Ryan Adams Takes a Breather

After hurtling full speed ahead in his career for the past near-decade, Ryan Adams announced earlier today that he's decided to step back from releasing music, touring and being a member of his dream team band The Cardinals.

My first response was something to the effect of, "Well, now. That's a shame."

And it was that lack of a knee-jerk response that, to me, means that Ryan might have made the right decision.

Let's look at the (highly subjective) facts:

In 2000, Adams released Heartbreaker, the acoustic agit-folk album that most would consider his masterpiece. For the next four and a half years, he continued to release a string of albums ranging from pop-rock near-perfection (Gold, 2001) to the best Grateful Dead record never released by the Grateful Dead (Cold Roses, early 2005) to the endlessly debated, but downright gorgeously sad Love is Hell EPs (2004).

But the second half of 2005 marked a slow but steady decline in Adams' output.

Both 29 and Jacksonville City Nights (his second and third releases of 2005) were solid but, well, not as enthralling as his earlier work. Easy Tiger, Follow the Lights and this year's Cardinology followed the trend - each record was nothing to scoff at, but certainly nothing to write home about either.

So here's my point: Ryan Adams has written some of the most affecting and beautiful music of the last decade (or even longer if you include his material in Whiskeytown), but everybody needs a rest sometimes. Though Adams wrote about taking a break to mend some emotional and physical wounds (he claims to have lost some hearing on the road), artistically, maybe he needs a break just as badly.

I say this not in a 'Ryan Adams is a washed up hack' sense; no, quite the opposite. Ryan Adams is an immense talent, but even the greatest of artists need to refuel on ideas and inspiration.

So take your time, Ryan. We'll be waiting patiently.