Amazon.co.uk Review
Welcome back to Ryan Adams the poet--previously missing presumed dead, or at least seriously wounded by the hand of his own gutless record label.
Love Is Hell combines both previous EPs of the same name, originally released as such by Lost Highway, wary of the lack of mainstream pop Adams had delivered them (causing the slighted musician to knock up the throwaway yet still utterly indispensable
Rock 'n' Roll). Here we find four songs chopped (none missed) and one added--the world-weary yet utterly romantic "Does Anybody Want To Take Me Home" from
Rock 'n' Roll (potential single material, cut from the same cloth as "This House Is Not for Sale").
Love Is Hell is a desolate, artistically ambitious, yet strangely moving piece of work that visits someplace on the edge of town ("Political Scientist") and his own harsh self examination ("God, what have I been drinking?" he asks in the title track). This emotional fug sometimes clears to reveal a still beating, if bruised heart ("This House Is Not for Sale") although occasionally it can become too much (the pedestrian "My Blue Manhattan", and the aimless "Avalanche").
Aside from "Afraid Not Scared" (which smacks of Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien") the whole thing sounds like a silent motif for the quiet desperation of life, like a single maudlin violinist playing on a tube platform at midnight. That and a smoky, sublime cover of "Wonderwall" makes for a near-perfect Ryan Adams record. --Ben Johncock
CD Description
Budget one-disc release of the "real" new Ryan Adams album,originally rejected by his record company for being too morose then released as two mini-albums. Darker in tone, but hailed by fans as better, than the 80s influenced, uptempo 'Rock 'n' Roll', this omits the bonus tracks from the mini-albums (which hardcore fans will already have bought) and crams 16 tracks onto one disc to appeal to the more casual fans turned onto Adams by 'Rock 'n' Roll'.