Hole - Live Through This

This whole album is filled with scathing fury, mostly directed at the impossible situation that confronts women when they are asked to be both wild sources of pleasure and unblemished mother figures. Live Through This uses the same recipe of punk and metal wrapped around pop melodies that made Nirvana so captivating, but Hole uses the methodology in a more conventional manner. The metal ingredient tends to dominate, perhaps because it's the simplest to master, and too often the album resembles early Heart or late Joan Jett--particularly when Courtney Love opens up with her big, wailing voice. Love externalizes her anger, blaming all her problems on the rest of the world. Self-confrontation makes for far more interesting songs. --Geoffrey Himes Amazon.com

An essential and epic time capsule

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BMQPTYB4W189 My name is Jeremy Gloff. I am a musician (check me out on Amazon!) and retro music enthusiast. If you enjoyed this review make sure to check out my Amazon user profile to check out my other reviews. I am always up for making new friends and discussing the music I love!!! July 11, 2008

Her best

This CD is the best Hole as to offer in my opinion. The songs are a bit more grunge/alt inspired and less polished than later offerings and the lyrics are less indulgent and more real. Fame changed Love and her writing suffered for it. Also, the label definately had a hand in her latter releases after Live Through This did so well. She sounds better as an unpolished, grunge rocker than an label-stamped prom queen in my estimation. Good thing we have this CD. June 10, 2008

Grunk

This is a pretty good album and which I've described as "grunk" in the header because it fuses grunge music with some pretty punk sounding tracks/guitars. Usually I review albums after listening to them on a pretty good set of headphones, which is what I've done here. Gave the album 3/5 based on that. But having listened to it over loudspeakers, it could perhaps warrant an extra half a star. Which is to say that maybe loudspeakers do this album more justice than headphones do.

A feature of the album is the quiet/loud structure of songs, as well as Courtney Love's pretty/harsh vocal stylings. Love was the girlfriend of grunge icon Kurt Cobain, of Nirvana fame. In some ways, both bands sound similar.

My first exposure to this band would have been seeing them on MTV Unplugged. Didn't mind what I heard, but the song that really put an asterisk next to this band's name to me was their song "Softer,softest". There was something really primal about that live performance of that song...Love and her other female band member caterwauling the lyrics. Perhaps I misremembered the sound of that live performance, but the studio version didn't seem to have that same spark.

In any case, "Softer, softest" is this album's standout track. Sure, I would like it even better if Love had gone down Michael Hutchence's (of INXS fame) route in his song "Way of the world", where Hutchence is all raw emotion and shredded nerves. I look forward to a Hole compilation where Love can perhaps attack this song anew and sing it snarling and emoting and until vocal cords are shredded and bleeding. Of course, I'd want her bandmate to caterwaul with her. The song itself is a bit of a girly ballad with a very nice melody and chorus, mixed with a very good grungy bit. Has allusive lyrics, like other songs on this album do.

There are a handful of other songs that I like but I don't think are in the same class as the song above:

Plump-has the soft/harsh song structure favoured by this band. Rhythm guitar is prominent as is Love's harsh vocal style.

Jennifer's body-electric guitar sounds a bit punk at times. Soft/harsh sound, and bass noticeable too.

Doll parts-accoustic guitar, gentler song but sounds a little harsh at times too.

She walks on me-sounds a bit punk. Nice moody intro followed by a very punk guitar riff. Distorted and harsh vocals, easing to soft.

Other songs I made notes on:

Violet-sounds a bit grunge.

Credit in the straight world-organ intro. Grunky sound.

I think that I would die-Grunky sound.

Gutless-punky guitar, grungy vocals.

Rock star-grungy sound, with blood curdling vocals. A song about conformity. Not a bad riff. This is probably one of those songs that sounded better over loudspeakers. In fact, I'd say that the early songs on this album, particularly, have loudspeakers do them more justice.

Might check out the Hole album which featured "Celebrity skin". That is my favourite Hole song. In fact, it's one of my favourite American songs (I'm Australian). It's another soft/harsh, pretty/grungy song. There, Love brilliantly contrasts her girly side with her grungy side.

Should note, that this album has some brooding lyrics. And the "allusive" lyrics I alluded to earlier included repeated references to "milk" in various songs throughout the album. Not exactly sure what that is all about, but it works wonderfully in "Softer, softest".

Even though this album is not chock-a-block with great songs, I think that "Softer, softest" is verging on "classic" territory, and the album as a whole is quite listenable and engaging. June 5, 2008

Even if she did do it....

I'm a huge Nirvana fan. I found them before I ever heard of Hole or Courtney or anything, and way before I ever heard there were questions about Kurt's death, I ended up finding about Courtney having been his wife and how awesome her band was, and etc. Now, having been into Nirvana--and music as a whole--for several years now, I've had the time to read everything I could find about Kurt and Courtney, and I do have to side with the murder theorists in that, there has got to be something she isn't telling.

However, I bought this album just a month or so after I first started getting Nirvana albums, and I was very excited to hear it. I wasn't disappointed. It was amazing. Yes, Courtney has done things she shouldn't have, and despite what some of their PR people tried to say, Kurt and Courtney did not have the best of marriages. And she did behave just a bit "Yoko-ish" at times, but whether that was because she wanted to further her own success and wealth or she genuinely wanted to do what she thought was best for Kurt is just something the fans will never agree about. I admit, I did hate her when I first began reading about the events surrounding Kurt's death. However, I've matured a bit, and I realise nothing is black and white, and Kurt just might (I say might) have been a better person more of the time, but he wasn't a saint either.

That being said, whatever your feelings on either of them, this is a great album. It's catchy, but it doesn't lose its edge. It's not at all as heavy as Pretty on the Inside, but it's just as enraged. Courtney repeatedly said she wanted no part of the Riot Grrrl scene,(Though, it is true that she was never the punk rock princess she once claimed to be either) and she mocks them again on the song "Rock Star." Acutally, this song was supposed to be called "Olympia" and was only added at the last minute to replace the real song. I know a lot of Hole fans get all up in arms if you try to say songs may be about Kurt, but considering they were married when she wrote this album and he was still very much alive, it does seem likely that songs like the phenomenal "Doll Parts" are at least partially about him, especially considering the lyrics.


Courtney was never the important woman in music she wanted to be, but for a brief time she did have success and she did have legitimate talent. At one time she was also an attractive and fascinating person, but unfortunately, she's just gone to hell, it seems, in recent years.

No matter what really happened in April of 1994, Hole made a damn good album, and if you approach it from a musical perspective only, and try not to think about the rest of it, you just might like it. January 29, 2008

Worth a listen or two

Years ago (and I mean years ago) when I first heard this cd driving down to the snow I thought "what is this garbage with all the screaming etc" but by the time we came home the following week with a 5 hour drive behind us I was hooked and have been ever since. The words are great, the songs stick in your head and Hole are underated. I have heard this album so many times over the years and never got sick of it. Courtney is more creative than many realise. August 31, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...