I like an album that has a catchy title and “Bring On The Apathy” is one such title and, being his third solo album, will Adam Ross be telling it, in his usual literate manner, like it is or will he have been overcome finally by the massive weight of today?
The good news is that you can’t keep a good man down. While he clearly has a few more dents on his songwriting bodywork since his last album, he still manages – in that distinctly literate way – to find something worth singing about and, when he feels like picking up the pace, he can still pull off that trick of making you want to join in on the chorus. The meat on his bones is, of course, the fact that he now has meat on his bones. Nothing here is flighty or likely to float way upon a leaf in the stream yet his message is never one that is forced or didactic and all these ten songs appear to happen quite naturally as if they were simply meant to be . The hard work behind the scenes is certainly there but no unusual attention is drawn to his distinctly eloquent, and sometimes playful, fellow musicians for this is an album that eloquently balances musicianship with proper songwriting and it is all the better for that.
Adam Ross isn’t quite the voice of everyman but he is most certainly a voice worth listening to and “Bring On The Apathy” undoubtedly contains both words of wisdom gained and words of wisdom lost yet the end result is still uplifting. It is therefore safe to conclude that many people, including myself, will regard this album as a victory for Adam Ross.