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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
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
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.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
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.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
...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 highway found it too 'morose'.
On listening to it, I was wondering if his record label are deaf. This is Ryan Adams at the top of his game. If you're new to Adams I'd still advise you to get Heartbreaker or 29 first as they're slightly easier on the ear, however if your already a big Adams fan but don't own `love is hell', what are you thinking? Please go out and buy a copy. His best songs are on here: `I see monsters', `this house is not for sale', `Wonderwall' and this CD also has a different version of my favourite Adam's song, 'Anybody wanna take me home'. They're nearly all indispensable. This album is wonderful. Buy it and hear for yourself.
On listening to it, I was wondering if his record label are deaf. This is Ryan Adams at the top of his game. If you're new to Adams I'd still advise you to get Heartbreaker or 29 first as they're slightly easier on the ear, however if your already a big Adams fan but don't own `love is hell', what are you thinking? Please go out and buy a copy. His best songs are on here: `I see monsters', `this house is not for sale', `Wonderwall' and this CD also has a different version of my favourite Adam's song, 'Anybody wanna take me home'. They're nearly all indispensable. This album is wonderful. Buy it and hear for yourself.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Stunning...Ryan Adams' Masterpiece
Compelled to write a review of this album as I believe it's truly special.
I was late discovering Ryan Adams... Read more
I was late discovering Ryan Adams... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Chumbly Wumbly
Emotional and Inspired
For someone like me, who only recently got into listening to Ryan Adams I find it as amazing as ever, that his albums are still acknowlegded as treasures of the more... Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2010 by P. Woltmann
Quality Control Variable
I'm never sure about about Ryan Adams.
Firstly, his tortured troubadour soul. Really? I'm certainly not convinced! Read more
Firstly, his tortured troubadour soul. Really? I'm certainly not convinced! Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2009 by R. Davies
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 on 28 Dec 2008 by Mr. D. Thompson
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 on 30 Oct 2008 by G. A. King
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 again
The man has a rare talent, let's hope his label don't stifle it again
Published on 25 Jun 2008 by SecretSam
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 on 4 April 2008 by mollynew442
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... Read more
most of his stuff takes a while to work its magic, but this is pretty... Read more
Published on 18 April 2007 by Andrew Ferguson
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
'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 17 May 2006 by HOWL
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