For the remainder of 2009 we will be featuring albums that meant a lot to us this decade. I have really enjoyed spending quality time with my record collection and not just what is new and current. One thing this collection will not be is all-encompassing. We will be deliberately leaving out some of the universal favorites (Kid A, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Funeral, etc) because you’ll see them everywhere, and the last thing we want to do is state the obvious.

Instead, this collection will very much an outlet for us to share/discuss our favorites over the past 10 years with a focus on albums that we feel have been overlooked in the lists we’ve seen roll out this far.

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Ryan Adams | Cold Roses (2005)

2005 was a landmark year for Ryan Adams amongst a decade that found him releasing (by our count) elven albums. Yes, you read that correctly, eleven! Already a proficient songwriter, Adams upped the ante in 2005, releasing three albums, the first of which, Cold Roses, was also his first with the Cardinals, and arrived sporting cover art hat tipped in the direction of the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty. It wasn’t just the cover art that drew from the Grateful Dead’s influence, throughout two discs worth of material, Ryan Adams closely mirrored the guitar and feel of some of our favorite Grateful Dead albums. If you saw him live around this time, and he had his shit together, you certainly saw an artist firing on all cylinders.

I realize that picking Cold Roses as one of the best albums of the decade probably conjures up debate amongst Adams’ faithful followers and music critics in general, but it has remained, since first listen, the essential Ryan Adams album in my record collection. You see, Cold Roses is the album that brought me back to Ryan Adams. I was a huge fan of Heartbreaker and Gold, but his output that followed did little to excite me the way it once did. That changed when I bought Cold Roses, I knew just holding it in my hands that this was something special. I can distinctly remember running my fingers across the packaging that seemed crafted with extra care and attention – a feeling that even so many years ago already began to feel foreign in a rapidly rising digital age.

Cold Roses is a roller coaster ride of listen, one that keeps you hoping the operator lets you go around one more time around. It’s complete in the sense that over two discs and eighteen songs you’re hit with all that Adams can deliver. There are rock songs, slow songs, and songs that make you want to cry your eyes out. It’s a record for all occasions and sounds amazing on road trips.

Best Live Show I Saw: Barrymore Theatre, Madison (2008) | Overture Hall, Madison (2009)
Best Tracks: “When Will You Come Back Home” “Let It Ride” “If I Am a Stranger” “Magnolia Mountain” “How Do You Keep Love Alive” “Cold Roses” “Friends”
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Buy: Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cold Roses

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