Loser Dust – Hole Loser Dust – Hole

Skinny Little Bitch – Hole Skinny Little Bitch – Hole

Drug and alcohol addiction and the overall hot mess appearance aside, Courtney Love is a born rocker who truly embodies the angst and rage of the grunge era. Even though I took a few days to mull over her band Hole’s new album Nobody’s Daughter, I couldn’t find a single song that wasn’t well done — surprisingly enough. Seriously, this is a killer collection of tracks.

Kicking off the album is its namesake, Nobody’s Daughter. It begins with a steady guitar that flows straight into a pretty mellow vocal performance on Love’s part. It created the perfect build-up to the heavier tracks that come later on the album, such as Skinny Little Bitch.

The first single off of this album, Skinny Little Bitch, is a catchy tune reminiscent of the old Hole. It features raw and real Love-penned lyrics with a fantastic descending chord progression after the bridge, but contains a killer riff as well.

Overall, there isn’t much variation from the musical formula of 90s grunge. The songs are laid out in the classic verse, chorus, verse pattern, the instruments are basic and the guitar riffs dominate the instrumental parts. Some may argue that Love’s vocals are little to be desired, but if you truly know the grunge genre that Hole resides in, then you know it’s anything but. Her seemingly “whiney” vocals in How Dirty Girls Get Clean embody the anguish of the lyrics about losing her mind and the pain she feels.

Acoustics play a role on this album too. Samantha and Honey both utilize acoustic effects and a light orchestral sound here and there while still staying true to the classic formula mentioned above.

My favorite track on the album is Loser Dust. It stays true to classic Hole while Never Go Hungry is the perfectly put together (unlike Love) acoustic piece. It does, however, ooze comeback. It’s almost as though Love is admitting that she screwed up the past few (OK, more than a few) years of her life. Her howling towards the end of the song seems like a symbolic release of these memories before her rise. This left me thinking that Hole might have something up their sleeve for the future.

Basically, this album showed that Love really doesn’t need a band to back her up. Granted, her solo album America’s Sweetheart flopped, but if she keeps her vocal game at this level, she could really excel as a solo artist. Kudos, Love, you’ve renewed my love for the grunge genre, and for that, Nobody’s Daughter gets 4.5 out of 5 bees.