RYAN ADAMS : BIG COLORS

  1. Big Colors
  2. Do Not Disturb
  3. It's So Quiet, It's Loud
  4. Fuck the Rain
  5. Manchester
  6. What Am I
  7. Power
  8. I Surrender
  9. Showtime
  10. In It for the Pleasure
  11. Middle of the Line
  12. Summer Rain

Label : Pax Am

Release Date : June 11, 2021

Length : 38:57

Review (Americana Highways) : Way back in early 2019, before publication of a New York Times article which would torpedo his career, Ryan Adams announced the upcoming release of three albums. Part of that promise came out late last year - the late-night-drop Wednesdays was a mishmash of older (unreleased) and newer songs which was neither good enough to jump start his musical life nor bad enough to be hate-listenable. With the exception of "When You Cross Over," a genuinely beautiful tribute to his late brother, it was largely forgettable. Back to 2019 - Big Colors was to have been the first release of the promised three. Last week, the album finally arrived via streaming services (physical copies to come shortly), so we finally have what feels like Adams' first fully intended record since we learned about his behavior. Will this be the album that revives his career? Described by Adams on his Twitter page (since advance copies and press kits were not made available) as "the soundtrack to a movie from 1984 that exists only in my soul," Big Colors is, indeed, a whole mess of shimmery guitars, synth, and songs about rain and longing. And it does, at times, feel cinematic. "It's So Quiet, It's Loud" is one of a few tunes that features strings. "Power," all choppy guitars and distorted vocals, could score a crazy foot chase scene through some 80s version of a postmodern decaying cityscape. And the drive-fast-no-FASTER "Middle of the Line" has a Romantics-ish bounce to it - it's dumb, loud and damn fun to listen to. It's the love songs on Big Colors that are.troublesome. According to his own vast catalog, Adams has been tragically unlucky in love (and, in all fairness, he did lose a young partner to cancer, which is undoubtedly horrible and deeply scarring). But while his previous lovelorn epics had you pulling for the poor guy, the (corroborated) revelations of his behavior toward ex-wife Mandy Moore and Phoebe Bridgers, plus others (including, according to the NYT piece, an underage musician), "I Surrender," a prime slice of 80s-loving Adams, has a great line like, "Your name still hurts to touch," but it's not HIS hurt we should be thinking about right now. Like many of the songs on the record, it's about isolation, but that isolation is self-caused. "In It for The Pleasure" is a pretty acoustic number, but the central idea - "Were you in it for the love/Were you in it for the pleasure?" - just feels.icky. It's a question he should be answering, not asking. Isolated from all of the real-life stuff, I enjoyed Big Colors. It's good. It feels like a logical successor to 2017's Prisoner. And it's a much more satisfying, cohesive listen than Wednesdays. Adams' "soundtrack from 1984" goal is met. But, in the months between Wednesdays and this album, I've begun listening to his previous work, because it (for better or worse) puts me back in the space that I was when those albums came out, or times where certain songs hit just right, and I've been able to enjoy those listens. But with something as mediocre as Wednesdays, or even something as admittedly good as Big Colors, I just don't feel like folks (myself included) wil be able to forge the same kind of intimate, unsullied connections to the new songs. Like a longtime love who's recently - again - broken your heart, there's just too much fresh history there.

