Product Description

LIVE THROUGH THIS would have been an important record even without the heartbreaking overtones surrounding Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain and their daughter Frances Bean. In light of those events, however, there is a poignant resonance to Hole's songs that amplifies, and in some cases transcends their original meaning.
With her husky growl and simmering sing-song delivery, Courtney Love at times suggests a female Johnny Rotten. Sugar and spice and all things nice she is not, if a song like "Doll Parts" is any indication ("Someday you will ache like I ache"). She sounds like someone who was denied a real childhood, and life's experiences seemed to have curdled inside of her. The soft-hard-soft-hard program of each song reflects a conflict between her suppressed feminine yearnings and her own world-weary, tough-gal persona.
Love's bitter, over-the-top emotional recollections give LIVE THROUGH THIS much of its bite, while Hole's refined, kick-assarrangements tend to humanise, and occasionally soften Love's wellsprings of resentment. In contrast to the relentless punk rock of PRETTY ON THE INSIDE, LIVE THROUGH THIS is a more polished alternative production, although tunes like "Gutless" are pure Sex Pistols rant and raveup ("All my friends are embryonic, all my friends are dead and gone/All my friends are microscopic, all my friends wake up alone...Sleep with me wake up alive...I don't really miss God, but I sure miss Santa Claus").
Her sensuality and sexual ambivalence are front and centre on LIVE THROUGH THIS. "You should learn how to say no", she yowls on "Violet". ("When they get what they want, they never want it again...Go on take everything, take everything, I want you to". Not exactly "The Chapel Of Love".) Every inch the failed romantic and social outcast, on songs like "Asking For It" and "Rock Star" Love compulsively peels away at her own skin until a throbbing void of bitterness is all that remains. Look away if you can't take the truth or fathom the enigmatic lyrics, but you won't be able to ignore LIVE THROUGH THIS.

Track Listing

1. Violet
2. Miss World
3. Plump
4. Asking For It
5. Jennifer's Body
6. Doll Parts
7. Credit In The Straight World
8. Softer, Softest
9. She Walks On Me
10. I Think That I Would Die
11. Gutless
12. Rock Star

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11019 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 38 minutes

Customer Reviews

An all time classic
Poor Hole. If only Courtney wasn't Courtney they'd have been taken much more seriously all along. Maybe, the day will one day come when this classic, brilliant album gets the credit it deserves.

First off, the songs are well-crafted and seriously hooky, without resorting to the poppiness of Celebrity Skin. They're proper rock/grunge anthems with roaring vocals and massive melody lines. Lyrically... well, not many bands can match Hole. It's rare (rare indeed) to find full-bodied rock songs that so explicitly and uncompromisingly tell the tale from the female point of view.

Oh, and Courtney's voice? From blackboard scraping, terrifying bawl, to honey dripping velvet... that woman's got it all.

So, don't subscribe to the systemic misogyny of the rock press. Give Hole a listen. You won't be sorry.

Already a favorite
I found this on my parent's CD shelf about...6 days ago and have been constantly listening to it since. The songs are easy to get into and the album starts with Violet, an amazing song that display Courtney Love's ability to shout, in a good way. Violet is probably my favorite track on the CD, but other stand out tracks include Miss World, a song that draws you in with the fantastic vocals and beat. Rock Star, which apparently is really called Olympia but replaced a track that was called Rock Star after the CD covers had already been printed, is already one of my favorite songs and i'm so glad it did replace "Rock Star" as, after ;listening to it i definitely prefer the new version.

so, to finish, i would definitely recommend this album, possibly as a companion to Nirvana's Nevermind as the two albums share a melodic style.

Kickass!!
I own all of hole's albums and singles and i have to say that of all of them 'Live through this' has to be my favourite. The songs were written in that period not long before Kurt Cobain's suicide and alot of the lyrics are inspiring yet also straight from Courtney's struggling soul. Although i think 'Celebrity Skin' is also an awesome album, i think it was alot more poppy and the majority of the songs on it were co-written by Billy Corgan and honestly i think Courtney's lyrics are good enough without his influence. Basically just buy this album cos it kicks all ass! oh and my favourite song on the album has to be 'Miss World' or 'Violet'. :P