Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: Cold Roses

(Herald rating: * * *)

Adams remains a man apart and one who is still working to his own inexhaustible release schedule.

This 18-song double CD is effectively Adams's sixth and seventh album since his 2000 solo debut Heartbreaker and he promises an eighth and ninth by the end of this year.

Inevitably it makes you wonder about the inspiration-to-perspiration ratio, especially given its patchy immediate predecessors. Its meandering does get the better of its filler-heavy second half. But there are plenty of tracks to remind you of what made Adams and his mixed-up influences of his early breakthrough albums so appealing. That's whether it's the graceful melancholy displayed in ballads like Now That You've Gone, the Lyle Lovett-esque How Do You Keep Love alive or the folky James Taylor-flavoured When Will You Come Back Home or how Cherry Lane manages the curious but impressive feat of starting off in a honky-tonk and winding up in a U2 stadium.

Some judicious editing would have made for a much better single album. But Adams' sales motto remains: flog 'em all and let iPod sort 'em out.

Label: Lost Highway