Ryan Adams Does Little To Impress On ‘Prisoner’

Admittedly not a massive Ryan Adams fan, I can say I’m at least familiar with some of his previous work. I adored his breakout debut album Heartbreaker and the following creative rendition of Oasis’ Wonderwall. Otherwise though, I didn’t follow his career very much until he made headlines announcing he would do a full cover of the popular Taylor Swift album, 1989. It was definitely a step in a new direction for the artist and ended with an album that received mostly positive feedback. That album also gave me the jumping off point for getting back into an artist who I had little experience listening to. Unfortunately though, his foray from the cover album back into original music didn’t strike the chord I’d hoped it would.

The opening number, Do You Still Love Me?, is classic rock in a way that feels like it bites too much on The Black Keys, who themselves bite all-time greats like Led Zeppelin. It feels like a shell of what hard rock used to be, down to a painfully corny guitar solo. The album’s title track, Prisoner, feels like a cheap John Mayer track. Doomsday, along with a number of other tracks on the album, find Adams mimicking a Jeff Tweedy, of Wilco, type inflection. Nearly every song just reminds me of another artist that I’d rather be listening to.

The one track on the album that I actually enjoy for it’s sheer authenticity is Breakdown. It feels like a combination of all the sounds Adams is adopting, along with the exhaustion of Heartbreaker, and a big nod to Bon Jovi. Another compliment I can give to the album is it’s instrumentation. Occasionally tracks implement glistening guitars that blend the alternative rock, and sometimes country rock, with dream pop. It doesn’t sound like other popular dream pop acts like Beach House or The Radio Dept. and I can appreciate that more original sound.

But possibly the biggest problem with this album though is that every song, whether enjoyed or loathed, ends so abruptly that it’s disorienting. You really get the sensation of “Oh? That’s it, huh?” and most of the time you’re okay with it because the song really wasn’t that great, but a lot of the time it’s upsetting because elaborating the song might’ve made it something special and not so disposable. I can say this is especially true about Tightrope which features some beautiful saxophone.

Despite finding the album unimaginative, I can appreciate it’s dad-rock appeal. Besides it’s opening track, I didn’t dislike any of the songs. They’re relaxing, something you can just throw on and not worry about. It doesn’t hurt anyone, but it also isn’t something I’d actively search out either. But if I’m relaxing on my day off and the track To Be Without You comes on, I’ll probably hear it out.