Easy Tiger

Infobox Album
Name = Easy Tiger
Type = Album
Artist = Ryan Adams


Released = June 25, 2007 June 26, 2007 (US)
Recorded = Electric Lady Studios, Greenwich Village
Genre = Alternative country
Length = 42:33
Label = Lost Highway Records
Producer = Jamie Candiloro
Reviews =
* Allmusic rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fvfuxzr5ldse link]
* "Alternative Press" rating|7|10 July 2007
* Amazon.co.uk rating|8|10
* Drowned in Sound rating|7|10 [http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/10300 link]
* "Entertainment Weekly" rating|4|5 [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20043360,00.html link]
* "Filter Magazine" rating|8.7|10
* The Guardian rating|3|5
* "MOJO" rating|3|5
* "New York Times" rating|8|10
* "NME" rating|6|10 [http://www.nme.com/reviews/ryan-adams/8713 link]
* The Observer rating|4|5 [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/reviews/story/0,,2101891,00.html link]
*"Pitchfork Media" rating|6.2|10 [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/43796-easy-tiger link]
*"PopMatters" rating|7|10 [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/42837/ryan-adams-easy-tiger/ link]
*"Q Magazine" rating|4|5 July 2007
*Real Detroit Weekly rating|5|5 [http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/article_2863.shtml link]
*"Rolling Stone" rating|3.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ryanadams/albums/album/15055052/review/15085375/easy_tiger link]
*"Spin Magazine" rating|8|10 #96 July 2007
*Sunday Times rating|5|5
*"Uncut Magazine" rating|4|5
*Yahoo! Music UK rating|4|5 [http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/070703/33/21d6j.html link]
Last album = " 29"
(2005)
This album = "Easy Tiger"
(2007)
Next album = "Follow the Lights" (2007)

"Easy Tiger" is Ryan Adams' ninth studio album, released on June 26, 2007. Although attributed solely to Adams, the album features The Cardinals as his backing band. In an interview, Adams states that the album contains "very, very simple, very easy songs that, in my opinion, were written on the periphery of some more complex work." [cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22209922-5006024,00.html|title=Ryan Adams – eye of a tiger|last=McCabe|first=Kathy|date=2007-08-09|publisher=Herald Sun|accessdate=2008-08-19] This album marks the first appearances of guitarist Neal Casal and bassist Chris Feinstein, following the departure of both J.P. Bowersock and Catherine Popper. Following the album's release, producer James Candiloro would go on to join The Cardinals as the band's pianist and keyboard player.

The album debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200 with Adams highest first-week sales (61,000)cite web | url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003607217|title=Cyrus Sidesteps Clarkson To Debut At No. 1|date=2007-07-04|accessdate=2007-07-04|last=Choen|first=Jonathan|publisher=Billboard/Nielsen Business Media] and has sold 217,000 copies up to September 2008. [Cohen, Jonathan. [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003852686 "Ryan Adams Applies 'Cardinology' To New CD"] . "Billboard". September 19, 2008.] Furthermore, the album debuted in Ireland, Canada, Belgium, Estonia and Switzerland where Ryan Adams has never had an album chart before.

"Halloweenhead" was #45 in "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. [No byline (December 11, 2007). [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601363/the_100_best_songs_of_2007/12 "The 100 Best Songs of 2007"] "Rolling Stone". Retrieved 2007-12-21]

The Cardinals and album billing

The album features The Cardinals as Adams' backing band, but they are not fully credited in the album's billing. Regarding this issue, Adams stated:

"in the future the plan, in all honesty, is to just be in The Cardinals and that’s it. I really don’t want to do solo records anymore, and one of the things that I had to do to make that a reality was to honor my commitments to the label, Lost Highway. I mean, the kind of record that I was being asked to make was a Ryan Adams solo album. And the best way that I could do that, in my mind, was to approach the band and say ‘I don’t want to do that.’ I got very discouraged, only because my head is so in The Cardinals’ realm. And every person in the band was so supportive and was like, ‘You should do it. You should do it because it’s the way forward.’ So when I sat down to do the solo record, the best people I could think to do it with were The Cardinals.”cite web|url=http://www.americansongwriter.com/site.php?em3296=191125_-1__0_~-1_-1_08_2008_0_0&em3303=191649_-1__0_~0_-1_8_2008_0_0&content=archives|title=Ryan Adams Grows Up, Pulls Air, Moves Forward with the Cardinals and Respects His Muse|last=Luerssen|first=John|date=July/August 2007|publisher=American Songwriter|accessdate=2008-08-12]

Jon Graboff, states that the attitude of the band was: "Who cares as long as we get to collaborate."

Songs

Regarding the album's closing track, "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old", Adams notes that the song is:

"the heaviest one. I think that’s the one I was waiting for. That happened in, like, five fucking minutes too. I did that and two other tracks that are b-sides in one afternoon in the studio that I’m at right now. [Producer] Jamie [Candiloro] was mixing some stuff and I said I had a couple of ideas. We waited a few days, because I was feeling a little too emotionally intense to try to level out one song after the next the way I normally do. So I took a break — I only live a few blocks from the studio — and I ended up finishing the words for “Taught Myself” right before I cut it. Then I didn’t listen to it for a week. I know why, because I never would have been able to sit down and work on something like that, which is kind of brutal. But sonically, Jamie has a style that’s all about clarity. We don’t hide anything with him. [cite web|url=http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/multiarticlesub.aspx?csid1=112&csid2=946&fid1=26398|title=Ryan Adams|last=Schneider|first=Jason|date=2007-07|publisher=Exclaim!|accessdate=2008-08-19]

"Off Broadway" first appeared on the bootleg "The Suicide Handbook", a compilation of unreleased demo recordings, and was performed as early as 2001. "These Girls" previously appeared as "Hey There, Mrs. Lovely" on Adams' unreleased 2000 album "Destroyer"; the lyrics were partly rewritten, but the original melody is intact.

Sheryl Crow provides backing vocals on the track "Two". [cite web | url = http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/42748-ryan-adams-ieasy-tigeri-tracklist-revealed- | title = Ryan Adams' Easy Tiger Tracklist Revealed | date = 2007-05-04 | first = Paul | last = Thompson | publisher = Pitchfork Media | accessdate=2007-05-13] "Two" was featured in the Will Smith film Hancock

Track listing

Songs written by Ryan Adams, Brad Pemberton, Neal Casal and Jon Graboff unless otherwise stated.

# "Goodnight Rose" – 3:20
# "Two" (Adams and Pemberton) – 2:39
# "Everybody Knows" – 2:26
# "Halloweenhead" (Adams) – 3:23
# "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc." (Adams and Pemberton) – 2:33
# "Tears of Gold" – 2:55
# "The Sun Also Sets" (Adams and Pemberton) – 4:11
# "Off Broadway" (Adams and Pemberton) – 2:32
# "Pearls on a String" – 2:25
# "Rip Off" (Adams and Pemberton) – 3:12
# "Two Hearts" – 3:03
# "These Girls" (Adams and Pemberton) – 2:52
# "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old" (Adams) – 3:21

;Bonus tracks
* "Nobody Listens to Silence" (Adams) – 3:41
* "Alice" (Adams)

Charts

Personnel

The Cardinals

* Ryan Adams
* Brad Pemberton
* Jon Graboff
* Neal Casal
* Chris "Spacewolf" Feinstein

Other musicians

* Jamie Candiloro
* Eric Gorfain
* Daphne Chen
* Leah Katz
* Richard Dodd
* Richard Worn
* Sheryl Crow
* Catherine Popper
* Cindy Cashdollar

References