Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
46. Courtney Love, America’s Sweetheart
Original position on my Stylus ballot: n/a
The highs are higher on Hole’s albums, as Sweetheart lacks the moments that transcend a damaged, destructive, self-obsessed would-be-genius who can’t pull her mind out of a vortex of drugs and celebrity culture. She is that monster, though, among other things, and this album connects more easily to the blog bile poetry she’s been dishing off record for the last decade plus. When I’m in the mood for her, this is what I go to.
2004 Courtney was clearly embarrassing for those who hoped she really would save “alternative” rock, rather than embody its compromised, mutated self in all its horror (the facial surgery didn’t help). But the chaos didn’t kill her, and this artifact sounds stronger for it. The music, though LA glossy, feels less eager to please than Celebrity Skin’s, and the haggard vocals more defiant than pathetic. Few really wanted to buy self-mythologizing showpieces like “Hold On To Me” and “Sunset Strip” (“Before the sparkle in my eyes/ Turns to strychnine/ while this beating heart is still a valentine/ Gonna ride this thing until the wheels fall off”), but in hindsight, what screamed near-death now sounds like still-alive.
