I thought "Love is Hell, Pt. 1" was Ryan Adams' best musical accomplishment. I was wrong. That production, as phenomenal as it was, doesn't come close to the level he reached in "Heartbreaker", his first album after he left Whiskeytown. Perhaps I have a weakness for nu-folk and alt-country these days, but I admit I have been possessed by Heartbreaker. "AMY" is a great example of why. It brings Elliott Smith right back to mind, and other momemnts in the album remind me of Dylan and Cash as well. Overstatement? Say what you want, but Ryan Adams' solo debut is one of the most solid albums in the past five years.

I saw Whiskeytown live in London a couple of years ago. The set, in a bar venue, finished with Ryan alone on stage with acoustic guitar singing "Avenues" from "Strangers Almanac", it was absolutely electric, you could have heard a pin drop in the place, a real hairs-stood-up-on-the-back-of-the-neck experience. So news of a Ryan Adams solo album was exciting indeed, and obviously I was hoping for more potential "Avenues" moments. So does "Heartbreaker" deliver? Well, yes, up to a point, but you do get the feeling he's running as if in the semi, not in the final! The reason I don't think this is the full 5 star classic we all know Ryan has in him is that some of the songs, such as "To Be The One", ramble on in a fairly shapeless manner, virtually grinding to a halt in places, and punctuated by some Dylanesque harmonica that can be a bit jarring. There has been a shift in focus in the songwriting, away from the Replacements and REM influences that were evident on "Strangers Almanac" towards Dylan, the Band and Steve Earle, and of course the ghost of Gram Parsons is still pulling quite a few strings. There are though enough good songs here to make it very much worth the price of admission. The start off track "To Be Young" is a terrific up-tempo number, "My Winding Wheel" has a hint of Paul Westerberg (compare this to "It's A Wonderful Lie" from the last Westerberg solo) and, rather curiously, calls to mind "Wonderwall" by Oasis. "Call Me On Your Way Back Home" could well be the song to provide me with my "Avenues" moment next time I see Ryan live. So if you particularly liked the quieter songs on "Strangers Almanac" then you will undoubtedly like this, but we know there's more in the tank! (PS A comment of significance to English readers only - As an English person and former resident of Manchester, how weird is it to hear Ryan discussing our beloved Morrissey at the start of this? What next, an analysis of the best front two for United?!!)

Ryan Adams's solo album trumps anything he's released with his band Whiskeytown to date. "Heartbreaker" has stronger songs, better arrangements and better songwriting than anything Adams has previously recorded. On the accoustic song "Damn Sam (I Love a Woman that Rains)," Adams is a dead ringer for classic mid-60s Bob Dylan (albiet with a much better voice). In fact, most of the highlights on the album are the slower accoustic numbers like "Oh My Sweet Carolina," (with Emmylou Harris) "Come Pick Me Up" and "In My Time of Need." The anthemic "To Be Young (is to be Sad, is to be High)" is also first rate and makes a great rallying cry for the younger generation. The album does feature a couple of clunkers, particularly to rocking but bland "Shakedown on 9th Street" that keep it from being a full five star effort. But it also marks Adams as a potential major star about to break through to the big time.

Ryan Adams is as unpredictable on CD as he is in life. When I saw him perform solo in SF last year I left thinking that this was the next great American songwriter, but that he probably wouldn't live into his 30's. He's fragile & exposed & probably heavily medicated, but he can generate a single line that is so beautiful, sad and true that it almost stops your heart. I guess that's why the album is called Heartbreaker. I hope it's not cause the guys got a huge ego... Anyway, this album reflects all that I've written so far. I give it 4 stars because I think he will pull together one of the classic albums of all time one day, and I'm saving 5 for that kind of a record. This one is filled with great moments that are never quite stitched together. Maybe I'll see the connections in time, who knows? He's backed by David Rawlings & Gillian Welch, but unfortunately these two VERY talented musicians don't add much to the project. As much as I love David Rawling's work I'd rather just have a true solo project. Warning: there are definite flaws in the quality of recording. The volume level changes dramatically as he apparently was backing away from and leaning into the mic. Nothing was done to fix this or the sometimes piercing harmonica parts. But then, you came for the songs, right?

A peculiar album. I've listened to it so many times by now, I feel I know when he's about to breathe, I can tell where the fingers squeak across guitar strings, and I feel I understand the lyrics more. The tunes are incredible, each having that special something, and the level of musicianship shows marked improvement over the Whiskeytown catalog (I sure wish he'd let loose just a little bit, but it's a solo effort, and that's to be expected: no electric fuzz anywhere).

But I can't get over how subpar and unremarkable the production job is here. Several songs are mixed horribly, with the instruments so low and the vocal so high, you can barely if at all tell what the melody is. ("My Winding Wheel", awesome a song as it is, suffers fatally from the bad mix). Is this a conscious style? An attempt at art? Or just a bad production job? On "Damn, Sam" and "Oh My Sweet Carolina", I find myself singing along, but not to any music: I'm harmonizing with everyone else, and that's annoying. I hear a great tune somewhere in "Come Pick Me Up", but as it unfolds, I plug my ears for the annoyingly derivative Neil Young harmonica wheeze that not only disrupts the mood of the song, but is mixed so darn loud my dog starts crying in the room next door.

There WAS an album for the ages somewhere in here: had Ryan given a few more listens to the mix, maybe it would have been a monster. But criticism aside, I'll pick the few tunes I enjoy and probably come back to this album again, at least for "To Be Young" and a few others, but wondering for a while what might have been.