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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Heartbreaker

Ryan Adams

2000

Buy At Rough Trade
Heartbreaker
Album Summary

Heartbreaker is the debut solo studio album by American singer/songwriter Ryan Adams, released September 5, 2000 on Bloodshot Records. The album was recorded over fourteen days at Woodland Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was nominated for the 2001 Shortlist Music Prize. The album is said to be inspired by Adams' break-up with music industry publicist Amy Lombardi.According to Adams, the album's title originates from a poster of Mariah Carey: "My manager called and said, 'You have 15 seconds to name this record,' "My eyes focused on this poster of Mariah wearing a T-shirt that said HEARTBREAKER. I just shouted, 'Heartbreaker!'"A Deluxe Edition, featuring bonus recording session takes and pre-album demos, was released on May 6, 2016 on PAX-AM records.

Wikipedia

Rating

3.03

Votes

10020
Genres
Country
Folk
Rock
Singer Songwriter

Reviews

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Tue Aug 17 2021
1

didn't actually listen to this because fuck Ryan Adams, instead i listened to A Tribe Called Quest - Thank you for your service.... We've got it from here Q-Tip's product is as slick as ever and opener Space Program followed up quickly with We the people.... set the tone for the rest of the album. Solid wall of sound has the best use of a Elton John sample and i think is a stand out non single track. This is a fitting final album for an amazing group, RIP Phife

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Mon Apr 11 2022
2

I loved that song he did for Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was number 1 for 16 weeks. And what a 16 weeks they were. This doesn't stand up to that monster.

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Sun Jan 23 2022
2

2.5 - If this album was a sexual encounter, it’d be a third date and in the middle of dinner she says she’d rather be friends. I’m reminded of live acoustic music you might hear at a winery. It’s contemplative, downtempo. Your mind wanders to boring places as you listen. How does this tiny vineyard town support a music scene? How many musicians make their living playing these winery venues? Why is this dude on the guitar wearing so much turquoise jewelry?

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Tue Jul 20 2021
1

Beautiful music from a reprehensible human being. I went out of my way not to pay for this, and probably can't make it a repeat listen.

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Thu Mar 04 2021
1

Did not listen, due to the sexual controversy surrounding the artist. The 1 is a reflection of my distaste with Ryan Adams.

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Sun Sep 18 2022
1

Fuck this predator piece of shit abusive garbage man. I’m not giving him a dime of royalty money today or ever! Justice for Mandy Moore and Liz Phair. I’d rather listen to a Bryan Adams album.

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Sun Mar 20 2022
3

This albums is actually pretty solid. It just sucks dick that the dude is the fucking worst.

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Wed Aug 03 2022
1

Dull album by a shitty human being

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Wed Aug 03 2022
1

Absolute dog shit. Words, almost, fail me. Not a single redeemable feature, plus he's a twat.

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Wed Mar 29 2023
1

Shitty like a fruit stand in New York

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Tue Oct 20 2020
4

This is really my lane. Gritty vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and folky instrumentation. Sucks that Ryan Adams is such a piece of shit.

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Thu Mar 04 2021
4

Great sounds and not a lot of weak points. Unfortunately made by a sexual predator, so only useful in looking at associated acts and adjacent sounds.

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Mon Feb 01 2021
3

Never heard this album, nor listened to Ryan Adams. The first track, “To Be Young”, is a good example of the mood of the music and the mood of the lyric completely and intentionally opposed to one another. Not sure to what purpose, but intriguing. Good instrumental settings and performances. Good acoustic guitar with sensitive coloring backgrounds—well-produced. Vocally pleasing, effective use of hushed melodies. Not a trained voice, and lacking range in the natural register, but effective, given the genre. Emmylou Harris’ backing vocal on “Oh My Sweet Carolina” is not an example of her better work. (I suspect her agent was trying to keep her relevant, when by 2000 she was over the hill.) Kim Richey does better on “Come Pick Me Up”. The lyrics are vague enough to allow multiple interpretations, more of a collage of impressions than a conveyor of meaning. Adam’s frequently tries to be Dylan-esque (“Damn, Sam”, “Don’t Ask for the Water”, etc.) in lyrics, guitar finger-picking, vocal style, and in harmonica accompaniment, but he’s obviously not in the same league. (Although I bet he makes Dylan wish he’d learned to play the banjo.) “To Be the One” is powerful. “The empty bottle misses you, and I’m the one it’s talkin’ to”. That hit home. “Shakedown on 9th Street” and “To Be Young” demonstrate that Adam’s can rock. He should do more. Overall, a good album. 3/5

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Mon Jul 12 2021
5

The only reason I had heard of this guy was cuz he used to pork Mandy Moore. This is a fantastic album and I’m not what you would call an alt-country fan at all.

