heartbreaker review from modernrock.com: 
Ryan Adams 
Heartbreaker 
(Bloodshot Records) 

With his band stalled due to record company woes, the erstwhile frontman for North Carolina alt-country unit
Whiskeytown has taken time out to record a solo album that fulfills his promise as a songwriter while moving in
compelling new directions. 

Heartbreaker is a spare, earnest affair recorded over the course of two weeks in Nashville with producer Ethan
Johns. Special guests like Emmylou Harris, Kim Richey, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings all make appearances.
But the focus is clearly on Adams, his weary voice, and his songs of loneliness and broken hearts. 

As if to show that Adams does in fact have a sense of humor before plunging into his hard luck tales, the record
opens with an amusing argument between himself and David Rawlings about which Morrissey album contains a
particular song. The first song "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)" is reminiscent of Dylan’s
"Subterranean Homesick Blues." It features nice harmonies and a melody that goes to unexpected places. It’s
also one of the record’s only up-tempo numbers. 

The Byrds-y "My Winding Wheel" incorporates a nice twangy guitar solo and a touch of organ. As on much of
the rest of the album, Adams’ bone dry, nicotine-enhanced vocals are mixed right up front with little reverb or
overdubbing. Adams does harmonize with himself on the Elliott Smith-like "AMY" which has pretty plucked
guitar and chamberlin accompaniment. 

But Adams is at his best on "Oh My Sweet Carolina." With Emmylou Harris providing backing vocals, Adams
evokes the ghost of Gram Parsons and the lyrical sensibility of Paul Westerberg in a nicely building tale of
wanderlust that turns to a longing for the things of home. "Up here in the city, it feels like things are closin’ in/
The sunset’s just my light bulb burning out/ I miss Kentucky and I miss my family/ All the sweetest winds they
blow across the South," Adams sings touchingly. Pat Sansone contributes a nice honky-tonk piano solo to what
is one of the best songs of Adams’ relatively brief career. 

"Bartering Lines" is a rustic ballad that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of Gillian Welch’s records. She adds
banjo and vocals to the track. "Call Me On Your Way Back Home" is another sad gem with Adams’ voice
cracking throughout, a nice harmonica solo and his wounded cries of "I just wanna die without you." 

"Come Pick Me Up" is a harmonica-drenched, Blood On the Tracks-style busted heart manifesto with one of the
great choruses of the year: "Come pick me up/ Take me out/ F*ck me up/ Steal my records/ Screw all my friends/
They’re all full of shit/ With a smile on your face/ and then do it again." Kim Richey provides backing vocals. 

Darker still is "To Be the One" which includes some affecting imagery: "Well the pills I got they ask me ‘let’s go
out for awhile’/ And the knives up in the kitchen are all too dull to smile/ And the sun it tries to warn me ‘Boy
those wings are made of wax’/ While the things I do to kill me, they just tell me to relax." The lonely drinking
song also includes the great line "And the empty bottle, it misses you/ Yeah and I’m the one that it’s talking to."

"Shakedown On 9th Street" is an urgent and theatrical rumbling rockabilly rave up that despite its subject matter
(two men quarrel over the same woman and she gets shot in the chest) somehow manages to lighten the mood of
the album at that point. 

Occasionally, Adams use of metaphor gets away from him and the results can be awkward or pretentious. On
"Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains)," he sings "I’m as calm as a fruit stand in New York and maybe as
strange." That song also includes this  clunker: "Clear as a bell and sound as an old engineer/ With talented
breezes that blow off your hat with a sneer." 

But overall, Heartbreaker is an intimate, simply produced and arranged breath of fresh air. Despite the downbeat
lyrical content, it’s clear that Adams is having a great time wallowing in his misery. The record is a fascinating
glimpse into the art of a talented singer-songwriter. Its quiet, sad songs draw you closer to the stereo and draw
you into its wistful, lonely world. 
--Sean Slone