I'm in love with Courtney Love

I'M IN LOVE WITH

America's Sweethart
Virgin Records, 2004

MELISSA VS. COURTNEY
Revista Digital Cuanto y Porqu� Tanto, por Bandini

A principios de 2004, Melissa Auf Der Maur aparec�a en las p�ginas de un famoso semanario musical brit�nico. La excusa era que la ex bajista de Hole y de Smashing Pumpkins ten�a ya listo el que iba a ser su primer �lbum en solitario, �Auf Der Maur�. Como quiera que su ex patrona, Courtney Love, estaba siendo noticia, una vez m�s, por sus problemas judiciales, a Melissa le preguntaron por ella. No es sorprendente que no le hiciera mucha gracia y que tratara de pasar de puntillas sobre el particular. Eso s�, mostrando un cierto respeto. Pero la siguieron interrogando acerca de la Viuda del Grunge y de su inminente disco en soledad. Melissa dijo que no lo hab�a escuchado pero que estaba segura de que era �pegadizo�.

De esta manera, se pon�an las cartas encima de la mesa de un posible antagonismo. Los papeles se repart�an. Courtney era la sensibilidad pop y el oportunismo medi�tico. Melissa, por su lado, representaba un sonido roquero y una actitud de serena honestidad.

Debo reconocer que yo mismo me dej� llevar por este dise�o. Me resultaba l�gico, convincente. Despu�s de un fin de semana escuchando exclusivamente �America�s sweetheart� y �Auf Der Maur�, ese castillo de conceptos preconcebidos ya no tiene un aspecto tan robusto.

Es verdad que la producci�n del disco de Melissa es m�s descarnada que la del de Courtney. Pero tambi�n lo es que a, pesar de canciones saltarinas como �Beast of honor�, el tono de �Auf Der Maur� es oscuro y tenebroso. Se puede apreciar perfectamente en las intros de �Head unbound� y de �Taste you�, adem�s de en �Overpower thee�, un siniestro d�o entre la voz de Melissa y el piano de Chris Goss. Las letras, en cambio, participan de alguna manera del esp�ritu de los Rom�nticos del siglo XIX. �Sonido roquero?. S�, pero no qu�micamente puro. �Serena honestidad?. De pronto, la respuesta a esta cuesti�n me parece poco trascendente.

Tambi�n es cierto que las guitarras de �America�s sweetheart� suenan fuertes, pero resultan menos ominosas que las de �Auf Der Maur�. Eso parece que abona la teor�a de que Courtney ha dejado atr�s su filosof�a punk de principios de los 90. Pero si se escucha bien sigue habiendo mucho serr�n en su voz. Y las letras, especialmente en �Sunset strip�, son de una sinceridad aterradora. �Sensibilidad pop?. S�, como siempre. �Oportunismo medi�tico?. M�s bien la en�sima versi�n de una vieja f�rmula, esa que dice que �el fin justifica los medios�.

Como casi siempre, en una rese�a de este tipo lo que mejor parec�a que iba a funcionar era el contraste. Pero, por m�s que lo intento me resulta m�s interesante resaltar las cosas que tienen en com�n. Ambas han querido ponerse en el centro de sus respectivos proyectos y ambas han recabado la ayuda de otros m�sicos. En este punto, Courtney ha apelado al �mainstream� mientras que Melissa se ha rodeado de sus amigos, algunos bastante ilustres. Las dos han querido hacer lo m�s personal de sus carreras y se han dejado llevar por el aroma de las guitarras. Y, por �ltimo, tanto Melissa como Courtney han jugado a moverse entre dos polos, entre la contundencia y la vulnerabilidad.
La �nica diferencia es que una, Courtney, rebuscaba en su interior para hacer luz lo que es oscuridad, y la otra hac�a lo contrario.

En el cap�tulo de reproches, es quiz� la norteamericana la que peor parada sale. Especialmente, porque hace muy poco tiempo Courtney Love se convirti� en una eficaz portavoz contra las multinacionales. Fue capaz, a trav�s de un comunicado p�blico, de jerarquizar los abusos de las �majors� sobre los artistas por encima de la pirater�a. Y ahora saca el disco con una de esas compa��as malvadas y no a trav�s de Internet, como hab�a prometido. Y el anuncio que hay en el libreto del CD acerca de las descargas legales no ayuda a que seamos comprensivos con el desliz. De todas maneras, este pero no pertenece al terreno meramente musical as� que su importancia es muy relativa. Quiz� s�lo quer�a llegar al mayor n�mero posible de personas sin comprometer su trabajo. Las rebeliones fracasadas de Prince y George Michael parece que han funcionado como un aviso para navegantes confiados.

