Ryan Adams – 'Jacksonville City Lights' (Lost Highway) Released 26/09/2005

Whether you love him or hate him – there’s no faulting Mr Adams’ passion to make music, with ‘Jacksonville City Lights’ landing as the second instalment of 2005, and a further third album scheduled later in the year. So the Ryan Adams story is back for another chapter.  We’ve had the ‘Gold’ era, a juxtaposition of short sprightly alt-country twangs and pop-ballads, through to the depressive folk stage that was ‘Love is Hell’, and the ‘Rock’n’Roll’ spat as the Lost Highway man rubbed shoulders with The Strokes’ New York scene.  But as the good old Stereophonics once said ‘You Gotta Go There To Come Back’, Ryan has returned to his roots.  With new band The Cardinals, ‘Jacksonville City Lights’ features some of his best work to date.  As much haunting as it is enthralling, and strongly reminiscent of his old Whiskeytown days, we amble through breathtaking ballads and trademark alt-country blues.  Granted, the album doesn’t possess the sleek editing like on Gold, but if you are a Ryan Adams fan, then this 16-track monster will more than satisfy your desire. 

Not many artists manage to slip a steel guitar into a whole album worth of tracks, and even if they do, they don’t do it like this man. ‘The End’ is completely mesmerising as you are whisked away into a sleazy Jacksonville bar, J.D clenched in hand, Jukebox distorted in the distance, dreaming of what could have been.  ‘Dear John’ grabs your emotions by the throat and shakes them around like a rag-doll as the haunting ballad, featuring Norah Jones, encapsulates the sense of love, loss, and hope.  Arguably the best penning Ryan Adams has ever done as he sings “you’re always mine to keep when you’re gone, two silver rings, ones on my finger, and the other ones gone, it went underground with you”.  Despite the length of the album, it never fails to impress, from the up-tempo classic ‘The Hardest Part’ to the wonderful ‘September’ and concluding with the amazing cover of ‘Always On My Mind’, not to be missed. 

For all you Ryan Adams fans who have become slightly unsettled by his experimentation of the last couple of years, rest assured, the man is back on his old devoted track, and he’s here to stay.