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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
America's Sweetheart
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 53 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Virgin
Release Date: 10 February 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock
Summary
The (we hope) ironically-titled 'America's Sweetheart' marks the solo debut for the former Hole leader, who co-wrote this album with Linda Perry and Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin.
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Stylus Magazine
Hole’s original précis was to become something like Sonic Youth crossed with Fleetwood Mac, and America’s Sweetheart is the closest she’s come to creating that vision.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Love's bristling energy and careening narcissism overcome the occasionally clubfooted arena-punk arrangements. [20 Feb 2004, p.63]
Spin
A jaw-dropping act of artistic will and a fiery, proper follow-up to 1994's Live Through This. [Mar 2004, p.89]
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
An album as invigorating in its contempt for rock professionalism as Neil Young's Tonight's the Night.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
'America's Sweetheart' is still more 'Celebrity Skin' than anything.
Read Full Review >Blender
While Love's voice is as scratchy and corrosive as ever, unfaraid to veer off-pitch for a good sneer, the album is big-time Hollywood rock. [Mar 2004, p.112]
Dot Music
"America's Sweetheart" is a thrilling record. Held together by that extraordinary voice, which sounds even more shredded than it did in the days of "Dick Nail" and "Pretty On The Inside", she can still deliver.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
‘America’s Sweetheart’ throbs, chugs, thunders, blasts, romps, rants and rocks.
Read Full Review >E! Online
The result is a bumpy, self-indulgent ride, sure, but Love's fuming testimony is packed with a scraggily voice screaming to be heard and a bombastic blast of rage, raw power and sarcasm.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
In contrast to the raw, subdued intimacy of Hole's "Live Though This," the sound here is all dressed up and accessorized, hard and aggressive but tuneful and hook-laden.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Even its most unlistenable moments command attention with a ferocity that most musicians get nowhere near. [Mar 2004, p.98]
The Guardian
Love is a truly notable lyricist, but she's an ideas person rather than a musician.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
This being Courtney, there’s also an emotional rawness to ‘America’s Sweetheart’ which you’ll either love or be repelled by.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
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.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
She winds up with a processed, affected record halfway between Live Through This and Pat Benatar or possibly Billy Squier.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
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.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine
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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
For people who enjoy watching celebrities fall apart, America's Sweetheart should be more fun than an Osbournes marathon.
Read Full Review >Mojo
If anywhere, this stuff belongs in interviews, not in songs. [Mar 2004, p.94]
Pitchfork
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.
Read Full Review >Uncut
America's Sweetheart is petulant and self-pitying. Worse, it's self-righteous. Worse still, it's musically crass. [Mar 2004, p.98]
Tiny Mix Tapes
The music is appallingly predictable, unoriginal, uninspiring, boring, over-polished, and vain.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 53 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Joe gave it a1:
Hole had like 2 good albums, that's all courtney has contributed to music worth listening.
Anna H gave it a10:
Kickass, raw and emotional like no-one else. Courtney Love is still the queen of Rock. Her most accomplished songwriting yet. Nasty and wild like "Pretty on the inside" and the early stuff on "My Body the Hand-grenade", raw and honest like "Live Through This", soulful like "Celebrity Skin" but with even better songwriting and production. Can't wait til the next album!
H G gave it a9:
Just stunningly good.
i i e e e gave it an8:
what a fun kick ass rock album this is!? it took me a LONG time to buy it and give it an open listen but i'm happy i finally did! i tip my hat to Courtney. she's such a car crash you forget to just listen to the music. when you do forget her personal life and just listen you know why she has a recording contract.
Kat K gave it a9:
Most songs should have been instant hits, such as Sunset Boulevard, and Hold On To Me, etc. A few a little less on par, but still listenable. Overall, incredible album. Great lyrics, emotionally reminisent of Celebrity Skin, but much more raw, similar to Live Through This. Anyone who gives this album a bad review is obviously basing it more on their opinion of Courtney, then on her album. This album makes it clear that Love is obviously a musical and lyrical genius. Overall, incredible album. Cant wait for the next if even one of it's songs is half as good as America's Sweetheart.
Billy A gave it a10:
Absolutely brilliant CD. Courtney Love still has it.
Mike H gave it a10:
Yes, she repeats the lines "shut up!", "tied to the Bed", and something about burning in more than three songs and she uses the riff from 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' for 'I'll do Anything', but 'America's Sweetheart' is a vicious rocker. Courtney snarls the way she did on 'Live Through This' and expresses her frustration with drugs and lovers in a way that most people can't touch; while others follow tired cliches, Courtney rips flesh and leaves a scar. Her vanity is unquestionable here, but that's because the album is about her. More than a year later it's still amazing, and I anxiously await her second solo outing. LOVE COURTNEY!!!!!
