Revisiting Courtney Love

Okay folks; let me be upfront about this. I love Courtney Love. I always have, and I imagine I always will. I had photos of her on my teenage walls, I wore floral baby doll dresses with combat boots (Which I stand by and would totally do so today if you could still find those dresses and I could find a decent pair of combat boots.), and I drove my college roommate nuts with repeated playings of the Hole album “Live Through This”. So if you are looking for me to be mean, or worse, if you’re looking for an excuse to be mean, just move along. This is not the post for you.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the new Hole album “Nobody’s Daughter”. For those of you familiar with Love and her body of work, I can give you a really quick sum up. “Nobody’s Daughter” is softer than “Live Through This”, harder than “Celebrity Skin”, and equivalent to Love’s solo album “America’s Sweetheart”. By the way, I really, honestly liked “America’s Sweetheart”. I hadn’t realized until recently that nearly no one else did, including Courtney Love. What’s up with that people?

For those of you who read the previous paragraph and came away with little understanding, or for those of you who actually want to hear my thoughts, let’s continue.

I was psyched when “Nobody’s Daughter” finally came out, but I will admit, my first listen left me feeling confused. Despite what others may say, I love her growl, her not quite ready for pop singing voice, the swath of carnage that she cuts with lyrics, and the screams of a woman who is attempting to purge herself of a rage that never truly goes away. And here she is, still competing with the ghost of her late husband, up to her armpits in debt, having past musical collaborators threatening her with lawsuits, her own daughter filing a restraining order against her, the media constantly republishing her undecipherable blog rants and tweets, and of course, the stints in rehab. When I pressed play on the iPod to give the album a listen on the way to work I literally tightened my grip on the steering wheel, as if the force of her rage would blast me out of the seat. However, I wasn’t prepared for what I heard.

“Nobody’s Daughter” reveals an emotionally exposed Love. The sadness, the melancholy, it’s almost painful. You feel as if you’re somehow violating her privacy by listening to some of the tracks.

This isn’t to say that the album doesn’t also rock out. Both Rolling Stone and Metroland essentially gave the album mediocre reviews, but pointed to a few songs like “Skinny Little Bitch” and “Loser Dust” as being the winners of a not so hot collection. I have to respectfully disagree. After hearing such honest songs like “Letter to God” and “Never Go Hungry”, why would I want to hear standard Hole fare? I mean, if I want to hear that I’ll listen to Hole’s “Live Through This” album. See, that’s the point of having different albums, the artist is not required to make the same album again and again. Why complain about what the album isn’t, when you can instead celebrate what it is? For what’s it worth, I think the best rockin’ out tune on the album is “How Dirty Girls Get Clean”. It’s a Hole song called “How Dirty Girls Get Clean”. Seriously folks, how could that song not be awesome? Here it is live (and this is where I tell you these videos are not safe for work, the f bomb will be dropped):

However, if I could direct your attention over here, you will see a more intimate, emotionally vulnerable Courtney Love, who still manages to rock, if not like she did on “Live Through This”.

Now, if you feel that what you saw wasn’t emotionally raw enough, can I now direct you to one of the earliest live performances of this song?

Yeah, feel it now?

Lastly, since I just really like it, and it’s not a typical Hole or Courtney Love song I want to include a performance of “Never Go Hungry Again”. This was easier said than done because it looks like You Tube is already getting flooded with covers of it. I have it here from the same performance as the most emotionally raw “Letter to God” video just previous to this. For some reason the video is out of sync with the audio, so it’s a little annoying to watch, but go ahead and watch.

I thank you for your time and indulging me in talking about one of my favorite musicians. Sometimes it’s awesome to have my own website.