The White Album by, Al Suback

The White Album, Physical Graffiti, and . . . Cold Roses ?  Don't laugh too hard, because the peripatetic, prolific, and sometimes pathetic Ryan Adams has once again lived up to all the hype with an album in which you can live for months on end. 

Disc one starts with the epic, Grateful Dead-biting " Magnolia Mountain " which finally shows Adams writing an epic which rings true to his North Carolina roots.  The song is blissed out and dramatic at the same time, a very difficult balance to achieve.  From there it is on to "Sweet Illusion", a bit of love song tenderness which toes the line at mawkish.  "Beautiful Sorta" rocks in a loose-limbed way which gives much glory to backing band The Cardinals.   All in all, disc one is nigh perfect and perfectly paced and sequenced, not giving itself over in the first few listens but becoming positively addictive after week two or three of intermittent listening.

Disc two eases you in with "Easy Plateau", with more liquid-yet-chiming guitar, like Peter Buck channeling Jerry Garcia.  The epic on this disc is the title track, which has multi-parts like a mini Ray Davies popera (yes, I created that word) and cuts deeper than anything Adams has written yet. 

Cold Roses , like Physical Graffiti but unlike The White Album (which is just perfect), is the rare double which is NOT perfect but can sustain devotion to both discs.  It is also the clearest sign yet that when Adams is not trying too hard to place himself in the pantheon of rock greats he may actually belong there.