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In my opinion, America’s Sweetheart was written off and ignored unjustifiably. It’s a great Courtney Love album. All of the glowing reviews will attest to that. Her personal life took over the good press for the album, and the fact that there was even an album coming out. She finds a balance between the uncaged hellion of Live Through This with the California pop sheen of Celebrity Skin, and mistakes 2004 for 1994. It’s exciting, but scary, stuff.
From the sludge like intro of “Mono” towards the final heaving gasp of “Never Gonna Be the Same,” Courtney is grabbing you and pulling you into her world. Well past darkness, well past a descent, we’re entering into demons and personal hell territory. She’s shockingly candid – drugs come up in how many songs? – and almost little-girl-lost fragile. “All the Drugs” features her most honest declaration: “With all of my money, with all of my love/It doesn’t feel as good as the drugs.” The heavy metal guitar that assails you throughout the song sounds like what is played in Hell’s waiting room. “Sunset Strip” starts out cliché ridden before chugging along into a surrealistic trip inside of Courtney’s head where she proceeds to list off all of the reasons and causes of her addiction to pills. On “Life Despite God” her voice sounds shot – a voice hasn’t sounded like that since Marianne Faithfull croaked out any of the tracks off of Broken English. And Broken English is possibly a good comparison to this album. Both deal with the lives of junkies and their confessions. While Faithfull was talking about it from the perspective of recovery, Love is amidst the battle.
When she says that the only way to understand her is to ride through the depths of Hell she’s been through, you reconsider trying to understand her. How she’s managed to survive this long is anyone’s guess. DOWNLOAD: “But Julian, I’m a Little Bit Older Than You”
