Ashes and Fire is the Ryan Adams record that I have been waiting on since, Heartbreaker was released eleven years ago. It's a sparse, almost naked record, that is lyrically driven, which is where Adams has always had a certain understated brilliance.
There is a warmth to this record, that Heartbreaker lacked, but that warmth has come with time and with understanding.It's disarming in its honesty, the exploration and reconciliation of life. From note one, it builds a space that for just that a reconciliation, of who you are versus who you were. That there is something enchanting in the past, and its the mysticism. The needing to understand who you were, so that maybe you can either embrace that person, or change it all together.
Ashes and Fire is the most apt title since Heartbreaker, it is the sifting through, on more than one occasion the idea of "who we were" flows through, as much of a question as the answer itself. The balancing act, of pleasing our self and pleasing others. There is a quiet resolve that it knows where the road is leading from the almost hopeful "Dirty Rain" to the exasperation in "I Love You and I Don't Know What Else To Say"
As with all of Adam's records it breathes and it will grow and change. That's the beautiful thing about a writer of his magnitude is that you get from it what you need to and everyone's experience is different.
Highlights:
Dirty Rain
Do I Wait?
I Love You and I Don't Know What Else To Say
NPR- First Listen Ashes and Fire
