Ryan Adams: Love in Hell

Posted by: kj burrell on 01 June 2004

I love this record!! I've been playing this non stop now for a couple of weeks and like it more each time. I don't recall hearing it mentioned on the forum: anyone else got a copy.?Its apparently slightly different to the 2 part ep originally released, edited down and a couple of other tracks added.

The great think about the cd for me is the way it echoes so many other things from my collection but in the best sense of being influenced rather than simply copying. It's produced by John Porter so there are flavours of the Smiths on a couple of songs, especially "Anybody Wanna take Me Home" which has, IMO, the beating of anything on Morrisey's latest. The opening song sounds a bit like the record Coldplay think they are making everytime they go into a studio but with that level of subtlety and sensitivity that always evades them. The second song,"Afraid not Scared" starts off sounding like early Tim Buckley and turns into Radiohead's best song in years. Elsewhere there are guitar parts that had me scouring the sleeve looking for credits to David Lindley, "Please do not let me go" has the sound of a Blood on the Tracks outtake,"Hotel Chelsea Nights" sounds like those great ballads Prince once wrote. But, like all great records, it's also stuffed full of wonderful songs and lyrics. " I See Monsters" is an quite wonderful song, beautifully arranged, poignant, eloqent, great tune worthy of Elliot Smith. I don't usually get this excited about singer songwriters, haven't since Elliot Smith and Lambchop, really, and usually prefer Sonic Youth, Stereolab or Yo La Tango,but I think this is really an exceptional record, one of those you don't realise how much you like until you've lived with it for a few weeks.

Worth a listen if any of the above references have rung your bell at some point, although maybe not for the metal heads on the "Sonic Equivalent" thread!

I've got his earlier cd "Heartbreaker", which I bought because it Had Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on it - a great country/ folk/ Americana record but thought Adams was heading down a sub Springsteen route with cliches flying everywhere. This, for me, is something far better.

Kevin
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by ErikL
Whiskeytown's "Strangers Almanac" is a nice one.

PS- Looking forward to the Rough Guide to YLT thread!
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by kj burrell
1) thanks to all for not pointing out it's Love IS Hell. Roll Eyes Must learn to proof read ( or not post while taking boring phone calls)
2) YLT guide on the way - got distracted by decorating the loft this weekend. Next weekend, maybe...
3) Parker Posey? Who she??

Kevin
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by ErikL
quote:
Originally posted by alexgerrard:
Relisted on Amazon. Sold.

I gave "Gold" this treatment.

I recently had the feeling that 30% of my 2004 purchases already deserve this as well. Is it me or is this an off year so far?
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by ErikL
Algerbanger,

I think I've let Pitchfork influence my choices too much. This shall be remedied.
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by ErikL
Nick,

I was thinking along the lines of some African and (northern) Brazilian rhythmic stuff. I'll leave hippies and the French for you. Cool

PS- If you have recommendations on Brazilian and/or African tunes, I'd love to hear them (not here though; I don't want to hijack).
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by Minky
I like Love is hell(s) a lot, but RA's efforts with Whiskeytown probably stand the test of time a bit more, although we are talking alt.country here vs the pop of LIH. Although "Strangers Almanac" and "Faithless Street" are both great albums, I would get "Pneumonia", first. Do it the other way round and you might get scared off.
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by Minky
quote:
Originally posted by Ludwig:
Nick,

I was thinking along the lines of some African and (northern) Brazilian rhythmic stuff. I'll leave hippies and the French for you. Cool

PS- If you have recommendations on Brazilian and/or African tunes, I'd love to hear them (not here though; I don't want to hijack).

Ludwig,

See my recent stillborn thread on Virginia Rodrigues. Doesn't really tap the rhythmic side of the genre but very very good. I've played little else for the last fortnight.
Posted on: 01 June 2004 by matthewr
ludiwg said "I think I've let Pitchfork influence my choices too much"

It's been a poor year Pitchfork-wise after a stellar 2003, which has also influenced my impression that 2004 has been a bit slow.

However thier recent review of Craig Taborn's "Junk Magic" was spot on and is highly recommended for anyone with a liking for Thirsty Ear's "Blue Series".

