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Easy Tiger

 
Album Review: Easy Tiger
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Easy Tiger

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  • Artist: Ryan Adams
  • Rating: StarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: June 26, 2007
  • Type: Contains explicit content, Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Rock

Review

Easy Tiger has a "slow it down there, pal" undertone to its title -- and who needs a word of caution other than Ryan Adams himself, who notoriously spread himself far and wide in the years following his 2000 breakthrough Heartbreaker. After celebrating his 30th birthday with a flurry of albums in one year, Adams decided to pull back, hunker down, and craft one solid album that deliberately plays to his strength. As such, Easy Tiger could easily be seen as the album that many of his fans have wanted to hear since Heartbreaker, a record that is tight and grounded in country-rock. Easy Tiger is focused, but so have been some of the other thematic albums Adams has delivered with such gusto -- when he tried to run with the Strokes on Rock N Roll, mimicked the Smiths and Jeff Buckley on Love Is Hell, even turned out a full-on country album in Jacksonville City Nights, complete with knowing retro cover art, he stayed true to his concept -- but the cumulative effect of the records was to make him seem scattered, even if the records could work on their own merits. With each album since the wannabe blockbuster of 2001's Gold, his restlessness has seemed not diverse but reckless, so even his good albums seemed to contribute to the mess. Easy Tiger intends to break this perception by being concise, right down to how every one but one of these tight 13 songs clock in somewhere between the two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half minute mark. For somebody as doggedly conceptual as Adams, this is surely a deliberate move, one designed to shore up support among supporters (no matter if they're fans or critics), which Easy Tiger very well might. Surely, it is a welcoming album in many ways, partially due to the relaxed Deadhead vibe Adams strikes up with his band the Cardinals, reminiscent of 2005's fine Cold Roses. But if that CD sprawled, this one is succinct, as Adams flits through country-rockers and weepers -- plus the occasional rock detour, like anthemic '80s arena rocker "Halloween Head" or the spacy "The Sun Also Sets," a dead ringer for Grant Lee Phillips -- containing not an ounce of fat. Adams benefits from the brevity, most notably on the sweetly melancholy "Everybody Knows," the straight-up country of "Tears of Gold," or on "Two," which mines new material out of the timeworn "two become one" conceit. Here, his songs don't stick around longer than necessary, so they linger longer in memory, but the relentless onward march of Easy Tiger also gives the performances an efficiency bordering on disinterest, which is its Achilles' heel. As fine as some of the songs are, as welcoming as the overall feel of the record is, it seems a bit like Adams is giving his fans (and label) "Ryan Adams by numbers," hitting all the marks but without passion. This is when his craft learned from incessant writing kicks in -- he can fashion these tunes into something sturdy and appealing -- but it also highlights how he can turn out a tune as lazily as he relies on casual profanity to his detriment. Ultimately, these flaws are minor, since Easy Tiger delivers what it promises: the most Ryan Adamsy Ryan Adams record since his first. For some fans, it's exactly what they've been waiting for, for others it'll be entirely too tidy, but don't worry -- if Adams has proven to be anything it's reliably messy, and he's sure to get ragged again somewhere down the road (and based on his past record, safe money is on October 2007). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Goodnight Rose (Lyrics) Neal Casal, Jon Graboff, Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (3:20)
Two (Lyrics) Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:39)
Everybody Knows (Lyrics) Neal Casal, Jon Graboff, Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:26)
Halloweenhead Ryan Adams Ryan Adams (3:23)
Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. (Lyrics) Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:33)
Tears of Gold (Lyrics) Neal Casal, Jon Graboff, Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:55)
The Sun Also Sets Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (4:11)
Off Broadway (Lyrics) Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:32)
Pearls on a String (Lyrics) Neal Casal, Jon Graboff, Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:25)
Rip Off (Lyrics) Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (3:12)
Two Hearts (Lyrics) Neal Casal, Jon Graboff, Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (3:03)
These Girls (Lyrics) Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton Ryan Adams (2:52)
I Taught Myself How to Grow Old (Lyrics) Ryan Adams Ryan Adams (3:21)

Credits

Sheryl Crow (Performer), Neal Casal (Performer), Neal Casal (Photography), Chris Feinstein (Performer), Bob Ludwig (Mastering), Billy Mims (Engineer), Andy West (Art Direction), Andy West (Photography), Jamie Candiloro (Producer), Jamie Candiloro (Engineer), Jamie Candiloro (Performer), Jamie Candiloro (Mixing), Jon Graboff (Performer), Jon Graboff (Photography), Eric Gorfain (Performer), Daphne Chen (Performer), Richard Worn (Performer), Luke Lewis (A&R), Phillip Andelman (Photography), Catherine Popper (Performer), Leah Katz (Performer), Charlie Stavish (Engineer), The Cardinals (Performer), Richard Dodo (Performer), Robie Willard (Technician), Richard Wootton (Publicity)
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Wikipedia: Easy Tiger
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Easy Tiger
Studio album by Ryan Adams
Released June 25, 2007
June 26, 2007 (US)
Recorded Electric Lady Studios, Greenwich Village
Genre Alternative country
Length 42:33
Label Lost Highway Records
Producer Jamie Candiloro
Professional reviews
Ryan Adams chronology
29
(2005)		 Easy Tiger
(2007)		 Follow the Lights
(2007)

Easy Tiger is Ryan Adams' ninth studio album, released on June 26, 2007. Although attributed solely to Adams, the album features The Cardinals as his backing band. In an interview, Adams states that the album contains "very, very simple, very easy songs that, in my opinion, were written on the periphery of some more complex work."[1] This album marks the first appearances of guitarist Neal Casal and bassist Chris Feinstein, following the departure of both J.P. Bowersock and Catherine Popper. Following the album's release, producer James Candiloro would go on to join The Cardinals as the band's pianist and keyboard player.

