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Ryan Adams review: His heart was not so much bared as exposed, valves and all

Exploring the back catalogue: Ryan Adams dipped into his 16-album repertoire: Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP
Exploring the back catalogue: Ryan Adams dipped into his 16-album repertoire: Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP

“This is one hell of a place to close out the UK tour,” Ryan Adams tweeted on Friday ahead of his performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall. He took to the stage a few hours later, deadpanning: “This is so many people … too many people! I wanna thank the band Kiss for having us open for them.”

After a tumultuous few years in which Adams has struggled with illness and a painful marriage breakdown to actress Mandy Moore, it was a joy and relief to see him not only enjoying himself and his audience, but returning to the form that graced much of his early success.

Based on the enthusiastic reception it received, you could have been forgiven for thinking Adams’s opening song, the power-ballad pastiche Do You Still Love Me? from new album Prisoner, was one of his cherished classics. Plenty of songs from the album — only out since February but surely his most well-received since Heartbreaker — were included and all felt like old favourites.

Channelling Nebraska-era Springsteen, Adams’s heart was not so much bared as exposed, valves and all, despite his efforts to hide behind his wild, college-student hair. When the Stars Go Blue, Broken Anyway and Prisoner saw him at his most fragile, as did his duet with the impressive Karen Elson on the Nashville-inspired Cold Roses.

If there was a theme to the night, it was one of rock’n’roll catharsis.

The vast majority of a fun, largely well-chosen set had Adams dispelling any demons in the louder, heavier songs from his 16-album repertoire. “Are you ready for some sad metal?” he asked. “Only half of you are but you’re going to get it anyway.”

The overly long, Crazy Horse-like jamming sessions that Adams and his band included on previous tours again made an appearance and were sadly much too excessive. Small self-indulgences aside, this was Ryan Adams back with aplomb and at his confessional best.