MOJO
June 2001
 
Whiskeytown
Pneumonia
by Stuart Bailie
  
If Alt country contender's last orders. Singer Ryan Adams already moved on to the harder stuff.

Ryan Adams lit up last year with his first solo LP, Heartbreaker, so the delayed appearance of his erstwhile group's 1999 album may not interest him greatly. Sadly, the myth of the awesome third Whiskeytown album, ignored and delayed by the music biz, isn't exactly true. It's a nice record rather than a great one, defined by squiffy ballads, twanging acoustics and downbeat visions. "Paper Moon" is a masterclass in the art of swoon, with strings and castanets to the max, while "Bar Lights" closes the record with a fit of the giggles, perhaps signaling that the morbidity was wearing thin. Certainly, Adams sounds more animated these days, away from the torpor of that Woodstock studio. Pneumonia is the sound of individuals pining for some dirty, urban air.

 
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