Hole-Live Through This (1994)

 

Artist: Hole

Title: Live Through This

Label: DGC

Format: CD

Cat #: DGCD 24631

Year of Release: 1994

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US reissue Pickneyville, IL

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 4/20/25

Sell Price: $7.43

Discogs Last Sold: 12/16/24 NM/VG+ $8.89

Low: $0.39

Median: $6.98

Average: $6.11

High: $9.99

Current low price: $5.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 4

Have/Want: 45/107

Where Sold: Belleville, NJ

Time it took to sell: 1 year

Where and When Bought:  Facebook Marketplace $2 lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

I always considered Live Through This by Hole the last Nirvana record, even if Nirvana didn't play on it or have any sort of official role on the record.  This was recorded in Kurt's lifetime, and it came out right after his death, so it had the feeling of a "voice from the camp" since it was his wife doing the voicing.  It was very different from the other great Hole album, Pretty On The Inside.  That one covered more of a sludgy Sonic Youth territory and this one was short songs with great lines.  The best songs have two of them to repeat Ad Infinium. 

Those lines are top tier.  "Go on take everything, take everything I want you to!"  "I made my bed, I'll lie in it."   "The pieces of Jennifer's Body."  When I went to school in Olympia...what do you do with a revolution?"  Sometimes there are even two in one song like the hit "Doll Parts" with it's "Yeah, they really want you they really want you they really do" and "someday you will ache like I ache" or my new favorite song on the album, "I Think That I Would Die" which has "I want my baby, WHERE IS THE BABY?" into the less understandable "Rose White Rose Red Rose Up In My Head."  A punctuating "FUCK YOU!"  is clearly understood.  Even supporting lyrics like "I don't do the dishes, I throw them in the crib" or "we look the same, we talk the same, we even fuck the same" have an ear perking quality 30 years later.  "One above and one below!"  Is she paraphrasing El Duce for the masses?

I hadn't heard this album since the 90's.  When it came out I bought it new, played it to memory then had a girlfriend that beat it into the ground on cassette.  I always thought of Live Through This as a solid A record, but I forgot about the respectable punk rock filler that makes my mind wander like "Gutless" or "She Walks On Me" (which I always thought of as "She Walks OVER Me") or the Young Marble Giants cover that serve to pad out a short record.  There is a reason why I've never had an urge to hear this for near 30 years and felt like I've heard it enough in a lifetime beyond burnout.  That said, I enjoyed my first cup of coffee with an old friend.

When I started playing this today my second cup of coffee triggered a visual migraine which lasted roughly the duration of the record until the aura which subsumed my vision field maxed out and went away.  I couldn't write anything or look at a screen, all I could do is sit back and listen and think.  Last night, I was on a 4 plus hour bus knowing I had to write about this and Celebrity Skin which sold in the same order.  I thought I knew this album cold and didn't need much extra review, but Spotify was playing random tracks from this in the Celebrity Skin section.  I also was thinking that I was going to slightly downgrade Live Through This and upgrade Celebrity Skin in my mind, but this is the Best In Show of Hole's history.

The revolution, while overrated, still lives long.