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Tue May 25 2021
5

Great album. Too bad he is a slime who uses his status to prey on young women.

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Sun Jul 25 2021
5

Problematic at the least, but still a great slab of Americana

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Sun Apr 16 2023
5

I kove this album. Yep, Ryan is a douche and always has been. All of you up on your soapbox aren't going to sway me. If you want to whine about every creep in the music biz you might as well just give up on this project right now because I've got some baaaaad news for you. It's a rock solid 4, but I'm making it a 5 because this overall score is criminally low.

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Mon Apr 24 2023
5

This album is phenomenal. I always knew I should listen to Ryan Adams as I had been recommended him from iTunes and such. I have also heard most of this album being played at restaurants and coffee shops. Every song is a winner and I was astounded he was keeping it up throughout. But I also know this guy has had a messed past with women and he will likely never recover professionally. I don’t think I would feel good ever supporting this guy financially. Again, another album we have to evaluate our feelings about. I think criticism of him is justified. I think he deserves the hardships he seems to be experiencing. But this is obviously a great record and likely influenced a lot of artists. Still deserves to be on this list.

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Thu Feb 16 2023
2

Ryan Adams is not able to do it for me. Some songs I can listen to, with difficulty. I've given this album a couple of tries, so Ryan has already been in the rematch several times, but I think it is generally too slick. The emotion strikes me as affectation. I simply don't believe him.

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Mon Apr 24 2023
2

2.5/5. The very definition of yallternative. Don’t love the music and I think Ryan Adams is a piece of shit human being.

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Fri Jun 30 2023
2

Yeah this was dull and he is an ass

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Thu Jul 27 2023
2

Never heard of this guy, started off sort of OK in places, but then rapidly got progressively crappier. Generally not for me, I would need to be beyond bored shitless to even contemplate listening to this again..

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Mon Nov 21 2022
1

Trash music, trash person. You can't end a song with a fade out harmonica and then immediately open the next song with a fade in harmonica. That's like album sequencing 101, bozo. This is the third faux-Bob Dylan album I've had this week and I don't know how many I have left in me, especially since all of them were at least 50 minutes long. Best song was the argument concerning Morrissey. One outta five = get outta here.

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Thu Feb 02 2023
1

Only heartbreaking thing about this album was me listening to all 15 tracks out of respect to this here initiative Suck my balls ryan adams

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Wed Mar 17 2021
5

Super fedt album. Kan mærke han følelser helt ude gennem højtalerne. God blanding af stille og skaldede numre

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Sun Feb 14 2021
5

I will admit to not listening as close as I should. But this was good working/ reading music. I’ll flag this to listen to again.

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Tue Apr 13 2021
5

I liked this. Some really good songs on here. I think I might dig into a bit more Ryan Adams.

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Wed Mar 17 2021
5

A fucking + Love this one. Gold was the album that made me fall in love with his music, but this one made me open my eyes and say “Holy SHIT”!

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Thu Apr 22 2021
5

Es un buen álbum, muy suave y delicado, tiene lo suyo y me recuerda a Taylor Swift. La verdad es algo que puedes escuchar en un día tranquilo, me encanta, se apega mucho a mis gustos y es muy Indie/Country.

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Mon May 10 2021
5

Bluegrass, mellow. Enjoyable 10

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Mon Jul 26 2021
5

A brilliant album from a brilliant artist.

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Thu Nov 18 2021
5

This was sweet and amazing! Loved it start to finish.

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Tue Jan 11 2022
5

First track with Dave Rawlings is brilliant, next two tracks ok

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Thu Jan 13 2022
5

Knew Ryan Adams had something of a cult like following. Now I realize why. This was so so good.

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Fri Jan 21 2022
5

Topp kvalitet. Svært bra musikk til å ha i bakgrunnen. Skal høre det en gang til og plukke ut sanger til tut tut

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Thu Sep 01 2022
5

I know he's reportedly a big-league asshole, but I love this guy's music. This is clearly (in my opinion) his best album. There isn't a song on here that I don't love. I listened to the whole album twice. It's so good.

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Sun Dec 18 2022
5

Oh man, this guy is a creep? What a shame. Great record.

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Mon Feb 06 2023
5

Dylanesque? This is really good. Would you call it Neo-country? It's not normally my thing but it's beautifully balanced with a laid-back vibe that's floats along seamlessly from track to track. Reading the reviews it seems there's a lot of people hung-up about his nastiness. Well he doesn't strike me as a saint but can you point me in the direction of someone living his lifestyle who's never acted like a jerk? Trendy chattering classes......

