Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - 'Cold Roses' (Losthighway) Released 02/05/05

The unfortunately monikered  hero of alt country returns! After the phenomenal success of ‘Gold’ Ryan Adams is back with a new band which includes JP Bowersock, the man credited with teaching The Strokes everything they know. In all honesty though that’s probably not worth mentioning as this is an all out, gun toting, proper country album shot with the kind of touching melancholy that melts hearts as well as minds…

From the off ‘Cold Roses’ is gorgeous, opening song ‘Magnolia Mountain’ is soooooo beautifully American even the most cynical of listeners will feel the unnatural compulsion to go out and buy a truck. Coming on more like The Band than Garth Brooks The Cardinals rock with the kind of rugged looseness that’s all too often missing more modern works of it’s genre. The balance is just right here,‘Sweet Illusions’ walks the country/pop ballad tightrope with such panache you have to wonder whether Ryan practises playing the guitar on his washing line. The lyrics on nearly all nineteen tracks (over two CDs) are atypical naïve cliches but painted lovingly with Adams charm you believe every word he says. He could be reading the Yellow Pages and it would still somehow sound pretty if it was backed by this band. "I wanna be the one who waaaaaalks you ho-am…" He enthuses with (over?) sincerity but you are still left hoping he’ll get his girl in the end.

The only fault you could level at this anthology, though it is quite a big fault, is Coldplay Syndrome. In that you can have some really beautiful songs on their own, but after putting them together on an album the pace, tempo and general theme can seem a bit samey. Ryan’s had his heart broken, he’s fallen in love, had his heart broken and fallen in love and so on and so on.  That doesn’t make ‘Cold Roses’ a bad album or even an average album for that matter but stops a really fucking good album being a really fucking great one.

All in all Ryan Adams & The Cardinals have pulled it off and made certain that this may be the first but not necessarily the last country album many people will buy. The title track is worth the price of admission alone, a masterclass of americana that injects pop and blues into the formula like an olympian shoots steroids. A slow burner it may be but after repeated listens you’ll be welcoming your friends to Marlboro country everytime you meet them; though they may be a little amused by your cowboy hat… Yee-haw!