Ryan Adams’ third album in the space of a year is a meditation on his 20s, with each of the nine songs representing a year of his life from 21 to his current age of 29 – apparently he didn’t think 20 counted as he still felt like he was 19. 29 falls somewhere between the brilliance of Heartbreaker and the downright difficult Love Is Hell. Indeed, it would probably be considered a work of genius were we not aware of the heighths he is capable of reaching. Having spent considerable time with 29, it’s increasingly clear that this young man isn’t as content with his life as you’d expect from a lauded and loved songwriter who has successfully followed his dream.
It kicks off with the rollicking rockabilly of the title track, a Dylan-esque litany of drugs, violence, arrests, bail and exhumed canines, where Adams’ unique talent of capturing an entire lifetime of experience in one phrase comes to the fore: “Most of my friends are married and making them babies/To most of them I already died/And whatever it is about you I’ve always hated/Is something about myself I just couldn’t hide”.
Elsewhere, melancholia and downright sadness seem to be the moods of the moment, with the pace rarely lifting itself above the funereal, from the plaintive ‘Nightbirds’ to the piano-driven ‘Blue Sky Blues’, the narrative-led ‘Carolina Rain’, where it ends in tears for all the main protagonists, to the sorrowful and regret-filled ‘Elizabeth You Were Born To Play That Part’.
Then there’s the sweet fragility of the beautiful eight-minute ‘Strawberry Wine’, the former Whiskeytown frontman sounding like a 20-something Neil Young, with a world-weariness far beyond his years as he wonders, “Can you still have any famous last words if you’re somebody nobody knows?”
Indeed, it’s difficult to listen to 29 all the way through in one sitting without some of its sorrow entering your own heart. Unless of course you’re in a place where the opportunity to wallow in someone else’s misery for an hour is something to be savoured. Personally, a little respite from the broken hearts and shattered spirits would have been welcome. File under uneasy listening.