Cardinology goes from twangy “alt-country” songs to soulful ballads with Adams’ songwriting and voice at the center of each track. Themes of hope, healing and heartache prevail. The melodies and the musicianship are consistently strong. Adams’ lyrics get lost in themselves at times.

All FCC Clean
1. (2:17) Twangy and hopeful ditty built on acoustic guitar.
*2. (2:56) Rocking, soulful with pedal-steel guitar, backing vocals and pianos.
*3. (2:58) Big guitars and big vocal lines.
4. (2:18) Crunchy hard rock guitar line, a little “we didn’t start the fire” wordplay.” Catchy, but not painfully so.
*5. (3:57) Countrified rock number with multilayered guitars.
6. (4:21) Pedal steel and guitars build up to sing-a-long chorus.
*7. (2:43) Stripped-down acoustic guitar and piano vocals. Simple yet powerful.
8. (3:38) Ballad leaning towards the sappy side.
9. (3:42) Piano and pedal steel mix nicely but the wordplay gets a little too cute.
10. (3:35) Choruses sung in harmony. Song has a very light touch.
11. (2:31) Very easy-going throwaway track.
12. (5:34) Heavy drug-kicking work-it-all-out song. Pulls out all the musical stops.