Ryan Adams, Heartbreaker (2000)

Got around to buying this LP a couple of years ago. The CD ran its course – and it’s nice to have this back in the collection. It’s one of only a (small) few Ryan Adams albums I care about. He has his Kool Aid-drinking defenders that talk up so many of his albums – and rave about his prolific nature; suggesting it to be some proof of talent. But really, Adams pretty much said it all with this album. I first heard Gold – and like a lot of that too, though with time it’s been shown up to be really quite grotesque in places; caricature-songwriting, the musical magpie that steals from so many obvious places ends up making a nest that’s ugly by design. Everything that Ryan Adams does now diminishes his worth – forays in to releasing poetry, metal albums, collaborations, tweeting about his reviews; arguing with interviewers. I interviewed Adams once. I found him fascinating. He was so angry – and though we had a nice enough chat the rage was always near the surface. This album is the best channelling of that rage and (therefore) contains his best songs. Even here he was ripping other people off – but he had the sense to do it well/do it correctly. The albums that his fans rave about (that I dismiss) feel like lazy rewrites. Here you can feel (and hear) the passion. I’d take this, half of Gold and all of Whiskeytown over anything else he did. Easily.

Sample Track: Come Pick Me Up

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown