Ryan Adams had to wrestle with his label to release the broken and brooding brilliance of this seriously strange weather. In the wake of his breakthrough success with 'Gold', Adams recorded over five albums worth of new material. His label Lost Highway rejected each one for various reasons and ended up pulling songs from each into his next album 'Demolition'. Looking to break out of the alt-country mold, he enlisted producer John Porter (who had worked with the Smiths) to work on his next project.
The first wave of 'Love Is Hell' was recorded over four days at Globe Studios in New York with Ryan Adams on vocals, guitars, piano, and other instruments; Paul Garisto on drums; John Pisano on bass; Joe McGinty on piano; and Johnny McNabb on lead guitar. Adams would reveal at the time: "It's done. We went into the studio on Monday (Sept 2) and we finished on Friday (Sept 6). I stopped for two hours on Wednesday to go to the art show, then we went back that night and cut two more tracks. It's 11 songs, no B-sides, and it's called 'Love Is Hell'. I can't even listen to it yet because it's so spooky. It sounds like someone possessed. It's like someone on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Or on the verge of a nervous breakthrough. The minute it was done I felt better. It's definitely the most intense record I've ever done."
Adams would perform many of the songs during a three month solo tour before going into a New Orleans studio with Porter, a slew of session musicians, and a batch of new songs. The new sessions included Greg Leisz on lead guitar and pedal steel; Ricky Fataar on drums; Hutch Hutchinson on bass; Ian McLagan on B3 organ, Wurlitzer electric piano; Jon Cleary on piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, and rhythm guitar; Ruth Gottlieb on violin; and Sarah Wilson on cello. Adams would admit: "I sabotaged [the New Orleans sessions]. They tried to make the guitars sound pretty, and I wanted them to sound really nasty and fucked up, like on the original New York recordings. I erased a bunch of tapes and said I didn't want to use any of the new versions. It was a fucking nightmare."
Once again, Lost Highway refused to release his music, deciding that it was too dark and experimental to be commercially viable. Adams retreated to New York and ended up recording another album that Lost Highway liked very much. This album became his next release 'Rock N Roll' on the condition that the label also release 'Love Is Hell'. Lost Highway would split 'Love Is Hell' into two EP's that would eventually be combined into a single album release after the positive response of fans and critics.
Adams considers: "That time, I think that was the one time where there was a lot of hesitation. I think a lot of it had to do with the disappointment of the sales of 'Gold', of that whole time in general. I don't think that 'Love Is Hell', that part of my personality of writing music, had really shown itself in a real way. My excitement, my vibe from 'Heartbreaker' to 'Gold' wasn't so much about electric guitar or synth sounds. Up to that point it had been kind of...there was more enthusiasm for exploring what I could get out of roots music, what I could find in that stuff. I was finding out a bunch about writing from playing that kind of music. Finding myself, too. I didn't really know how much was in that stuff, because I wasn't around it when I was a kid. But the records that got me into music weren't like that. I'd hear Alabama on the radio every day in North Carolina. You just do. Coming back to that stuff was great for me, but it wasn't the stuff that I learned to play, or made me want to play music. It wasn't the style of guitar playing or songwriting that I had reared myself on. I found out about who I was by writing in that style, so the process was a way of catching up-- this reminds me of home, this reminded me of where I'm from . OK, so what's the next thing that reminds me of home or where I'm from or finding myself? The first music that I loved. I dove into that, and was reinvested in music, but I think it was a shock for them. Also, I had been writing most of that record while I was living in England, with my girlfriend, so there was a disconnection-- geographically and musically. I think honestly that there were mainly some people there that just didn't like it. To them it seemed like, whoa, we didn't do too good on Gold, and we need something big and then you can go experiment. I don't know. I don't really know what the thinking process was. I was just happy I could get to the studio...It was kind of inevitable that there would be a disconnect because of style. It was just a matter of when. Because things were working, I didn't think about that. I was willing to shut that off and cross that bridge when I got to it. At the time it was maybe bad timing on all levels. But I still really respect and love those tunes. I love to play them so much now. In fact, I think that they are usually tunes that the Cardinals and myself get really excited about when they come up in the set."
'Love Is Hell' charted at number eighty-seven in Belgium and sixty-two in the UK.
http://ryan-adams.com
"Anybody Wanna Take Me Home"
"Love Is Hell"
"Wonderwall"
"The Shadowlands"
"World War 24"
"Avalanche"
"My Blue Manhattan"
"I See Monsters"
"English Girls Approximately"
"Thank You Louise"
'Love Is Hell'
full album
https://myspace.com/ryanadams/music/album/love-is-hell-12351
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ALBTKoXRg38BAT0kvW1mqC0pIl2dUI4caA
All songs written and composed by Ryan Adams, unless otherwise stated.
1. "Political Scientist" 4:33
2. "Afraid Not Scared" 4:13
3. "This House Is Not for Sale" 3:53
4. "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" 5:31
5. "Love Is Hell" 3:19
6. "Wonderwall" Noel Gallagher 4:09
7. "The Shadowlands" 5:18
8. "World War 24" 4:17
9. "Avalanche" 5:09
10. "My Blue Manhattan" 2:23
11. "Please Do Not Let Me Go" 3:37
12. "City Rain, City Streets" 3:49
13. "I See Monsters" 3:57
14. "English Girls Approximately" 5:42
15. "Thank You Louise" 2:52
16. "Hotel Chelsea Nights" 5:10
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