Well, Ryan Adams certainly can't be accused of laziness - not only is this a double album, he apparently has two more ready for release later this year. Unfortunately, as all but his most devoted fans must have realised by now, the quantity of Adams's output isn't always matched by quality. The first CD here is frankly pretty disappointing, a series of cliched strumalongs that needed a lot more studio time to knock them into shape. It's particularly frustrating because the second disc demonstrates what Adams is really capable of, beautifully rich country-rock that shows off his heart-sick balladeer persona to great effect. Pity that Cold Roses couldn't have contained a few more bloomers and a few less thorny stems. Still, now that he's left his rock'n'roll posturings behind and returned to his soulful Southern wail, at least we can look forward to those new releases with optimism.
