Ryan Adams truly makes you feel sorry for bands like the Stereo MC’s. While they spend years searching for inspiration, Adams quietly writes some tunes, makes an album (Heartbreaker) and garners fabulous reviews. Then, a year later, he does it all over again.

His second album as a solo artist (he was formerly in alt-country band Whiskeytown) is glorious. Songs seem to occur to him as naturally as the need to eat or breathe – his style is one of quiet, studied confidence.

Many of these sixteen tracks lodge themselves unshakeably in the brain. Adams works his melodies hard but rarely descends into tweeness or sentimentality. On tunes like ‘La Cienega Just Smiled’, ‘The Rescue Blues’, ‘When The Stars Go Blue’ and ‘Harder Now That It’s Over’, the emotion is distilled into a powerful, gut-wrenching core. On this last, the lines run, “It’s harder now that it’s over/Now that the cuffs are off/And you’re free”.

Adams’ cracked, emotive voice customises every song, lending a stamp of individuality to even the more standard rockers like ‘Touch, Feel and Lose’ and ‘Rosalie Come and Go’ (the latter of which features on the 5-song bonus disc).

‘Enemy Fire’, co-written with Gillian Welch proves a disappointment, though. It’s one-dimensional and bland, lacking the magic that sparkles through the rest of the album.

Still, this is wonderful material, executed with the sure, steady hand of a true craftsman.

Superb.