'America's Sweetheart'

For Courtney Love to really live up to the title of her new solo album, America's Sweetheart, she would need to have more than a sensationalized, tabloid cover story impact on the world of alternative music, rather than just convincing herself with delusions of grandeur that she's actually some kind of spokeswoman for it.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one with the misfortune of flipping open my new issue of Rolling Stone to the tacky full page advertisement for her first solo disaster, complete with a ghastly graphic of Love and the caption posing the question "Did you miss me?"

No!

You're not fooling me, Courtney, and you never will. I'll at least give you the benefit of the doubt about the whole "killing Kurt" conspiracy, but come on, just admit that it was him who penned most, if not all, of the lyrics for Live Through This.

I don't see how you could deny it, what with some of the brilliance on this new album. "I see Paris, I see France/I can see your underpants/Oh, I see Paris, I see France/Oh, I hear London calling," is a profound lyric from "But Julian, I'm a Little Older Than You."

Not only does this seem to be a desperate stab at credibility by referencing The Strokes; now we've got Joe Strummer rolling in his grave to boot.

And that's the second track. Anything else I had to say is lost, as I did my best to bury the sound and the fury of this album in my subconscious. Make like Nirvana and stay away.

-- Reviewed by David Tatasciore