Ryan Adams : " Chris"

His 19th album. He is a great songwriter and has been around the block a few times. At this point he is who I listen to when most people would listen to Bruce Springsteen. These songs fall somewhere between his country folk and rock leanings. The strum of the second song, falls very comfortably into his wheelhouse so much so you might dismiss it as him just dialing it in, but there is something more urgent about the delivery than what people who dial it in normally do. Maybe he is just faking it. There is more of a rock swagger in the guitar to "Flicker in the Fade".  This might not be Adams at his most inspired. He is a songwriter, and he cranks albums out it seems once a year, but his dialing it in is better than most can they do when they try their hardest. 

The title track is reflective enough to convince the emotion he is putting into this song is genuine, which really is all I need from him. He replicates this without being a carbon copy but milks the vibe again on "About Time: that follows.  His singing voice is on the more emotive end of decent when he uses it right. He could do more if he wanted, is the feeling I get but he serves the song in a very safe middle register he is most comfortable in.  He picks up to a more deliberate strum and a more commanding narrative for "Aching For More" .  He continues down the reflective place I want from him on "Say What You Said". When I say his name many people think I am saying Bryan Adams, but I can hear where Byran Adams might write a song like "So Helpless" as it is more frantic rock that sounds somewhat 80s. There is a more introspective almost balladic tone to "Crooked Shake" . It reminds me a little of Neil Young. 

He is back in the darker moodier place of urgency I like for him to be in with "Dive" . Granted much of this might lie in the fact it reminds me of the Taylor Swift cover album he did. This was not my introduction to him but the album I listened to the most .  "Was I Wrong" is a much simpler folk song. The contrasts the much more up tempo strum of "Look Out". With 18 songs on this album it is surprising how little filler there is on this album. Not every song as as equally a slapper as the kids say these days, but it is not just him trying to come up with something to go on tour with. The deeper into the album you go the more the folk begins to come out, but it is well done.  The arrangement of "Replaced" give his melody something to work with and is a stand out amid the more folk latter half of the album. "Spinning Wheel' flirts with country to some extent, it is very well written no matter the genre. The album closes with the more John Mellancamp like "Letting the Light in" .  I will give this one a 9.5, as he stays snuggly within his wheelhouse which he is spinning into the kind of perfect that is gong to place his writing over time next to his idols.