The album debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200 with Adams highest first-week sales (61,000)[2] and has sold 217,000 copies in the U.S. as of September 2008 and 450,000 worldwide.[3] Furthermore, the album debuted in Canada, Estonia and Switzerland where Ryan Adams has never had an album chart before. "Halloweenhead" was #45 in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[4]

Despite the CD version of the album being billed as a solo album, Easy Tiger features backing band The Cardinals on every track.[5] The vinyl release is credited to "Ryan Adams & The Cardinals". "Off Broadway" first appeared on the bootleg The Suicide Handbook, a compilation of unreleased demo recordings, and was performed as early as 2001. "These Girls" previously appeared as "Hey There, Mrs. Lovely" on Adams' unreleased 2000 album Destroyer. Sheryl Crow provides backing vocals on the track "Two",[6] which was featured in the film Hancock.

Contents

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton, Neal Casal and Jon Graboff, unless otherwise stated. 

# Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Goodnight Rose"     3:20
2. "Two"   Adams and Pemberton 2:39
3. "Everybody Knows"     2:26
4. "Halloweenhead"   Adams 3:23
5. "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc."   Adams and Pemberton 2:33
6. "Tears of Gold"     2:55
7. "The Sun Also Sets"   Adams and Pemberton 4:11
8. "Off Broadway"   Adams and Pemberton 2:32
9. "Pearls on a String"     2:25
10. "Rip Off"   Adams and Pemberton 3:12
11. "Two Hearts"     3:03
12. "These Girls"     2:52
13. "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old"   Adams 3:21
14. "Nobody Listens to Silence" (UK/Japan bonus track) Adams 3:41
15. "Alice" (Japan only bonus track) Adams 2:16

Charts

Album

Country Position
US[2] 7
Australia[7] 32
Belgium[8] 45
Canada[9] 22
Denmark[10] 35
Estonia[11] 15
Italy[12] 82
Ireland[13] 14
Holland[14] 37
New Zealand[15] 20
Norway[16] 5
Sweden[17] 10
Switzerland[18] 60
UK[19] 18

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
2007 "Two/Halloweenhead" UK Singles Chart[20] 192

Personnel

The Cardinals

Other musicians

  • Jamie Candiloro
  • Eric Gorfain
  • Daphne Chen
  • Leah Katz
  • Richard Dodd
  • Richard Worn
  • Sheryl Crow
  • Catherine Popper
  • Cindy Cashdollar

References

  1. ^ McCabe, Kathy (2007-08-09). "Ryan Adams – eye of a tiger". Herald Sun. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22209922-5006024,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-19. 
  2. ^ a b Choen, Jonathan (2007-07-04). "Cyrus Sidesteps Clarkson To Debut At No. 1". Billboard/Nielsen Business Media. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003607217. Retrieved on 2007-07-04. 
  3. ^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Ryan Adams Applies 'Cardinology' To New CD". Billboard. September 19, 2008.
  4. ^ No byline (December 11, 2007). "The 100 Best Songs of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-21
  5. ^ Luerssen, John (July/August 2007). "Ryan Adams Grows Up, Pulls Air, Moves Forward with the Cardinals and Respects His Muse". American Songwriter. http://www.americansongwriter.com/site.php?em3296=191125_-1__0_~-1_-1_08_2008_0_0&em3303=191649_-1__0_~0_-1_8_2008_0_0&content=archives. Retrieved on 2008-08-12. 
  6. ^ Thompson, Paul (2007-05-04). "Ryan Adams' Easy Tiger Tracklist Revealed". Pitchfork Media. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/42748-ryan-adams-ieasy-tigeri-tracklist-revealed-. Retrieved on 2007-05-13. 
  7. ^ Top 50 Albums Chart - Australian Record Industry Association
  8. ^ Skynet.be - LE portail belge – DE Belgische portaalsite!
  9. ^ CANOE - JAM! Music SoundScan Charts
  10. ^ http://www.hitlisterne.dk/2006/lister.asp?list=a40
  11. ^ pedro.ee - CD top100, nädal 26 - 2007
  12. ^ Classifica
  13. ^ >> IRMA << Irish Charts - Singles, Albums & Compilations >>
  14. ^ MegaCharts
  15. ^ charts.org.nz - Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
  16. ^ VG Nett - VG-lista - UKENS SINGLELISTE
  17. ^ www.sverigetopplistan.se
  18. ^ Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger - swisscharts.com
  19. ^ BBC - Radio 1 - Chart Show - The UK Top 40 Albums
  20. ^ "UK Chart Log". zobbel.de. http://www.zobbel.de/cluk/CLUK2007.HTM. Retrieved on 2008-12-27. 
v • d • e
Ryan Adams
Studio albums
Singles
"New York, New York" · "Answering Bell" · "Nuclear" · "So Alive" · "This Is It" · "Wonderwall" · "Let It Ride" · "Easy Plateau" · "Two" · "Halloweenhead" · "Fix It"
EPs
Books
See also

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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