"THIS is where the summer ends," sings Ryan Adams with perfect timing for the release of his autumnal almanac.

The track is Nuclear, the opening melodic rocker that finds magpie American Adams adding John Mellencamp to his list of soundalikes. Adams reckons to have stockpiled sufficient material for five records since his Gold breakthrough, and Demolition is his cherry-picking of the best demos from a high-speed December 2000 to October 2001.

Suddenly it is fashionable to question why Adams was the apple of so many eyes last year, quibbles arising that he is but the sum of others' better parts. Billiard balls to that nonsense. Like a child avoiding the cracks in the pavement, he evokes both Bruce Springsteen and U2's Desire without directly touching them in his own yearning acoustic song of the same title.

He is versatile, surfing between Roy Orbison and Steve Earle on She Wants To Play Hearts, even mimicking near-namesake Bryan Adams on Starting To Hurt, but his breadth of chameleon songwriting and swings of mood, from Dylan folk to Merle Haggard country and vintage Springsteen rock, always carry his own voice.

Maybe, he makes it look too darn easy, but where is the crime in that? Demolition or the melancholic murk of Beck's Sea Change? No contest.

Updated: 08:54 Thursday, September 26, 2002