Hole’s Live Through This, the unsung masterpiece of grunge?
Jul 8, 2023 20:53:26 GMT
petrolino likes this
Post by OfUnknownOrigins on Jul 8, 2023 20:53:26 GMT
When it came out in April 1994 I thought it was a tasteless money grab by Courtney Love with the death of her genius husband/tortured soul Kurt Cobain. Of course it wasn’t her fault the two coincided. The album was cut well before he died.
I gave the singles a listen and really dug them but I’m afraid the Courtney hate got the better of me in high school. My friends called her a bitch who let her husband die alone in Seattle when she knew he was suicidal. Her chaotic life on the pages of tabloids certainly didn’t help. At one point I even entertained the idea she had Kurt murdered. How wrong I was but as a passionate 15 year old Nirvana fan who got to see them live in ‘93 (my first concert ever), I couldn’t not help but think negatively of her. How wrong I was.
In the 2000s with the distance of time I listened to the whole record and not just the singles. The album is mindblowingly good. It’s raw yet just enough commercial to be accessible, the lyrics vivid and dig like razors into you, and Love’s voice and fury behind it make it one of the best albums of the 90s. More commercial than Hole’s first record and less polished and toned down than their third, this album mixes just the right balance. I wish I gave Love the songwriter more credit in 1994, but the trauma Kurt’s death caused for an entire generation consumed me then. If you like grunge this album is a must hear, especially if you wrote it off in ‘94 like I did.
I gave the singles a listen and really dug them but I’m afraid the Courtney hate got the better of me in high school. My friends called her a bitch who let her husband die alone in Seattle when she knew he was suicidal. Her chaotic life on the pages of tabloids certainly didn’t help. At one point I even entertained the idea she had Kurt murdered. How wrong I was but as a passionate 15 year old Nirvana fan who got to see them live in ‘93 (my first concert ever), I couldn’t not help but think negatively of her. How wrong I was.
In the 2000s with the distance of time I listened to the whole record and not just the singles. The album is mindblowingly good. It’s raw yet just enough commercial to be accessible, the lyrics vivid and dig like razors into you, and Love’s voice and fury behind it make it one of the best albums of the 90s. More commercial than Hole’s first record and less polished and toned down than their third, this album mixes just the right balance. I wish I gave Love the songwriter more credit in 1994, but the trauma Kurt’s death caused for an entire generation consumed me then. If you like grunge this album is a must hear, especially if you wrote it off in ‘94 like I did.
