raves about Adams, and I believe she is quite sincere.

I, on the other hand, think this is some of the worst music I have heard, in a long, long time. It grated on me in every way possible. First, if you ignore the lyrics and just listen to the music, it is dreadful. Adams has the usual country rock band, but he messes with musical conventions just for the sake of being annoying. I am talking really basic stuff, like making one line of music way too loud or way too soft for no reason. Or really slowing down the music for no reason. I would assume it is just pure incompetence, except he gives the impression of being really proud of all of his irritating innovations.

Then we have the lyrics. Yeww. Makes the skin crawl. Takes whining and lack of backbone to whole new levels. Many anthems in favor of childish men who never want to grow up, and who prefer to just be annoying to the grown ups around them. He makes Jackson Browne seem like John Wayne.

Takes all kinds to make a world. Lets put it this way. If you share my taste in any way -- if you are a fan of Merle Haggard, Eric Clapton, JJ Cale, BB King, Dwight Yoakum -- run, do not walk away from this music.

You can see a complete list of all Ryan Adams & the Cardinals discography, or go back to the Ryan Adams & the Cardinals tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.