The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 231

-1 Public Enemy, once the major force in rap music, has been beset by controversy and backlash lately. But Chuck and crew figure to come out swinging on Tuesday at the House of Blues. IJ ROCK COUNTRY RAP LATIN -JAZZ Rock Turns a Very Young 40 The Consensus Top 10 Defying the common wisdom that her career was all but over after the suicide of her husband, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love Thankstoanew generation of musical revolutionaries, five albums qualify as the year's finest. By Robert Hilburn and her band Hole have taken top honors in The Times' pop contributors' annual balloting for best album. Hole's "Live Through This," recorded before Co-bain's death, tops a field that ranges from veterans (R.E.M., Neil Young) to emerging mil i MMMBB NO.

3: Neil Young Who would have imagined that rock 'n' roll would be so vital and inspiring at 40? Despite evidence as fil forces (Soundgarden) to rookies (Warren G) not to mention the oldest artist to appear in the poll's 15-year history: Johnny Cash, 62. Here is our consensus Top 10 (actually 11, with ties). Albums are awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second and so forth. Richard Cromelin Wl recently as 1990 that the music had once again lost its relevance, a new generation of musicians has stepped forward with purpose and direction-just as the Beatles and Bob Dylan did in the '60s, Bruce Springsteen and the Sex Pistols in the '70s, R.E.M. and U2 in the '80s.

This latest rescue unit is drawn chiefly from artists whose music expresses the anger and alienation of growing up amid broken homes, hostile surroundings and meaningless job expectations. It's a rock revolution so deeply rooted that it has given us an abundance of riches in 1994. Some years it is difficult to find one album that lives up to the ambition and craft suggested by the term album, of the year. This year, there are five: Artist, Title (Label) Total Ballots Points (First Place) 1. Hole, "Live Through This" 75 10 (DGC) (4) 2.

Nine Inch Nails, "The 68 9 Downward Spiral" (2) (NothingTVTlnterscope) 3. Neil Young Crazy Horse, 65 9 "Sleeps With Angels" (2) (Reprise) 4. R.E.M., "Monster" 40 6 (Warner Bros.) 5. Johnny Cash, "American 38 5 Recordings" (American) (1) 6. Warren "Regulate 28 5 Funk Era" (Violator (1) RALlsland) 7.

Beastie Boys, "III Commu- 25 5 nication" (Capitol) (Tie) Dionne Farris, "Wild 25 5 Seed Wild Flower" (Columbia) (Tie) Soundgarden, 25 4 Superunknown" (1) 10. Liz Phair, "Whip-Smart" 20 4 (Matador) (Tie) Victoria Williams, 20 3 "Loose" (MammothAtlantic) Hole, "Live Through This" (DGC Records). The cover photo of a beauty queen at the moment of victory is the ideal introduction to Hole's major-label debut In a more innocent age, being elected queen was seen by young girls as one of life's ultimate joys right up there with meeting Mr. Perfect and raising those beautiful kids. In the best of these songs, singer-songwriter Courtney Love slashes with the force of a machete at the idea of guaranteed happiness.

She expresses disappointment and disillusionment in songs so naked and raw that you expect the photo on the album's back cover to show the queen's dead flowers. "Someday," she warns, "you will ache like I ache." Instead, the photo shows a young, barefooted Love, back when all her childhood dreams were intact. What gives Hole's music its power is that Love despite her loudmouth, confrontational persona still clings to fairy tales and the hope that life can be transformed magically by romance or, heaven forbid, rock 'n' roll. The strength of "Live Through This," with its tales of obsession and betrayal, lies in the tension between what Love wants to believe and the stark reality of LOR1 SHEPLER LuAngeletTinwt HOLE IN 1: Courtney Love rums dreams gone sour into the year's best album. Ulna lnk Malta TKa nAiuuif4 mire invn iiaiiSf ma wminaiu It Snlrsl" fNnthinirTVTTntPr.

I scope). Trent Reznor may be the most gifted blend of singer, Here are the 17 voters' individual choices for best album: Jann Browne, "Count Me In" (Red Moon): Mike Boehm; Johnny Cash: Randy Lewis; Elvis Costello, "Brutal Youth" (Warner Chris Willmanj Warren Dennis Hunt; Helmet, "Betty" (Interscope): Sandy Masuo; Hole: Robert Hilburtl, Lorraine Ali, Steve Appleford, Heidi Siegmund; Shara Nelson, "What Silence Knows" (EMI ERG): Ernest Hardy: Nine Inch Nails: Chuck Crisafulli, Jonathan Gold: Pavement, "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" (Matador): Richard Crome-lin; Velvet Crush, "Teen Age Symphonies to God" (550Epic): Jean Rosenbluth; Soundgarden: Enrique Lopetegui; Neil Young Crazy Horse: Steve Hochman, Connie Johnson. misses no opportunity to startle or jolt in the tradition of the horror movies he loved as a kid. Yet "The Downward Spiral" isn't a celebration of nihilism. Rather, the songs chronicle the moments of self-destruction and rage in an age in which nothing, from family to religion, seems to offer hope of comfort or salvation for millions of young people.

In a career year, Reznor also was the star of Woodstock '94. writer and producer since Prince. His tenacious guitar- and synthesizer-driven music is not as overtly confessional as Love's but it explores today's youthful Angst with breathtaking dynamics and craft Prone to dark, desperate themes and frequently shocking language, Reznor Please set LOS ANGELES TIMES CALENDAR.