Love Is Hell, particularly when it comes to Ryan Adams.

I'm pretty sure the first time I heard Ryan Adams was at Brit's (not on Shake Night, luckily, or there'd have been violence). His cover of "Wonderwall" came on, and I was like, "wtf?" Because I was at Brit's, and "Wonderwall" was on, and it wasn't the Oasis version. Little did I know at the time that it was being sung by Ryan "Whiskey Town" Adams, who I had been long-since conditioned to hate by a surly Jeff Tweedy.

Some time later I was at Dunn Brothers, and for some inexplicable reason, the coffee dude asked me if I was at the Ryan Adams show the night before. I was like, "uh, no." He proceeded to tell me about how he was there, Adams was late, and completely trashed the stage before storming off of it. He also mentioned a rumor that Adams would have anyone kicked out of the club for requesting "Summer of '69." This all made perfect sense to me, because as far as I knew, Ryan Adams was a huge jackass.

Then came "Burning Photographs," and sonofabitch, was it ever good. It was like, top ten most played in iTunes good. And it killed me that I liked it, but I just couldn't help it. But hey, it's one song, right? The exception that proves the rule.

With last year came "The Rainy Day Women," one of the finer The O.C. episodes, and chock-full of 90's goodness on the soundtrack. And it closed with one of the finest rock songs of the nineties: "Wonderwall." Except it was the 2003, Ryan Adams version. Sonofabitch. But it served to further emphasize that my hatred was good and true, and that all was right with the world.

Except... a year later, that song was in my head. I broke down and got the single from iTunes and... it was good. It as so good. I read a few reviews of Love is Hell, and damn if it didn't sound like something I'd like. And, well, okay. I got it. A whole Ryan Adams album.

And I like it. Love it, even.

The damn thing is solid from beginning to end. Aside from a couple of days with The Delays and The Infadels, I haven't listened to anything since. The music is outstanding, Adams's voice is completely infectious, both sincere and a little bit cheeky at the same time, and the lyrics are consistent works of poetry.

Early standout tracks were "Love is Hell," "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home," and "English Girls Approximately," but as I continued to listen to the album, the quieter pieces began to emerge as frontrunners. "World War 24" is probably my current favourite, the melodic opening segueing into a heart-wrenching crescendo of repeated pleas. "City Rain, City Streets" has a deceptively light-hearted opener, but like "World War 24," shifts gears at the end to take a chillingly dark turn. The album closes with the bluesy growl of "Hotel Chelsea Nights," evoking vividly a wintery city street that, as a Minnesotan, I could definitely identify with.

And those are just the highlights. The rest of the album demonstrates near the same level of quality. "Avalanche" borders on the saccharine/schmaltz side of things, but even then, the lyrics are strong enough to make it forgiveable.

Adams might be as much of an arrogant bastard as the rumors claim, but he also just might have every right to be. Love Is Hell is a stellar album, and one this music listener highly recommends.