Cardinology marks the fifth album in four years for Ryan Adams and his band The Cardinals and never up to this point has this band come up with an album so banal and predictable.

If you want to know what Cardinology sounds like, all you have to do is visit the past four records to find out; the only difference is that this is the weakest album of the bunch with not a single song that really stands out as exceptional. Not to say that this album is awful, it's just tedious in every way possible. With no remarkable hooks or choruses to speak of, Cardinology never takes any chances and starts to sound exactly like all the other songs that have been released over the past few years, but far more stagnant. Adams' vocal range also has never sounded as limited as it does here and when he strains to hit notes, you can't help but wince over and over throughout. I very rarely say this about an artist, but I almost hope that Adams takes a long, extended break and stops recording for a while because it has never been more apparent than right now that Adams is in desperate need of a battery recharge.