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This being Courtney, theres also an emotional rawness to Americas Sweetheart which youll either love or be repelled by.
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Q MagazineEven its most unlistenable moments command attention with a ferocity that most musicians get nowhere near. [Mar 2004, p.98]
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Love is a truly notable lyricist, but she's an ideas person rather than a musician.
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Even if you slipped the album into your player without the slightest preconceived notion of who Courtney Love is or was, Sweetheart wouldn't be able to help but strike you as a document of sheer desperation, of a frantic need for approval. Worse, it's the audible sound of a talent in serious decline.
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She winds up with a processed, affected record halfway between Live Through This and Pat Benatar or possibly Billy Squier.
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America's Sweetheart is one big, juicy fuckup, and fortunately for Courtney, there will always be little girls who hate being little girls, and are looking for a fairy godmother to show them how to self-destruct. Unfortunately, Karen O, Brody Dalle, and Amy Lee all made cooler records.
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While it's unfair to directly compare Courtney's solo work with Hole's shifty discography, America's Sweetheart demonstrates a fairly monstrous decline in both quality and conviction.
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For people who enjoy watching celebrities fall apart, America's Sweetheart should be more fun than an Osbournes marathon.
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MojoIf anywhere, this stuff belongs in interviews, not in songs. [Mar 2004, p.94]
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The songwriting is scattershot... and the sound strains for punk-on-a-budget but is as three-chord conservative as other retro acts like Rancid and the Distillers.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 50 out of 72
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Mixed: 5 out of 72
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Negative: 17 out of 72
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Jan 28, 2023
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Oct 23, 2021
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Mar 30, 2021