Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Follow the Lights

Mere months after the release of Easy Tiger, Ryan Adams returns with the seven track EP Follow the Lights.  The EP is comprised of three new songs, three new versions of older songs and one cover, of an Alice in Chains song to make things interesting.

Oddly enough, none of these songs feel like leftovers from Easy Tiger, nor do they feel like they would have fit on the album despite its 'best of' feel.  Even if the new versions of “This is It” and “If I Am a Stranger” don't quite work, but at least Adams is able to revisit and reinterpret his own work.  The real highlight is the surprising cover “Down in a Hole”, which Adams reinvents as a smoke-filled barroom killer.

The real disappointment with Follow the Lights is that it follows a strong album so closely.  If the EP didn’t appear so soon after Easy Tiger, I’d say he’s just buying time before his next release, but its proximity to his recent full length makes me think he’s just trying to clean house of all his non-album worthy material.