La rubia contra la pelirroja. La americana contra la canadiense. La viuda del genio contra la hija del pol�tico. La amante del exceso contra la amiga de la contenci�n. Courtney contra Melissa. Todo un fin de semana escuchando sus discos y todav�a no s� cu�l prefiero.

COURTNEY LOVE : AMERICA'S SWEETHEART (6/10)
NME, por Alex Needham

About 18 months ago, Courtney Love spent an evening DJing at Alan McGee�s club Death Disco. This being Courtney, the DJing was the least memorable part of the event. One highlight involved Courtney lying on her back as two acolytes dragged her around the dancefloor by the feet in an attempt to remove her cowboy boots. Amidst the mayhem, a friend of NME�s asked her about her new material, then being recorded. "Will it be a hit?" he enquired. "It�s going to be number one, sweetie," came the magnificent reply.

Now, after umpteen delays, �America�s Sweetheart� is here. Wrapped in a gorgeous sleeve (showing that Courtney still has great taste even when everything else is going to pot), it�s her second attempt at making a proper commercial blockbuster after the airbrushed magnificence of Hole�s 1998 final album �Celebrity Skin�.

However, at first it sounds slight and rather ragged. �Mono� has a great line ("Well they say that rock is dead/And they�re probably right" ) but is basically a retread of �Celebrity Skin��s awesome title track. �I�ll Do Anything�, with its war cry "Give me whiteboy skin/Give me big black men" conflates �Smells Like Teen Spirit�, Blur�s �Song 2� and even Elastica�s �Connection� into something exhilarating but inescapably derivative.

A few plays later, however, and �America�s Sweetheart� reels you in. Although you could never call Courtney Love�s atonal rasp beautiful, it�s never less than compelling. Songs which are like sandpaper on the ears first time round (like howlathon �The Plague�) reveal a certain scary beauty, while the blowsier side of Courtney�s repertoire ( �Hold On To Me�, �Never Gonna Be The Same�) becomes more convincing. Compared to her soft rock icon, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, Courtney hollers like a workman, but there�s something heroic about her inevitably doomed attempts to emulate her.

This being Courtney, there�s also an emotional rawness to �America�s Sweetheart� which you�ll either love or be repelled by. Though the production covers everything in a superficial gloss, when Courtney sings about how she�s got pills for every eventuality, or that "all the drugs in the world" won�t shut her up, you know she�s singing from bitter experience. What is missing are the chilling lyrical imprecations she used to do so well � like �Doll Parts�� "Someday you will ache like I ache." Nevertheless, Courtney clearly still means it, maan. "Number one, sweetie"? We doubt it. But when it comes to stars with one foot in Beverley Hills and the other in some Camden gutter, part Lucrezia Borgia and part Judy-Garland-meets-Janis-Joplin, there is still only one Courtney Love.

COURTNEY LOVE : AMERICA'S SWEETHEART (**)
Rolling Stone #942, 19/Feb/2004, por Rob Sheffield

When the Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers in 1971, Keith Richards mused, "I don't think Sticky Fingers is a heavy drug album any more than the world is a heavy world." So let's just say that Courtney Love's long-delayed comeback, America's Sweetheart, comes from a heavy, heavy world indeed. You'd have to go back to Sticky Fingers to find a major-label album so saturated in the slow-motion drug ambience of the sleazy rock underworld. It will surprise anybody who expected Love to clean up her act after so many years as a tabloid spectacle. She sounds ragged, unsteady, slurring her words. In "Hello," she howls, "I got no desires no more" -- and hearing is believing. For her official solo debut, Love called in the pros: Matchbox Twenty producer Matt Serletic, ex-boyfriend/producer Jim Barber, Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin, Christina Aguilera hitmaker Linda Perry. But despite all the producers and song doctors, Sweetheart seems tired. Love chronicles life in the Hollywood fast lane, with sordid tales such as "Mono" and "All the Drugs." "The Plague" ends with Love mumbling, "All my love's in vain/Cannot find a vein." "Sunset Strip" is a rock version of Patty Duke's meltdown at the end of Valley of the Dolls, as Love screams, "I got pills for my coochie 'cause, baby, I'm sore/I got pills 'cause you're bad/ I got pills 'cause I'm bored!"

