It's definitely apt. Heartbreaker is considerably less crushing to me, though. I really like Ryan, but he's so prolific that he's had a bit of a quality control problem throughout much of his career. I feel like he's really gotten a handle on that this decade, but he still hasn't made any records that hit me quite like this one has. Ryan makes his influences very evident in the songs he writes. Like half of Prisoner was him saying "I listened to Tunnel of Love a lot this year." Not that there was anything wrong with that.
Alright, we gotta slow down. I know you’ve had an advance for a while, but this take’s pretty hot for an album that’s only a few weeks old.
To be fair, Heartbreaker is not in my top five Ryan Adams albums. It has a lot of songs I love, but I think it's overlong and has a fair handful of tracks I don't care for. But yeah, I've had this for three months, so I feel more comfortable making this statement than I would have been after a week of having it.
I’ll get onboard with that sentiment. I like this more than Heartbreaker. Idk that I like it more than my favorite Ryan Adams stuff, but definitely more than Heartbreaker.
Yeah, I guess I’m looking ahead and seeing a world where this whole thread is agreeing with you. More responding to them. The RA thing is blasphemy. What’s your top 5? Gold S/T Heartbreaker Love is Hell 29
Self-Titled Gold Prisoner Love Is Hell Demolition If we’re talking just official releases. 48 Hours and Suicide Handbook would both be contenders. Heartbreaker might push into the fifth slot, depending on the day. There are just 4-5 songs on Demolition that are all time favorites for me.
I don’t know 48 Hours, what’s the story behind that one? I assume it’s a collection recorded in two days, but when?
He recorded it in 48 hours I think a week or two after wrapping sessions for Gold. It has most of the same players as Gold did, and Ethan Johns produced it. It's more country-driven than Gold, but has a similar vibe. It was one of the albums that the label cannibalized to make Demolition. Three of the songs ("Hallelujah," "Desire," and "Chin Up, Cheer Up") were on Desire. It's got this song called "Walls" that is absolutely one of my favorite RA tracks. Woah, you'd love a few of these I think. I'm really fond of that self-titled record. Sounds like Damn the Torpedoes era Petty.
It's been pretty liberally bootlegged, so yeah, there are torrents and download links if you search for it. Back in the day, there was the big RA fan site where you could find links to all his unreleased stuff. I had it bookmarked on my old computer, but i don't remember what it was called and I'm not sure if it even still exists. Let me know if you have any trouble finding 48 Hours and I'll upload it for you.
Apparently he made up the song on the spot in the studio. So, that might explain why it's so short. Ruston Kelly: “Brutish and kind of rude and beautiful - that was the kind of art that I wanted to make” | MusicRadar
Heartbreaker is the only album of his that I thoroughly enjoy (And most of Love is Hell). The rest of his discography has maybe 3-4 tracks each album that I enjoy...if that.
There are some strange/bad Ryan Adam takes in this thread. I agree he is very inconsistent, but your talking about a guy who has been one of the biggest and most influential in the genre for like 20 years now.
There's a difference between "I don't like Ryan Adams very much" and "his entire catalog is filler" though. Like, the self-titled album and Prisoner are both very deliberately put together and sequenced. I don't necessarily love every song on those two records, but there is no "filler" on either of them.