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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
As much as it concerns trauma and misogyny, Live Through This, like all great rock records, quakes with desire.
90
This album cranks, either as a joyously gut-churning companion to Nirvana’s In Utero or as the hookiest slambook ever released by a major label in the post-feminist, post-Nirvana, alternative circle-jerk era.
83
What you take away isn’t a guitar riff but Love’s voice. A thick, reedy instrument that makes her sound like the younger, brattier sister of Johnny Rotten, it stands out like a suited IBM executive at Lollapalooza.
80
For all the raw pain of the lyrics, Live Through This rarely sounds raw because of the shiny production and the carefully considered dynamics. Despite this flaw, the album retains its power because it was one of the few records patterned on Nevermind that gets the formula right, with a set of gripping hooks and melodies that retain their power even if they follow the predictable grunge pattern.
10y
80
It wakes rock from its cliché coma, leads it, laughing, to a lake of stinking mud and honey, and there drowns it; quietly, efficiently and with surprising gentleness.
80
Hole’s 1991 debut album, the gloriously assaultive Pretty on the Inside, remains a classic of sex-mad self-laceration, hypershred guitars and full-moon bawling, in particular the spectacular goring of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” (a k a “Clouds”) at the end of the record.
75
Cobain’s death will inevitably cast a shadow over this album and indeed the band itself. More attention will be paid to analysing Love’s lyrics than to digesting her work as a legitimate artist and it’s a shame because Live Through This is very good.
4mo
“Kurt did not write Live Through This. I wanted to be better than Kurt. I was really competing with Kurt. And that's why it always offends me when people would say, Oh, he wrote Live Through This. I'd be proud as hell to say that he wrote something on it, but I wouldn't let him."
-Courtney Love
Released just four days after Kurt's death it's easy to see why people would come to this conclusion. Hole were rehearsing and working on material for the album in part at the makeshift ... read more
Number: 22
The reason the band is called Hole is because it feels like you’re falling into an infinite void of sorrow. Damn, this shit sad. There’s some real heavy themes on this and it gets kinda hard to listen to it at times. I don’t really feel comfortable discussing it in this review so all I can think to say is go check this out for yourself.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: This is better than any Nirvana album as a w(hole), and one of the best grunge albums out there.
While misogyny is undoubtably plays a role in why Hole is often excluded from conversations about grunge while Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam are ubiquitous, I think there’s another explanation that is a part of it: this album is simply less accessible. Contrary to the expected gender roles, Hole’s “Live Through This” is one ... read more
I can't ignore my immediate disconnect with the voice of the lead singer, Courtney Love. A strident and, at times, irritating vocal approach permeates the entire album, overshadowing the positive elements that the instrumentals bring to the table.
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Track List
| 1 | Violet 3:24 | 95 |
| 2 | Miss World 3:00 | 90 |
| 3 | Plump 2:34 | 88 |
| 4 | Asking for It 3:29 | 89 |
| 5 | Jennifer's Body 3:40 | 91 |
| 6 | Doll Parts 3:31 | 91 |
| 7 | Credit in the Straight World 3:11 | 85 |
| 8 | Softer, Softest 3:27 | 86 |
| 9 | She Walks On Me 3:23 | 86 |
| 10 | I Think That I Would Die 3:36 | 87 |
| 11 | Gutless 2:15 | 82 |
| 12 | Rock Star 2:42 | 87 |
Total Length: 38 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Spin |
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Added on: May 13, 2013