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Thu May 04 2023
5

Haven't heard Bryan Adams outside When You're Gone, so the album was a pleasant surprise. A lot of folk influences was heard and welcomed.

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Sat May 06 2023
5

This and his next two albums have some phenomenal songs on them.

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Sun May 07 2023
5

baita sonzao, já pela primeira se vê, pegada folk/country vozerao

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Wed May 24 2023
5

If I'm just judging the music and not the man... easy 5.

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Wed May 24 2023
5

Back in 2017, before we knew that Ryan Adams was a nasty man, I listened to his album Prisoner, and I loved it. Thankfully though, I never listened to anything else of his, and I think that I only listened to Prisoner that one time. I debated even pulling up this album in my Spotify, and once I had it pulled up, I really wrestled with if I wanted to listen to it or not. Knowing what I know about Ryan's behavior, how could I look the women in my life in the eye and tell them that I listened to this? I eventually settled on listening to it, because I started this project with a desire to experience every album on this list, and I wanted to keep this journey going all the way. Besides, I've already listened to both Eminem albums on this list, and while they were both great, they were both unpleasant experiences. Also, there are other creeps on this list (Steven Tyler, Phil Spector), likely creeps (David Bowie, Prince), and creeps we don't or may never know about. The worst thing about this album is that Ryan Adams was a manipulative monster to several women in his life, and he got away with it for a really long time. The second worst thing about this album is that I thought it was really good. Even though I thought it was good, I hated myself the entire time I was listening to it, and I'll probably hate myself for the next week or two for having listened to it. Usually in my reviews, I'll mention what I liked about the music, but I'm not going to do that on this review, because now that my listening experience is over, I don't want to go back through it. I hate that we live in a world where people in positions of power do things like Ryan did, and I hate that we as consumers of art are stuck in sticky positions, trying to navigate how we feel about art we loved at one time, when we learn that the artist did disgusting and cruel things. This is a five star album, but it's sad that it was made by a one-star human being, who's so small, that he felt the need to wreak havoc on the lives of others.

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Tue Jun 13 2023
5

Vraiment un super album que je connaissais pas. Enfin un petit truc nouveau a me mettre sous la dent. j'ai beaucoup apprécié ! 5

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Thu Jun 29 2023
5

Drags a bit in the middle but overall really terrific.

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Thu Jul 27 2023
5

Forgot how good this album is, a modern country classic.

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Mon Jul 31 2023
5

When I was in college, I had a friend who got really into Ryan Adams. At the time, I was diving down my own rabbit hole of metal and hardcore so I wasn't interested in this soft-spoken singer songwriter stuff. Now, with the benefit of age, I can truly appreciate the skill and talent of Mr..Adams. This is a great album. Beautiful writing, fantastic performance, dang near perfect production. Great all the way around. My buddy was right. This is really good

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Wed Sep 06 2023
5

One of the first times since we started doing this that I had the album on repeat all day. Phenomenal. I’m obviously in more of an emotional state to connect with these lyrics than anyone in the group as far as I know, but I think they are objectively very good. Combined with the music here (taking from folk, country, and rock) Ryan Adams is almost like a more contemporary Bob Dylan here. It’s a massive shame that he was also a creep and/or emotionally abusive partner. My favorites are “Come Pick Me Up” and “Call Me on Your Way Back Home. Both are devastatingly beautiful.

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Wed Sep 06 2023
5

Ryan Adams is a brilliant lyricist. He may be a petulant jerk, but his music is great. While this isn't quite as good as Gold or some of his other later albums, it is still excellent. I would give it a 4.5 to leave room for Gold, but I'll round up.

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Tue Sep 26 2023
5

Great album by a huge piece of shite.

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Wed Nov 01 2023
5

Couldn't bring myself to stream it because Ryan Adams is a POS... That said, I loved this album back in college when it came out, was on super heavy rotation so I've heard it enough to know my rating. I'm trying to keep these ratings focused on the specific album only, not the person... so it's a 5 (all-time classic).

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Wed Nov 08 2023
5

Probably the album that allowed me to enjoy some country vibes with my rock n roll.

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Thu Nov 09 2023
5

Surprise, surprise, I really love this album. By far my favorite of the his solo albums and the one that I think holds up the best.

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Wed Nov 29 2023
5

who knows wtf is ryan adams. His later work doesn't do it for me, but I'll admit to listening to this album mmore than once!

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Wed Dec 06 2023
5

Another new album for me that I love! Great story telling great melodies! 5/5

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Fri Dec 08 2023
5

Liked this way more than I expected. I’m not sure if Ryan was an inspiration for Jack White, but I felt like I could hear Jack taking some root in songs like Shakedown on 9th Street. Great lyrics and the kind of guitar playing that really makes you want to pick up an acoustic guitar and struggle through gaining your first calloused fingertips for the sake of learning to play.

