Love Is Hell Part 1

Personnel: Ryan Adams (vocals, guitar); Johnny McNab, Greg Leisz (guitar); Ruth Gottlieb (violin); Sarah Wilson (cello); Ian McLagen (Wurlitzer piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Joe McGinty (piano); Hutch Hutchinson, John Pisano (bass); Ricky Fataar, Paul Garisto (drums).
Recorded at Piety Street Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana and Globe Studios, New York, New York.
Personnel: Jon Cleary (guitar, piano, Wurlitzer organ); Greg Leisz, Johnny McNab (guitar); Ruth Gottlieb (violin); Sara Wilson (cello); Joe McGinty (piano); Ian McLagan (Wurlitzer organ); Ricky Fataar, Paul Garisto (drums).
Audio Mixers: Joe McGrath; John Porter.
Recording information: Cello Studios; Globe Studios; Piety Street Studios.
Photographers: Jessica Jenkins; Andy West .
You've got to hand it to Ryan Adams; just when everyone had him pegged as a roots-rock troubadour, he pulled a quick change-up. Within one week, he released a full-on rock & roll album that gave the Strokes a run for their money (appropriately titled ROCK N ROLL), and this EP.
LOVE IS HELL PT. 1 (PT. 2 was scheduled only a couple of weeks later) is basically a love-letter to Britpop. The first track sounds for all the world like it could have come off a Coldplay album. Elsewhere, Adams's voice, melodies, and elegantly despondent lyrics echo his beloved Morrissey, and he spends a good portion of the eight-song disc seemingly paying tribute to 1990s UK phenom James. The catch is that he's really good at it, and LOVE IS HELL comes off more as a respectfully nodding homage than a derivative item. To top it off, it contains some of the best songwriting of Adams's post-Whiskeytown career.