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Love Is Hell |  | Artist: Ryan Adams
Label: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £3.98
as of 23/11/2009 19:36 GMT details
You Save: £5.01 (56%)
New (37) Used (4) from £3.18
Seller: music notes
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 4157
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Running Time: 68 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 000170202
UPC: 602498623251
EAN: 0602498623251
ASIN: B0001ZMX68
Release Date: May 3, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Political Scientist | | • | Afraid Not Scared | | • | This House Is Not For Sale | | • | Anybody Wanna Take Me Home | | • | Love Is Hell | | • | Wonderwall | | • | The Shadowlands | | • | World War 24 | | • | Avalanche | | • | My Blue Manhattan | | • | Please Do Not Let Me Go | | • | City Rain, City Streets | | • | I See Monsters | | • | English Girls Approximately | | • | Thank You Louise | | • | Hotel Chelsea Nights |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Welcome back to Ryan Adams the poet--previously missing presumed dead, or at least seriously wounded by the hand of his own gutless record label. ILove Is Hell/I combines both previous EPs of the same name, originally released as such by Lost Highway, wary of the lack of mainstream pop Adams had delivered them (causing the slighted musician to knock up the throwaway yet still utterly indispensable IRock 'n' Roll/I). Here we find four songs chopped (none missed) and one added--the world-weary yet utterly romantic "Does Anybody Want To Take Me Home" from IRock 'n' Roll/I (potential single material, cut from the same cloth as "This House Is Not for Sale").p ILove Is Hell/I is a desolate, artistically ambitious, yet strangely moving piece of work that visits someplace on the edge of town ("Political Scientist") and his own harsh self examination ("God, what have I been drinking?" he asks in the title track). This emotional fug sometimes clears to reveal a still beating, if bruised heart ("This House Is Not for Sale") although occasionally it can become too much (the pedestrian "My Blue Manhattan", and the aimless "Avalanche").p Aside from "Afraid Not Scared" (which smacks of Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien") the whole thing sounds like a silent motif for the quiet desperation of life, like a single maudlin violinist playing on a tube platform at midnight. That and a smoky, sublime cover of "Wonderwall" makes for a near-perfect Ryan Adams record. --IBen Johncock/I
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
 His masterpiece. February 10, 2007
dynamitekid156 (Notts)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
On more than one occasion, record labels and PR people have made the wrong choice. The Rolling Stones were signed to Decca entirely because the man who signed them didn't want to make the same mistake twice, having previously passed on the Beatles. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album is famous both as their masterpiece, and as the album that Warners paid for twice, because Wilco made it, Reprise rejected it, and then Nonesuch bought it. It's now their biggest seller.
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br /And so it is with Love Is Hell by wayward alt-country wonderboy Ryan Adams. When he first made it, Lost Highway rejected it as too depressing, instead putting it out as two ridiculous album-length EPs, while Adams responded by recording the sporadically great but mostly awful Rock 'n' Roll album. Then, the following year, his label relented, finally allowing Adams to release the album 'as he intended it.' His label are morons.
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br /The release of this was somewhat of a low blow for Adams fans because they already have all but one of these songs on the EPs, and it's a blow for Adams himself because it proves how little his label apparently respects his opinion. That is irrelevant to the quality of the music however - and the music is the best collection he's produced to date.
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br /The single parallel you can draw with his previous work is that the chiming, twangy guitar tone on show here is the same one that he employed on Rock 'n' Roll. Other than that, this otherworldy album is the most unique thing in his catalogue. Opener 'Political Scientist' is quite simply the finest song he's ever written, an utterly stunning, sweeping epic. Nothing here equals it, but it's pretty much uniformly great.
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br /His famous cover of Oasis' 'Wonderwall' is lovely, all subtle acoustic guitars and atmosphere rather than the great, but blunt, original. 'Afraid Not Scared' is lovely, a fine vocal on Adams' part holding it together, ditto for 'Does Anybody Want To Take Me Home?'. 'This House Is Not For Sale' canters along on a well-strummed acoustic guitar.
