Despite an awful lot of math (in one song, ''Two hearts, one of them will break...three words is all it takes''; in another, ''It takes two when it used to take one''), Easy Tiger keeps it simple: beguiling melodies, an ace band, and Adams' elastic tenor.  Full text...

Easy Tiger is an album of mini-albums. What I mean is that each song is completely different than the last, but the mood of the overall release isn’t sacrificed.  Full text...

Boy wonder eases up: only his 9th LP in 7 years.  Full text...

Adams takes it Easy.  Full text...

Ryan Adams decides to release a solid, cohesive and ultimately consistent record for a change.  Full text...

What Easy Tiger lacks in craft or measure, it makes up for in raw inspiration, which makes it all the more addictive. If the older, gentler Ryan Adams is responsible for Easy Tiger's best tracks, he's clearly no wiser, because there's a fat chunk of folksy filler in the middle of the record: "These Girls," "The Sun Also Sets," and "Off-Broadway" teeter too far into Counting Crows territory for this listener's taste. The album finishes strong, though, closing with the harmonica-driven weeper "I Taught Myself To Grow Old"; for all the Gap ads and green room hissy-fits, he probably deserves the "New Dylan" tag as much as anybody.   Full text...

After a prolific but uncentered period of releases, Adams has finally found a balance with Easy Tiger, which rests comfortably between his acoustic side and his rootsy side; from the pop numbers to the more country-leaning ones, Adams sounds more assured and comfortable in his own skin than he has to date.   Full text...

While there are no frustrating half-assed songs like "Wish You Were Here" or unnecessary "Purple Rain" tributes like "Hotel Chelsea Nights," Easy Tiger is an album of good songs rather than great ones. Only "Everybody Knows" and the gorgeous break-up song "Rip-Off" approach the heights of his greatest work.  Full text...

Easy Tiger is Adams at his most consistent and measured, as slick and slow as an old Bread record, even in wasted laments like "Tears of Gold" and "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old."  Full text...

Ryan Adams keeps things short and sweet. No, really.  Full text...

Easy Tiger’s not his best, but it’s got focus and a lot of heart. And this is something to respect, love him or hate him, as Adams is finally coming into his own.  Full text...

Easy Tiger sounds like the kind of album Adams could churn out every 18 months for the rest of his life.  Full text...

Adams has used several of his albums to stake out new (old) stylistic territory the way other bands switch wardrobes. Easy Tiger, however, is practically a compilation of his past seven years, minus Rock N Roll's new wave bent.  Full text...

'Easy Tiger' is a pleasant but predictable plod through mid-life MORicana. 'Two' and 'Off Broadway' are heartstring-tugging highlights and the stadium Nashville schtick works once (on 'Halloweenhead'), but his many personas have made for an oddly characterless record. By the end you're yearning for DJ Reggie to turn up pissed and start rapping.   Full text...

Adams' 10th (if you count Love Is Hell as two) studio album since leaving Whiskeytown for a solo career marked by a prodigious, capricious output, is one of his most consistent. Not consistently great, but consistent.  Full text...

An album that, although tuneful and accessible, is a huge step back for an artist who’s never failed to keep moving.   Full text...