29

Screw the critics - 29 is a highly underrated masterpiece that has continually been satisfying over years of listening and re-listening.Ryan really pulls out all the stops in the lyrics department - Not a weak line on the entire record. Let's see..From the gorgeously fragile "Starlite Diner" -"It's a blow outOn a birthday cakeAnd I'm a birthday candleFloating on the lake..."And from the harrowing, midnight ballad "Nightbirds" -"I feel like a body stuffed into a trunkFrom a million yearsOf lying and getting drunkThe people here inside meThey are loud and in the nightThey scream and smash the windowsWhen they fight..."Always vivid, meaningful, and original. The way lyrics should be.And, the melodies? They are haunting, beautiful, spectacular. Need proof? The verses in "Blue Sky Blues." The entirety of "Strawberry Wine." The chorus of "The Sadness" (SO many great melodies in that one).Definitely worth your time and money. On a side note - 29 is my favorite Halloween record because it has some great, creepy vibes to it that are reminiscent of Halloween. Hence the October 31st post date...

I'm a HUGE Ryan Adams fan and have waited until now (Sept 2010) to listen to this album...like many other fans, the year he came out with all three albums was quite impressive and a bit of overwhelming...esp if wanted to absorb and appreciate the genius behind Adams' songs. So, rather than forcing myself to listen to "29" when first came out I figured I'd wait until I was feeling deprived of new Ryan Adams material and voila!.This album is incredible esp seeing it was riding on the heels of Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights....It's the type of album that is already one of the top albums, in my opinion. Such variety and various layers in each song.Gotta love it.Gotta listen to it...over and over again.

Having loved all I'd heard by ryan adams and his efforts with the cardinals likewise, I was a bit skeptical as this album certainly didnt receive the rave reviews that surrounded my favorite works by him (Easy Tiger, Demolition, Cold Roses). Admittedly, after listening through once i was a little unsure as i felt there was some familiar territory but some strangely unplaceable pieces. Upon second listen i was practically overwhelmed with how phenomenal-though stripped down and and considerably darker-an album it was. though painfully short, there are two beautiful tracks in "Starlite Diner" and "Blue Sky Blues", a quirky, spanish style "The Sadness" and the heartbroken ramble of "Strawberry Wine". An undeniably ingenious effort that is an absolute necessity for anyone who appreciates adams for his songwriting and little-produced efforts.

29, the third(!) Ryan Adams album of 2005, is dark, moody, elegiac, and brooding. And quite good. It is the kind of record who's charms are less obvious, and which unfolds itself to you over repeated listenings, when you least expect it.Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights were pretty clearly country records, both cut with his new (and, it turns out, evolving) band the Cardinals. Here we get an Adams solo record, absent the band vibe and the country touches that flavor the two previous releases, and more of a serious singer-songwriter turn. Many of the songs are intricate and finely drawn stories and character studies, heavy on the narrative. Indeed the songs are all like little movies, as opposed to hook-laden slices of pop. This record is like midnight at the Indie Cinema multiplex.The opening track, "29," is a rewrite of the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'"-so much so that I thought it was a cover version until the vocals started. But he keeps it darker and more Westerberg than Weir, with acoustic guitars, electrics, and harmonica front and center in the mix; for all the obvious similarities to the Dead tune, it is more garage rock than hippie anthem."Strawberry Wine" is a slow plaintive story song in waltz time, sparse instrumentation, mainly Ryan's voice and acoustic guitars. "Night Birds" is a piano ballad, another minor key song, with a nice dramatic sonic effect that blends thunder and electric guitar on the refrain, "In the ocean..." By now it is clear that this is a "down" record, closer to Love is Hell than Gold, although it is always perilous to try and define a new Ryan Adams record in terms of an old one."Blue Sky Blues" is another downbeat piano song, Ryan's voice and piano augmented by a string section that enters midway through the song to amplify his mood and lend coloration. For a song with "blue sky" in the title, this one dwells an awful lot on rain."Carolina Rain" introduces some of the country lilt of the earlier records, especially through some tasteful pedal steel behind Adams's story singing. "Starlite Diner" is another piano lament, this time about a lost love. "The Sadness" brings the guitars to the fore with a sort of Flamenco flavor, and the Spanish flair is deployed to bring drama to the song throughout. It is a highlight of the album, driving and visceral, yet still "small," in the way an Indie film is small, the way the whole record is drawn to scale."Elizabeth You Were Born to Play That Part" moves back to piano balladry. It is probably the prettiest song on the album, and serves as its climax and centerpiece, piano and acoustic guitar sweeping the listener away in a gentle swirl of melancholy as the protagonist laments yet another lost love. "Voices" closes the record out, dark and foreboding, barely there, invoking vaguely religious imagery.Resist the urge to compare 29 to Adams's previous work; with an artist this prolific, if you keep expecting the last record, you will be continually disappointed. My wife's one sentence review of 29: "I like it; it's a little sad but I like it." It takes me 400 words to say what she nails in a sentence. A small record in a good way, a sad record in a good way, a beautifully cinematic record that will reward repeated listening. Adams completes the hat trick and has got to be the unquestioned artist of the year.

Great album, sounds excellent on wax. If you're new to RA this is a departure from the other two records RA released that same year, cold roses and Jacksonville city nights but I like them all for different reasons. Barring a slight misstep with "The Sadness" (its a bit kitschy for my taste) the rest of the album captures RA's storytelling in a new quieter more vulnerable place. Much like Love is Hell with less rocknroll full band tracks,

Wonderful. Ryan is a favorite of mine and to have him on vinyl is simply put a BONUS.........Emotional Masterpiece Thank you Ryan.............Highly recommended if you like Singer Songwriter as I do.

29 is Part 3 of Ryan Adams ambitious three albums in one year goal that he barely met releasing 29 late in '05. 29 captures 9 outlooks on the world through various characters that you grow to love. The album is like a collection of short stories put to some of Adam's best melodies, yet(at the time of its release).

Excelente álbum! Ryan Adams dispensa comentários e esse é um ótimo trabalho. A prensagem é qualidade gráfica também estão muito boas.

Il 2005 è stato un anno prolifico per questo artista dalle capacita infinite. Questo 29 ha tante belle canzoni da ascoltare tutte d'un fiato. Ryan non delude mai. Se vi piace il folk rock americano prendetelo senza indugio.

The eclectic, unpredictable musical well that is Ryan Adams has once again hauled up a set of songs to treasure.On this lovely album he sounds at times like Neil Young and, on one track, like he's been listening to Joe Ely's Letter to Laredo. He's a singer-songwriter who absorbs so much music and simply allows it to seep into what he writes. I think this is one of his finest albums, with songs which are sometimes delicate as gossamer.One to listen to and love for many years to come.Beautiful.

Excellent. Excellent music, guitars, lyrics. So good.

Ryan Adams se propuso sacar 3 discos durante el 2005 y lo consiguió, aunque este 29 sea el que se llevase peor crítica en su momento. Pero da igual, Adams no podría sacar ni un disco malo aunque quisiera; canciones como Strawberry wine son de lo mejor de toda su discografía, además es un disco muy fácil de escuchar, debido a su corta duración, sobretodo para lo que nos tiene acostumbrados.Y a este precio (menos de 5€) me daba vergüenza no comprarlo ;)