Ryan Adams – 29 (2005)

Ryan Adams is one of the most important artists to me. Or at least used to be. Right now as I'm writing this blogpost, I'm wearing a Ryan Adams T-shirt. 29 is probably the last Ryan Adams album that I felt really passionate about. Later albums have definitely had good individual songs on them, but I haven't felt the same kind of excitement about any later albums. I bought this album on vinyl. It looks brilliant with the dark drawing in the cover. The cover has actually been drawn by Adams himself, which is quite impressive. 29 is probably one of the most edgy albums by Ryan Adams. The sounds are very retro and there's minimal use of strange effects. Everything sounds very natural. The album is loosely a concept album. Every song on the album supposedly tells a story of a different year in the life of Ryan Adams in his twenties.



One of the reasons this album is important to me is that I saw Ryan Adams live for the first time after this album. This happened in Stockholm where I had to travel a few times to see bands and artists that never came to Helsinki. The gig was in a posh area in Östermalm and even the venue was really fancy looking. I wasn't too impressed with the crowd. It seemed like many people there didn't even know who they had come to see. Someone mistook the warm up act with Ryan and of course there was the classic 'Play Summer of '69!' chant from the crowd, after which Adams left the stage for half an hour and came back to play really obscure versions of his less well-known songs with long guitar solos. I really enjoyed that gig though and I even bought the 29 T-shirt. Unfortunately it is too small for me now, so I had to buy a new T-shirt a couple of years ago when I had my second chance to see him live here in London.

Ryan Adams has two kinds of songs. Guitar-driven rock anthems that could fill big stadiums, but also quiet and beautiful acoustic ballads that will make you weep. This album is a great portrayal of this division. The album starts with almost noisy rock title track 29, after that there's a cute and bluesy ballad Strawberry Wine with ukulele strumming. The third song takes us to the heart of this album with beautiful and quiet Night Birds. Most of the rest of the album follows this style. Blue Sky Blues is one of my all time favourite Ryan Adams songs. Along with the beautiful Starlite Diner and Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part, it's one of the songs I've listened to at times of heartache and sadness. These quiet songs are to be listened to without any other background noise, because the sounds are so delicate that it needs to be the only thing you hear. This album has been one of my favourite melancholy albums just generally. The beautiful string of songs is interrupted by a rough and magnificent The Sadness. This song shows the versatility of Adams.

Back in the day, Ryan Adams was also one of my style-icons. His fuzzy black hairdo made me want to colour my hair black and I wanted to mess it up as much as I could, but obviously it didn't work as well with my thinner than thin Finnish hair.

29 is probably not the most well-known album and neither does it have that many hit songs on it, but to me personally, this album has had a huge value and impact on my life. His voice has inspired me to sing in a certain way, these songs have been a soundtrack to many of my melancholic moments and I still find comfort in Adams' beautiful voice.

Album on Spotify.