"He doesn't study his record collection, he plays with it like a
little boy playing with toy soldiers - and it's this sense of uninhibited
delight that animates Adams' magnum opus, an effortlessly ambitious and
seductive 70-minute epic of an album that begs to be divided into quarters
and pressed on two 12-inch slabs of vinyl.
Taking as his primary references points the Band, Dylan and the Rolling
Stones circa "Exile on Main Street," Adams continues his fruitful
collaboration with Ethan Johns (son of legendary producer-engineer Glyn
Johns), who not only nails the sounds of late-'60s/early-'70s recordings
but also drums behind the beat like Charlie Watts and revives the lost
art of rhythm guitar. With another second-generation ringer, Stephen Stills'
boy Chris, on lead guitar, this inspired little combo adds Stax/Volt horn
lines here ("Touch, Feel & Lose"), Left Banke harpsichord
there ("When the Stars Go Blue") and "Music From Big Pink"
textures throughout, while impersonating the Keith Richards-Mick Taylor
guitar tandem to startling perfection on the rawkin', raucous "Street
Walkin' Blues." While he's at it, the kid also comes up with a fever
dream of an art song in "Sylvia Plath" that recalls Leonard
Cohen at his most romantic and Randy Newman at his most cinematic. "Gold"
secures Adams' place in the post-millennial rock pantheon and contends
for album of the year."
(Bud Scoppa, All Music
Guide)
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