As a general rule, any musician's collection of demos, outtakes and afterthoughts should be approached with extreme caution by all but the most dedicated of fans. When it comes to the alarmingly prolific Ryan Adams, however, the quality control is so high that even chippings from the factory floor are superior to most other artist's finished products. Having already recorded five albums of new material since last year's superb Gold, Adams felt he just had to let some of it out and the result is a surprisingly coherent collection that confirms him as one of the great American songwriters, already fully worthy of comparison with his idol Bruce Springsteen. Stylistically, the 13 tracks here contain a familiar blend of barroom stompers and eerie alt.country, full of enjoyably misanthropic lyrics about former friends and the decay of US culture. If there is a criticism to be made here, it's that the tracks have been cut straight to tape with no frills, making the production just a little more rough and ready than it needed to be. For the most part, however, Demolition is wonderful and knowing Adams, there's plenty more where this came from.
