ANOMALY //>

Hole

Nobody's Daughter [2010]

2/5

It's been a good 4 years since Courtney Love released her first solo album, 'America's Sweetheart'. It's been even LONGER since her band, 'Hole', released an album too, over a decade in fact. When i heard a new Hole album was being released this year, i was surprised, but excited. 'Celebrity Skin' and 'Live Through This' are two of my favourite albums ever, so i definitely had high expectations for the new album. Sadly, now that 'ive heard the new release a whole bunch of times, i can't say that it's left any sort of major impression on me.

It suffers the same fate as 'America's Sweetheart', which is that it lacks a lot of hooks. There's some nice melodies and lyrics on the new album, but there's nothing that really GRABS you in a lot of the songs. They simply start and finish with no pay off. In 'America's Sweetheart' it worked a bit better, and the album itself never went through any final polishing, so the rough sound and slightly hookless songs worked. On the new album though, it comes across as a bit too much of a dull mess.

The album isn't a complete loss, there are some good songs on it, mainly found in the first half of the tracklist. It starts off on a good note with the title song, 'Nobody's Daughter', then kicks into 'Skinny Little Bitch' and 'Honey'. All enjoyable enough. 'Pacific Coast Highway' is next, average yet listenable, but a good indicator of where the bulk of the album is going to be heading next, which isn't anywhere interesting. My favourite song from the album, 'Samantha', is next, and that's pretty much where my interest in this album comes to a stop. What you'll find after that song is one droney, messy sounding, out dated ballad after another.

My main issue with this album is how much it showcased to me how truly DONE this band is. They have some GREAT work in their back catalogue, but that era of music, and their sound, has really run it's course. It's tired, it's not fun anymore, and it's gone a far as it can. Courtney sings the SAME melodies, hits the SAME strings on her guitar, and just recycles the same thing she's been doing for her entire career. There's no growth and there's no passion anymore. It's just Courtney on auto pilot.

If you're new to this band, i wouldn't have this record anywhere near you. Start off with one of the older albums first. If you're a fan of them like me, i'm not sure what you'll make of it. Some fans love EVERYTHING Courtney does, so many of you may enjoy it, i on the other hand found it really lazy and uninspiring. Maybe if Courtney had more focus on music rather than drugs and plastic surgery, the album would have a bit more soul in it. As it stands though, it's simply a shadow of a once great band, which has replaced angsty emotional driven grungy rock, with re-hashed production and noisy vapid screaming from it's lead singer.

Time to hang it up Courtney.