Courtney Love - America's Sweetheart

Courtney Love. A true celebrity, a true mess, a true triumph, a true talent, a true woman, a true fuck-up. And she finally pulled it together, through legal woes and various other strange instances, enough to put out an album. And it's decent. Even though Linda Perry (Pink's newest, and the current vogue songwriter-collaborator) is on board for the majority of the tracks, this does nothing to dissolve the idea that Courtney can't get an album out without some big help (think the Kurt rumors, remember the Billy Corgan stuff). IT does appear that Courtney's got all the lyric credits, which is good, because the lyrics are strong. And laid over almost every single bit of the tracks, which is one of Courtney's self-admitted faults (cf: SPIN during the Celebrity Skin era). But one of Courtney's greatest achivements has been repetition of phrases that stick and gain more meaning through repetition, and that's very prevalent on America's Sweetheart, the most self-gluttonous and vulnerable Christmas brag letter ever sent to Hollywood. First things first. Courtney's voice has gone to the dogs in many of the songs (the intro to "Life Despite God" is particularly painful, not raw, not bluesy, just, bad) on her new album, and her enunciation and nasal delivery suffers thus, especially when she tries to sound sweet-n-little, sexy, or Stevie-Nicks-ish. But she's still got power, most notably on tracks like "Mono" and "I'll Do Anything," and her writing prowess shines through on songs like "But Julian, I'm a Little Older than You" and "Hello." Basically, like Courtney, this record is full of good bits and bad bits, it's angry, it's vulnerable, and things have aged since you last saw her product. There's some throwaway bits, like the strangely grating "Sunset Strip," the silly (banal) jam "Zeplin Song," and the oddly sweet "Uncool," which was written with Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin, of all people. "Zeplin Song," though, is something Avril Lavigne might come up with in 30 years, and I'm glad Courtney beat her to the punch. Speaking of that, Courtney jumps genres so much on this album that when she finally screams something you're glad to be jarred back into the familiar. If you want to invest in something that will rock and roll you, in that dirty, marred armed, vulnerable and messy hair way ("I'm tired of all the pleasure/My company's so cheap"), you've got your album right here. It's even got Soul Asylum, Clash, and Ramones shout-outs. It's hella better than Celebrity Skin and not as good as Live Through This, but a long way from Pretty On the Inside. Face it, most people are buying this album out of curiousity, and it's worth that. There's still witches and posies and matches and pretty dresses to remember your youth with. But I felt strangely old, mean, and downtrodden when, after listening to America's Sweetheart, I reached for my Yeah Yeah Yeah's CD. Even though I'll always love Courtney, she's gotta put something more epic out that this to keep my attention. [www.courtneylove.com]