Pneumonia (Lost Highways) After people finally realised there could be no 'new Beatles', the quest to find the next Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Neil Young became a holy grail. But the decades passed and no obvious successor emerged. Eventually, however, the search became less important, even hollow, as new musical genres grabbed the world's mainstream attention. Genius, though, is by its very nature unpredictable. And if it takes the form of Ryan Adams in 2001, then so be it. No, no, no, not Bryan Adams, that ageing Canadian. Drop the B and you get a young, vibrant, creative Southern boy who, at 26, already appears to be at the height of his powers. He's certainly started well. Adams was the instigator behind seven-piece Whiskeytown, a collective sharing a love of country passion, punk spirit and prodigious amounts of drugs and booze. Two cracking albums later (the raw Faithless Street and mature Strangers' Almanac), only three founding members were able to shuffle into the studios to make their swan-song, Pneumonia. Luckily, Adams was one of them, well-armed with a few mates, including James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and Tommy Stinson (The Replacements), and a swag of examples from his burgeoning, prodigious songwriting talent. Constantly surprising, Pneumo-nia is a joy from the first listen to the 20th (and counting). Since Whiskey-town split, Adams has given us the gorgeous, late-night classic Heartbreaker and plans to unleash no less than three albums' worth of new material by the end of the year. Hopefully, years from now, critics will look upon Adams' Whiskeytown as akin to Reed's Velvet Underground or Young's Buffalo Springfield. That's not to say he won't make the odd stinker - those guys sure did - but he's not scared to take risks and may stay on this rare, gifted course.
