Description
2025 reissue, 12″ LP, Geffen/UMG. Import on purple vinyl.
Devastating loss shadowed the release of Hole’s second album in 1994. It came out four days after singer Courtney Love’s husband Kurt Cobain was found dead at their home in Seattle and two months prior to the death of Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff. The release was a major step up from Hole’s debut, embracing a fuller rock sound, partly down to the upgrade in terms of where they recorded. As opposed to a small studio in Hollywood, they went to the same Atlanta, Georgia complex that Smashing Pumpkins used to record Siamese Dream. The thing that’s helped make this album timeless is not just the sound but the perspective of righteous female rage – check the propulsive ‘Credit In The Straight World’ or the loud/quiet rollercoaster, ‘Violet’, both as thrilling as a roller skate ride down a steep hill, for further proof. Love told press at the time of release she felt that there was a certain female point of view that’s never been given space and she took ownership of that with so much style and poignance, with the lyrics to ‘Asking For It’ a particularly direct example: “Was she asking for it? / Was she asking nice? / Did she ask you for it? / Did she ask you twice?” However, while it co-incided with the rise of riot grrrl and fed off much of the same energy, it somehow stands apart from that movement, carving out a unique space for itself that was only further enhanced by their incendiary live performances of the time.
