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Easy Tiger
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- 259,965 plays
- 50 favs
- 33 shares
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- Ryan Adams
- Released 2007
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- Two
- 02:38
- 38,291 plays
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- Everybody Knows
- 02:25
- 32,353 plays
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- Goodnight Rose
- 03:20
- 20,373 plays
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songs
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- 1
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Goodnight Rose
- 03:20
- 20,373 plays
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- 2
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Two
- 02:38
- 38,291 plays
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- 3
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Everybody Knows
- 02:25
- 32,353 plays
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- 4
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Halloweenhead
- 03:23
- 20,286 plays
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- 5
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Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
- 02:30
- 20,014 plays
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- 6
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Tears Of Gold
- 02:52
- 13,659 plays
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- 7
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The Sun Also Sets
- 04:06
- 16,071 plays
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- 8
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Off Broadway
- 02:29
- 12,777 plays
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- 9
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Pearls On A String
- 02:23
- 14,916 plays
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- 10
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Rip Off
- 03:12
- 13,916 plays
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- 11
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Two Hearts
- 03:03
- 13,417 plays
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- 12
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These Girls
- 02:50
- 13,750 plays
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- 13
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I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
- 03:21
- 14,222 plays
album 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
more albums by this artist
See all-
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- Gold
- Released 2001
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- Cold Roses
- Released 2005
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- Love Is Hell
- Released 2004
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- Cardinology
- Released 2008
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listener reviews
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Best of '07: Ryan Adams
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- By Aimz54901
- 3/31/2009 04:36:41
- The extraordinarily talented Ryan Adams gets back to what he does best on this album: roots-rock Americana. There is not a bad track on this album. However, there are no real standout tracks either. His backing band, The Cardinals, superbly fills in the accompaniment. What really got me was seeing him on Letterman – for the first time in years Adams looked happy, like he was actually enjoying himself. I really love the
consistency of this album.
Standout Tracks: "Goodnight Rose," "Off Broadway," "Pearls on a String," "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old" - Be the first person to rate this review!
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Easy Tiger Does The Job
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- By brandaline trio
- 5/8/2008 19:31:21
- Ryan Adams and the Cardinals deliver an album that when at first listen seems kind of lackluster. However, listen to Easy Tiger a second time, or a third time, or a fourth time and you begin to notice that these songs are good. Real good. The opening track "Goodnight Rose" pulls you in and makes you draw comparisons to the woman in the song, Rose, to Ryan Adams himself. Infact, it might be safe to say that Rose = Ryan in the song. It's a beautiful tune. The album, after the second listen, makes sense coming off the album 29, which seemed a bit more experimental. This album pieces together stories. "I Taught Myself How To Grow Old" is a perfect example of Adams' craft. If this is where Ryan Adams and the Cardinals are heading, I'm definatley ok with that.
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