Demolition

Demolition is a sort of "best of" compilation comprising 13 previously unreleased demos by Ryan Adams. Recorded at four different studio sessions in Nashville, Los Angeles and Stockholm, with a cast of musicians that includes his road band the Pinkhearts, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Ethan Johns, Chris Stills, Bucky Baxter and Greg Leisz, Demolition proves that Adams is still a work-in-progress: brilliant one moment, sloppy the next. When he's good, he's very good: the rousing country-rocker "Hallelujah", the brooding acoustic ballads "Dear Chicago" and "Tomorrow", and the jangly power-pop number "Gimme a Sign" are as fine as anything on Gold. But Adams sometimes lapses into mimicry, as he does on "Nuclear" and "Starting to Hurt", both of which could be outtakes from a U2 album. "Tennessee Sucks", a chronicle of a boredom-filled summer day in Nashville, sounds half-baked, while the closing track, "Jesus (Don't Touch My Baby)", which finds Adams (on synthesizer, guitars, bass and drum machine) droning on like Leonard Cohen, falls in the "failed experiment" category. Despite its bright spots, Demolition ultimately comes off as a mixed bag.