Ever since my post on “The Sadness” the other day, I’ve been listening to 29 like crazy. It’s my least favorite Ryan Adams album, but the strong tracks on it are among my favorites. One of these is a song that gives a startling look at what it’s like to be Ryan Adams during the extremely turbulent times during his mid-to-late 20s. This verse, for me, says it all:
The people here inside me
They are loud, and in the night
The scream and smash the windows
When they fight
The lyrics on the album are, at times, disturbingly personal. This song, which I was fortunate enough to hear live in 2007, features a lot of this writing. The Night Birds in the song are supposed to be bringing something positive, but everything is empty. While things are supposed to be improving, all the narrator does is sink lower and lower into his problems. While he looks back and is fully aware that things aren’t right, he still isn’t able to fix it.
There is something I have to mention about this song. While I love the lyrics and feel like it’s one of his best, I can’t stand the delay effect they used on his vocals during the “Into the ocean…” line. Let’s hear your thoughts…
It’s not my favorite on the album but I like it. That delay effect didn’t bother me. What I really like about it is what I like about a lot of his songs–there’s, to me at least, a contrast between the lyrics and the kind of lilty romantic sound of the music. (he does the same thing on several songs–upbeat sounding music or romantic music and pretty heavy lyrics. The
sha lalala bit from Bar is a Beautiful Place for instance). And I have to say that it contains some of my favorite lines–just because they are so expressive of a particular feeling–’I feel like a body stuffed into a trunk/from a million years of lying and getting drunk.’ Those words may express an awful feeling but never fail to make me happy because they are so perfect.