So why is Hole’s Live Through This on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
It’s tricky for me – and I expect this is true for others as well – to think about Hole and Courtney Love and not get things entangled with Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, and the legacies and Big Picture of it all.
Which admittedly is not entirely fair to Love and Hole and the great music that they produced. I’ve mentioned a number of times that I’m a huge fan of muscular rock and punk music with great guitar hooks, crushing riffs, and strong female lead vocals.
And Live Through This is a perfect example of that kind of muscular rock, while also being its own distinct thing – a fierce statement of female empowerment and autonomy, filtered through Courtney Love’s singular worldview.
And then while all of that is going on, Hole’s best albums – Live Through This and Celebrity Skin – marry what’s now considered to be a classic “grunge” sound with strong pop sensibilities…
Just like another sensationally famous “grunge” band from the 1990s. And round and round it goes!
“Doll Parts” is probably the best-known song on Live Through This, though “Violet” has more plays by way of Spotify’s streaming stats (roughly 60 million plays as of this writing). I’m much more partial to the latter, with its Pixies-ish soft/loud dynamic and darkly alluring hard rock/alt rock vibe.
And the sky was all violet
I want it again, but violent, more violent
Yeah, I’m the one with no soul
One above and one below
When I was younger, the chugging and grungy and soaring “Plump” was my favorite song on the album, but these days I’m much drawn to “Softer, Softest,” which is by far the gentlest song on Live Through This. I find Love’s voice to be super compelling and evocative, so it’s great to get a song where it’s so much in the spotlight.
It makes me wish too that Courtney Love and Hole had produced more music in this vein, or even an Unplugged album, which I think would have been terrific.
That being said, “Rock Star” and “She Walks On Me” are just straight up fantastic grungy punk rock tracks.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with Hole’s Live Through This
There’s an outstanding podcast called 60 Songs That Explain The ‘90s that I highly recommend.
The episode on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” features a very long and great interview with Courtney Love. Though Love can be a little hard to follow at times – her speaking style is to riff around multiple topics very liberally, shall we say – she’s an incredibly smart person who has lived an absolutely wild and fascinating life.
Some stats & info about Hole – Live Through This
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Punk Rock, Alternative Rock, Grunge, SoCal Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #106
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Live Through This released? 1994
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #279 out of 1,000
Hole’s Live Through This on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Hole’s Live Through This that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I’m Miss World, watch me break and watch me burn.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.