With the assistance of producers Kim Gordon and Don Fleming, Hole recorded a brutally uncompromising debut with Pretty on the Inside. The jagged white noise and buzzing guitars articulate Courtney Love's pent-up rage as well as her lyrics, and while that might make the album difficult to absorb in one sitting, it also makes it a singular achievement. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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CD $10.44

The First Session is essentially a reissue of Hole's 1991 Sympathy for the Record Industry 7" "Retard Girl," and while the new title might suggest some kind of historical gravitas, this is still the same abrasive, barbed-wire juvenilia it's always been. Though clearly intended as a profound statement on the intolerance and depravity of humankind, "Retard Girl" is little more than a catalog of ugly childhood behaviors and impulses that confuses shock value for substance. Eric Erlandson's lu   [ read more ]

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Courtney Love completely revamped Hole before recording their second album, keeping only Eric Erlandson in the lineup. That is one of the reasons why Live Through This sounds so shockingly different from Pretty on the Inside, but the real reason is Love's desire to compete in the same commercial alternative rock arena as her husband, Kurt Cobain. In fact, many rumors have claimed that Cobain ghostwrote a substantial chunk of the album, and while that's unlikely, there's no denying   [ read more ]

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CD $13.28

CD $40.83