RYAN ADAMS Love Is Hell pt. 2 (Lost Highway)
''I could be anything,'' sang Adams on Love Is Hell pt. 1, and that's his main problem. For this EP -- part 2 of the melancholy LP initially rejected by his label (which sent him back to make the rowdier Rock N Roll) -- he's a sad lounge crooner (''My Blue Manhattan''), a kiss-and-tell Dylan (''English Girls Approximately''), and a skid-row Prince (the ''Purple Rain''-beckoning ''Hotel Chelsea Nights''). It's impressive, if knocked-off-sounding, and yes: Song for song, the EPs trump Rock N Roll. But they also perpetuate the image of Adams as a scattershot chameleon instead of showing him as an artist who digs deep. We're rootin' for ya, dude.
