Ryan Adams & The Cardinals at Brixton Academy on 20 November, 2008 It's almost exactly a year ago that I last saw Ryan Adams perform in London, and as he makes an unobtrusive entrance onto the dimly lit stage decorated with blue neon roses, there is a certain sense of déjà vu. But Adams is as famously unpredictable live as he is famously prolific on record and this turns out to be a very different evening to last time. For someone still so relatively young Adams has recorded a lot of albums, and to his credit he tries his darnedest to get through as many songs as possible by performing sets twice as long as the average performer. That said, he does have a tendency to play the more obscure album tracks rather than old favourites, to the frustration of many fans. Tonight, however, he surprises the audience by including some gems from his diamond studded back catalogue. Not unnaturally, he performs much of brand new and rather good album 'Cardinology' and considerable amounts from last year's 'Easy Tiger', but also there are rare live outings for classic tracks 'Come Pick Me Up' (from 'Heartbreaker') as well as 'Rescue Blues' and 'La Cienega Just Smiled' (from 'Gold'), to whoops of delight from the crowd. Adams is in an unusually good mood and peppers the set with quips and jokes mostly in the form of self-deprecating comments about himself, his romantic failures, how well-adjusted he is (or not) and his penchant for writing "super depressing songs". On that last point, presumably said in jest, I don't agree. Adams' songs - full of regret and longing and yearning for what might have been - are beautifully and sweetly sad, but not actually depressing. Though, whatever you think of Adam's own songs, it has to be noted that one of the evening's highlights is a cover. A sublime 'Wonderwall' is beefed up considerably but still retains the fragility of his studio version. Adams is clearly delighted by the crowd's reception and tells us we are a "badass" audience and that he loves what we've done to our hair. In every way this was a very special gig by an exceptionally talented singer and it feels like a privilege to have been there. Jane W. Review originally published by CMU Music Network www.cmumusicnetwork.co.uk