Cold Roses

Cold Roses
Studio album by Ryan Adams and The Cardinals
Released	May, 2005
Recorded	Loho Studios (New York City, NY)
Genre	Alternative country, country rock
Length	76:03 (84:37 with bonus tracks)
Label	Lost Highway Records (B0004343-02)
Producer	Tom Schick
Ryan Adams chronology
Love Is Hell (2004) Love Is Hell2004 Cold Roses (2005) Cold Roses2005 Jacksonville City Nights (2005) Jacksonville City Nights2005

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(69/100) [1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Drowned in Sound	(8/10) [3]
Entertainment Weekly	B [4]
The Music Box	[5]
NME	(7/10) [6]
Pitchfork Media	(7.2/10) [7]
PopMatters	[8]
Robert Christgau	[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
Uncut	[1]

Cold Roses is the sixth studio album by alt-country singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, released on May 3, 2005 on Lost Highway. The album is his first with backing band The Cardinals, and the first of three albums released in 2005. Cold Roses is the only album to include Cardinals member Cindy Cashdollar.

Cold Roses has sold 159,000 copies in the United States.^[11]

Although all the tracks can fit on a standard 80-minute disc, it was released as a double album with packaging and CDs designed to make it look like a vinyl LP. The album was also released in a standard 2-disc jewel case.

Background

While performing in Liverpool in January 2004, Adams broke his left wrist when he slipped off the stage and fell six feet into the orchestra pit below.^[12] A painful recovery and rehab period followed over the next several months, as Adams relocated to his hometown of Jacksonville, North Carolina, and slowly relearned how to play guitar. "There would be tears streaming down my face as I struggled to play Black Sabbath songs,” he later said.^[13] During this difficult time, Adams was inspired by Jerry Garcia's playing because "he wasn’t afraid to fuck up".^[14] This fascination with The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan pointed Adams in a new musical direction, and his next band - christened The Cardinals - was conceived as a loose, spacious musical collective.^[15]

Writing and composition

In 2011, Adams claimed that "How Do You Keep Love Alive" was written while he was high on opium: "I fully understand when people say Edgar Allan Poe used to smoke this stuff and have visions. I wrote the entire song "How Do You Keep Love Alive" without writing a word down, and I played it on piano. And I've tried to understand the chord pattern ever since, because I can't fuckin' play it."^[16]

Reception

The album so far has a score of 69 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews".^[1] USA Today gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four and said, "What makes this hard-to-pigeonhole country/folk/ punk/pop-rocker remarkable is the quality of the quantity. There's not a bad song in Cold Roses' 18-track bouquet, and at least 13 are worth instant iPod enshrining."^[17] The Guardian gave it a score of four stars out of five and said of Ryan Adams: "The boy wonder is back in the saddle."^[18] Chicago Tribune gave it a favorable review and called it "Adams' most ambitious effort to date."^[19] The A.V. Club gave it a favorable review and said it "feels fantastic--as pretty and affecting as a slow sunset."^[20] Spin gave it a score of seven out of ten and said, "There's an air of formal exercise here.... But if you can ride with the cliches, you won't fault the execution."^[21] E! Online gave it a B− and said, "Even if it is twice as long as it needs to be (thus, a couple of dead spots), we're not arguing. We're just enjoying the music."^[1]

Some reviews are average or mixed: The Austin Chronicle gave it a score of three stars out of five and called it "Adams' double-album hubris".^[22] Neumu.net gave it a score of six stars out of ten and called it "a relaxed and ambitious collection that confirms Ryan Adams' reputation as a top-notch singer and songwriter who easily jumps styles and evokes comfortable sadness with every turn."^[23] Tiny Mix Tapes gave it a score of three stars out of five and called it an "18-track monster".^[24] Paste also gave it a score of three stars out of five and said it "comes as a bit of relief, bereft of the posturing that so often attends Adams’ work.... That said, there’s also a sense of retreat that permeates the record, a willingness to offer the comforts of familiar tones instead of ambitiously taking chances."^[25] Playlouder gave it a score of two-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "A frustratingly self indulgent and inconsistent double album that pitches itself somewhere between the classic country rock of 2001's 'Gold' and the lovelorn despair of 2004's 'Love Is Hell'."^[26] Flak Magazine gave it a mixed review and said, "Without the first disc, the double disc Cold Roses wouldn't be half bad."^[27]

Track listing

All tracks written by Adams, Bowersock, Cashdollar, Pemberton and Popper.

Performers

• Ryan Adams – Vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, harmonica, piano, bass guitar on "Blossom", all instruments on "Life Is Beautiful"
• J. P. Bowersock – Electric guitar
• Cindy Cashdollar – Steel guitar, lap steel, resonator guitar, vocals
• Brad Pemberton – Drums, vocals
• Catherine Popper – Bass guitar, vocals, piano
• Rachael Yamagata – Vocals and piano on "Let It Ride", "Cold Roses" and "Friends"

Chart positions

Album

References

External links

• Cold Roses at Metacritic