This is the third review in my little series looking at Nirvana-adjacent albums from the mid 90s and also one of the reviews I’ve written while on holiday, so it may be a bit short.
Live Through This is Hole’s second album and followed Courtney Love’s marriage to Kurt Cobain. There are a bunch of stupid rumours that Cobain ghost-wrote some of the album and I don’t want to view this album through the lens of her husband but reading about the album it does seem that her relationship with Cobain was very influential on this album (and equally, Love’s influence is evident on In Utero, Nirvana’s 1994 album) as she sought to compete with him.
The album is largely about the experience of being a woman, particularly Love’s own experiences, with songs about her relationships with other men (Violet, Doll Parts), experience of sexual assault (Asking for It), and her struggle with her own image (Miss World). The rest of the album follows a similar theme.
Live Through This is biting. Love’s singing often reaches a scream and her anger is clear. The album isn’t about how great it is to be a woman. But the album also has a softer side, which was a deliberate choice by Love, who wanted to show that that was something Hole was capable of.
In the short time I have given myself to write this I’m struggling to sum up Live Through This but I think what I like about it is that it comes across as authentic expression of how Courtney Love was feeling. Her pain, frustration, anger and many other emotions are translated into music that is sometimes screaming, sometime despondent, and frankly mostly depressing. But it’s real, and there’s no point sugarcoating the shit parts of life. 4½ stars.