YMMV / Hole

• Awesome Music: Despite personal issues, when Love manages to pull it all together she can come up with some great songs. "Boys on the Radio" and "Celebrity Skin" are both high points.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • "Doll Parts" obviously, being a song about Courtney's early insecurities trying to pursue a relationship with Kurt, ending up as the first song released after his death.
  • "Miss World" has 2 relating to Kristen Pfaff:
    • The line "I've made my bed, I'll die in it" was actually written by Kristen. After Kurt died, Kristen was planning to leave Seattle to stay sober, but sadly relapsed, and died in her sleep of an opiate overdose the day she was intending to move.
    • In the music video, there is a close up of Kristen immediately after the line "Kill me, pills".
• Ho Yay: Courtney and Melissa in the "Celebrity Skin" era. Ironic given that the former never did anything like that with Patty Schemel, who is actually a lesbian.
• Nightmare Fuel:

  • “Teenage Whore", even ignoring the lyrics about childhood prostitution, is regardless a monolithic Noise Rock and Sludge Metal influenced track with festering dissonance.
  • The things Courtney does with her voice in “Dicknail” are truly unsettling. The opening “hey, Daddy” in that Thousand-Yard Stare monotone combined with the droning guitar, then her nasally drawl on “she liked it” that slides into an animalistic howl on the next line…she perfectly embodies the tone of the lyrics, and it is horrible.

• Signature Song: "Celebrity Skin", with "Malibu", "Violet" and "Doll Parts" not too far behind".
• Tear Jerker:
  • Quite a few, including "Doll Parts," "Northern Star," "Miss World" and "Letter to God."
  • "Teenage Whore" is about as depressing as it is disturbing, detailing Courtney Love's time as a suicidally depressed teenage sex worker.
  • "Violet", which appears to be about childhood sexual abuse.
• Values Resonance:
  • In "Doll Parts", Courtney famously sings that she wants to be "the girl with the most cake". Even if not her original intention with the line, with the term "cake" seeing widespread use as a slang term for a woman having a very attractive butt in The New '10s, it helps younger/modern listeners more easily connect to Love casting doubt on her attractiveness to men and comparing herself unfavorably to other women as she reels from the man she's falling in love with rejecting her.
  • Love intended for "Awful" to be an anthem for young girls to reject the corrosive influence of the media and modern pop culture on their self-image. These themes resonate even stronger in the age of social media as apps like Instagram have been shown to cause teenage girls to have reduced self-esteem and less satisfaction with their physical appearance.

---