The Fat Angel Sings

“As the alt-folk hero’s 14th studio album, Ryan Adams‘ self-titled effort is the longest he’s ever taken with just three years. It is more than worth the wait, singularly containing all that’s great about his unique material – vivid and reflective poetry, blistering open-road Americana and folk so sweet it’ll rot your teeth. Arguably this is his best album since Gold, the likes of ‘Kim’, ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Gimme Something Good’ mark the former Whiskeytown man on his finest form, delving into an arena-ready realm of rock .

Alt-country, alt-pop, punk, rock, metal, blues, transformative covers, soundtrack-ready anthems— you never know what you’re gonna get with Ryan Adams, one of music’s most unpredictable polymaths. On this self-titled project, he settles into his sweet spot, like a power hitter waiting for a waist-high fastball down the middle, and goes yard. The album kicks off with a potent one-two combo: “Gimme Something Good,” with sharp, bluesy riffs and a vintage Tom Petty vibe (bolstered by founding Heartbreakers member Benmont Tench’s soulful organ), followed by the sparse, plaintive “Kim,” with Adams at his heartbroken best. As a singer/songwriter, he’s always put equal emphasis on both sides of the craft, with a knack for fashioning hooks you can’t easily shake off. Note the magic in the simplicity of “Am I Safe,” a melancholy strummer with a dark underbelly (“It’s complicated/I just don’t love you anymore/I just want to sit here and watch it burn”). Adams deserves a place among the best American songsmiths, in the tradition of Dylan and Springsteen. Maybe his genre-hopping makes him tough to pin down, or his mercurial personality leaves him feeling unknowable, hard to define. Of course, it’s the music that matters. Let this album stand as yet more evidence that he’s one of the greats