Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire (2011/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:21 minutes | 923 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | @ Capitol Records
Ashes and Fire was Ryan Adams’ first release with Capitol Records. The alternative country singer’s 13th studio album, it was his latest record after the Cardinals disbanded. The record featured numerous guest artists, including Norah Jones and Mandy Moore. Ashes and Fire broke the top 10 Albums Charts in Ireland and the UK in 2011 and produced the single “Lucky Now”.
Returning refreshed after a three-year hiatus — 2010’s III/IV dating back to 2006 sessions — Ryan Adams dives headfirst into early-‘70s Dylan with Ashes & Fire, his first record since disbanding the Cardinals. Adams developed an easy, graceful chemistry with the Cardinals, a connection as apparent on loping homages to the Grateful Dead as it was on approximations of honky tonk, a connection absent yet still felt on Ashes & Fire, which retains a similar relaxed gait as the Cardinals at their softest. Unlike all his albums with the Cardinals, this isn’t a record where the musicianship is placed at the forefront, this is a singer/songwriter record, the music — including exquisite coloring from Heartbreaker keyboardist Benmont Tench — serving as a warm bed for Adams’ rambling words. Tempos are never quick — at best, “Chains of Love” skips along amiably — and the melodies remain fuzzily in focus, so Ashes & Fire winds up as ever-shifting mood music, sustaining an appealingly lazy haze residing somewhere south of melancholy. Adams may have his sad moments, he may look outside his window and see signs of doom, but he’s not torturing himself, he’s finding comfort in being blue because most of the time, he’s relaxed within his skin.
Tracklist:
01 – Dirty Rain
02 – Ashes & Fire
03 – Come Home
04 – Rocks
05 – Do I Wait
06 – Chains Of Love
07 – Invisible Riverside
08 – Save Me
09 – Kindness
10 – Lucky Now
11 – I Love You But I Don’t Know What To Say
Producer, recording and mixing engineer: Glyn Johns.
Mastering engineers: Bob Ludwig and Doug Sax.
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