Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cold Roses (2005)

In the year 2005 Ryan Adams released three albums of which this one was a double album with 19 songs. There aren't many other artists who could've done the same. Ryan Adams was definitely one of the most productive artists in the mid-00's. Later on, he has commented that he just recorded everything he wrote and that resulted in many albums, but the quality wasn't necessarily of the best quality. Then again, there's some amazing songs on this and the other two albums. One album definitely wouldn't have been enough. On the other hand, I do think that Cold Roses could've been just one CD album with slightly fewer songs. By dropping five to seven songs from the album, this could've been one of the greatest Adams albums. Now I tend to doze off a bit towards the end. Cold Roses was the first album with the band The Cardinals.



Even though the songs on this album are very similar to some other Ryan Adams songs before, I think there's a distinctive sound on it because of The Cardinals. The sounds are a bit bigger and more carefully produced. It might take away some intimacy from the songs from time to time, but then again, when it works, it really works.

I saw Ryan Adams live for the first time in this year when he had just released all three albums. He was playing with The Cardinals in Stockholm. The gig was great up until some idiot yelled out "play Summer of '69". Adams left the stage at this point for about 20 minutes and when he came back he played ten minute versions of his songs filled with solos. All in all, it felt like there were lots of people on the gig who didn't really even know what they had come to see. I could hear someone say they don't like country music and someone else thought the warm-up band was him. It didn't give a great image of Swedish audiences.

The album starts with a country song with rock guitars, called Magnolia Mountain. This is not the strongest song to start the album with, because I feel like it doesn't show full emotional capacity of Ryan Adams. The second song Sweet Illusions does that so much better. This melancholic ballad has a very beautiful melody and the chorus is very catchy indeed. It's one of those songs that you just remember from the first time you hear it. Meadowlake Street is an example of new type of Ryan Adams, who makes more straightforward indie songs without too many country elements. It starts really slowly and grows in the end to a beautiful indie ballad with chiming guitars. When Will You Come Back Home is more classic Ryan Adams country bliss. This song reminds me of the early albums Heartbreaker and Gold. Beautiful Sorta is a full-blast rock song with some garage style echoey guitars. This is the kind of big sound Ryan Adams adopted later on. Now That You're Gone is a beautiful quiet ballad that sounds a lot like the album 29 Adams released later in the year. I think this sort of song would work better with more minimal sounds, which is probably why 29 wasn't a collaboration with The Cardinals. How Do You Keep Love Alive has some beautiful echoey guitars and some of the best vocals Adams has ever sung. Let It Ride is a great proper country song with amazing slide guitars and a nice rolling rhythm. I also really like the backing vocals. The title-track Cold Roses shows Adams' guitar playing skills with some nicely overdriven guitars. Dance All Night is another great country rock song with fantastic harmonica playing. The album ends with an outright rock song Tonight, which sounds a lot like Rock n' Roll album that Adams had released in 2003.

The album cover in the CD is made to look like a vinyl record. It's a gatefold square cardboard cover. I guess that might be the reason Adams decided to release this album as a double album even though the songs would've just about fit on one CD. I must say it is a cool album cover for a CD.

Cold Roses is not one of my favourite Ryan Adams albums, but it does have some excellent songs on it. It marks the time when he started adopting bigger sounds that were big enough for large venues. I have always like his delicate beautiful ballads, which are not as frequent on the albums played with The Cardinals.

Listen to the album on Spotify.