Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire (2011)

Many musicians and bands quit and then do a comeback years later, but when Ryan Adams said that he was going stop making music, not many people realised that it would only take like a year for him to return and in the meantime he released a couple of books and a metal album. This probably tells you a lot about who Ryan Adams is. At best, he has made three really amazing albums within a year. Ashes & Fire was the first album I listened to after Adams' so-called break. The positive thing about this was that Ashes & Fire is actually quite a good album. Adams had released kind of so and so albums before the break and I, for one, wasn't really interested in them anymore. He himself has later said that he still writes as many songs as ever, but he only releases a fraction of them. This might actually be a really good thing, because this way we can only enjoy his best material and the albums sound quite interesting again.



I was a bit sceptical towards this album when it came out, because I thought Ryan Adams albums hadn't been that good in a few years. I was, however, really glad to be proven wrong. I feel like this is his best album since 29 that was released six years earlier. Ashes & Fire is quite country-sounding album, but there are also some amazingly beautiful piano ballads and being a fan of Ryan Adams' delicate voice, this works for me really well. Adams has an amazing talent in expressing feeling through his songs. He's not just singing the songs through, he is really opening up himself.

I didn't use to like country music at all when I was growing up. It sounded kind of boring and definitely very un-cool. Then something changed when a friend of mine introduced me to Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker at a party somewhere on a summer cottage. My first reaction was expectedly that I didn't really like it, but the more I heard of his songs, I became more and more convinced that I really did like country music when it's well made. Now later on, I really like many even old-timer country musicians and I feel like it's all thanks to Ryan Adams.

Ryan Adams even became a true idol to me. I grew similar kind of hair as he had and dyed it black. I also wanted to play guitar like him and wanted to sing like him. The music video for Lucky now captures really well that intimate feel Adams can create by just playing his guitar.

The album starts with a couple of really country-oriented songs Dirty Rain and Ashes & Fire. These songs remind me of the albums that Adams made with The Cardinals. That's probably why I wasn't first expecting that much from the album when I first started listening to it. Then he hits me on the head with an amazing country ballad Come Home, which sounds beautiful I could cry. There are two other songs on this album that reach almost as blissful hight as that song, These are the last two songs on the album, Kindness and especially Lucky Now. It's a good choice to place these songs to the end of the album because once the album ends, you will just remember those songs and feel like you've just heard something really special.

More recently Ryan Adams has made a bit louder and rockier music, which is fine in a way. It sounds a lot like Bruce Springsteen and other long time American songwriters. However, I kind of miss this kind of Ryan Adams who would make me weep and shed shivers down my spine with his amazing voice and delicate guitar playing.

Listen to the album on Spotify.