Hole – Nobody'sDaughter

Thu 13th May, 2010 in Music Reviews

There can be few figures in music who have been the target of so much rage as has Courtney Love.

Nigh on twenty years of debauchery, very public wacked-outness, child custody battles and drug arrests have often overshadowed the fact that she has serious talent – 1994’s Live Through This and 98’s Celebrity Skin are both cracking albums, and reguarly appear on “Best Albums of the 90s” lists.

Sadly, Nobody’s Daughter will not feature in retrospectives of this decade, or this year, or even this month. It’s an album that covers well-travelled Hole territory, with dirty guitars throughout, but it seems to be missing a vital ingredient. That might be Eric Erlandson, who formed the band with Love, and until last year was its only other permanent member.

It’s not quite so simple as all that, of course.

It’s often seemed as though there is a constant, cosmic battle raging over the figure of Courtney Love, with the talented musician constantly warring against the burnt-out, cracked-out tabloid charictature. But her greatest musical successes have managed to combine these two personas, and to see her in her heyday was a sight to see. Makeup smeared all over her face, knotted, tangled hair sticking out, babydoll dress ripped and torn while thrashing out incredibly tight songs full of biting words and slashing riffs, Love was able to tap into a proud tradition of tough, talented women on the verge of disaster, and did it with great success. Watching her called to mind images of Etta James, of Janis Joplin, and every moment was exhilirating because you never knew if she would crash or crash through.

And goodness knows she has an abundance of material for an album of Riot Grrrl rock and roll, of regret, of failure, and of triumph in the face of adversity. These are themes that have led to the creation of some of the greatest songs and most complete and brilliant albums.

Unfortunately, Nobody’s Daughter mostly sounds overwrought and ill-conceived. The title track opens the album and sounds like an offcut from an old Smashing Pumpkins album, perhaps unsurprisingly, since Billy Corgan co-wrote many of the tracks. But Corgan lost his mojo a while back, and the song’s chances are helped by Love’s voice, which is at its most shambolic and ragged. Her delivery is almost painful to listen to – she and her producers were clearly going for poignant when they mixed her voice right to the front, but the end result is a disaster.

We are given respite, briefly, in the form of Skinny Little Bitch, one of only two genuinely killer tracks. It’s fast, it’s rough, it’s raw, and Love’s voice is allowed to sit in the middle of the mix, sparring with the guitars in a growl-off. An album full of songs like this would have been, if not a masterpiece, at least a credible release.

Honey is the other killer track, and is a really excellent ballad. It’s impossible to listen to Love’s lyrics without reading into them, and if this isn’t about Kurt Cobain I will eat my hat:

“He goes down, down to his only friend
He knows now, now that you love him
He goes down, down to his bitter end
He knows now, now you can’t touch him
I hold on to you like the death of an angel
And I hold on to you with all the life that’s in me
Why was I not good enough to save you from destruction?”

Whatever the subject matter, the lyrics are poignant, and seemed tinged with real anguish and sadness. And Love’s voice fits it perfectly – rough and raw, and breaking in all the right points. It’s as close to heartbreaking as you can get, and left me genuinely moved.

From there, though, the album offers up little of interest. It’s certainly not a bad album, it’s just not a very good one. And most of the songs are written by a combination of Love, Corgan and Linda Perry, the former 4 Non Blondes singer, who has since written some amazing pop songs for Pink ( Get The Party Started ), Christina Aguilera ( Beautiful, Candyman ), Gwen Stefani ( What You Waiting For? ), Alicia Keys and even Celine Dion, so the album is never short of a catchy hook.

But while the album concentrates on themes of loss, regret, rehab and rebirth, it never manages to do so with the emotion of Honey. And while the band does get their chance to rock out, they never match Skinny Little Bitch for intensity.

Nobody’s Daughter is far from a disaster. Courtney Love seems to have turned a corner in her personal life, and for the first time in years seems to be stable, sane and scandal-free. It’s a wonderful thing to see, and I have no doubt that if she can keep it together more good things will happen for her. Love reportedly gave up sex and drugs for this album, a mighty achievement worth celebrating. Now we just have to focus on the rock and roll.