Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cardinalology - Review

I recently posted that Ryan Adams & The Cardinals would be releasing a new CD on October 28th, 2008 called Cardinalology. Now I have had a chance to hear the full CD in studio version and not only the live songs off http://www.archive.org/ I can write a little more about what you will expect to hear in next week when it is officially released. iTunes will be releasing a song called The Color of Pain as a bonus track. That is not reviewed in this blog.

Born Into A Light is the first track on the new CD. Typical alt-country track that lasts about 2 minutes. It has some nice guitar work and Ryan sounds great on it. Not totally mellow, but a little more of a ballad type song. Slide guitar sounds nice on it.

Go Easy picks the pace a little bit. The Cardinals sounds work this one together nicely. Good mix of Ryan singing with the electric guitar playing prominately with him through the track. It's a bit more up beat, slows it down a bit and tests Ryans ability to change the range of his vocals throughout. The backing vocals come in late and sound pretty good. Overall a nic etrack.

Fix It as I sort of reviewed in my early announcement of the CD coming out. It sort of reminds me of something from a Neil Young and Crazyforse CD. It is already released on iTunes and other places to hear it. ryan sounds good and it's a nice little tune.

Magick kicks it in a bit and starts off with some heavy guitars and keeps going. This is a more rocking song involving more vocals from the other members. I really like this one, certainly one of my favorites on the cd.

Cobwebs as I've heard the live and the studio version it's hard to tell the difference between the two. It sounds great both ways. More in the lines of a ballad type song and has a little U2 type feel to it. Good tune with a nice rolling drum through the song. another nice tune on the CD.

Let Us Down Easy feels like a lot of the Cardinals stuff that came out on Cold Roses and Jacksonville. Ryan sounds like he's struggling a little on the vocals at times, but that certainly is sort of his style at times. Good overall beat to the song and it's one that can grow on you.

Crossed Out Name is more on the mellow side of The Cardinals on this CD. More on the ballad style with a rolling acoustic guitar sound to it. Pretty cool and certainly will be one played more often in the future.

Natural Ghost is a nice country type ballad. I like this one, harder to describe or compare to something else, but it's a nice tune with a good acoustic feel with some added slide guitar in thee.

Sink Ships starts off with some good acoustic guitar work adding is some slide to it as well. Slower style song with a nic efeel to it and it picks up a bit throughout the song. Ryan sounds great and another nice song on the CD.

Evergreen again starts out with some nice guitar work, almost sounds like the start of Goodnight Rose and then changes up quick. Nice mix of slide guitar, piano and acoutic guitar. Certainly a slower one on the CD, but again a nice song.

Like Yesterday is more ballad like, has that nice country feel to it as it rolls along. Sounds like something off of Easy Tiger, but just can remember what. The guitar solo kicking in gives it the classic ballad feel of The Cards. I do like this one.

Stop kicks it off with piano and feels like a Neil Young style song again. I think this might have been used in a TV show. I had heard a song recently on a show, very mellow like this that I couldn't place and I think that this is it. Certainly the most mellow song on the CD. Just Ryan singing and playing the piano. They add some background by the end, but it certainly is a nice mellow song.

Overall I have to say I really like the new CD by Ryan Adams and The Cardinals. It mixes it up with different styles of songs and it gives you a good range of what Ryan can do. On the latest tour he certainly has been playing these tunes out live and it is refreshing to know that the studio versions sound pretty amazing as well. Some bands are hard to tell, but with Ryan, he just knows what to do to put together a fantastic CD.

I highly recommend picking this one up on October 28th. No matter the media, CD, iTunes or what, you will be happy with this one. Now if we can just get him to reschedule that Kansas City date and I end up with a ticket that would be awesome.

Track List:

Born Into A Light
Go Easy
Fix It
Magick
Cobwebs
Let Us Down Easy
Crossed Out Name
Natural Ghost
Sink Ships
Evergreen
Like Yesterday
Stop
The Color Of Pain (iTunes Bonus - Not Reviewed)