Torch Songs for the Heroin(e): Hole, Nobody’s Daughter

By Emily Carney

“You don’t understand how damaged we really are.” This is a lyric from the opening track of the “new” Hole album, Nobody’s Daughter, which seems like it has been 1,000 years or so in the making. (Well, it certainly has been feted by Courtney Love for the last five years or so). This is the “comeback” album, the one that has weathered all the setbacks, like drug issues, family problems, bad hair weaves, and ill-advised plastic surgeries.

Fans will be tempted to connect the sometimes depressing, relentlessly “confessional” lyrics to Courtney’s recent foibles—her daughter Frances Bean was removed from her custody late last year, and her behavior of late hasn’t really suggested a new level of sobriety or enlightenment. Most recently, on the Howard Stern radio show, she claimed to have slept with Gavin Rossdale while he was dating Gwen Stefani—God only knows if this is even true. Courtney Love is considered more of a “celebrity” than a musician of merit, and was described by an industry insider once as being a “1990s relic.” (Ouch.)

It’s difficult not to examine the album’s lyrics with a magnifying glass, especially lines like “I’m too ashamed to show my face. . . and they’re coming to take me away now.” These lines are remarkably self-aware and insightful, given Courtney’s sometimes druggy state and recall her much-publicized “stretcher incident” from 2004. However, the most troubling aspects of the entire recording are not only the generic 1990s “rawk” production but also the icy treatment given to the vocals throughout the songs.

Courtney Love has never been a fantastic singer—she’s more of a shouter and a front woman than an actual vocalist—but it is fairly obvious from her Marianne Faithfull Broken English-esque guttural tones that the last few years of cigarettes and debauchery have destroyed her voice almost completely. At least on Broken English Faithfull’s vocals weren’t covered with a thick digital glaze that permeated the album like a ghostly, Renaissance-era fog.

Nobody’s Daughter is Pro-Tooled to death in order to evoke and exacerbate that otherworldly feel. I almost wish they had just left the vocals raw to embrace the annihilated, gritty effect instead of trying to hide it. The best song on the album, “How Dirty Girls Get Clean,” is the rawest of the lot and shows Courtney in her “rockiest” light, even though it veers a bit too into Plath and Sexton territory, lyrics-wise.

Surprisingly, there are many bright spots from the album despite the fact that no original members from Hole appear besides Courtney herself. Nobody’s Daughter includes several tracks that hearken back to the band’s more melodious, mid-90s sound. We can hear the strains of Live Through This and Celebrity Skin in “Dirty Girls,” “Nobody’s Daughter,” “Pacific Coast Highway,” and the lead-off single “Skinny Little Bitch.”

Given the horrific birth pangs surrounding Nobody’s Daughter, Courtney Love has made an unexpectedly decent record. Again. It’s certainly more melodious and intelligent than 2004’s disaster America’s Sweetheart, which even by Love’s own admission was a “coke record” and one that I doubt she even remembers recording. I guess we’ll have to wait for Courtney to embark upon the next round of public displays of drama to see if Nobody’s Daughter—and Courtney herself—will endure.

Nobody’s Daughter was released on April 27 and is available via iTunes, Amazon, and other retailers now. Hole will be playing at New York’s Terminal 5 tonight but if you haven’t already bought tickets, you’re out of luck: the show is sold out. Check out Hole’s website for more tour dates and news.