* COURTNEY LOVE
“America’s Sweetheart”
Virgin Records (three stars)
When you read about the exploits of 39-year-old Courtney Love – from drug arrests to losing custody of her daughter – you have to wonder how this seemingly unhinged artist had the time, talent and awareness to crank out any album, let alone one as good as “America’s Sweetheart,” which hits stores tomorrow.
This is her first album in the five years since her band, Hole, released its swan song, “Celebrity Skin,” and disbanded.
That’s a lot of time, even when you’re making movies, gobbling Demerol and Vicodin, and creating one of the most bad-ass personas pop culture has ever known.
For Love, sitting down with a pen and paper, and jotting down melodies that boast about herself was only half the battle.
Whether she wanted to keep it real – or was unable not to – this album is marked with natural rock ‘n’ roll rawness and reflects her nine-mile skid of a life.
So when you listen to Love songs like “Mono,” “All the Drugs” and “Sunset Strip,” you can’t separate them from the artist. They are songs of desperate hedonism and spiritual abandon – a little messy, a little bewildered, sometimes smart, sometimes stupid.
To understand this record, you have to know the drama of Love’s live, especially the events of the past year or so.
In late September, after the release of “America’s Sweetheart” was first pushed back, Love started her massive meltdown.
By October, she was found breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s house in LA. Although he never pressed charges, the police who investigated the incident performed drug tests on the singer that showed her to be under the influence of a controlled substance. Later, she was taken to a local hospital near her Beverly Hills home and treated for an overdose of OxyContin, a morphine derivative known as “hillbilly heroin.”
After Love admitted her drug use in a magazine interview, the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services placed Francis Bean – her 11-year-old daughter with Kurt Cobain – into the custody of Cobain’s mother, Wendy O’Connor.
Love heads back into court on Wednesday in Los Angeles to appeal the judge’s decision.
“America’s Sweetheart,” meanwhile, stands a chance of reversing the downward spiral of Love’s life.
The album, for all its flaws, is a hard-rocking, raw experience that is even occasionally thrilling. That musical excitement emerges early on the disc, especially in her ode to Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, titled, “But Julian, I’m a Little Older Than You.”
Be warned, there is nothing pretty about Love’s voice throughout this record. Even on the ballads, when she really tries to sing, the slow ones come off as misguided efforts, especially “Hold Onto Me” and the really awful “Never Gonna Be the Same.”
Where Love finds herself is in the fast screamers, such as “I’ll Do Anything.” Many will listen and call it a rip-off of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” because, well, it is – but accepting that, the pace, phrasing and attitude of “I’ll Do Anything” make it one of the disc’s best.
On “All the Drugs,” another of the top tracks, you believe Love when she slaps out the line, “The devil’s driving my car tonight,” even though you know she’s the one behind the wheel.
When the music thrashes with speed and power on this collection, Love never fails to catch the wave. Her shouts have power, and her rasp takes the paint off the wall.
In a musical world where prepackaged pop singers squeak ever so cleanly, this disc’s blemishes are a relief.