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Love Is Hell
 
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Love Is Hell

~ Ryan Adams
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
Price: £2.98 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
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Love Is Hell + Cold Roses + 29
Price For All Three: £14.84

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  • This item: Love Is Hell ~ Ryan Adams

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  • Cold Roses ~ Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

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  • 29 ~ Ryan Adams

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Product details

  • Audio CD (3 May 2004)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
  • ASIN: B0001ZMX68
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5,665 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in this category:

    #88 in  Music > Country > Alt. Country

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Extraits
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Political Scientist 4:32£0.59
Listen  2. Afraid Not Scared 4:12£0.69
Listen  3. This House Is Not For Sale 3:53£0.69
Listen  4. Anybody Wanna Take Me Home 5:30£0.69
Listen  5. Love Is Hell 3:18£0.69
Listen  6. Wonderwall 4:08£0.69
Listen  7. The Shadowlands 5:17£0.59
Listen  8. World War 24 4:15£0.69
Listen  9. Avalanche 5:06£0.69
Listen10. My Blue Manhattan 2:22£0.79
Listen11. Please Do Not Let Me Go 3:35£0.79
Listen12. City Rain, City Streets 3:47£0.69
Listen13. I See Monsters 3:54£0.69
Listen14. English Girls Approximately 5:40£0.69
Listen15. Thank You Louise 2:50£0.69
Listen16. Hotel Chelsea Nights 5:10£0.69

Product Description

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'.

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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars His masterpiece., 10 Feb 2007
By dynamitekid156 "dynamitekid156" (Notts) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
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
By Koos "Koos Reitsma" (Groningen, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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
By J. Morrison (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality Control Variable
I'm never sure about about Ryan Adams.

Firstly, his tortured troubadour soul. Really? I'm certainly not convinced! Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. Davies

4.0 out of 5 stars my fave adams album
So many people cite the cover of 'wonderwall' as the highlight of this album - but personally i find it pretty boring.... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. D. Thompson

5.0 out of 5 stars Let the man alone
What the hell is the amazon reviewer listening to - Avalanche aimless? Absolute tosh and nonsense. Great song. The Oasis cover? Redundant. Always skip past it. The rest? Read more
Published 8 months ago by G. A. King

4.0 out of 5 stars really, really good
buy it, if only for the last 60 seconds of "English Girls Approximately", which is utterly lovely.

The man has a rare talent, let's hope his label don't stifle it... Read more
Published 12 months ago by SecretSam

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful album
My first taste of Ryan Adams' music was through the Cold Roses double album and while I could appreciate many of the tracks there was nothing that made me want to explore further... Read more
Published 15 months ago by mollynew442

5.0 out of 5 stars start here
this is the place to start if you are interested in ryan adams.
most of his stuff takes a while to work its magic, but this is pretty immediate... Read more
Published on 19 April 2007 by Andrew Ferguson

5.0 out of 5 stars a grower, like all his music,..
I've got into Ryan Adams only recently, mainly due to Elton John singing his praises and I'm glad i have. Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2006 by D. Schulten

5.0 out of 5 stars are 'lost highway' deaf?
...this is one of darlings Ryan's most accomplished albums, it was confusingly released as two eps as his record company refused to release it as a whole work, apparently lost... Read more
Published on 5 Jul 2006 by C. E. Baylis

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Love Is Hell' or is it?
This is a great album very mellow and acoustic. the album is unlike many of Adams' other albums especially Rock'n'Roll It shows Adams returning to his roots, wielding just his... Read more
Published on 18 May 2006 by HOWL

5.0 out of 5 stars love is hell
this was the first album i heard of ryan adams and i was quite blown away when i heard it. It is probably the darkest of his albums and it is my personal favourite. Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2006 by Mr. S. Cawley

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