Then his second album Gold soon followed and although not as good as the debut it was still decent (if patchy). Then their was an album held back by his record company. Then came Demolition and soon after Rock & Roll, neither of which I was taken with. Adams seemed to want to release every song he wrote. I would read interviews where he would state that he’d just finished his second song that day. It was quantity over quantity and like many I was loosing interest in his work. It didn’t help that I saw two really bad live shows by him.
The first was at the Sheppard’s Bush Empire where there was a two minute gap between each song as him and his band fumbled around, tuning up and just not getting on with it.
Then I saw him at the Brixton Academy. He came on late and mumbled for a bit while his band sorted their gear out. He drunkenly rambled between songs, the set was sloppy and the crowd became restless.
Still there’s always that great debut, and on the strength of that I might go and check out some of his later work to see if it matches up to Heartbreaker.
Download Ryan Adams - My Winding Wheel mp3 from here.