Matthew
Pixies tomorrow night. Woo! Yay!
Posted on: 02 June 2004 by kj burrell
Ludwig, my next purchase is going to be a cd by Vinicius Canturia, a Brisilian who I first heard on Bill Frisell's The Intercontinentals but who also plays with people like John Zorn, Mark Ribot and David Byrne. Brizilina with a NY downtown twist. There are some samples on hmv uk. from the new one "Horse and Fish". You should also try some of Arto Lindsey's recent stuff. I've got "Prize" which mixes brazilian rhythms with some good beats and features Eno, Anti pop Consortium and others. I hear that The Subtle Body is even better.

Kevin
Posted on: 02 June 2004 by Mike Hughes
Hmm. I am torn with "Love Is Hell". It's the sort of stuff that he is probably best at (Alex, you are so right about RnR - what a truly dreadful record) and yet it lacks something IMHO.

Heartbreaker tramples cliche after cliche but does it with such panache that you can forgive him because the tunes and the emotions communicate. Gold is patchy and bland but contains some great stuff. On the other hand, you could argue that he was prolific and able to write at well above the standard most people do when that prolific (e.g. Prince over the past decade) but it was still a notch or two down from Heartbreaker.

Love Is Hell contains moments but they seem more like glimpses of what could have been a great record but really isn't. It's stark but lacks really memorable melodies. The lyrics are pretty hackneyed (always were but this time he doesn't get away with it because the starkness highlights the inadequacies rather than compliments them) and I come away from it with the overwhelming impression of someone for whom the abuses and relationships and lifestyle are now taking a toll on the end product of his creativity.

What does Ryan want to be? A pop star? A famous person or a great artist?

He could be all those but he finds songwriting too easy and surrounds himself with sycophants whereas he perhaps needs someone to sit him down and actually say "that's average, go away and improve it". IMHO the Whiskeytown stuff and Heartbreaker far surpass anything he has since produced and he's now at a crossroads. Music or fame? I'm not saying they're mutually exclusive but I think he's making bad choices and, if I were that record company, I too would have had qualms about the album because it is well played but so glum, bleak and average in so many respects that it's not really been a reputation enhancer. As was said elsewhere "Blood on the tracks it is not"!

I noted people writing into mags. like Uncut protesting about poor reviews of same and to some extent I agreed. Then I played the EPs again. I even burnt them onto one CD to replicate the new release but it's not even a sequencing issue.

I am sorry - I have ranted here. Please forgive me. It's just an opinion but, for me, well played is never good enough.
Posted on: 02 June 2004 by ErikL
Kevin, Nick, Minky- thanks.

Mike- I agree. Personally I think his goal's to become a teen girl pin-up and soap opera star. Kinda like Rick Springfield.
Posted on: 02 June 2004 by kj burrell
Mike

Your take on LIH is what I expected to think when I was given it. I found Heartbreaker patchy - at best wonderful but with occasional failed experiments - I'm far from convinced by the semi psychadelic folky stuff.I find LIH a more consistent and satisfying record. There's still a jackdaw / "look what I can do" aspect to it but, for me, the tunes carry it off. That said, many of the songs took weeks to worm their way into my affections. I think it's a very subtle record full of underplayed hooks which is why I like it but I can see why others might equally interpret this as lacking strong tunes - or radio hits as his record company felt. Still one of my favourite records of the year ( even though it more or less came out last year) but, as Ludwig said, it's not been a vintage year so far.

Mike, what else has rung your bell this year?

Kevin
Posted on: 03 June 2004 by Minky
quote:
Originally posted by kj burrell:
.. many of the songs took weeks to worm their way into my affections.I think it's a very subtle record full of underplayed hooks which is why I like it but I can see why others might equally interpret this as lacking strong tunes - or radio hits as his record company felt. Still one of my favourite records of the year ..

Spooky. My experience exactly.
Posted on: 03 June 2004 by Mike Hughes
Hmm, I'm not sure I want anything ringing my bell, hwoever, I have to confess that my rather glum, tuneless and bleak posts recently have been in part a conseuquence of studying too hard and not listening to enough music but also hitting the first year for a long time where nothing has really stood out for me.

I find myself buying increasingly old stuff (and there's nowt wrong with that - I finally "got" Joni this year if nothing else) but the only new album I have this year is Impossible Dream by Patty Griffin. That's badly sequenced and patchily arranged but is growing on me. Ryan remains resolutely filed under A (quite high up but reachable if I though the effort worth it!) and each time I pull one of the EPs out for a play I find myself listening to the end and thinking "Hmm, that was okay" and then pining for a bit of Heartbreaker.

I do agree with the opinion on the latter by the way. It is a patchy album. When it's great it's really great but some of it sucks.

Mike.