Hole (2) – Live Through This

Très bon album - moitié Grunge, moitié Punk - la musique est excellente

I absolutely LOVE this album, so it's kind of a shame no announcement has been made for a 30th Anniversary edition.

"All songs written by Hole"? "Credit In The Straight World" is a cover of Young Marble Giants, from the "Colossal Youth" LP. Written by Stuart Moxham. Give him back the Credit!

People try to inflate Cobain's influence on this album. But then they neglect to realize what an amazing band Love had for this album: Kristen Pfaff on bass, vocals, and keyboards absolutely had a major influence on the sound, and guitarist Eric Erlandson contributed, too. One of the reasons people overrate the Cobain connection is because once he died, Love never sounded like this again. But Pfaff died not long after Cobain, so perhaps that's more plausible. She was leaving the band anyway, but that's not the point. And Love was an absolute mess. Anyone that's worked with her including Linda Perry, who gave a lot of details about this, can attest to Love's bad personal choices around her mental health and drug use having a negative effect on her musical taste. She would work on a "sound" for half a record that was by all s great, and then start over fresh, abandoning the good sound for something crappy we've come to hear time and time again on her records. As with all conspiracy theories, they make a simple fiction out of a long, boring truth.

It's fine but also consisting of songs clearly written by Cobain

Courtney Love's celebrity status arose from her marriage to Kurt Cobain. At the height of Nirvana's fame in the early 1990s, they were arguably as famous as John & Yoko in of publicity, resulting in Courtney receiving widespread vitriol and Kurt resenting the backlash from his so-called fans. Courtney's own band Hole was formed well before her relationship with Kurt began. Their sludge punk studio debut, "Pretty On The Inside" failed to assimilate the commercial alternative rock arena, whereas its follow-up "Live Through This" macabrely coincided with Kurt's suicide and gained immense mainstream attention, causing the rumour mill to go into overdrive. Hole's disparagers speculated that their huge leap in quality as a band and newfound caustic wit and strong melodic base could only be as a result of uncredited input from Kurt, who provided backing vocals on two songs. In fact, Courtney had previously rejected an official collaboration with Cobain, and according to many of the band's associates, he was wholly unfamiliar with the songs during the recording process, which is unsurprising considering the album's strictly feminine allusions to Barbie dolls and Gone With The Wind. In spite of the furore, "Live Through This" was met with significant critical acclaim on its own merits, earning multi-platinum status by the end of 1994.

There's no denying that Kurt influenced the album's musical and lyrical content, not to mention the emotional baggage attached to it, but "Live Through This" is a contemporary alternative rock classic that deserves to be hailed as such. In a bid to attract a wider audience, Love took the band in a more professional direction, with the album largely following established grunge patterns whilst maintaining a hard rock sound enhanced by refined song structures and slick arrangements. Regardless of Hole embracing sophisticated instrumentation and emphasizing hooks and harmonies, Love's feminist perspective led her to be d with the riot grrrl movement. Vituperatively delivered soft verses and harsh choruses, bridges and power chords pervade "She Walks On Me," "I Think That I Would Die," "Gutless," "Plump," and "Violet", all of which deal authentically with themes of substance abuse, insecurity and body image. On the self-image front, "Miss World" and "Rock Star", along with the rest of the album, directly reference Love's personal life and rejection of punk conformity, dispelling any riot grrrl comparisons by criticising the entire movement. Love's mercurially vocalised autobiographical microcosms and cutting cynicism greatly benefit the melancholic, mellow ballads "Doll Parts" and "Softer, Softest", both of which are devoid of aggression, transcending the rock format entirely. Even the iconic cover art, depicting a mascara-stained beauty pageant winner, accords with the album's overall concept of female ill-treatment, of each other, themselves and from society at large.

"Live Through This" revels in its scornful, poetic and congruent narratives, giving a vivid, almost blackly comic of the worst aspects of being a female middle-class misfit against a corrosive yet catchy backdrop of thrash pop. By virtue of its musicality, velocity and quotability, the album has come to be reappraised by those who, at the time, could not dismiss the headlines and simply listen to the songs without bias. Unlike other zeitgeist-capitalizing rock records of the '90s, Love's nihilistic opera still makes a wonderful noise and refuses to be overshadowed, remaining as culturally and historically impactful as it did during that tragic period in 1994.

4.5/5

One of the best albums of the 1990s. Love the logo. Every song is great. I always liked Courtney's vintage dresses.

Great repress. I avoided all the bootlegs and waited for this one.

ONE OF THE TOP 90's ALBUMS! Reissue on vinyl is coming.

This album sometimes smells stinks like...............Kurt's spirit!