But the shocker is Love's ravaged voice. No matter what you've heard about her real-life problems, nothing could prepare you for how busted up she sounds. Hell, it took Rod Stewart thirty years of rum-and-Cokes and Swedish models to do this kind of number on his throat. Her voice gets processed through filters and overdubs, but she's still in rough shape, stumbling over consonants and running out of breath. Whenever she tries a ballad -- "Hold On to Me," "Never Gonna Be the Same" -- it's ghastly. Elsewhere, she keeps turning on the scream to cover up for the mediocre tunes. Her best riff shows up on "I'll Do Anything," which sounds like an old song you may remember called "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

For people who enjoy watching celebrities fall apart, America's Sweetheart should be more fun than an Osbournes marathon. But strange as it seems today, Courtney Love used to have something to say, voicing her female audience's fantasies of freedom and power. On Hole's 1994 masterpiece, Live Through This, she inhabited teenage misfits, bored housewives and beauty queens with total conviction. But on America's Sweetheart, she can't find the emotional intensity that made her a star. So she settles for the role of a hapless circus act staggering down the red carpet -- and Paris Hilton does it better.

COURTNEY LOVE - AMERICA'S SWEETHEART (Virgin)
MusicOMH, por Jamil Ahmad.

Except for a couple of notable newspapers, readers will have been advised what a pretentious, heartless, so-so, post-grunge punk product this is. A word of advice: this is gravely misleading.

America's Sweetheart is a good album. I�m tempted to say fantastic because that�s the feeling you get once you�ve gotten to know it a bit better. As you load the CD into the tray, be warmed by the thought that opener Mono will pound you with energy and excavate the loose cannoned snarl of Courtney Love, or think of the menacing punk ode to The Strokes' Julian Casablancas (But Julian, I�m a Little Older Than You), where Courtney would rather meet him "in the bedroom" than the bathroom.

The sincere Hold On To Me tugs gently, as waves of the '90s wash up in frayed guitar echoes. This could easily have been a Pixies or Hole anthem except it describes Courtney still clearly haunted by Kurt Cobain: "This life is never fair / He comes to me / In the dead of winter / In the dead of night/ He�s all that I can see / Hold on to me."

Though much of the pathetic publicity pap we read has been self-induced, any of the red-top writers looking for an easy story for their trashy celeb supplements might do well to listen to this song. The lyrics are incredibly painful as Love wallows: "We all get our glory / A little bit of fame / But there�s no truth at the heart of any of it / Just the brilliance and the passion and the bitterness remain." Though how the line, "I�m the centre of the universe," fits into this defeats me. Still, Love still manages to turn depressed lyrics into feel-good therapeutic release, which leads perfectly into the tinged radio-rock of Sunset Strip.

Just as the album appears to peter into middle-aged psychoanalysis, out slams All The Drugs. The riff is classic and simple, a bastard of grunge and nu-rock, proving that while knocking on the age of 40, Ms Love still has it.

After Almost Golden, I�ll Do Anything pops up. You�ll have to ask Courtney about this one. First off, it�s Smells Like Teen Spirit unashamedly, even down to replicating feedback and the fade away. And with lines like, "Give me white boy skinny / Give me big black man / Give me dick / Give me speed," one suddenly does warm to the "f**k up" slurs thrown Love�s way.

Sombre yet sleazy, Life Without God is dirty bar room rock. We�re talking about Courtney on the bar, bra straps slipped to her shoulders, knickers round her ankles, dripping whisky from her mouth. Every garage rock act with a "The" moniker is made irrelevant. This is garage rock. And nobody does it better than Courtney, even if at one point she seems to be pigging on a Dime bar.

Many doubted America�s Sweetheart would see the light of the day. Admittedly some parts are wishy washy, and whatever Courtney is on has wandered onto the album for some few, and thankfully, far between moments. However, hopefully this will get her together and give her something to focus on. Rock doesn�t need another tragic, self-destructing casualty.

www.iminlovewithcourtneylove.tk