Demolition (studio album) by Ryan Adams

From buzzdainer 09/20/2016 16:03

With Ryan Adams the distinction between a proper album and a collection of previously unreleased tracks is blurrier than it is for most artists, as even his best albums are often accused of being overlong (I tend to disagree, and no one seems to be able to agree on which tracks should have been cut from, say, Cold Roses). Meanwhile the strongest songs from a quasi-compilation like Demolition are every bit as good as his best material on his more conventional studio albums. Sure, there's a bit of a lack of coherency here, but was there really not space on Heartbreaker for a song as, well, heartbreaking and great as the ambivalent three-chord breakup anthem "Hallelujah"?

From paladisiac 12/11/2011 04:11

The songs are pretty good and the album's fairly cohesive for such an album. "nuclear" was the hit released to radio, following in the pattern of "new york, new york" of releasing an upbeat track as the first single (which he'd continue through his time with the cardinals). The other highlights are "you will always be the same" (which I first heard on directv's music freeview channel), "desire" and "chin up, cheer up" ("Took a walk with you in the shadow of my shoes / Danced around the broken blues in the dirty summer rain") where I love how he sings pre-chorus "Pretty little moon with it's head hung down". Then there's the slow brood of "she wants to play a game of hearts" ("I am a broken toy / For a lonely girl / Use once and destroy "), the playful, bar-filler "tennessee sucks" ("Somebody ordered my round / Chances are I won't pay"), the charging rocker "gimme a sign", and "dear chicago" ("You know the girl you said I'd meet someday? / Well, I've got something to confess. / She picked me up on Friday. "). "cry on demand", "tomorrow" and "jesus (don't touch my baby)" could've been cut to make the mostly-rockin' set tighter, but it's a previously-unreleased-type-of-compilation, so what do you expect?