It was perhaps unsurprising that we had, on a sleepy Sunday in Cambridge, a quiet Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. Without a support act, the band took to the stage early and played for two hours, but with barely a word from Mr. Adams and co. throughout who stood hidden to the back left of the stage, a heavy fringe covering his face. A muffled intro before they kicked into an aggressive and charged version of ‘Cobwebs’, the sound not actually at its best as Adams’ lyrics appear muted through a wall of guitars. However, a couple of numbers in and they seem to have sorted it all out.

The thing with The Cardinals is that they’re a great live band. There’s no two ways around it, and certainly their recent support slots with Oasis seem to have beefed up the sound a bit, augmenting the ROCK side of their Country Rock sound. It’s nice to get a waltz through the back catalogue with new variations on old favourites. ‘Broadway’ gets a thumping intro and is barely recognisable to the sparse, delicate original whilst ‘Wonderwall’ also gets a steroid injection. It quickly becomes apparent that Adams has decided to rejuvenate his back catalogue in an attempt to fully embrace his new found happiness at being the boy in the band.

And yet, despite all these oddities – the silence from Neal Casal as well as Adams, the oddly aggressive reworking of the back catalogue – I still find I’m enjoying myself. The band are tight, their rolling taking centre stage with ‘Let It Ride’ and ‘Easy Plateau’ from the pinnacle of his career so far, Cold Roses. The only sound of indulgence appears during their Grateful Dead inspired elongated coda’s for some of these songs. Adams and Casal sparing guitar solos, which might come across a touch Eagles in places, but the crowd seemingly in awe enough to let this slip.

This was an oddly disconnected evening that flirted with greatness but, in the end, missing that one crucial level of involvement that would have sent the entire crowd home happy – some words of wisdom, or even an acknowledgment, from Mr. Adams.

Ryan Adams has an impressive resume. Four solo albums since 2000, and with his band The Cardinals, another four added on to that total. Many shows played worldwide, multiple Grammy nominations, and respect and reverence from hundreds of thousands of fans. So, prior to listening to ‘Cardinology’, his latest album with The Cardinals, it can be assumed either of two things. A) This album will be the best example of alt-country that you can find, an exhibition of major talent from a majorly talented artist or B) It’ll be very easy to listen to, slightly bland but sure as sugar guaranteed to sell records. And sadly Cardinology should have a big ol’ B stamped on its cover.

Closer to Bryan Adams than Bright Eyes, songs like ‘Go Easy’ and ‘Natural Ghost’ are solid and accessible, if easily ignored due to their apparent shallowness. This doesn’t mean that they’re bad, they just leave a slightly bland impression on one’s musical palette. Obviously this approach to music offers up more potential fans, but if you’re looking for genre pushing, you won’t find it here. With Cardinology, Ryan Adams is clearly drawing a line between his music and the current wave of experimental americana/canadicana. He even goes so far the other way as to end up sounding like lite-rock chart-killers of past and present. With songs like ‘Magick’, Cardinology almost sounds like the britpop-referencing, vodafone owned Dandy Warhols, a singalong chorus hidden between sleazy drumming and retro guitar stabs. ‘Cobwebs’ has all the pomp and hair stroking self-adoration of a U2 or Coldplay track, and ‘Crossed Out Name’ could easily have been culled from a Snow Patrol album demo session. Luckily, Ryan Adams just about makes the songs their own. But in all honesty, it isn’t far from sounding like pastiche instead of creation.

The problem that lies with Cardinology is that all these aforementioned tracks are average, and nothing more. Ryan fares the best when playing the country superstar, rather than going for pop hooks. ‘Born Into A Light’ sounds like it was written 30 years ago, it oozes that classic, old school vibe that often leads to songs indeed becoming classics in the future. ‘Evergreen’ is a delicate, slow burning track with a snare that brushes gently against the wall of your skull, and a distant slide guitar line that completes the piece perfectly. It’s the album highlight by far, not an obvious track, but of such high quality and so evocative of mood that it bears many repeat listens. ‘Fix It’ is the only track that pulls away from the country template and semi-succeeds, with an intro that wouldn’t be out of place on an Eagles track giving way to a thick and luxurious chorus, thin vocal lines rolling across layers of reverb-heavy guitars. It still isn’t amazing, but at least it catches the ear slightly.

With Cardinology, Ryan Adams is probably going to earn himself some new chart radio loving fans, and get some more well deserved airplay. However, this album is a bit dangerous in the fact that it may slightly disappoint his die-hard fanbase, as it goes no way to showcasing his talent, prefering instead to plump for slight mediocrity over challenging his and The Cardinal’s own conventions. Im sure in time they’ll overlook that fact, but Cardinology is never going to be his magnum opus, just another notch on Ryan’s musical bedpost. A few great country songs weighed down inescapebly with poppier tracks that seem slightly forced and unwelcome. If you want good Ryan Adams, listen to Love Is Hell, or Jacksonville City Nights. If you want a solid if generic pop-country album to play in the background at house parties, and then have ‘Evergreen’ kick in when everyones slightly pished and emotional, get Cardinology. That’s probably it’s best use, because it is in no way a fitting representation of the artist who created it.
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Ryan Adams on MySpace

Well, we’re still a bit undecided here at TLOBF Towers… Rich’s Hughes and Thane can’t quite make their mind up over the new album by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. It’s no Cold Roses, that’s for sure.

Initially I liked it more than Easy Tiger, it’s certainly a lot more focused, but it seems to lack the charm that makes Adams’ albums always worth listening too… we’ll see.

Anyway, you have 48 hours left to stream Cardinology over at iLike before it gets released next week…

Let us know what YOU think.