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First Listen: Ryan Adams, 'Ryan Adams'

Ryan Adams' self-titled 14th album comes out Sept. 9.
Julia Brokaw
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Courtesy of the artist
Ryan Adams' self-titled 14th album comes out Sept. 9.

Once known as a poster child for heedless prolificacy, Ryan Adams now seems to have discovered how to live at a human pace. His self-titled 14th album is his first in three years — a span that would have seemed inconceivable a decade ago. But the former Whiskeytown singer has settled down in several ways in recent years, for reasons both healthy (sobriety, marriage) and less so (a painful and career-threatening inner-ear disorder).

It's only natural that, like 2011's Ashes & Fire, Ryan Adams sands down some of the singer-songwriter's rough spots, in ways that can affect peaks and valleys alike. But Adams still hits terrific highs here — most notably in "My Wrecking Ball," which locates the singer's blood-and-guts barrenness, and "I Just Might," during which he channels early Springsteen in a way that suits him.

Adams' output was erratic for so long — not to mention checkered with unlikely detours, including the occasional ragged punk record — that albums this sure-handed actually take a little getting used to. But Ryan Adams rewards the extra attention: It's the sound of a genius who's only recently relearned what it's like to walk on steady footing.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)