Ryan Adams has been on this list a number of times already. He's such a big favorite of mine and such a prolific artist that he might just end up with more entries than anyone else. And though Adams has dabbled in a number of genres and musical styles, it seems that I can find something to like in almost anything he does."Hard Way to Fall" is just a crushing love song. It's a breakup number where the singer remembers all of these idiosyncratic details about his girl... how she reads from the back to the front of magazines, the Scotch that she drinks, how she loses her keys, etc. You realize it's a lost love song when he sings "how I miss those things." None of this is groundbreaking or anything, but it's simple and sad and direct and everything I like about music. The ending is the best. He's got the verse:
"See her smiling at him?
That used to be me...
And we used to be something,
but something happened to me."
I love that. It kills me. It kills me every time I hear it. It's so honest and sad. Best of all, I find it to be very self-critical, which most people struggle with. Something I admire most about writers is when they put themselves out there, emotionally-naked for the world to see. This is a song that says, "Guess what... I lost. She didn't choose me." It's not something you're proud of or want to share with anyone and possibly something that opens you up to criticism, and yet the most courageous artists do it any way. AND they do it in a massive public forum, with hundreds of thousands of fans and critics listening to their work. That kind of courage is nothing less than impressive.
"Hard Way to Fall" is from the album "Jacksonville City Nights." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.
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