The final of Ryan Adam’s tetralogy is Sword & Stone and dare I say, the best of them all?!
With Sword & Stone, 1985, Heatwave, Star Sign, and the live version of Prisoners previously available on vinyl only, Ryan dropped all five albums to the digital masses at the beginning of the year.
If you haven’t read the previous reviews, here are the quick thoughts:
- 1985 is a visceral middle finger of defiance and a welcoming swift kick to the face.
- Heatwave is a raw and versatile rock revelation, a soul-baring odyssey that transcends genres and emotions.
- Star Sign. Vulnerable. Honest. Heartbreakingly beautiful.
The twelve track album sits at approximately thirty-six minutes on the clock and is a wonderful blend of Ryan at his best. While I appreciate and like Ryan’s versatility, my personal preference of Ryan’s style for an album is his more upbeat rockers mixed with the melancholy sadness of his slower songs. And for me, Sword & Stone is that mix. It’s the best of both Heatwave and Star Sign.
Like Star Sign, it’s easy to get lost within Sword & Stone. Too focused on the music, one will miss the candid lyrics. Too focused on the lyrics, one will miss some of the best guitar, bass, and drum work across all of the four albums. Sword & Stone makes you hit repeat so you don’t miss anything and in a day and age where one hit wonders and singles reign supreme, being able to listen to an album on repeat is proof of heart. At least that’s my thought. I’m happy to spin albums on repeat for days if not months or years.
Some of the songs, especially “Nuclear War” have a Ryan Adams & the Cardinals vibe and I’m curious as to if they were originally written for that project or not.
Sword & Stone has wonderful music be it the soulful bass, the slide guitar, the brushstrokes on the drum, and nary a harmonica. I don’t think I missed hearing it as Ryan has a pretty distinct harmonica playing style. But not having the harmonica doesn’t break the album, if anything, it allows Sword & Stone to float between that alt rock and alt country sound that Ryan can sometimes fall between.
Despite the depth of the music and Ryan’s resilient vocals, the lyrics on the album are unlike the other albums. They are the superstars of the album. The lyrics on Sword & Stone possess a sharp, precise, and sometimes savage truthfulness that’s undeniably striking. Similar to the visceral lyrics of 1985, the lyrics in Sword & Stone deliver the come to Jesus moment. The truth. The ugly truth. Even if it hurts.
I wrote that if 1985 was a cathartic purge of negativity and inner turmoil, Heatwave was an acknowledgement of the hurt, pain, and loss, Star Sign is letting go of it all, then Sword & Stone is the phoenix rising from the ashes. The healed Ryan that’s ready to take on the world.
Unapologetic in its brutal honesty. Sword & Stone is Ryan at his best.
MUST LISTEN TRACKS: “I Was Here”, “Sword and Stone”, “Never Run”, “Memory Lane”, “Nuclear War”, “Blizzard in the Room”, “I Can See the Light”
Read our review of 1985 :: Heatwave :: Star Sign. Get Sword & Stone on vinyl.
