The artist of the album I reviewed made it difficult to include his name in the opening sentence without thinking people would disregard the entire article, because this is his ninth studio album following three releases just two years ago in 2005. Yup, Ryan Adams released yet another album entitled Easy Tiger. It hardly feels like it's been two years since his last release, but perhaps that's because there were three of them (Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights, and 29) in one year that all sounded similar enough to have been on one entire album.
The Cardinals performed as Adams' backing band on Easy Tiger. The band worked on two previous albums with Adams, Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights, in 2005. Adams shared the spotlight with Sheryl Crow as backing vocals on the song "Two," which of course makes it the first single off of Easy Tiger.
I found a few of the lyrics to certain songs ironic and humorous because they sum up this album and the previous albums rather well. After nine studio albums that all sound pretty similar, I have to wonder if Adams wrote certain lines to blatantly mock himself. In the track "Halloween Head," (which could easily be mistaken for a song off of his 2001 album, Gold) Adams begins with the line, "Here comes that shit again," and ends the first verse with, "It's all the same old shit again, I got a Halloween head." And he's right; these lines not only describe how I perceived this album, but also make Adams sound as if he's bored. Well, who wouldn't get bored after releasing nine redundant albums?
"Two" was the second song that sparked my theory, which sounds, again, like it could have been produced on Gold or his 2002 release, Demolition. Like plenty of Adams' lyrics, he croons over his guitar about wanting to go home and feeling heartbroken. Surprisingly, despite feeling like I've heard ten different versions of this song on previous albums, I noticed the line: "It takes two when it used to take one." Perhaps the singer is referring to the recent addition of The Cardinals, possibly the only notable progression Adams has made with his sound since he left former band Whiskeytown. Although, one could argue that Adams created something different when he debuted a hip-hop track in 2006 on his website, showing off his rapping skills in a song called "Look Who's Got a Website." Ryan Adams, the hip-hop star aside, his sound has pretty much stayed on the same path since his first album. The satire he drew according to the New York Times was of himself singing "Two," but he changed up the chorus with "Blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine/It takes two when it used to take one."
The fact that Adams seems to be completely aware that his solo career has become repetitive makes listening to the new release more enjoyable. If he took himself seriously, it would be too easy to criticize and hate this album. If you liked the sound of Heartbreaker, Gold, or Demolition then Easy Tiger will probably be added to that list. Actually, if you are a simply a fan of Ryan Adams and don't mind the never-ending broken heart ballads on each album, you will like Easy Tiger. Unlike his first three releases, there are not any memorable tracks and you won't be hearing a song from this album on similar television shows to The O.C. any time soon.
