M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger wrote a review of Ryan Adams’ latest album Prisoner, and it’s one of the most interesting pieces on the album you’re likely to read.
Rather than detailing his thoughts on the particular album, he recalls the moment that he first heard Heartbreaker and how Adams work plays into his own ideas of life and death.
Via his piece on The Talkhouse:
“I’ve been looking at the way people survive. Mainly because I want to survive but sometimes just have no idea how to do it. Some people get sober, some get drunk or high. Some get jobs, either hard jobs that don’t let them ever see their families or friends or easy jobs where they can just coast. Some people die. Some become wildly successful. And they’re happy. Or they’re sad. Or depressed or lonely. Some people put their heads down and just press on, not thinking about the passage of time, how time passes through us and shapes us. I mean, the way time works on us is not even subtle; it can make us lean and hard, sanding away the inessentials even if we think we need the inessentials and love those things the best. Time is callous, I guess, but there are so many ways to survive. And Ryan Adams seems like a survivor. It’s something that we share.”
His summation of Prisoner is that it’s the sound of a man who has realized he needs to create to survive.. Check it out in full over at The Talkhouse. For another take on Prisoner — one that was confirmed by Adams himself — check out Steven Hyden’s analysis of the new album and how it plays into his trilogy of divorce albums.
