No one could ever accuse Ryan Adams of being a slouch, but 2005 turned out to be by far his most prolific release year yet. Earlier this summer, we saw the release of The Grateful Dead inspired double album Cold Roses with his band The Cardinals. This fall saw the release of another Cardinals work, Jacksonville City Nights; which focused on a more country-western frame of mind. Now, right before Christmas, Adams has released 29, a stripped down solo affair without The Cardinals that re-teams him with producer Ethan Johns who produced Adams' first two and best albums Heartbreaker and Gold.

The self-titled opener would fool a person into thinking that Adams had gone back to that Cold Roses sound, because it sounds exactly like "Truckin'" from The Grateful Dead's 1970 masterpiece American Beauty. But don't be misled, 29 is right up there with Adams' 2004 release Love Is Hell challenging for the most sparse release of his career.

29 in all actuality, is a concept album and each song focuses on a year in Adams' twenties. Seeing as how that's the case, Adams must have had one of the most depressing decades in history, because 29 for the most part is anything but sunny. "Night Birds," "Blue Sky Blues" and especially "Starlite Diner" all go down as some of the best melancholy, wrist slashing tunes in recent Adams albums.

What keeps 29 from being essential however is the way that some of these tunes meander aimlessly. "Strawberry Wine" and "Carolina Rain" each overstay their welcome by two to three minutes easy, and "The Sadness" with its silly over-the-top mariachi feel is downright awful. More often than not though, 29 impresses with its sorrow laden laments and shows that not only can love be hell, but sometimes just becoming an adult can be too.