When an artist releases as many albums as Ryan Adams has over the past five years (seven and counting), it's often the case that quality control goes out the window, and it's merely a matter of some self-indulgent plank foisting album after album on their cluelessly devoted fans, like some sort of musical diarrhoea. For the most part, however, Adams has escaped being slathered with tar by that particular brush - although his periodically dodgy moments have seen him come very close to being treated with disdain normally reserved for the likes of Pete Doherty. His latest instalment, Easy Tiger, comes in the wake of a brace of country-rock albums with backing band The Cardinals and a solo album, 29, and although the band also back Adams here, it's mysteriously also being billed as a solo project. The 32-year old singer has had his fair share of battles with drink and drugs over the past few years, which may go some way to explaining the tide of material he's discharged during that time; but it also means that the now-clean Adams should have a fresh perspective on songwriting. Does, he, though? Well, Easy Tiger is an extremely admissible album that's easygoing and thoroughly unchallenging; Everybody Knows, Off Broadway and These Girls are all softly-sung acoustic ditties that hark back to his Heartbreaker days, Goodnight Rose is Neil Young-via-The Band, while the poppy bounce of Halloweenhead and The Sun Always Sets perk up proceedings to some extent. It's the Sheryl Crow-starring Two that's set to become Easy Tiger's 'La Cienega', however, even if it's by far, not the best track here. As far as fresh perspectives go, though, Adams will have to take a giant leap outside his comfort zone to make an album as good as his debut; but the darkly fuzzy atmospherics of closer Nobody Listens to Silence suggests that that album may not be too far away. Easy Tiger is pleasant enough to keep the masses happy, but Adams can do better than this.
