Ryan Adams has got to be the busiest man in show business -- nearly 12 albums in since his debut with Whiskeytown in 1996, here comes "Jacksonville City Nights," the second of three planned releases for 2005. Earlier this year he released his first album with The Cardinals, the excellent "Cold Roses," which returned to his roots in alt-country after a lengthy departure into conventional rock-n-roll and mope rock.
"Jacksonville City Nights" is an even more country-tinged album, with intermittent honky-tonk overtones. Songs like "A Hard Way To Fall" and "A Kiss Before I Go" give it a little too much honk, but the songwriting still wins me over. As a Ryan Adams project, most of the tunes are well-written and built around his strong vocal performances.
Unfortunately this isn't true on the duet with Norah Jones, "Dear John," which fails as their voices don't mesh well. He is more successful with sparse, solo ballads like "Silver Bullets," "Pa," and "Withering Heights." "September," a downtempo moper, could even have been on 2004's "Love Is Hell"
While the album may not be as strong as "Cold Roses," there are definite standouts here, which bodes well for his third release of the year.