Ryan Adams "Easy Tiger"
Easy Tiger
Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams is getting older.
Sadly, it happens to us all, but for Ryan Adams, it’s doing more than giving him wrinkles. Thoughts of getting older and the inevitable changes (including death) that go along with it give Easy Tiger cohesion and character, setting this newest album apart from his last few efforts.
The best songs on Easy Tiger are the ones where Adams is honest and unpretentious, namely the easy-riding “Two” and the heartbreaking “The Sun Also Sets.” Adams has filled over ten albums with material that is largely focused on girls he wanted, girls he dumped, and girls who broke his heart, and though this formula clearly never gets old, he has never come to any conclusions until now. “Two” comes right out and explains where Adams stands: instead of just saying, “I’m lonely,” he knows that “It takes two where it used to take one.” This type of clear, revelatory statement is echoed on the beautifully awkward album closer, “I Taught Myself How to Grow Old,” where Adams confesses, “I taught myself how to grow / Now I’m crooked on the outside and the insides broke.” It’s refreshing to see Adams come to conclusions about his own problems, instead of merely describing the trouble he finds himself in...
The theme of change threads many of the songs on Easy Tiger together. In the gorgeous “The Sun Also Sets,” Adams sings that, “Those parts of me died / …and they faded out so fast,” in an unwavering voice, as if he could convince himself that these parts didn’t matter. He follows it up with the realization that "We are only one push from the nest / We are only one moment from death." On “Everything Changes,” Adams laments that he is “spinning out of control,” and that “everybody knows” that he is failing.
Musically, Adams does a characteristically fine job of fusing country and rock, creating incredibly listenable, emotive songs. The one anomaly on this album is the bizarrely named “Halloweenhead,” a straight up rock track that doesn’t fit with the album’s overall feel, lyrically or musically. (And what, exactly, is a Halloweenhead?)
Easy Tiger is easily the best Ryan Adams effort in the past two or three years. Mature, honest, and musically tight, Adams is putting his past behind him, and moving into a grown-up but clearly promising future.
Download: “Two,” “Everybody Knows,” “The Sun Also Sets,” “I Taught Myself How to Grow Old”
Avoid: “Pearls on a String,” “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.,” “Halloweenhead”
