Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams is one of the most talented and indeed prolific singer/songwriters of his generation, with a rich canon of work to support this assertion. Despite his undoubted talent Adams has had some well publicised issues through the years, from walking off the stage when audience members shouted for ‘Summer of ’69‘ (ironically, Adams has subsequently covered the song live), to allegations of harassment and other inappropriate behaviour. Adams started his recording career as frontman for Whiskeytown, a band that released three very good albums between 1995 and 2001 and had some problematic live shows (bandmates arguing on stage, that kind of stuff). This was succeeded by a long and productive solo career and a spell (2005 to 2009) as frontman of Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, a band responsible for more high quality albums and some spellbinding live performances. This article is all about Adams’ “Heartbreaker” record, but two very different versions of it.

The original version of Adams’ debut solo record, “Heartbreaker” was released on 5th September 2000 and stands as the artist’s near masterpiece as nothing else in his extensive back catalogue quite matches it for the quality of the songwriting, the melodies, the vocal performances or the sheer emotion running through each song and performance (although 2011’s “Ashes & Fire” comes close at times). The record was released at a time when Whiskeytown was in hiatus during a two year delay in the release of the band’s third LP, “Pneumonia” (recorded in 1999 and released May 2001), which was due to issues surrounding the merger between Polygram and Universal Music Group which ultimately saw Whiskeytown dropped by their label and the band’s subsequent demise.

In the midst of the situation with Whiskeytown, the end of his relationship with Amy Lombardi (Adams’ ex-publicist) and relocation to Nashville, Adams put pen to paper in furious fashion and came up with 26 songs for a deeply personal solo record. The LP itself features 14 songs written by Adams, including one co-write with David Rawlings and two co-written with Van Alston. Recording took place over a 14 day period at studios in Nashville. It’s an emotional record, with themes of fragility, self-pity, despair, loneliness and loss of hope; it’s also an intimate and apparently honest appraisal of how he was feeling at the time. Back in 2022 “Heartbreaker” featured in AUK’s Top 10 Americana Albums of the 21st Century, at number 8 as voted by the AUK writing community and at number 3 in the readers’ list.

Fast forward to September 2025 and the “Heartbreaker 25th Anniversary Edition” was released. This constituted a re-recording (as in a “Ryan’s Version”?) and re-imagining of the original “Heartbreaker” record. The more common routine for anniversary editions is often to produce a Deluxe edition, containing additional tracks that were not included on the standard, original version, however this presumably was not an option as a multi-disc (both CD and vinyl versions) Deluxe Edition of “Heartbreaker” was released in 2016, including alternate takes and some non-album songs from the “Heartbreaker” recording sessions and a DVD of a solo live performance from the Mercury Lounge, New York City in October 2000.

Can’t Live With It: “Heartbreaker (25th Anniversary Edition)” (2025)

Having heard that there was to be a 25th anniversary version of “Heartbreaker” amidst great excitement, I pre-ordered a copy of the album on vinyl. As it turned out the album was released on digital platforms one or two weeks before the vinyl version’s arrival and during the intervening period, I took the opportunity to listen to the album via a streaming platform. To my enormous disappointment I found that I seriously disliked the album, to the point that I cancelled my pre-order of the vinyl, figuring that I wouldn’t ever listen to the record and given that I had long since abandoned any thought of being an Adams ‘completist’ (an all-but impossible quest), I wouldn’t end up bemoaning the gap in my collection where this would sit.

So why did I dislike it so much, after all the songs are still, in the main, the songs from the ‘near masterpiece’ that was the 2000 original version? The tempo, the arrangements, the phrasings and Adams’ voice are all different to the previous versions and for me it’s a pale shadow of the original release. If the original “Heartbreaker” wasn’t so brilliant then the differences perhaps wouldn’t be so much of an issue for me, however to my ears the songs have been spoiled by their treatment on the revised version. One really nice touch however is the album artwork (front cover), which features a current shot of Adams in almost identical pose (but without a cigarette in his mouth and with the addition of spectacles) to the original.

Don’t get me wrong, I perfectly understand and fully support an artist’s a) need to evolve (particularly over a quarter of a century), and b) desire to not simply regurgitate what has been produced previously, but here the character of the songs has been changed to the extent that in some cases the songs are almost unrecognisable from the originals. I used to be a big fan of Adams’ voice but here, in common with some other recent Adams releases, it sounds somewhat haunting, with Adams sounding like a middle of the road crooner at times.

