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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
His masterpiece., 10 Feb 2007
On more than one occasion, record labels and PR people have made the wrong choice. The Rolling Stones were signed to Decca entirely because the man who signed them didn't want to make the same mistake twice, having previously passed on the Beatles. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album is famous both as their masterpiece, and as the album that Warners paid for twice, because Wilco made it, Reprise rejected it, and then Nonesuch bought it. It's now their biggest seller.
And so it is with Love Is Hell by wayward alt-country wonderboy Ryan Adams. When he first made it, Lost Highway rejected it as too depressing, instead putting it out as two ridiculous album-length EPs, while Adams responded by recording the sporadically great but mostly awful Rock 'n' Roll album. Then, the following year, his label relented, finally allowing Adams to release the album 'as he intended it.' His label are morons.
The release of this was somewhat of a low blow for Adams fans because they already have all but one of these songs on the EPs, and it's a blow for Adams himself because it proves how little his label apparently respects his opinion. That is irrelevant to the quality of the music however - and the music is the best collection he's produced to date.
The single parallel you can draw with his previous work is that the chiming, twangy guitar tone on show here is the same one that he employed on Rock 'n' Roll. Other than that, this otherworldy album is the most unique thing in his catalogue. Opener 'Political Scientist' is quite simply the finest song he's ever written, an utterly stunning, sweeping epic. Nothing here equals it, but it's pretty much uniformly great.
His famous cover of Oasis' 'Wonderwall' is lovely, all subtle acoustic guitars and atmosphere rather than the great, but blunt, original. 'Afraid Not Scared' is lovely, a fine vocal on Adams' part holding it together, ditto for 'Does Anybody Want To Take Me Home?'. 'This House Is Not For Sale' canters along on a well-strummed acoustic guitar.
This whole album is based on great songs which are as much about mood as they are about melody. This album is dark, depressing, claustrophobic, his label was right about that, and as always is slightly overlong; but it's also heartbreaking, beautiful, and the greatest album Adams has yet released.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent, 9 Mar 2005
Rumours said that there were a lot of trouble for Adams having this album out on record. Rumours said that the company didn't like the album because of it's darker touch.
Rumours said that finally the record came out.
Oh boy.
After being introduced in Ryan Adams music by his 'Gold' record, I was wondering if he could do a better job. With "Love is Hell" I think he did.A rather furious 'Love is Hell'. An indeed excellent acoustic cover of Oasis' 'Wonderwall'. A rather sad but very strong Please do not let me go''. A Neil Young influenced strong 'City Rain, city streets'. A very strong collaboration with Marianne Faithfull on 'English girls Approximately'. Album closer 'Hotel Chelsea nights' with its howling guitar solo. 'Love is Hell' contains 16 very well written songs about lost love, broken love, addiction. all songs with strong and straight-telling-stories lyrics. Ryan Adams proves again his skill as an excellent songwriter. He keeps your attention to each song because of their structure, sound and words. Personal favourites are in the beginning of the album: The rather dramatic 'Afraid not scared' starts of with an acoustic guita rriff that is to be heard through the whole song. After having sung his two main lyrics, Ryan comes in with the electric guitar. After the first verse the piano is softly on the background, after the second verse suddenly the electric guitar comes in, that finally will take over the whole song with beautiful and dramatic sounding riffs. But still on the background to be heard, the main acoustic guitar rif.
The song is followed by the even stronger 'This house is not for sale'. Want to know how it feels if everybody in whole wide world thinks and acts your relationship is over, while you think and hope it's not? Then listen to this one. The song is based on a strong acoustic guitar melody (again), this time backed by strong drums. The electric guitar: only to be heard at the end of some lines in a lyric, which gives the song a great touch. No guitar solo in the song, but the song' structure doesn't need a guitar solo. Pay attention to Adams' singing on this song, compared with the context of the lyrics, especially in the middle of the third lyric. Brilliant. Should or could have been a big hit with the right airplay. Ryan Adams, a big compliment from me for this record.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite Bryan Adams, but it's got something..., 3 May 2005
Oh dear. 'a_music_flan from The Shadowlands' seems to have got into a bit of a kerfuffle! This is not the same man who wrote "So Far, So Good" or "Summer of 69" - that would be Bryan Adams. Or even Wonderwall - that would be Noel Gallagher (wonderfully covered by Ryan Adams on this album). In fact, I'm surprised (and slightly amused) that they managed to write such a large review on the wrong man! Perhaps that is why they are "a_music_flan" as opposed to "a_music_fan"? ;-)
Anyway, to the point. This is a deliciously melancholic take on life from Ryan Adams. A well-crafted, consistent album - but still I wonder if it would benefit from being slightly cut down from the 16 tracks; I find my attention begins to wander at points (hence the 4 stars instead of 5). Nevertheless, I would certainly recommend this album to anyone appreciative of strong, genuine lyrics and heartfelt songs. Certainly a must for any RYAN Adams fans. And who knows, maybe even some of the Bryan Adams fans will appreciate him ;-)
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