Closer When She Goes February 26, 2009

I’ve always liked listening to this one, and it made perfect sense that it would appear on an EP rather than a regular album due to its length, but it’s just never felt like a real song to me.  It’s just verse-chorus-verse-chorus DONE!  The lyrics are all pretty good, and I feel like they were definitely onto something really cool.  I’m not sure why it was never made into a full-length album track, though.  I always think about that when I hear it, and I’d be lying if I said sometimes it makes me feel just a little bit shortchanged.  The Halloween EP has one pretty good song (“Halloween”), one really great song (“Funeral Marching”) and what sounds like a demo that they threw on for the sake of having three songs. 

A nice listen, but it always leaves me wanting more.  (And not in the good way)

Ah, Life January 16, 2009

I really dig Moroccan Role for taking that garage rock sound and attitude that was found on Rock n Roll and adding a country vibe to it.  “Ah, Life” is like some love child of “This Is It” and “To Be Young.”  I don’t know if anyone else will understand what I’m talking about, but the delivery of his vocals reminds me of “Lady Madonna” by the Beatles, for some odd reason.  I can’t really explain it, so I won’t. 

Really, the song is just a look at people living weird lives.  There’s nothing exciting about them, really. They’re just odd.  Principal Victoria just sits around on the computer all day, Michael lives with her in Central Park using money they supposedly got from “an uncle eaten by a shark.”  They like coffee and tea, respectively.  That’s all you need to know about them, I guess.  Then there’s the mysterious Gloria, whose verse includes references to divorce lawyers and leaving her number by the bed.  You don’t get the real scoop on her, but you can make up your own juicy details or whatever.

Down In A Hole January 13, 2009

During the spring semester of my freshman year, I worked in a local record shop.  It was a really cool job, but I ended up leaving after my schedule conflicted with a series of Wilco shows I had been planning on attending for several months.  I always had discussions with my co-workers about what was good/awful, and this song eventually came up.  One guy I always worked with was a HUGE Alice In Chains fan and said that no one could come close to feeling Layne Staley’s sadness, therefore no one could put the same emotion into the recording.  I’ll have you know that one night, the Ryan Adams cover of “Down In A Hole” came on XM and convinced him otherwise. 

This was one of the few new songs on Follow The Lights, and a great addition at that.  He had been performing it on his promo run for Easy Tiger, and it only made sense that it would be released somewhere.  I’ll be honest, this might be the strongest of the new songs on the EP.  “My Love For You Is Real” is boring and “Blue Hotel” just never really grabbed me.  “Follow The Lights” gives it a run for its money, I guess…  All this talk about the EP makes me want something that’ll hold me over until “Dear Impossible.”

Dear John January 10, 2009

This song has been the cause of quite a few debates between Ryan Adams fans, and I’m always looking forward to getting in the middle of it.  Of course, the song was first released on Jacksonville City Nights with a guest appearance by its co-writer, Norah Jones.  I wasn’t too crazy about it until I heard it live, with soaring harmonies courtesy of Neal Casal.  I was absolutely blown away…  A while later, when I was reading that the band would be releasing an EP with older songs re-recorded, the fact that they were going to do a live-in-the-studio take of “Dear John” had me sold. 

While I definitely do admire Norah Jones’ writing abilities, I really just wasn’t impressed by her vocals on the album version.  It’s a very emotional song, and I felt like her voice was too tame and subdued on it.  While the Cardinalized version sounds like someone weeping, the recording with Norah Jones is someone who’s managing to hold it all in.  I feel like the version on Follow The Lights also features what is simply a better vocal performance by Ryan.  It seemed like he struggled a little bit when recording the harmonies, but when he’s performing the lower notes, it sounds much better.

But, then again, I just really like Neal’s voice.  His voice seems to compliment RA’s perfectly, on the recordings and during live performances.  His singing on “Dear John” is cathartic and wistful, something I feel Norah Jones just wasn’t able to produce.  I can’t say I’ve heard any pre-Neal live performances of the song, so I’d be interested to hear how you think they compare… (I’m assuming Catherine Popper did Neal’s part)

Neal Casal solo cover of “Dear John”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXU8OyWwfmc

Funeral Marching January 5, 2009

When I first got the Halloween EP, I was impressed by how good the songs were.  The first thing I thought was: “Why weren’t these put on an album?”  Well, I turned to our friend Google and found out that “Halloween” had been featured on Love Is Hell Pt.1 in the United Kingdom and “Closer When She Goes” was a b-side to the This Is It single.  But it was then I realized these are on an EP because they didn’t fit on the albums.  After the release of Halloween, his next solo album is 29, which wouldn’t work with any of these tracks.  The fact that “Halloween” was released with Love Is Hell is puzzling enough, considering it’s way too folksy and happy sounding to work.  “Closer When She Goes” has a very garage rock sound, but also has a country vibe that would be out of place on Rock n Roll.  So, to sum up this little wall of text: it was right for these songs to appear on an EP rather than albums. 

In my opinion, the strongest song out of the three is “Funeral Marching.”  The lyrics are, for the most part, just OK.  There are a lot of hooks, which makes me wonder why it wasn’t released as a single.  There’s a really nice, big chorus that sounds like an alt-country U2.  Every time he sings “Oh, you used to be beautiful” I imagine this could have been an rock radio hit.  Of course, Ryan Adams has never really been about singles, so it’s no surprise it wasn’t promoted this way.

What really makes the song, for me, is the music.  There are several electric guitar tracks that give it a very live feel.  There’s the rhythm section that just chugs along, the little bursts he’s grown to be so fond of, and the fills coming at the end of each verse.  However, those kick-ass chimes in the intro are what really do it for me.  It’s classy, it’s rocky, it’s brilliant…

Follow The Lights December 24, 2008

The Follow The Lights EP came out shortly after Easy Tiger and was nice to hold fans over during the tour.  There were two new songs, one recording of a song Ryan wrote for Willie Nelson (sung by Ryan), a cover of Alice in Chains’ “Down In A Hole” and re-recorded versions of “This Is It”, “Dear John” and “If I Am A Stranger.”  These songs were Cardinalized and recorded live in the studio. 

A music video was shot for the title track on some ABC show (Wikipedia doesn’t list it, the music videos on YouTube don’t list it, and Jon Graboff doesn’t remember which one it was, so it isn’t important), but that didn’t do much for promoting the single.  But chart success doesn’t make a song good or bad, I feel like that all lies in the lyrics.  This song happens to be really sweet.  It’s like little bouts of innocence in a person who thought it was lost.  It’s a reflection on life: “These days, they go so fast/These days of ours.” 

The chorus is a simple, child-like instruction how to get home by following the lights on the streetlamps.  The final line of the chorus kills me every time: “They will lead you home/There was never anywhere to go/There was never anywhere to go/But home.” 

The second and third verses are further reflections on the importance of love in our lives.  This is what the whole song is: a nice long look at what love has done and can do for us.