Review (Wikipedia) : Big Colors is the eighteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Ryan Adams. Originally slated for release on April 19, 2019, it was delayed following abuse allegations against Adams. It was eventually released on June 11, 2021 through Adams's label PAX AM. In January 2019, Adams announced his plans to release three albums that calendar year. The first, Big Colors, was due to be released on April 19 and feature 15 tracks. The second, Wednesdays, was to feature 17 tracks and did not yet have a confirmed release date. Adams did not disclose the name of the third album. To promote Big Colors, Adams premiered the tracks "Doylestown Girl" and "Manchester" on radio and released "Fuck the Rain" as the official lead single from the album. He also announced a UK tour. The release of all three albums was put on hold after The New York Times published an article in February 2019 in which several women, including Adams's ex-wife Mandy Moore, Phoebe Bridgers, and an underage fan, accused him of abuse and sexual misconduct. "Fuck the Rain" was removed from streaming services and the UK tour was cancelled. Adams has denied the allegations. On December 11, 2020, Adams eventually surprise-released Wednesdays with a revised track listing, including several tracks originally announced for inclusion on Big Colors. The YouTube description of the music video to the Wednesdays track "I'm Sorry and I Love You" mentioned that Wednesdays was to be the first in a trilogy of albums, including the previously mentioned Big Colors and a third album called Chris. On April 23, 2021, Adams surprise-released "Do Not Disturb" as the lead single from the revised edition of Big Colors on digital services. A release date of June 11 was later announced in May along with a statement from Adams: "Big Colors was created as a 1980s soundtrack to a movie that never existed. Wednesdays was a study of decline and morality; Big Colors is meant to feel like a daydream. New York, where this album was written, always propels me into new, unexpected creative spaces and this album happened to me, more than I can say I happened to it." Jakob Biazza wrote for the Süddeutsche Zeitung that Big Colors had a "bigger rock pose and a lighter disposition" than Wednesdays. He found that, compared to its predecessor, Big Colors was "more of a rebellion against suffering than wallowing in it". He noted that "the guitars have more twang and more biting colors" and the singing "[is] more piercing and upright", describing this sound as "colder, harder". Writing for Aftonbladet, Håkan Steen called Big Colors "another very solid Ryan Adams record". He opined that the "guitars and arrangements undeniably sound like" the 1980s soundtrack described by Adams and found Big Colors "much more pop" in comparison to Wednesdays. Steen cited "It's So Quiet, It's Loud", "Manchester", and "Showtime" as album highlights, writing that they "could probably have become hits in another reality". However, he described "Power" as "silly".

Review (Humo) :'Ryan Adams heeft op het #MeToo-strafbankje gezeten en zijn comebackplaat 'Wednesdays' is straal genegeerd. Dat de FBI de zaak tegen hem heeft laten vallen, doet blijkbaar niet ter zake. Pijnlijk en onrechtvaardig, want deze 'Big Colors' is écht goed. 'Fuck the Rain' is een classic, de titeltrack een fraaie zomersingle. 'Power' en 'Manchester' zijn songs die alleen hij kan schrijven, met afgewogen pathos. Dit is een plaat zonder slachtoffergedrag, zonder pose. Zijn (voormalige?) vriend John Mayer heeft onlangs een soortgelijke plaat uitgebracht. Deze is beter. Ryan Adams blijft een fenomenaal talent: zang, gitaarspel en liedjes zijn van topniveau. Hij verdient een nieuwe kans.

Review (Het Nieuwsblad) : Toen Ryan Adams begin 2019 in het oog van een zware #MeToo-storm belandde, mochten de drie platen die hij dat jaar zou uitbrengen de frigo in. Na beschuldigingen van onder meer ex-vrouw Mandy Moore, collega Phoebe Bridgers en een minderjarige fan - waar geen bewijs voor werd gevonden - verontschuldigde hij zich bij alle potentiële slachtoffers en was muziek uitbrengen het laatste waar hij aan dacht. Van gevierd naar gehaat singer-songwriter: zo snel kan het gaan. Hoe zeer die heisa heeft ingehakt op zijn muzikale carrière, bleek toen hij vorig jaar het knappe album Wednesdays uitbracht. Er kraaide amper een haan naar, Amerikaanse media zwegen de plaat dood. Ook opvolger Big colors, het tweede van de trilogie, gaat niet gepaard met een grote promotiecampagne. Maar ook ditmaal bewijst Adams een bovengemiddeld songschrijver te zijn, iemand die zijn niet zelden donkere gedachten als geen ander onder woorden weet te brengen. Do not disturb is een pareltje over een keer te veel gekwetst zijn, en zo staan er wel meer knappe songs op die doordrenkt zijn van hartzeer. Fuck the rain is prachtig, What am I blijft zo mogelijk nog meer aan de ribben van de aandachtige luisteraar kleven. Wellicht is het imago van Adams te zeer geschaad om ooit nog opnieuw de gevierde singer-songwriter te worden die was, maar aan zijn vakmanschap is niets veranderd. En koppel je de artiest los van de mens met losse handjes, dan blijf je gewoon over met een plaat vol puike nummers.