Cold Roses

In case one Ryan Adams album every six months isn’t keeping you properly sated, Ryan and his new band make his new one a double album, and promise two more releases before the year is out. Needless to say, this is a man badly in need of an editor. Disc one contains nine wistful, mostly dreary songs about searching for love, trying to keep it, losing it, etc… While listening to Adams toil through his thoughts on love is probably mildly interesting for his girlfriend and his therapist, for the rest of us it’s a little monotonous. Disc two indulges in multiple “rose” metaphors and Grateful Dead–style guitar leads; it’s a definite improvement, but only rarely inspiring. None of it is crap—in fact, the propulsive, twangy “Let It Ride” really hums, as does the Fleetwood Mac–ish “If I Am A Stranger” and the Brit-rock epic, “Life Is Beautiful.” But really this could have been cut down to a five-song EP without missing a maudlin beat.