Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams tabs Ryan Adams discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Ryan Adams guitar tabs

CD reviews

Love Is Hell Pt. 2

Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell Pt. 2 Audio CD

A fair review of the Ryan Adams "Love Is Hell Pt. 2" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Ryan Adams reviews here, or go back to the Ryan Adams tabs.

Band: Ryan Adams
Title: Love Is Hell Pt. 2
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-12-09
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: My Blue Manhattan 2: Please Do Not Let Me Go 3: City Rain, City Streets 4: I See Monsters 5: English Girls Approximately 6: Thank You Louise 7: Hotel Chelsea Nights

ADAMS AMAZES
. Ryan Adams never stops amazing me . . this is no exception. . . . This album is nothing short or great . . . and as always his lyrics are piercingly emotional. . . I love this album and love Ryan Adams.

Shouldn't y'all expect more?!!!
country fan. I am a huge alt. I love Wilco, Son Volt, etc. So I have some affection for Whiskytown, Ryan Adam's old band. They were good, but not pioneers like Farrar and Tweedy. Anyway, I also like good indie pop, but I am very picky. So, with these two interests in mind I having been researching Ryan Adams and decided Love Is Hell part 2 was my best bet. I just can't get into it. The song writing is bland and just does not hang with me. The production is sparse, but it still has that top 40 gloss. It's ironic, because Adams never gets played on top 40. Anyway, I agree with a previous reviewer that Adams needs some quality control. His other albums essentially suck. I do think he is capable of writing some 4 star stuff. If he would just pick his best tunes, stick with mimimalist warm production, and bring back Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to produce, we might get something good. Damn, I really want to get into this dude but to no avail. He is branded an alt. country bad boy, but he is nothing more than a top 40 wanna be who can't even write a song for that format. Too bad, Whiskytown sounded pretty good. Now people with all your 5 star reviews, shouldn't you expect more from music. Quit lapping up everything some says is cool. Why do we put up with all this crappy songwriting and production and force ourselves into believing we have some quality. Quality left in 1980, but we can bring it back. Rise up! Expect more!.

A Very Talented Man
It seems ridiculous that Adams' record company was not willing to put the Love Is Hell albums out. Love is Hell Part 2 is astonishing.
The album emanates a quiet, late night with a bottle of wine and a candle. The beautiful melodies are full of sincere thought and emotion.
English Girls Approximately is the standout track but nothing on this album lets you down. Excellent stuff.

The whole thing
Recorded as the official follow-up to 2001's brilliant Gold, then jettisoned by his record company, Lost Highway, Adams considers this his truest artistic statement, and that seems like a fair self-assessment. You can't just review half of this full album, which is now available in one piece. It's a beautifully written album, and Adams sings like he means every word.
The title track is rollicking fun, followed by a cover of "Wonderwall" that stakes a claim for Adams as its new owner, even in the eyes of its writer, Noel Gallagher of Oasis. There's a splendid and wistful sadness in "This House is Not For Sale," a song that's actually about ghosts in their old house-sounds weird, but it really works. Adams can carry off an up-tempo tune as well, bringing Part 1 nearly to a close with "World War 24. " The final song, "Avalanche," fades out beautifully, wrapping up the first EP so that it would stand well on its own as an eight-song album.

Instead, the second EP continues the mood of the first, though it is clearly a different side of the same record. (The full album has been issued on vinyl, which is what qualified it to be considered as a single entity. ) With "Please Do Not Let Me Go" we discover the real impetus for such a sad work-the death of a close friend. This vein of tribute-thought continues on "City Rain, City Streets," tumbles into "I See Monsters," and completes a three-four-five punch on "English Girls Approximately. " The latter lifts the mood musically just in time, jangling with the flair Adams displayed on Gold, but even here the lyrics are sad, as the girl Adams loves says she doesn't love him.

Overall, Love is Hell is a remarkable album. It changes setting halfway through-EP 1 seems to "take place" mostly in a rural setting, while EP 2 is more urban-but it holds together as one record. Its depth of emotion and the variety of tempo and instrumentation choices Adams makes to surround his weighty material make it worth having as a whole. It would be tough to divide it, in any case: the best material on each EP is sandwiched in its center, giving the overall album a good balance. Turns out you can be prolific and make coherent albums. May other artists take note.

It Moves Me
They bring you down and bring you up. Sometimes sad songs feel so right. The melancholia probes your emotions like a taser, causing you to wince at the slightest lilt or change in tone. A single note can break your heart and one lonely word can bring you to tears. When you're in this disposition of augmented sensitivity, and your feelings have been broken and battered, I'm sure the thought that Ryan Adams brilliantly exposes often sticks out in your mind like a fluorescent billboard: "Love Is Hell". The songs on this incredible ep all attest to the pain and suffering that are often brought about by the debilitation of heartbreak. The gambit of crestfallen piano tinkles that begin My Blue Manhattan forebode the entrancing despair that later follows on the album. This opening number, to me, is the ideal song for drunkenly sobbing in an empty bar-room at 4 in the morning. It's tired, lonesome, despressed and exactly what you need. Following this inebriated wallowing is my favorite song on Love Is Hell, Please Do Not Let Me Go. I won't write much about it, because too many feelings overwhelm me when listening to it. It's just so sad and so beautiful, a song that makes you wonder how the hell a person can pinpoint seemingly inexplicable emotions in a breathtaking ballad of desolation. The third song, City Rain, City Lights, starts out in a more uplifting manner, but ends in an astounding crescendo of despair, "I am going to push them away, fall into the leaves of the winter trees, drowning slowly, lonely, my city rain. " The next number, I See Monsters, calls Elliot Smith (r. i. p. ) to mind with its eerie, paranoid folk aura. Conjuring the sheer terror of true love, this song is both startling and strangely enchanting. English Girls Approximately follows in the most positive and cheery manner of any of the previous songs. It's a bit long and rambling, but still a very solid tune. Thank You Louise brings the mood back down again in describing the sorrowful life of Mary Louise and the passing away of one of her children. Concluding the sadness of Love Is Hell is Hotel Chelsea Nights, one of the most brilliant and beautiful album codas I've heard in a long, long time. The anthemic chant "Strung out like some christmas lights, out there in the chelsea nights" will stay with you for months. In a word, this ep is absolutely stunning from start to finish. I especially recommend it for those who are down, but I'm sure that anyone can appreciate the heart and soul that Ryan and Adams put into this fantastic recording.

You can see a complete list of all Ryan Adams discography, or go back to the Ryan Adams tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.