I’ve been obsessively listening to Ryan Adam‘s “Heartbreaker” lately (*again*).
I can’t help rediscovering this album every year or so.
IT’S SO GOOD.

It kind of replaces the same feeling Counting Crow’s “August and Everything After” used to give me in 4th grade except now it fills my drunken wine hazes, my terribly long waits for the bus to work and sunbathing at the lofts. STILL my favorite Ryan Adams album to date. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of it.

It has that hearty Southern singer-songwriter fix, the rootsy blues, the crying, the shame, the heart and soul… The more grown-up version of my old Will Hoge “Carousel” love (also Nashville-based). Amusingly, the first time I heard this album was from an old WH fan I knew from Nashville on a mix she made me. “Call Me On Your Way Back Home” right before Aimee Mann. (Great mix Caulyne!) Gillian Welch and David Rawlings compliment this album so beautifully as well. I can’t say this album didn’t make it easier for me to get over Whiskeytown. It’s rare we’re graced with an album concocted as well as this.

Does anyone else hear similarities between “Heartbreaker” and “Rumours” (Fleetwood Mac)? It’s the same edge and similar vocal stylings that’s doing the trick I think… Go listen to “Bartering Lines” and get back with me on that.

Ryan Adams – Bartering Lines (from Heartbreaker)