Pretty On The Inside
As soon as a person mentions the band ‘Hole’ everyone suddenly thinks of Courtney Love. Her notorious public image has really overshadowed the band’s music. Many people discard them straight away when they realize Courtney is the fronting the band. Even though I am not a big fan of Courtney, I still think that Hole’s music should get some recognition because they were one of the best alternative/grunge bands of the 1990’s. ‘Pretty On The Inside’ was the first album that Hole released and is also the loudest and most abrasive album that they released. By the time they released 1994’s ‘Live Through This’ they had managed to smooth out the rougher edges that they had and managed to focus more on melody. Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson met through a newspaper advertisement and formed Hole in 1989. Soon after bassist Jill Emery and drummer Caroline Rue were added to the band to fill up the empty spaces. In 1991 they released ‘Pretty On The Inside’ which got numerous good reviews.
Hole at the time were:
- Courtney Love – Guitar & Vocals
- Eric Erlandson – Guitar
- Jill Emery – Bass
- Caroline Rue – Drums
1) Teenage Whore (2:57) – This song just kicks into the chorus as soon as it starts. With distorted guitars that sound slightly out of tune and Courtney screaming ‘When I was a teenage wh**e”. After that the verse starts with Love turning down the screaming a bit and doing some clean almost whispering vocals. After another chorus then the second verse the bridge kicks with Love screaming “Get out of my house!” After another chorus and verse the song finishes with Love holding a scream for about eight seconds or so. Overall a good song with catchy lyrics, sets the scene for what the rest of the album will sound like and starts the album nicely…well depending on how you define ‘nice’. 4/5
2) Babydoll (4:59) – This song starts with a lightly distorted guitar playing a simple pattern of chords. Soon after the drums and second guitar come in with a bit of feedback in the background. Then the verse starts with Love changing from whispered vocals to screams continuously. At around 3:50 there is a little bridge where the guitars just hold the same note while Rue does a little thing on the tom toms. Then Courtney starts singing lightly while being slightly off key. This is just repeated to the end. Overall an average song but a bit too repetitive at parts. 2.5/5
3) Garbage Man (3:19) – This is my favourite track off the album. The song starts straight away with all the instruments playing, a bit slower than the previous two tracks but just as hard if not harder, with Courtney screaming her guts out at some points. After the slightly lighter verse the pre-chorus starts, with Courtney screaming, “HEY, WHERE THE F**K WERE YOU WHEN MY LIGHTS WENT OUT!” After repeating the verse/chorus formula several times the song ends with one of the verses then has about thirty seconds of feedback from the amp and other equally pleasant sounds. Overall a very good song and probably the best on the album. Songs like this prove that four chords are sometimes all you need. 4/5
4) Sassy (1:43) – The song starts with a weird bass sound then Courtney says ‘We’re rolling you guys”. The rest of the song is pretty much just a general noise with Rue banging on the drums as hard as physically possible, Eric just playing with as must distortion as his amp would do and Courtney screaming and swearing. There is also a lot of amp feedback during the song. Overall a very good example of filler. 1/5
5) Good Sister, Bad Sister (5:47) – This is the longest track off this album and if I’m not mistaken one of the longest tracks that Hole has ever recorded. It starts straight away with the chorus. The lyrics in my opinion are pretty stupid, “Better burn that dress, sister. Scar tissue, blood blister”. At around 0:30 it gets pretty heavy with all the instruments basically trying to make as much noise as possible. At 1:54 the song slows down into the bridge, a lot of distortion and feedback as usual. Overall an average song. 2.5/5
6) Mrs. Jones (5:25) – Starts with a distorted guitar riff which is quickly joined by the drums and bass. Then the singing starts which is really more like talking than anything else. In my opinion the song is a mess until the bridge/breakdown part at 1:30, at this point the guitar is a bit more audible and isn’t just random distortion, also Courtney actually sings, kinda, anyway it doesn’t last for long. At 2:30 Courtney screams and then everything goes chaotic again. From what I can tell from the lyrics this song is mainly about suicide and all that. Not a very cheery song. At around the 4:00 mark Courtney starts wailing terribly off key and then starts shouting “S**t” a bunch of times. Overall, quite a messy song with way too many suicide references. 2/5
7) Berry (2:46) – Starts with just a lightly distorted guitar then everything goes grungy with screams of, “YEAH, YEAH”. At around 0:45 then the songs goes into a slow chorus with half sung half growled lyrics. Then a bit of feedback before everything goes heavy again. Then the slow chorus part comes back in again around 2:05. This repeated until the end. Overall, quite a messy song again with too much random wailing and screaming. 2/5
8) Loaded (4:19) – This song starts straight away with the verse, this song is a bit lighter than the rest of the album with not as much random screaming as most of the others. Again there are several suicide references with lines like, “Rip me open and suck my scars”. The chorus for this song is a slower with Courtney repeating “I just get loaded” over and over again. Overall not such a good song. It sounds like it was put together in a bit of a rush and sounds slightly empty somehow. 2/5
9) Star Belly (1:46) – Starts with an acoustic riff which quickly turns into a distorted sound with the drums banging away in the background. At about 0:32 the music stops and all you can is the occasional note being played on the bass and a bit of feedback, at several points the sound of a radio is audible. Another good example of filler. 1/5
10) Pretty On The Inside (1:28) – Title track time, being the shortest song on the album is still manages to be one of the highlights. With the signature overly distorted guitar sound and Courtney screaming something along the lines of, “Sl*t kiss girls, won’t you promise her a smack” and “Is she pretty on the inside, is she ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly” etc. Overall a fairly good song but would be a lot better if it wasn’t so short. 3/5
11) Clouds (3:57) – Starts with a weird guitar sound. The drums then join in with something on the tom toms, soon after Courtney joins in with some weird robotic sounding lyrics. This song is a hard song to get your head around but once you do it is an okay song. Overall too repetitive to be a standout but it’s still worth listening to. 2.5/5
Good:
The good things about this album is that it set it apart from most of the other bands at the time, with the smutty lyrics and the distorted guitars these guys were really out to rebel and managed to do a good job of that. Courtney’s screams also add well to the songs, even though they are usually a bit out of key and strained but in a way that just adds to the whole grungy, punky, rebellious sound.
Bad:
The bad things about this album are that a lot of the songs sound like they were rushed and scraped together just as they got in the studio. Also there is quite a lot of filler such as ‘Sassy’, ‘Star Belly’ and most of the songs have ten to thirty seconds of feedback at the beginning and end of the track.
Another thing is that the bass is barely ever audible and the rare occasion when you can hear it all it is doing is just rolling on one or two notes.
The last and probably most important bad thing about this album is that most of the songs sound the same and even after listening to each track several times I still find it very hard to distinguish between them all. The only tracks that aren’t like this are ‘Teenage Wh*re’ and ‘Garbage Man’.
Highlights:
- Teenage Whore
- Garbage Man
Overall, a fairly average album, but a good buy if you are into grunge or if you like the sound of general amplifier feedback. That’s why this album gets a 2.5/5.
Note: Please give as much comments and constructive criticism as you can. Also I’m only twelve so take it easy on me.