Probably the first thing you notice on approaching the anniversary version is the changed (and indeed shortened) running order from the original. Immediately, the new version doesn’t start with ‘(Argument with David Rawlings concerning Morrissey)‘ (quite logically, as Rawlings wasn’t involved in the project and the ‘argument’ was spontaneous at the time) and from there the running order is completely different. Three of the songs from the 2000 release have not made it to the 2025 record, these being ‘To Be the One’, ‘Don’t Ask for the Water‘ and ‘Sweet Lil’ Gal’.

‘To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)’ is the most listenable track on this version of the LP, but even this has Adams’ vocal sounding laid back, shorn of the swagger that the 2000 version enjoys. On ‘AMY’ strings swamp the vocals at times. ‘Come Pick Me Up‘ is piano-based, slowed down to a crawl and the addition of lush strings significantly reduces the cutting impact of the words. For ‘Call Me On Your Way Back Home‘ the arrangement is fine, the strings suiting the song, but again the voice flattens it, being so lacking in the emotion of the 2000 version.

I can accept that Adams is maybe approaching the songs and their lyrics from a different perspective than back in 2000 as he’s now more worldly wise and is perhaps coming at them with a slight air of detachment, whereas back in 2000, some of the subject material was still particularly raw. Whatever the reasons, far from sounding like fresh new versions of the songs, these sound to this writer’s ears to be flat and lacking the emotion, passion, energy, immediacy and the edge of the original.

There are plenty of slow songs on the original record, but you can feel the emotion, whether that’s pain, anger or despair, as it oozes from each syllable. In creating the re-imagined versions Adams has somehow managed to take the life out of the songs and in most cases that raw emotion, which makes the original LP such a compelling listen is missing, so the songs very much lack the impact of the 2000 versions.

Whereas the original “Heartbreaker” is a record that simply demands to be listened to, the 25th anniversary version is dangerously close to being just aural wallpaper, or background music; this is an LP to listen to whilst wearing slippers.

Can’t Live Without It: “Heartbreaker” (2000)

While the 2025 version of “Heartbreaker” comes across as flat, lifeless and, surprising given the subject matter, lacking in emotion, the 2000 original is the complete opposite. Benefitting from a gloriously sympathetic production from Ethan Johns and the backing of a top class cohort of musicians, including Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Kim Richey and, providing a touch of real class to ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’, Emmylou Harris.

‘AMY‘ is a quite beautiful song that is clearly directed at the aforementioned Ms Lombardi, “I go to the places where we used to, I feel sad, I am out here looking for you, Sometimes I pretend, Oh, I miss you, oh”. However the absolute highlight on this outstanding LP is ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’, with harmony vocals from Harris. The song sees Adams missing his home in Carolina, “Oh my sweet Carolina, What compels me to go? Oh, my sweet disposition, May you one day carry me home“.

A song that fans the world over seem to relate is ‘Come Pick Me Up’. Clearly there are a lot of people out there feel they have been seriously wronged by their partners. This song, a perennial live favourite features backing vocals from Kim Richey. On the other hand ‘Call Me on Your Way Back Home’ is delightful, with a simple arrangement bringing Adams’ heartfelt vocal into sharp focus as he sings “Call me on our way back home, dear, ‘Cause I miss you, Yeah, and I just wanna die without you”. The tone of the song is confirmed with an angst-ridden harmonica solo to finish the song.

On ‘Why Do They Leave?‘ Adams is joined by Allison Pierce (of The Pierces) who contributes backing vocals. This is followed by ‘Shakedown on 9th Street’ which is another up-tempo song, there’s great energy here although the subject appears to be a violent altercation where Lucy, (described as “Lucy, Lucy, my gal”) “...got it in the chest”, and Adams responds “I was just gonna hit him, But I’m gonna kill him now“.

“Heartbreaker” is such a great record and it served to put Adams in the americana spotlight. As he pours his heart out, you can’t help but be drawn into Adams’ world and empathise with what he’s going through; at times gut-wrenching, but it’s fair to say it’s an emotional rollercoaster ride.