a record for all beautiful loser's

Ryan Adams is a genius. Yeah his ego is a mile high, but you know what with lyric's as good as this I came see why he's like that. Anyway, Strangers Alamanac unfolds like a novel of youth lost and longing. On this record you can really see the Paul Westerberg influence, rather than their debut Faithless Street(which by the way is also great) a big the Gram Parsons influence. "Avenues" sounds like it's a companion piece to The Replacements song "Here Comes The Regular". Adams to me always had a beautiful losers/youthful romanticism ethos about him. Anyway, buy this record!

Heartbreakingly beautiful

This is definately a favorite album of mine. The emotion is just so real and so raw, unpretentious and unapologetic. It really helped me through some hard times, just to listen to it and absolve the meaning. Favorites include "Inn Town", "Losering", "Everything I Do", "Not Home Anymore", "Houses On The Hill", "Yesterday's News" and "16 Days". The group went through a lot of changes through this period, with lots of people quitting, being kicked out, and so forth. You can't deny a good piece of music, quite frankly it changed my life. There's enough dripping sad alt-country here, and angry hard rockers to keep everyone on their feet and listening. Just as good as their other albums, and well worth adding to any music collection.

very good

Way too much has been made about Ryan Adams' career after Whiskeytown. Did he sell out? Does he have a shred of artistic credibility left? To be honest, I don't care. Just listen to the songs and let them stand on their own merit. Strangers Almanac is a great album from start to finish. This is a great place to start with Adams' career. However, many people believe it also is the place to stop as well.