The irritatingly prolific, self-obsessed Adams has always rubbed me the wrong way. Ultimately, I don’t care about his personal-life garbage, including his latest dust-up with Kurt Cobain’s widow—I’m more turned-off by his mostly forgettable music. His career started with get-in-your-pants songs that somehow—which I will never completely understand—were instantly deemed credible, and he was anointed as this sort-of alt-country savior, or, at the very least, prince. Many, many songs have been issued between then and now, and Ryan Adams & The Cardinals’ recently released “Cardinology,” his fourth record with the band, continues some of the trends that have been present since his emergence. (Namely, mediocrity.) In fairness, “Cardinology” features a couple decent songs—opener “Born Into a Light” has a sufficient twang and nice harmonies and “Cobwebs” boasts affecting, even passionate, build-ups—but just when I’m like “I can’t believe it, but I might like this Ryan Adams record,” he fastballs a song like “Magick,” in which he actually sings the lyric “What goes around comes around” multiple times and, as a chorus, “So turn the radio on/So turn the radio up/So turn the radio up loud and get down/Let your body move/Let your body swing/Listen to the music playing/It’s magick, it’s magick.” It might just be the worst song I’ve heard in my entire life, but I don’t want to exhaust myself thinking about it. I’ve seen Adams live a few times and it’s been bad on every occasion. Tonight he opens for Oasis, which makes a helluva lot of sense, actually. (Tom Lynch)
December 12 at Allstate Arena, 6920 Mannheim, Rosemont, (847)671-9800, at 7pm. $39.50-$69.50.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Can’t-Miss Music Events (Fall Arts Preview 2023) This fall we get new albums and tours from iconic acts like Wilco and Kurt Elling, plus a Corrine Bailey Rae project inspired by Theaster Gates' Stony Island Arts Bank.
The irritatingly prolific, self-obsessed Adams has always rubbed me the wrong way. Ultimately, I don’t care about his personal-life garbage, including his latest dust-up with Kurt Cobain’s widow—I’m more turned-off by his mostly forgettable music. His career started with get-in-your-pants songs that somehow—which I will never completely understand—were instantly deemed credible, and he was anointed as this sort-of alt-country savior, or, at the very least, prince. Many, many songs have been issued between then and now, and Ryan Adams & The Cardinals’ recently released “Cardinology,” his fourth record with the band, continues some of the trends that have been present since his emergence. (Namely, mediocrity.) In fairness, “Cardinology” features a couple decent songs—opener “Born Into a Light” has a sufficient twang and nice harmonies and “Cobwebs” boasts affecting, even passionate, build-ups—but just when I’m like “I can’t believe it, but I might like this Ryan Adams record,” he fastballs a song like “Magick,” in which he actually sings the lyric “What goes around comes around” multiple times and, as a chorus, “So turn the radio on/So turn the radio up/So turn the radio up loud and get down/Let your body move/Let your body swing/Listen to the music playing/It’s magick, it’s magick.” It might just be the worst song I’ve heard in my entire life, but I don’t want to exhaust myself thinking about it. I’ve seen Adams live a few times and it’s been bad on every occasion. Tonight he opens for Oasis, which makes a helluva lot of sense, actually. (Tom Lynch)
