Customer Reviews
Good start - By: Jayy Mannon, 03 Apr 2008 
For me, this is ryan's 3rd best album (after gold & easy tiger) yet i still give it 5 stars, that pretty much says it all (I'm going to keep writing anyway). For me this was the starting point of better things to come, it isin itself a very good album with songs like 'oh my sweet carolina' & 'come pick me up' being personal highlights, it was a very good debut solo album & probably only comes behind the other two albums mentioned because it is maybe a little harder to get into. I still listen to this album a lot & is very much a must own for any fan of Mr Adams, although with the amount of work this guy releases i understand it can be hard to keep up!
Great songs - By: Secret Squirrel, 15 Jul 2007 This, along with 'Gold' & Demolition' are my favorite Ryan Adams albums. Mellow. Sweet. Spare. Great lyrics.
I can only repeat what is writtenin the other positive reviews He is just so talented. This is a subtle work of near genius & deserves attention. Favorite tracks are My Winding wheel; Amy; Oh my sweet Carolina & Damn Sam.
This is My Winding Wheel - By: , 12 Mar 2006 First of all, this guy is a living genius. For this guy it really is about the music. A modern day Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash. Not necessarilyin musical style butin pure creativity & attitude. They say they don't make 'em like they used to but here is the real deal. Everything he has done is gold dust (Even Rock N Roll). It is only a matter of time, say 20 to 30 years, before the world realises this.
This was the second album that I heard of his. Must have been about 5 years ago now. I remember going out & buying it after having & loving Gold. Coming back to my room. Sitting dead still rooted to my bed, looking out of the rain spattered window, shivers down my spine for about a whole hour immersedin this wonderful world of pure heartrending beauty & emotion. No other music had ever had this effect on me before. And I didn't even know what it was to have my heart broken then.
Opening with To Be Young (is to be high), Ryan creates an anthem for youth. Any generation could relate to it. Sounds like a Bob Dylan track. It makes all this heartbreak business all sound fun. However from here on he takes us on an amazing journey down the heartbreak highway. Stretching our emotions to breaking point before sucker punching us with a whiskey soaked, cigarette stained fist with the most optimistic ray of light to pick you up, then repeats. Like the ray of sunshine after the storm. Although to most of us the storm is the most exciting bit. Tears are likely to break out on even the hardest of folk.
Its foolish for me to pick highlights. Although To Be Young, My Winding Wheel, Sweet Carolina & Come Pick Me Up, are perhaps amongst the greatest songs ever recorded. The whole sound of this album is timeless.
I recommend everyone to check out his live show. Watch a genius at work. Watch the perfectionin all of his little flaws. If you want a perfectly played, dare I say dull, then go & watch James Blunt. If you want a tattered, soul bearing, life enhancing performance go & see Ryan. Its the same with this & all of his album.
I can't describe this albumin the way it should be. I just cannot begin to do it justice. A true classic. Every music lover should have a placein their (soon to be borken) heart.
Yes it was Viva Hate Ryan!! - By: , 14 Feb 2006 Ryan Adams (born David Ryan Adams on November 5, 1974) is an alt-country & rock & roll singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Adams dropped out of high school at 16 to workin a shoe shop & make music. He formed a band named Whiskeytownin 1994; they disbandedin 1999 after making three albums. Adams went on to put out his first solo record, Heartbreaker.
So whats it like? Look I don’t want to just sell you another album so if you are looking for an artist to say if people ask you “hey man whos your favourite?” then this isnt for you! I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that apart from Morriessey & ofcousre the Smiths & maybe Jeff Bukely, Ryan Adams changed my like.
Heartbreaker wasn’t the first album of his I purchased, I was sitting doing homework one night flicking through music telivision when I stopped to see the video for New York New York, it caught my eye as it was less than a month after September 11th , & to see a man with an acoustic guitar singing under the Broklyn bridgein full view of the then Twin towers was quite breath taking & I guess a little surreal.
I thought allot after that of the song & forgot all about the artist I was only fifteen at that time & to be honest have always had a different music taste to anyone I know of my age either then or now!. A few months later on my 16th Birthdayin December I took a trip to Belfast with my brother with the money I had received thankfully.
I was doing the usual hunting around for whatever I could findin the sales when I saw a great two for twenty two deal or something lik that, after much scavaging I instantly had THAT songin my head so I searched but couldn’t quite remember the artists name. After asking an assistant she directed me to the A section, So there it was a picture of a guy infront of the stars an strips readjusting his shirt!. This was ofcourse Gold Ryans second album. As I was about to leave I noticed another album, this time black with a simple picture of a dude smoking, I checked the name & year two different albumsin two different years by the same artist for twenty two quid!
As I bought them the girl behind the till assured me these were his only two albums to date. Strange but I had never heard a song or even really tookin what he looked like I just knew this was special. I can admit I never listened to Heartbreaker for one whole month, Gold blew me away & rightfully so it is a fantastic album, but for some reason I had only glanced over the other one. One listen the whole way through changed my music taste forever, its really as simple as that, it touched me so much, My sweet Carolina is by far the most outstanding song on the album it has so much context. “I aint never been to Vegas but I gambled up my life” Superb.
“Amy” & “Come pick me up” are other great stand outs, but pleae don’t take my word for it!. And what about opening your first album with an argument about Morrissey & what songs are on Viva Hate! Pretty brave! Ryan has since made some great work & producing three albums last year was crazy, we livein a time were giving magazine interviews & appearing on reality tv shows seems more important than actually making music….funny eh?
nice and gentle - By: Koos, 09 Mar 2005 
His solo debut record 'Heartbreaker' is a nice, gentle recordin a country pop style with very well vocal work from Ryan Adams.
The record begins with a couple of strong songs: The cheerful en well sung 'To be young' with its change of electric & acoustic guitar, & the acoustic, backed by very nice shuffle drums 'My winding wheel' with its delicated sounded short solo. 'Amy' & 'Oh, my sweet Carolina' two lovely country pop song. Gradually the songs become slow, easy listening songs. It's very nice to listen, butin the middle part of the record you slowly loose attention: the songs are starting to sound like each other. You won't notice if a next song has started. A few of the songs could have But before you've lost your attention, suddenly you are back on the track with the great Bo Diddley stylish, electric slide guitar & shake your hips 'Shakedown on 9th street'. Album closer 'Sweet Lil Gal' is a rougher slow song with nice guitar workin the end of the song: a nice sleep well song.
Overall, the record contains many songs with a 'let's sit nicely around a campfire & lets sings some lovely songs'. A nice record.
