Safe to say it’s been an eventful 2023 for Jacksonville, NC-native singer/songwriter Ryan Adams. The current calendar year began on a tributary note for the 49-year old country rocker, with back-to-back releases of three significant cover albums in the shape of Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, and Oasis‘s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, all between Christmas and Easter. In-between unveiling those reimagined collections, he also found the time to get his old Cardinals band back together after over a decade of hiatus (with a supergroup-worthy line up, no less), drop a new single with them, and take them on a nationwide US tour over the summer. Before all of that, he managed to squeeze a limited leg of solo shows in the UK and Europe. Meanwhile, sometime later in spring, he saw fit to announce the highly-anticipated live acoustic sequel to his 2015 Live at Carnegie Hall compilation—aptly titled Return to Carnegie Hall. Recorded during his acclaimed return to the storied New York City namesake venue last year, the tape was eventually released on music outlets worldwide on 25th August.

You’d think that would do it for even the hardest-working artists in the business, but nope. It’s the most prolific songwriter of his generation we’re talking about here. So halfway through the feel good heat of July, the PaxAm founder came through once more and gave away another new live album. This time couching a highlights reel of salient performances recorded during the first round of shows with The Cardinals, Alive — Vol. I remained available as a free online download for a few months. Then in early fall, a cancelled run of solo shows due to poor health between September and November followed suit, only to be trailed by the surprise announcement of “I Was Here”, a purported new instant-gratification single teasing toward a previously unannounced forthcoming project, named Sword & Stone. Surely, this should be enough for a year-in-review round-up? Well, here comes the kill.

During the first week of November, the former Whiskeytown leader revealed what might be his biggest milestone of the year yet: the majorly hyped ‘PaxAm Relaunch’. Touted as a fresh new clean slate for the artist in anticipation to its d-day, skyrocketing new creative enterprises such as book publishing as well as a slew of previously unreleased original music, the big reveal turned out to be a bit of a chimera to most. Granted, Adams did stay through to some of his prior advertisements. Excitingly, included at launch there was indeed his first ever fiction novel, 100 Problems, on top of your regular update of merch capsules, ranging from fine grade tees to scented candles. However, what built out to be the crown jewel to the buzzed PaxAm reset, his latest tetralogy of albums, ended up leaving fans eagerly salivating, and still mostly dissatisfied. At best. While he did unveil the title of the four new bodies of work in said tetralogy—Heatwave, Star Sign, the aforementioned Sword & Stone, and the long-rumored follow up to his hardcore punk Hüsker Dü worship 1984, 1985—the catch is that at the time of this writing, those projects are only available for vinyl pre-order, with a tentative mid-January 2024 shipping date.

For the full record (pun probably intended), the bells and whistle-y PaxAm comeback also came with the dispatch of five additional products. Still, vinyl pre-orders all the same. Most notably, these encompass an exclusive live unplugged rendition of Adams’s exquisite Prisoner LP from 2017, as well as the second pressing of his remarkable and patchworked 2022 album quartet (Chris, Romeo & Juliet, FM, and Devolver). Just for shits and giggles, inclusive of the upcoming tetralogy, yet sans his bunch of live records in-between, this projected music pipeline would bring his accrued tally of music projects released since his 2020 return to an otherworldly thirteen studio efforts (!). All within just about three years of time.

In the midst of it all, the 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy appears to be happening. The aforementioned four outings all have (somewhat graphically questionable) respective cover art, as well as an official track listing. In lieu of formal chronological release timelines, the album sleeves are embedded below in alphabetical order, whereas according to the label/publisher’s website all of the projects’s sequencings range from Star Sign‘s compact ten songs to a whooping 29 (!) on what’s poised to be a rabid and hard-hitting 1985. Yet, not official street date in sight—whether that goes for the nominal release of vinyl, or for the highly-demanded streaming outlets’s sales availability. For all we know today, these four exploits are all slated for a 2024 release. So while it is true that their announcement and promotion fall on this side of the year, this is legitimate enough a reason for this to be considered as a 2024 tetralogy, for all intents and purposes.

