Ryan Adams has announced the release of his new album, Animal, a ten-track collection arriving on 12th February 2027 through his own PAX-AM label. The announcement, made on his 52nd birthday, comes alongside the release of lead single Amethyst, offering the first taste of a record that finds the acclaimed singer-songwriter embracing a largely solo creative approach.
Ryan Adams @ Roundhouse - iTunes Festival 2014
Written entirely by Adams, Animal sees him take charge of almost every instrument, performing drums, bass, guitars, piano, synthesisers, percussion and harmonica across the album. He also co-produced and mixed the record with Dror Mohar, who handled the engineering, with mastering completed by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound.
Long-time collaborator Daniel Clarke adds additional synthesisers to Jesus Christ, Animal and Jesus H, as well as Hammond B3 on Soon, which also features saxophone from J.C. Khul. Beyond these contributions, the album is very much the work of Adams alone, continuing an approach that recalls his 2017 record Prisoner.
The new material inhabits a distinctly nocturnal world, populated by neon lights, late-night bars, rain-soaked streets and solitary journeys along California’s Highway 101. Across its ten songs, Adams moves between bruised humour, emotional honesty, longing and full-throttle rock, with the album’s atmosphere shaped by the feeling of being alone with one’s thoughts after dark.
Lead single Amethyst provides the most direct introduction to that world. A bruised, witty and defiant reflection on the music business, ageing and survival, the song finds Adams confronting his own place in an industry that has continually shifted around him. Its closing self-description – as “the ghost in the attic … the color of driftwood and amethyst” – captures the track’s mixture of vulnerability and dark humour.
Elsewhere, Automatic Heart offers a candid confession from someone who admits to falling for people repeatedly, while Pass Me By explores a more straightforward sense of heartache. Jesus H takes a more eccentric turn, questioning the meaning behind its title before unfolding into an atmospheric journey through October streets. The title track promises a heavier, more forceful moment, while closing song Outsiders In brings the record to a cold, wintry conclusion, contemplating the value of prayer when life leaves little more than a sense of breaking even.
The album follows an exceptionally prolific period for Adams, who has released more than a dozen records through PAX-AM since 2020, including Wednesdays, Big Colors, Chris, Devolver, Blackhole and Self Portrait. It also follows the 25th-anniversary reimagining of his landmark debut, Heartbreaker, in 2025.
First released in 2000, Heartbreaker remains a defining record in Adams’ career and a touchstone of the alt-country movement. Its arrival followed his work with Whiskeytown, the Raleigh-based band he co-founded in 1994, whose three albums – Faithless Street, Strangers Almanac and Pneumonia – helped establish his reputation as one of the most distinctive songwriters emerging from the American alternative country scene.
His solo career gathered further momentum with 2001’s Gold, which earned three GRAMMY® nominations and achieved Gold certification in the UK. Subsequent releases included Love Is Hell, Easy Tiger, Ashes & Fire and a series of albums with his band The Cardinals, among them Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights and Cardinology.
Adams has continued to move between musical styles throughout his career, earning further GRAMMY® recognition for his self-titled 2014 album and its single Gimme Something Good. His track-by-track reinterpretation of Taylor Swift’s 1989 also reached the Billboard 200 Top 10 in 2015. Alongside his own recordings, he has worked as a producer and collaborator with artists including Willie Nelson, Jenny Lewis, Jesse Malin and Fall Out Boy, while also publishing poetry collections Infinity Blues and Hello Sunshine and pursuing his work as a visual artist.
Ryan Adams @ Roundhouse - iTunes Festival 2014
With Animal, Adams returns to the intimate, self-contained recording process that has become a recurring feature of his work. The result promises a record shaped by personal reflection, restless creativity and the freedom of working outside the expectations of the wider music industry.
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