December 8, 2003

Doing What He Pleases, Vol. 2

'Love Is Hell, pt. 2'
Ryan Adams

Let's get the critical appraisal out of the way first: "Love Is Hell, pt. 2" is a fantastic EP. It is better than Adams's recently released "Rock N Roll" CD. It is even better than the EP "Love Is Hell, pt. 1." For those who don't know about Mr. Adams, for those who feel they know him too well, and for those who write him off as overhyped and not worth knowing, let it be said once more that he is ridiculously good at what he does. No one likes admitting to a guy who knows he's a rare talent that he's right.

The story behind the two "Love Is Hell" EP's is that last year Mr. Adams's label, Lost Highway Records, rejected a CD he recorded as "Love Is Hell." In its place the label released "Rock N Roll," full of more upbeat, up-tempo music more likely to be played on the radio. As a concession to Mr. Adams's productivity, Lost Highway agreed to release the two "Love Is Hell" EP's, which mix music from the scrapped CD with newer songs, without promotion. While "Rock N Roll" is a strong CD, it's a shame to think that songs as heart-stopping as "My Blue Manhattan" and "I See Monsters" (on "pt. 2") might never have been released.

Luke Lewis, the president of Lost Highway, has said in interviews that the label did not release "Love Is Hell" because he thought it showed no growth since Mr. Adams's previous CD's. The label's problems with this material highlight three major flaws with the way record companies release and market music, even at a relatively artist-friendly, music-focused place like Lost Highway. These flaws are the beliefs that an artist may release and promote only one major CD a year, that each CD must be an artistic progression from the last and that there should at least be a few songs on each CD that have a shot at being played on commercial radio.

All this leaves a songwriter like Mr. Adams artistically homeless: he records songs whenever the inspiration strikes, which is often; he is concerned not with consistency or making one song better than the last, but with capturing his mood and inclination at a particular moment; and his best work remains his most downbeat. In many ways these are among the hallmarks of artists whose repertory — be it hit or miss — endures.

Billy Corgan, in an interview in The New York Times, said that he would like his group Smashing Pumpkins either to be the biggest band in the world or to have a small cult following loyal to its every word. Mr. Adams has shown promise at both of these extremes: as a hitmaker and as a cult favorite.

"Love Is Hell, pt. 2" is ultimately an EP for the cult audience, in the spirit of Nick Drake or Chris Bell, though it also has echoes of Prince, Bob Dylan and the Smiths. Nearly every song seems to move in aching slow motion, slowly morphing into a freeze frame of self-recrimination or, at the EP's most down moment, the death of a child. The music and lyrics evoke the singer lying in bed alone and sick in the Chelsea Hotel at Christmastime, troubled by unrequited love, the inaccessibility of God and the miserable weather. And most importantly, there's not a bad song here.

'Terrorist Threats'
Westside Connection

In the last six months, making references to the events of 9/11 and their aftermath has somehow become gangsta, a way for rappers to make their rhymes sound hard core. This is exemplified in the ill-titled "Terrorist Threats" from the Westside Connection, a CD-length reunion of Ice Cube, WC and Mack 10. Its thesis is that rap is terrorism (not the best analogy to make under the Patriot Act), leading to ridiculous lines that rhyme, for example, West Sider with Al Qaeda.

More than current political events, this CD is concerned with current hip-hop events. And though nothing here matches the Mannie Fresh beat of their collaboration two years ago on the single "Connected for Life," the Westside Connection's long-awaited latest is still an impressive disc. One of its best songs attacks the softening of hip-hop (with the chorus "there's so many rappers in love on the radio"). Another highlight rails against the other extreme, hard-core rappers who try to live what they sing (rapping "before you bust a verse," go "snatch a purse").