Reviews: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

Reviews: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals "Jacksonville City Nights": Aidin Vaziri | Less than six months after his previous release, the Grateful Dead-inspired double-disc set "Cold Roses," Ryan Adams returns with another album and another makeover. "Jacksonville City Nights" is a lovingly crafted collection, built around a set of honky-tonk ballads that would have made a fitting follow-up to his pedal-steel-heavy 2000 solo debut, "Heartbreaker." There's a nice Norah Jones duet on "Dear John" and a solid single in "The Hardest Part." Yet after hearing Adams try on numerous guises over the past few years -- from the radio-ready rock of 2001's "Gold" to last year's British-pop-aping "Love Is Hell" -- it's hard to ignore the feeling that it's all just another put-on, especially with regrettable lyrics like "At the diner in the morning for a plate of eggs/ The waitress tries to give me change/ I say, 'That's cool, just keep it.' " His third album this year is due in December.