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Thu Jan 04 2024
5

I really loved this album. SORRY YOU HAD TO BE A DICK, RYAN. I hope you figure it out.

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Tue Jan 23 2024
5

A little like Bob Dylan. How'd I miss this guy before?

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Fri Mar 15 2024
5

It’s a 5. Get over yourselves Wokesters. No crime was committed. It’s life. It’s complicated. And you’re hypocrites.

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Mon Mar 18 2024
5

Favourite songs: To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High), Shakedown on 9th Street, Oh My Sweet Carolina, Come Pick Me Up, My Winding Wheel, Bartering Lines, Damn Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains), To Be The One, In My Time of Need Least favourite songs: Amy 5/5

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Thu Jul 22 2021
4

I liked this a lot, it was a good mix of folk and country. I have not listened to that much out of the genre so it was enjoyable. Would listen to it again.

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Mon May 17 2021
4

I liked most of this album, though there were a few songs that didn't quite hit the right spot.

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Fri Jan 22 2021
4

Not my cup of tea musically, but I found myself greatly enjoying this album.

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Sun Feb 14 2021
4

Has kinda a Bob Dylan vibe in a good way

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Sun Jun 06 2021
4

well, i didn't like the other album on the list, but this one struck me quite differently.

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Thu Mar 11 2021
4

Classic Americana / heartland rock, that isn't absolutely boring.

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Sat May 22 2021
4

Este disco sí lo escuché con prejuicio porque ya he escuchado otros dos de Ryan Adams (más la reversión que hizo de todo el 1989 de Taylor Swift) y me gusta. Me gusta su voz, cómo canta, regularmente sí sus letras y también su música. Acá está muy country rock y está padre, los sonidos de las armónicas me encantan. Además, creo que tiene un buen balance de tristeo y algo más animadito o esperanzador. Lástima que haya sido un agresor sexual a decir de un puñado de mujeres (entre ellas, la Phoebe Bridgers) y pues ahora esté cancelado. Mis canciones fav: "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)", "Amy", "Call Me on Your Way Back Home", "Come Pick Me Up". 8.5/10

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Sun Mar 21 2021
4

This was very good folk. Take a listen again sometime with a cup of coffee and really listen.

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Wed Mar 17 2021
4

Um álbum simples e muito bom. Amy é uma das minhas favoritas.

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Wed Jun 09 2021
4

OK so I don't like or understand country. But there's a certain strain of "alt-country" I can get behind, even if I'm ignorant of the style it's an alternative to. Bright Eyes are a good example, and some moments of this album sound reminiscent of them. Much of it is more rugged, with some straight-ahead rocking and some Americana kinda ballads. I've listened to at least two Ryan Adams albums in the past, but this one clicked better with me. I also just discovered that he covered Taylor Swift's 1989 album, and it's possibly even better than the original. I'm feeling a solid 4 for this one. It's good stuff.

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Thu Apr 01 2021
4

Very emotionally powerful and compelling

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Fri May 28 2021
4

Sad, chill, alternative country music. Created after a breakup, this album is great listening for anyone going through the same thing.

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Sun Apr 25 2021
4

To be young: excellent My winding wheel: excellent Amy: very good Oh my sweet Carolina: very good Bartering lines: good Call me on your way back home: very good Damn sam: good Come pick me up: excellent To be the one: average Why do they leave?: excellent Shakedown on 9th street: above average Don’t ask for the water: average In my time of need: very good Sweet lil gal: very good 8/10

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Fri May 21 2021
4

Really good album, but Ryan Adams is still a terrible person

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Sun Jul 04 2021
4

Chiller and background-y with a great vibe

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Fri May 14 2021
4

Pas mal Good, great, but not bad

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Tue Jun 15 2021
4

Country/ folk rock, je to celkom fajn

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Wed Jul 28 2021
4

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: To be young, Amy, Bartering lines

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Wed Aug 04 2021
4

good, enjoyable listen. Reminded me a little of Bob Dylan sound.

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Thu Aug 26 2021
4

Country and folk undertones mixing together to be achingly sweet

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Mon Sep 06 2021
4

Favoriete nummers: - To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High) - Bartering Lines

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Sun Sep 19 2021
4

I always wanted to hate RA but I dated a girl who was a big fan and went very slowly and reluctantly from "a couple songs are alright, I guess" to "damn, this guy's good." Later albums have some higher highs but this is probably his best album front to back (though there are a couple of duds) so four stars. Too bad he's a big creep.

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