Courtney vs. Roky: Crazy comeback challenge

For an artist dealing with such deep mental torment, battling demons both real and imagined, the suggestion that a comeback was a remote possibility seems like a huge understatement. At this point, just the simple act of strapping on a guitar and strumming a couple of chords would be an impressive achievement, let alone writing and recording songs for a new album. But enough about Courtney Love for now, Roky Erickson's return from the abyss is no less astonishing.
It really wasn't that long ago that a "performance" by the former 13th Floor Elevators' frontman typically entailed having someone lead him onstage to a microphone where Roky would stand frozen in place with arms tightly folded and bark out the lyrics to You're Gonna Miss Me. I still vividly recall the time when Roky held up a long line of fans at book signing for Openers II while he argued vociferously with his publisher Henry Rollins that the fully-functional ballpoint provided for the event wasn't "a real pen." So to get from such a unravelled state to leading a band on a cross-continent tour singing his post-Elevators classics while deftly accompanying himself on guitar is a genuinely miraculous turnaround.

Erickson's just released True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti) – his first album of new material in 15 years – won't have anyone trashing their cherished copies of Psychedelic Sounds or Easter Everywhere but it's a much more substantial piece of work than expected and surpasses his patchy 80s releases in content and execution. Pairing him in the studio with Okkervil River proves to be a wise decision as his fellow Austinites do an exemplary job of treading the fine line between providing support and shaping the spooky sound while sticking to the prime directive of allowing Roky to be Roky. Those hoping for a return to his past dalliances with scorching psychedelia or B-movie monster metal may be disappointed with the album's rootsy orientation. However, true to Erickson's typically twisted lyrical turns (even when dealing with the subjects of love or heavenly devotion), the tone remains dark and the Okkervil boys ensure Roky's soulful crooning and haunted howling comes with potent guitar punch. As eccentric as Erickson can still be, there's a unusually spiritual component to Erickson's new songs that appears to arise from a place of inner calm rather than paralyzing fear. The elegiac closer Be And Bring Me Home hits like a gospel hymn, albeit, more like the sort Nick Cave might be inclined to join in rather than say, Yolanda Adams.
Roky's unlikely recovery is clearly tough to top but you can't discount Courtney Love's ability to rebound from horrendous personal trauma against all odds. For someone as ruthlessly driven as Courtney, just knowing that most people are convinced there's no way she can regain her queen of rock stature is fuel enough for her to claw her way back to the throne. Her new Hole album Nobody's Daughter (Mercury/Universal) set for release April 27, is a scary good start.

Initially slated for release on January 1, 2009, the album never officially materialized but a number of songs from the Nobody's Daughter sessions soon began circulating online in what now appears to be varying states of completion. The upfront use of acoustic guitar and a bluesy approach to largely introspective material seemed to confirm early reports that Love was drawing on the inspiration of Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks to make a solo album for celebrated song-doctor Linda Perry's Custard Records label that would fit comfortably next to James Blunt's soft rock gag-inducers Back To Bedlam and All The Lost Souls. However, that's not the way it turned out. Somewhere between the initial album demo sessions with Linda Perry and ex-boyfriend Billy Corgan finishing up with Celebrity Skin producer Michael Beinhorn (Marilyn Manson, Cave Dogs, Soundgarden), electric guitars were brought in, amps were turned up past 11 and everything got a lot heavier and angrier. So instead of a potentially disastrous singer/songwriter set of gently strummed sad-sack ballads, Courtney has gone bigger and badder with a boisterous Hole relaunch packing a nasty wallop of fuck-you attitude clearly designed to rock stadiums. The fact that the riff heavy Skinny Little Bitch sounds like it was ripped directly from the Nirvana songbook is no concern for Courtney, in fact, she made it the album's lead single as if to say, "suck on this!" If radio decides to pass, no problem, there's lyrical depth and musical variety enough on Nobody's Daughter to go around. Advantage Love.