First he was the poster boy for heartfelt alt-country, now Ryan Adams takes a diagonal leap, reinventing himself with his sleeves rolled up, acoustic guitar tossed aside and committing to an electric rock and roll affair. His achingly confessional love songs are absent in favor of a new sound, paying homage to Adams’ 80’s rock and roll heroes. The ghosts of the Replacements, early U2, The Smiths, and the Cult all wreak havoc on Rock N Roll, a two week recording piece, made with some friends and producer James Barber. Alienating his fans is not a concern of Adams, and pleasing critics – he could give a shit.
The opener, “This Is It” trembles with a Replacements mid 80's-era stammer, complette with crunchy guitars and a hook laden chorus wrapped around Adams’ raspy vocals. Screaming courageously on "Shallow", “you gotta do what you do, gotta say what you say and lie to yourself forever,” Adams gives his vocal chords a novel workout over a rockabilly guitar riff. Paying tribute to his birth year, “1974” stampedes like classic Kiss, complete with flamboyant strut and arena anthem chorus. New-wave guitar flourishes in “So Alive,” perhaps the most daring of all the
Rock N Roll compositions, with Adams’ squealing prophetically in his best Bono moan, ala
Boy era U2. And the powerful, “Luminol,” dashes with hazy, new metal guitar tendencies.
Rock N Roll certainly rocks, yet much can be said about the lack of lyrical deepness in the batch. His signature introspective writings, as displayed on his earlier solo releases – Gold and Heartbreaker - is nowhere to be found. Though I suspect this brief affair with jean jacket and pin rock, is just a fling, and not a moment too soon for Adams to reinvent himself again.
