(Lost Highway)
Oh, that Ryan Adams'the musician, the man-about-town, the dirty-haired denim hawker'it's all that Rolling Stone can do to keep up with him. Every issue seems to carry some promise of a brand-new Adams project to be released in the impossibly near future. If you want to read hype about Demolition, you'll have to hit the archives'it's yesterday's news in Adams' mop-haired, whiskey-soaked world.
The buzz at the beginning of the summer was that Lost Highway would be releasing a four-disc box set culled from Adams' extensive back catalogue, which included a rock and roll album with his session band The Pinkhearts and an acoustic record, Suicide Handbook, rumored to be even more delicate than Heartbreaker. At some point, some Lost Highway exec must have begun thinking about the logistics of this, evilly deciding to put his job ahead of the interests of the 14 people likely to purchase such a set, and the compromise was Demolition, a 13-track studio sampler of Adams' outtakes from 2000-1.
Because the songs on Demolition were pulled from what were meant to be a number of different albums, the finished project is all over the place stylistically, jumping from screams to hushes like a high schooler's first mix tape. Nevertheless, if you're not trying to set a particular mood, Demolition's better tracks make it a worthy listen.
More than half of Demolition is Adams alone with his guitar, an extremely sensitive situation. As time's gone on, he's gotten much sappier'if Heartbreaker was bittersweet, this part of Demolition is Mallo Cups. \Desire"" and ""Cry On Demand"" feature Adams' trademark voice quiver in great supply, but are undeniably corny, and only the most dedicated of Adams' of fans will be likely to embrace them. ""You Will Always Be The Same,"" though, is a much stronger track, with real singing and a wry streak of self-superiority running straight through'it would have been a welcome addition to the bland love songs on Gold. The rock remainder of the album sounds vaguely like The Replacements featuring Keith Richards. The 'Hearts get killer tone on ""Starting to Hurt"" and ""Nuclear,"" but it's pretty straightforward stuff'not much different from Gold.
The standout track, without question, is the left-field ""Chin Up, Cheer Up,"" by far the bluegrassiest thing Adams' has been involved with since his Whiskeytown days, all slide guitar and shuffling snare. Bookended by the rest of Demolition, it's the flash of genius that make Adams' albums so frustrating. He won't take the damned time to work on them and make them great, instead of constantly moving onto something new. He's got the talent for sure; now, he just needs the patience. Still, an uneven compilation is better than nothing at all'Demolition may not win Adams many new fans, but it's a fine holdover for anyone who's already been hooked.
