James Hagan
Published: March 24 2004
Best known over the past few years for her tawdry, tabloid exploits and various legal troubles than for her music, Courtney Love is back with her long in-production solo debut ?America?s Sweetheart.? The former ?grunge? goddess has spent the last few years since the break-up of her band Hole engaging in various dramas. The tabloids touted her increasingly erratic exploits, whether it was arrests for disruptive behavior, partying with Winona Ryder, drug arrests or losing custody of her daughter from her marriage with deceased Nirvana singer, Kurt Cobain.
It?s for those reasons that ?America?s Sweetheart? is such a fascinating album. It provides a look inside the head of a woman who has clearly succumbed to her worst desires and burned out on the Hollywood fast lane. Instead of being apologetic or defensive about her problems, Love is defiantly open about her actions. She can almost be accused of celebrating her drug use.
?I?ve got pills cause I feel more than 21/Got pills cause I know baby, you?re not the one/ I?ve got pills for my [body], cause baby I?m sore/ I?ve got pills cause you?re bad/ I?ve got pills cause I?m bored,? she sings on the albums? best song, ?Sunset Strip,? a musing on the perils of being a famous, bored rock star in Los Angeles.Knowing the real life struggles she?s faced, it?s unsettling hearing her sing about her addiction. It gets to the point where it wouldn?t be shocking if a song dovetails into the producer stopping the singing and staging an intervention. ?With all of my money/With all of my love/With all of my money it doesn?t feel as good as the drugs,? she sings in ?All the Drugs,? her defiant love letter to chemicals. In other songs however, Love sounds wearied and lost.
?Well, they say rock is dead/ and they?re probably right/ 99 girls in the pit/Did it have to come to this,? she asks in the blistering opener, ?Mono,? a rant about how boring rock music is nowadays. She taunts the garage bands with, ?Three chords in your pocket tonight/ Are you the one with the spark to bring my punk rock back (I don?t think so.?)
The 12 song, 47-minute album is noisy, sloppy and loud, exactly how a rock album should be produced. The major liability, and it is catastrophically major, of the album is that Love?s voice, never a gift from God to begin with, sounds shot. Her raspy, uneven warbling is barely passable on the rock songs, but when she tries to harmonize on the assorted ballads on the album, like the closing number, ?Never Gonna Be The Same,? it?s cringe inducing. Clearly, years of self-destruction has sapped her voice of whatever melody it possessed. Considering the vocals were sweetened in the studio, one can only imagine how she sounds live. For many people, the excellent lyrics that are on the album will be overpowered by her shot vocalizing.