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br /This whole album is based on great songs which are as much about mood as they are about melody. This album is dark, depressing, claustrophobic, his label was right about that, and as always is slightly overlong; but it's also heartbreaking, beautiful, and the greatest album Adams has yet released.
excellent March 9, 2005
Koos (Groningen, Netherlands)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Rumours said that there were a lot of trouble for Adams having this album out on record. Rumours said that the company didn't like the album because of it's darker touch. brRumours said that finally the record came out.brOh boy.brAfter being introduced in Ryan Adams music by his 'Gold' record, I was wondering if he could do a better job. With "Love is Hell" I think he did.pA rather furious 'Love is Hell'. An indeed excellent acoustic cover of Oasis' 'Wonderwall'. A rather sad but very strong Please do not let me go''. A Neil Young influenced strong 'City Rain, city streets'. A very strong collaboration with Marianne Faithfull on 'English girls Approximately'. Album closer 'Hotel Chelsea nights' with its howling guitar solo. 'Love is Hell' contains 16 very well written songs about lost love, broken love, addiction. all songs with strong and straight-telling-stories lyrics. Ryan Adams proves again his skill as an excellent songwriter. He keeps your attention to each song because of their structure, sound and words. pPersonal favourites are in the beginning of the album: The rather dramatic 'Afraid not scared' starts of with an acoustic guita rriff that is to be heard through the whole song. After having sung his two main lyrics, Ryan comes in with the electric guitar. After the first verse the piano is softly on the background, after the second verse suddenly the electric guitar comes in, that finally will take over the whole song with beautiful and dramatic sounding riffs. But still on the background to be heard, the main acoustic guitar rif. brThe song is followed by the even stronger 'This house is not for sale'. Want to know how it feels if everybody in whole wide world thinks and acts your relationship is over, while you think and hope it's not? Then listen to this one. The song is based on a strong acoustic guitar melody (again), this time backed by strong drums. The electric guitar: only to be heard at the end of some lines in a lyric, which gives the song a great touch. No guitar solo in the song, but the song' structure doesn't need a guitar solo. Pay attention to Adams' singing on this song, compared with the context of the lyrics, especially in the middle of the third lyric. Brilliant. Should or could have been a big hit with the right airplay.pRyan Adams, a big compliment from me for this record.
Love is Hell is Heaven April 29, 2004
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Ok, sorry about the cheesy title.brThis is the album that Coldplay wouldmake if Chris Martin suffered the same drug comedowns as Ryan Adams. Itreally makes you believe love is hell. It's the sound of Ryan Adamsstripped down with a guitar, piano, and a whole load of issues.brHis cover of Wonderwall is better than the original. It fits onto Love IsHell perfectly, and doesn't become a misfit like most cover versions onalbums do. brShadowlands is more fragile than any song you will ever hear. City RainCity Streets is Ryan's guilt ridden miss you to his friend who died. 'If***ed you over a million times, and you died.'brHotel Chelsea Nights isPrince's Purple Rain sung by a man stuck in a sterile hotel room.brFitting both the double albums onto one CD creates a classic album that isdestined never to be big. And personally, I like it that way.
are 'lost highway' deaf? July 5, 2006
C. E. Baylis (no where special)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
...this is one of darlings Ryan's most accomplished albums, it was confusingly released as two eps as his record company refused to release it as a whole work, apparently lost highway found it too 'morose'.
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br /On listening to it, I was wondering if his record label are deaf. This is Ryan Adams at the top of his game. If you're new to Adams I'd still advise you to get Heartbreaker or 29 first as they're slightly easier on the ear, however if your already a big Adams fan but don't own `love is hell', what are you thinking? Please go out and buy a copy. His best songs are on here: `I see monsters', `this house is not for sale', `Wonderwall' and this CD also has a different version of my favourite Adam's song, 'Anybody wanna take me home'. They're nearly all indispensable. This album is wonderful. Buy it and hear for yourself.
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start here April 19, 2007
Andrew Ferguson
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
this is the place to start if you are interested in ryan adams.
br /most of his stuff takes a while to work its magic, but this is pretty immediate.
br /its also probably his best album.
br /start here and you are in for a real treat.
br /for all fans of great music.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
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