Hole
Nobody's Daughter

The daughter of no one returns, the queen of '90s rock, finally with a good album after the mega solo flop of 2004. Courtney Love decides to evolve her former band with a completely revamped lineup (she doesn't talk about reunion but evolution), even excluding the historic co-founder Eric Erlandson, and the last bassist of the band and former Smashing Pumpkins member Melissa Auf Der Maur, similarly not included in the new Pumpkins of Corgan in 2007. The dispute with Erlandson over the ownership of the name is still ongoing, and while he wants to take her to court and promises releases of unreleased material from the nineties, Love defends herself by saying that already months before meeting him in 1989 and subsequently launching the band, she had a band named Hole. The new members are all guys: Micko Larkin on guitar (formerly of Larrikin Love), also co-producer of the album, Shawn Dailey on bass (formerly of Rock Kills Kid) and Stuart Fisher on drums.

This is the fourth studio album under the name Hole, following twelve years after the multi-award-winning "Celebrity Skin" from 1998, once again with Michael Beinhorn at the production helm, the man behind the success of Marilyn Manson, Soundgarden, Korn, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Nobody’s Daughter" is the result of a long and troubled gestation, initially planned to be Love's second solo album until she discarded the first results and decided to reform Hole in June 2009. She started working on it five years ago during her last rehabilitation period, which had led to various disasters, including her only solo album "America’s Sweetheart" in 2004, over which she did not have full control both because of her former label, Virgin, and because she claimed she was too personally out of control to make a good album. On this subject, she says: “In the south of France I birthed that garbage, I don’t like the concept, the music, or the graphics of that album!”

Part of “Nobody’s Daughter” includes tracks that had been floating around online as demos since late 2006, while others are entirely new, written by Courtney and the new member Micko Larkin. Others still feature contributions from two old friends, Linda Perry and Billy Corgan.

The artwork is a mix of personal citations starting from the fairy-tale style between the very famous “Live Through This” and “Celebrity Skin”, bloodstained glass slippers, and emblematic figures halfway between dolls and mythological characters, while the cover is a self-reference to the old Hole: the famous painting of Marie Antoinette (by Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun) with a rose in hand,  featured in the booklet of a 1997 rarity collection "My Body The Hand Grenade", presented in its raw reality: the image cut off from the head up, a prediction of decapitation, as actually happened to the French queen.

The title track is a dark, granite ballad where you can breathe pure, reinvigorated Hole sound. It is followed by the very successful first single “Skinny Little Bitch” already topping the world alternative charts, the track that most recalls the old sound of the band running along a powerful bass riff. And yet another splendid ballad, “Honey” dedicated to the late Cobain, the third song written with Larkin. Other singles stand out strongly, including “Pacific Coast Highway”, the follow-up to “Malibu” from the previous album, “Samantha”, and the quintessential track written with Linda Perry: “Letter to God”, with one of the most introspective lyrics ever produced by Courtney Love. “Someone Else’s Bed” is probably one of the most intense moments. More marked tracks include “Loser Dust” and the old school “How Dirty Girls Get Clean”. The whole thing is concluded with the Dylan-esque “Never Go Hungry”. Overall, the album is a breath of new life, the result of the blonde leader's recent periods, appearing as a perfect blend between retro melodies, classic Hole repertoire atmospheres, and a rediscovered voice, partly rendered even more intense over time, by smoke and drugs, much like Marianne Faithfull's “Broken English.”

The thing I personally appreciate is that at the age of forty-five, Courtney Love decides to reassemble the band and to throw herself back into the game with a good album, promoting it with singles like “Skinny Little Bitch” or “Samantha”, which are far from the last work of 1998, absolutely more pop and catchy, hence a brave choice. While waiting for the European and American tour, enjoy this work, a delightful jewel.