An emerging artist who puts out an album of demos after a big hit is often stalling for time. With alt-country phenom Ryan Adams, however, you get the sense he's trying to make up for lost time.

Released almost a year to the day after his breakthrough Gold, Demolition is anything but the low-fi, low-quality set of half-baked songs and unfinished ideas you'd expect. These 13 cuts were culled from five sessions over the past year; reportedly, Adams recorded an album of material at each and planned to put out a box set before trimming it down. Judging by these tunes, he might have been an overzealous editor.

Although the 45-minute CD is roughly divided between jangling rockers, lightly twangy country-pop fare and darker acoustic material, all the tunes have strong, beautiful melodies, bittersweet lyrics and Adams' Paul Simonish vocals in common. Plus they all benefit from the honest, underproduced setting, which pushes this disc closer to the shabby grace of Paul Westerberg than the glossy sheen of Gold.

As long as Adams treats us to one of these gifts every now and then, he can take all the time he wants making that next album.

Track Listing