Nobody's Daughter By Hole

Courtney Love continues to be a bit of a conundrum for the music industry. For one, she perpetuates all the bad things about it by making claims about things like her having an affair with Gavin Rossdale, and in many people’s opinions, she destroyed a legend. And when it comes to technical scrutiny and musicianship, her solo music and the music she makes with Hole probably isn’t that good. But the raw, ragged emotion that is so openly audible in the gauzy rock music that she creates is what a lot of better-sounding musicians strive to find, and it makes her wailing quite compelling.

Nobody’s Daughter is the first actual Hole album since 1998’s Celebrity Skin but it may as well just be the off-cuts and B-sides from Love’s 2004 solo album, so similar are the sounds. Although this new music isn’t as catchy.

Using the track “Skinny Little Bitch” as the lead single off the album was not a very good decision because it seems to be one of the more lifeless and tuneless songs on the record. It’s repetition quickly becomes annoying. “Pacific Coast Highway” the second single (which happens to be co-written by Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan) does a much better job of painting a picture for listeners, using effective changes in rhythm and volume to complement Love’s vocals.

Other standout tracks include “Honey,” “Loser Dust,” and “For Once In Your Life.” However, other than some tempo changes, there seems to be very little difference between many of the tracks. It’s a disappointing listen, at best.

So Nobody’s Daughter gets half the marks for painting a rugged and debauched picture of what we’d all be like if we indulged our rock and roll fantasies out on the Sunset Strip all our lives, but alas, no marks for anything else. Fans will welcome the new record. Most others shouldn’t bother with it.