America’s Sweetheart

“America’s Sweetheart” came as Love’s “rising-from-the-ashes” album. Her band Hole had recently broken up and this was her debut studio album released worldwide on February 10, 2004 by Virgin Records. The solo album attracted attention due to its significance detraction from the content of past Hole’s studio albums: Pretty on the Inside (1991), Live Through This (1994) and Celebrity Skin (1998).

The album was started in 2001, and the production process took so long largely because of Love’s drug problems and legal issues with record labels. Her mental state at the time was heavily influenced by the break-up of hole and the production of Nirvana’s box set: With the Lights Out.

Upon its release, the album received little promotion, with the main source of media exposure being a music video for the album’s first single, “Mono,” and Love’s highly publicised drug issues.

America’s Sweetheart received mixed reviews and was a commercial failure, selling little over 200,000 copies in the United States, and with Love further citing the album as “a mistake.” In more recent years, both Love and producer Linda Perry have referred to the album as “le disaster” and “ruined because [Love] was coked out,” respectively. The album featured drumming from former Hole drummer Patty Schemel, as well as guest instrumentation and vocals from Emilie Autumn.

Critics who had heard the recordings referred to the tracks as “her best recordings yet.” Also around this time, Love began doing live performances, notably at both Ventura’s Majestic Theater and the Hollywood Bowl in October 2001, at which early versions of songs (such as “But Julian, I’m A Little Bit Older Than You” and “All the Drugs”) were performed.