Review Summary: Courtney Love misplaces her cocaine with mediocre tunes inspired by her cocaine.
Back when Love was well-known for being Mrs. Kurt Cobain, rocking harder than any famous woman in the 90s, and, well, for being accused of killing Cobain, she couldn't be any more famous. But whatever goes up, must come down - Love was into drugs. Heavy drugs. Heavy, heavy drugs.
Listening to album will make you feel uncomfortable, considering, at the time, Love's endless self-destructive behavior might've landed her six feet under, following a suicide attempt. This album will have you thinking of heroin, oxycontin, cocaine & cigarettes as if they're used to motivate. This is the album Love wrote - pilled out and high as hell. And you can almost tell when she's, let's say, off the ground, on most of the songs. In "Life Despite God," you can't understand a single word she's saying, it's all mumbles, growls and screams that sound nothing like the Love back in the '94. The drugs, cigarettes and sex caused her voice to be more rugged, scratchy and noisy as ever before, as she tries to shout out as she did in the 90s, but she just can't pull it off anymore.
She sings about her downfall and experiences in "Almost Golden," where she sounds sarcastic and unapologetic, and for once on the whole album, as if she means it. "But Julian, I'm a Little Older" is a catchy, upbeat song which was said to be about The Strokes' singer Julian Casablancas, rhyming "I love the way your mouth fits mine/1-800 he's so fine." It might as well be the only fun track on the whole damn thing. Love is all but happy. She's self-centered, a bit angry, seedy and, of course, high.
Love just loves the drugs. And even admits in "All the Drugs," singing "With all my love, with all my money/It doesn't feel good as the drugs." But the lack of money and self-love caused her to write songs that only sound good when you're shooting up. There's nothing as good as "Doll Parts," "Boys on the Radio," or even "Miss World," nothing to make a dent, to be memorable. She strains too hard to create a classic in "Sunset Strip," but ends up with a mediocre tune that runs longer than it should, shouting out "Where you jerking off to her or were you jerking off to me?" It sounds like a run-down version of "Boys on the Radio" with the theme of "Awful," but the results are just awful, but not as bad as "Hello," "Zepplin Song" or the Nirvana-rip "I'll Do Anything." She desperately scrambles to create a power-ballad classic of "Hold On to Me," but her vocals can't pull off the balads she once laced with her signature howls.
In "Mono," she asks you the million-dollar question: "Did you miss me?" And you have to wonder how to answer such a question from such a woman. But if you're missed the way Ms. Love was, maybe you shouldn't return with a drug-fueled mess that just proves how messed up you really are.
Stand-out tracks: "Mono," "But Julian, I'm a Little Older Than You," "Almost Golden"
