People expecting artistic maturity from Ryan Adams should know better by now. Anyone describing the one-time Whiskeytown frontman constantly brings up his precocity; his fans invoke the theory that, if Adams is this good at his young age, he will one day be even better.
The mantle of a wunderkind does not suit the 28-year-old as well today as it did six years ago, when Whiskeytown released the mellow masterpiece Strangers Almanac. Adams' third solo release lloR N kcoR, fails to deliver the rock classic that Heartbreaker and Gold seemed to predict. If Ryan Adams' fans are right and he is a prolific cross between Bono and John Prine, then the proof will have to come on his next musical effort.
All this is not to say that lloR N kcoR is a bad album. As its title suggests, it is a harder-edged venture than Adams has undertaken before, but it has the same brilliant flashes, appealing hooks and lyrics just this side of nonsense that Adams has made into his trademark over the course of his career. His crooning voice is one of music's most appealing, and on songs like "Luminol" and "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" it is easy to see glimpses Adams' realized potential. The former is full of driving guitars and images of the party lifestyle, and it is a testament to how both rock and Adams can benefit when put together. "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" is a return to the old Adams, with bright melodies and lyrics that waver between sad nostalgia and gibberish.
But on the tracks which define lloR N kcoR, Adams is surprisingly mediocre. "This Is It" is an "homage" to the Strokes and the Mooney Suzuki in the same way that a Xerox machine makes "homages." It opens with a tongue-in-cheek Adams rasping "Let me sing a song for you/ That's never been sung before," and then launching into a song that makes up in shameless duplication what it lacks in originality. "Note to Self: Don't Die" is a jarring and lyrically trite song Adams co-wrote with current girlfriend Parker Posey. I suggest that Congress introduce emergency legislation to keep brilliant young songwriters away from Posey, as the track is lloR N kcoR's abysmal low point. For God's sake, keep her away from Thom Yorke!
Adams released an EP entitled Love Is Hell, pt. 1 on the same day as lloR N kcoR. The EP, more laid-back and mellow than the sharp-tongued album, has its moments, notably when Adams covers "Wonderwall" without any irony at all, making the song seem beautiful and somehow significant. Love is Hell has hints of maturity the notoriously unpicky Adams saw fit to leave off the full-length record.
On "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" Adams proclaims "I am in the twilight of my youth." If Adams lives up to the promise of his younger days, lloR N kcoR will be seen as a necessary, but mediocre, growing pain.
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