RYAN ADAMS : ROMEO & JULIET

RYAN ADAMS : ROMEO & JULIET

Rollercoaster
In the Blue of the Night
I Can't Remember
Somethings Missing
Doylestown Girl
Romeo & Juliet
Anything
Rain in LA
Poor Connection
In the Meadow
Run
This Is Your House
At Home With the Animals
Earthquake
Hold Me Together
Losers
My Heaven
Theo is Dreaming
They Will Know Our Love
Bonus Tracks :
Desperate Times
Somethings Missing

Label : Pax AM

Release Date : April 25, 2022

Length : 75:32

Review (Rock NYC) : Ryan Adams must be the most prolific artist we currently have: barely a month ago, he dropped the third album of a trilogy, and he has just released a new double album, "Romeo & Juliet." The new project is digitally available via his label PAXAM for about three weeks before getting a widespread release on streaming services. This will happen just in time for Adams's return to live shows on the East Coast in mid-May, after a long absence from the stage. So, what's going on? Is Ryan clearing out the vaults? It seems there's a bit of this as the album sometimes sounds like an amalgam of recordings from different sessions done throughout the years, with different levels of production. I am certainly not a Ryan Adams specialist, but it's not a secret that the song titled "In the Meadow" is supposedly from the final Cardinals album. It's a beautiful and elaborated one, recorded with a full band, unfolding a memorable guitar work above a wobbling organ followed by an explosive orchestration jamming like a Grateful Dead song. Whether you are a hardcore fan or not, it's impossible to ignore the triumphant tone of the song, which has all the trademarks of Adams's more rootsy sound and shows a departure from the '80s-inspiration of "Big Colors." But if it's an older song, it makes complete sense. "Doylestown Girl," which was released in 2019 as a single since it was supposed to be included on "Big Colors" (but wasn't), has this strummed Americana ballad vibe and a bittersweet heartbreaker for a story. The song received extremely positive press in January 2019, pre-scandal, but in 2022 Adams is fully aware he is now completely on his own: "No label. No manager. No distributor. No reviews. No press. No radio.. No problem.," he posted at one point on his Instagram page. "Romeo & Juliet is a summer album" he also wrote in a post on IG. "It's maybe the first summertime album I've ever made, on purpose, front to back. It's like the tall, long slightly mysterious sister to Easy Tiger. There's a lot of room here and the stories all unwind like a long hot drive in the south with the windows down - sunshine blasting everything. And by the time the record ends it's just early night - still blue notes in the dark purple patches of stars up the road hurling towards the hood of the car." There's still a bit of that Springsteen spirit throughout the album - like during the opener "Rollercoaster" - but the album is sonically varied and overall, it is a very dynamic album, and probably more passionate than his other recent ones. Even a track with rootsy guitars, like the bucolic "In the Blue of the Night" partially sung with a Neil Young falsetto, progresses with thunder and an interesting outlaw country riff. There's a lot of creativity at every detour, there's a lot of inventiveness in every song, whether you consider the bold catchy chorus of "I Can't Remember," or the titled track, a tragic acoustic ballad, or the wobbling keys of "Anything," which almost delivers a retro Motown feel, or the pretty melancholic guitars of "Poor Connection," or a few other acoustic songs such as the touching ode to Adams's departed cat, "Theo is Dreaming." "Something Missing" sounds unfinished or a bit odd to my ears - some may call it a demo - although it is an interesting departure from the rest, whereas "Run" reminds me of old (and beloved) Ryan Adams territory, with a chorus that everyone could sing at the top of their lungs. Lyrically, besides the usual heartbreak songs, one of the themes of the album could be his beloved cat Theo, as three songs ("This is Your House," "At Home With the Animals," and "Theo Is Dreaming") are feline-inspired tunes. Ryan Adams's fans are probably still attached to the concept of a cohesive album, and they may struggle a bit to find it here. However, tracks count much more than albums today, and "Romeo & Juliet" is quite the collection of tracks! I still haven't had the chance to listen to it many times, but I would say I will probably prefer it to "Chris." However, this is a very long album (19 songs plus 2 bonus tracks) and there's certainly a lot to process at once. This represents a lot of hooky choruses, a lot of lyrics, a lot of variation in style and tone, but finally a lot of memorable songs, an impression I didn't really have when listening to "Chris." I don't really care about the heterogeneous aspect of the album - I am also not a recording engineer, and I am sure a lot of inconsistencies in the production noted by some people have escaped me. Sure, many of these songs should originally have appeared on other records, sure some songs sound much more modest in production than others, but there's still an overall tone. There is a bright force at the center of "Romeo & Juliet," it is an album that reveals itself as a spirited and fierce one, exuding an impassioned young love (like its title), and reflecting the most ardent season that inspired it: summer.

Review (IsraBox) : Yesterday Ryan Adams put his new album up for sale on Pax Am, three weeks before it hits streaming services. Romeo And Juliet is 19 tracks that hark back to Ashes And Fire, plus two bonus tracks, one "Something Missing" which is also on Romeo And Juliet and "Desperate Times" It is a terrific album of course, and while we note some Chris backlash that accompanied it, Chris is more focussed and deeper sounding, while Romeo And Juliet is more purely business like, they are songs that are part of a post-Mandy world, post cancel, as his pleading for forgiveness has gone ignore. Finally, he appears to be moving forward. He has dubbed it a slightly mysterious complement to Easy Tiger. At his most shruggable on blues Americana workouts like "I Can't Remember", it still keeps its skill set and for an album written over months, if not years, it feels of a piece, though unless by summer he means warm sunny days in doors or ashes as summer wildfires burn L.A. down, I don't feel sparkles of sunlight here. The songs have a subdued energy on jams like "In The Meadow", it is gorgeous and broken in two. But it needs more focus, something the Chris trilogy certainly has.