And then there’s the Grammy Award-nominated act’s typical set of scattered, contradicting, and excessive marketing of upcoming music. Now wholly contained on the author’s own Instagram page—alas, with the store relaunch, even the nail-in-the-coffin PaxAm newsletter updates appear to have been indefinitely nixed. The promotional roll out of well, basically everything and anything all at once, has hitherto been an outright spray and pray. With all its shows and tells, uploads and takedowns, and hodgepodge of juxtaposing information, not one soul would admittedly have been able to even commence to make head or tails of it all, if it weren’t for the benevolent Ryan Adams archivist vigilante graciousfew. To date, almost thirty different track previews have been rolled out by the alt-country mainstay within the projected tetralogy. For the most part, without much rhyme or reason as to what kind of picture one is to expect from each of the four full lengths.

Adams has been most generous with 1985, teasing as many as ten cuts from the expected twenty-nine. Undoubtedly the most focused and cohesive-sounding of the four new LPs, the record appears to be building and expanding on the distorted, fast, and zany street-rage displayed on its almost ten year-old predecessor. The more somber and reflective Star Sign follows suit with a whole eight records out of the available then having been peppered and then recanted throughout the pinball cult leader’s IG feed within the last year or so. Here, the picture appears to be clearer, one painted by way of a more refined, song crafted, and lush brush. A vastly ambitious affair, Star Sign enlists the richest arrangements and the longest track runtimes of the bunch (with its title track previewed at as many as eleven minutes of playtime, and another four teasers clocking in longer than five minutes). As far as an early guessing is concerned, this might end up being the best received and most gratifying of the four projects by the lion’s share of DRA’s fanbase, with evident callbacks to a wide range of back-catalogue issuances, such as Jacksonville City Nights (“Shinin Thru the Dark”), Love Is Hell (“I Lost My Place”), and his self-titled (“Darkness”).

Regrettably, Heatwave and Sword & Stone are both rougher around their edges, and more of a mess. At least on paper. Going off its first six teasers, the former appears to pick up from the power-pop and alt-rock inklings Adams left us with both FM and Devolver last year. While the latter—beefed up with an additional quartet of previews (“Blown Away”, “I’ll Wait”, “I Can See the Light” and the title track) to complement the aforementioned official lead single “I Was Here”—sounds more like a spiritual successor to last year’s brotherly tribute Chris. The issue at face value here, with the benefit of doubt tied to the missing full album listening experience, is that both projects tend to blend into each other à la mixtape—not always in a flattering way. Take for instance the minute and change fire and fury of “Lies”, Heatwave‘s opening tune, and you might be wondering how on earth it didn’t make the 1985 cut to round up its track listing to thirty songs.

Meanwhile, when listened to in isolation, records like “Mercy”, “Why”, “Sword & Stone” and “I Can See the Light” absolutely sound like they would belong on the one and same body of work. An upbeat, catchy, and fun one at that. A companion piece to FM of sorts. Too bad the first two are sequenced on Heatwave, and the other two appear on Sword & Stone. No harm no foul—it’s not like the LA-transplant hasn’t repurposed and recycled a wealth of material across his numerous, numerous records. Especially so in his more recent spate of third act career releases. For instance, Chris and Romeo & Juliet have a lot in common, musically and lyrically. His comeback 2020 full length Wednesdays brings it back all the way to a post-Whiskeytown, early solo DRA era. Not to mention his past B-sides and bonus tracks; all systems go as far as where they truly fit amidst their up- and downgrading across deep cuts and official tracklisting slots. Whether deliberate or not on Adams’s part, that is all definitely part of the charm and allure of his fine craft. A little bit like remaining uneasy and on edge until the godforsaken day his 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy finally becomes available for listening. The only assurance we have at this point, is that that will be a good morning.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV