Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

piano, Love Is Hell aims for Nick Drake, Morrissey, and more recent Britpop luminaries (see the "Wonderwall" cover), and -- like most everything he does these days -- is sure to piss off the alt-country faithful. The results are painful, yet exhilarating: "English Girls Approximately" is a bittersweet account of love lost (Adams' strong suit) featuring Brit bird Marianne Faithfull; the title track is a fleeting guitar-driven blast of drunken bliss, and "Hotel Chelsea Nights" evolves from maudlin torch song to sing-along spiritual. The song's coda, "Strung out like some Christmas lights/Out there in the Chelsea nights," captures Adams as an artist alone . . . and shining brightly.

BILL CRANDALL
(December 9, 2003)

While Adams' debut, Heartbraker, offered inspired melancholic musings, the songs here are more radio savvy -- not so much in terms of their production, but more in that Adams seems to have taken less risks in writing them. Heartbraker sang a sad soundtrack, much like Love Is Hell Part 1. Part 2, however, could liven up the dullest dinner party.