I’ve heard this album slated for crap artwork – which I would describe as too modest to actually be crap, it’s just.. there, really – and lauded as musical genius and just about every imaginable opinion in between. I’ve there’s an imaginable opinion on this record, someone seems to hold it, no matter how preposterous. The reason I find this especially baffling is because I actually find this just about the least extreme album that Ryan Adams has produced to date.

The album artwork is surprisingly representative of the actual music itself – it’s alright, it’s got good aspects but basically it’s just there. Adams released three absolutely brilliant albums in 2005 – Cold Roses, 29 and Jacksonville City Nights – and then went rather silent afterwards. It’s almost as if he lit the touch-paper early in that year, and exploded through almost the entire alt-country genre with ferocious energy, spilling out songs, ideas and new musical identities at a frightening pace. Then, having burnt himself out he seems to have collapsed in an exhausted heap, spent a year recovering and now written an album that is almost like a digestion of his furious output from that crazy year. You can, in fact, hear elements of all three preceding albums quite clearly in Easy Tiger.

Unfortunately, without the benefit of his creative frenzy, the result is somewhat stodgy. Some artists seem to be better when they just cut loose and spill out a stream of creativity, while others are better with a bit of time to work on things and sharpen their ideas. Adams appears, on this evidence anyway, to be very much the former. There are a couple of very good songs, indeed the album starts very well, but overall if you want to hear Ryan sing this sort of stuff I’d go and buy Cold Roses or Jacksonville City Nights instead.

Ryan Adams – Goodnight Rose
Ryan Adams – Two

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