New Albums

* Ryan Adams, “Demolition,” Lost Highway. For this album, Adams took the best 13 songs from the four albums he had on the shelf and has made his most immediately appealing and consistent album so far. Where his two earlier solo albums tended to focus on specific sides of his music, this celebrates all of them, and makes him seem more interesting and human in the process. The music benefits from the intimate nature of the recordings, which are little more than the demo tapes an artist makes before going into the studio and putting on the final polish. Adams, nominated by many critics and fellow musicians last year as the young singer-songwriter of the day, has never sounded so free vocally or more consistently heartfelt as a writer.

*

Also:

Beck, “Sea Change,” Geffen

Jackson Browne, “The Naked Ride Home,” Elektra

Steve Earle, “Jerusalem,” E-Squared/Artemis

Eyes Adrift, “Eyes Adrift,” spinART

Peter Gabriel, “Up,” Geffen

Nanci Griffith, “Winter Marquee,” Rounder

India.Arie, “Voyage to India,” Motown

Rhett Miller, “The Instigator,” Elektra

Alison Moyet, “Hometime,” Sanctuary

Of Montreal, “Aldhils Arboretum,” Kindercore

Tonic, “Head on Straight,” Universal

Uncle Kracker, “No Stranger to Shame,” Lava/Atlantic

Underworld, “A Hundred Days Off,” JBO/V2