Courtney Love, 'America's Sweetheart' (Virgin) 09/02/04

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It's been five long years since the release of Hole's final album 'Celebrity Skin', and since then Courtney has spent a lot of time buggering about with Nirvana royalties and generally creating a stir every now and again. Oh, and she did some acting too. There's been nothing, however, of a musical bent since then. So as 'America's Sweetheart' FINALLY arrives, it's a relief to find that the debut solo album from the world's second best female pop star ever (FACT!) rocks like a bastard.

The single 'Mono' sets the precedent for the rest of the album, opening with a riff borrowed from 'Celebrity Skin' itself before exploding into at least three sections that sound like the most anthemic chorus ever written. The deliciously-titled 'But Julian, I'm A Little Older Than You' continues the pace, sounding almost exactly like The Distillers covering The Folk Implosion's 'Free To Go' and (natch) The Strokes' 'The Modern Age' at the same time. It's breathlessly exciting stuff, but even that can't prepare you for the lighters-aloft rock ballad 'Hold On To Me', which sounds like the most romantic end-of-a-Brat-Pack-film tune since…well, you tell us. We're struggling to think of a better one, actually. And that's just the first three tracks.

Lyrically, she's moved onto pastures new. No longer dealing with barely-veiled social critiques, Courtney's now looking to examine herself. But if you thought introspection meant students in bedsits with acoustics, you'd better think again. She self-mythologises on an unbelievable scale ("I am the centre of the universe" being the classic example), and key track 'Mono' improbably includes the line "Hey God, you owe me one more song so I can prove to them that I'm so much better than him" - "him" seemingly referring to everyone from Eminem to, of course, Kurt Cobain. It's swaggeringly arrogant, thoroughly cheeky, and above all, bloody brilliant.

From the opening "Hey!" to the closing chords, 'America's Sweetheart' is the most exhilarating rock record in some time, and it's also her best since 1995's 'Live Through This'. Even if she never makes another record as good as this, and (Franz Ferdinand and the Flamingo 50 aside) it's hard to see how many people will this year unless Madonna really pulls her socks up and stops releasing half-arsed bollocks, she really doesn't need to. "Did you miss me?" she hollers at one point. We may not have realised, but we really, really did.