Hole “Live Through This” released 30 years ago today, April 12th, 1994. A rare CD pull today because in 1994 I was pretty much only buying CD’s. Hole’s second album went to #52 in the US and to #13 in the UK; both Rolling Stone and Spin ranked it as the best album of the year. I listened to it a lot in ’94, so much so that I got thoroughly sick of it and haven’t really touched it in the past 30 years. Thematically it’s a challenging record, with lyrics that discuss the objectification of and violence against women, being a mom, depression, and drug use (Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain’s daughter was taken away from them for a bit as an infant because of their alleged heroin use). Parts of the record were even recorded while some of the band members were high on crystal meth (specifically drummer Patty Schemel and bassist Kristen Pfaff).

Because this album is so imprinted in my consciousness it’s really hard to highlight my top tracks but if pushed, I’d choose the rocker “Plump” which I’m fairly certain is about drugs and motherhood. The singles are also all great. “Miss World” was the first to be released; it hit #13 in the US and #64 in the UK. It is, partially, also about drugs. “Doll Parts” went all the way to #4 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart (to #58 on the regular chart and to #16 UK); it’s about Kurt Cobain. “Violet” was the third single, going to #29 on the Modern Rock chart (#17 UK) and supposedly is about Love’s relationship with Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan. “Softer, Softest” was the final single from Live Through This and went to #32 on the Alternative Airplay chart in the US. Cobain provided backing vocals for the track (same for “Asking for It” which is another great song). As the title implies, “Softer, Softest” is one of  the most mellow tracks on the record but the lyrics are…not (“Burn the witch/Just bring me back her head”).