{"id":2368,"date":"2010-06-03T16:46:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T20:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=2368"},"modified":"2010-06-03T16:46:34","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T20:46:34","slug":"revisiting-courtney-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=2368","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Courtney Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cLive Through This\u201d. So if you are looking for me to be mean, or worse, if you\u2019re<\/em> looking for an excuse to be mean, just move along. This is not the post for you.<\/p>\n

With that out of the way, let\u2019s take a look at the new Hole album \u201cNobody\u2019s Daughter\u201d. For those of you familiar with Love and her body of work, I can give you a really quick sum up. \u201cNobody\u2019s Daughter\u201d is softer than \u201cLive Through This\u201d, harder than \u201cCelebrity Skin\u201d, and equivalent to Love\u2019s solo album \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweetheart\u201d. By the way, I really, honestly liked \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweetheart\u201d. I hadn\u2019t realized until recently that nearly no one else did, including Courtney Love. What\u2019s up with that people?<\/p>\n

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\u2019s continue.<\/p>\n

I was psyched when \u201cNobody\u2019s Daughter\u201d 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\u2019t prepared for what I heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s Daughter\u201d reveals an emotionally exposed Love. The sadness, the melancholy, it\u2019s almost painful. You feel as if you\u2019re somehow violating her privacy by listening to some of the tracks. <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that the album doesn\u2019t also rock out. Both Rolling Stone and Metroland essentially gave the album mediocre reviews, but pointed to a few songs like \u201cSkinny Little Bitch\u201d and \u201cLoser Dust\u201d as being the winners of a not so hot collection. I have to respectfully disagree. After hearing such honest songs like \u201cLetter to God\u201d and \u201cNever Go Hungry\u201d, why would I want to hear standard Hole fare? I mean, if I want to hear that I\u2019ll listen to Hole\u2019s \u201cLive Through This\u201d album. See, that\u2019s 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\u2019t, when you can instead celebrate what it is? For what\u2019s it worth, I think the best rockin\u2019 out tune on the album is \u201cHow 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):<\/p>\n