For years, fans have demanded the return of Hole’s long out-of-print catalog to vinyl, and the band have answered the call. To create the definitive editions of Pretty On The Inside, Live Through This, and Celebrity Skin, Hole guitarist and co-founder Eric Erlandson personally spearheaded the curation, overseeing every aspect of the reissue project.

Pretty On The Inside and the original Teenage Whore 12-inch single have been newly remastered, while Live Through This and Celebrity Skin have been newly mastered for vinyl. Each release also features faithfully reproduced artwork, restored packaging, and sought-after collectible exclusives.

Thirty-five years ago, the world officially met Hole with the arrival of the band’s debut, Pretty On The Inside in 1991. The original lineup—Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Jill Emery, and Caroline Rue—recorded the album at Music Box Studios in Los Angeles with co-producers Don Fleming and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth.

To this day, it continues to inspire a cult following, fueled by standout tracks including the title track and Teenage Whore, which has generated more than 16 million Spotify streams.

Then came the Platinum-certified Live Through This. A game-changing sonic exorcism of rock, punk, noise, and pop, the 1994 landmark remains one of the defining albums of its era. With the late Kristen Pfaff on bass and Patty Schemel on drums, Hole recorded the album at Triclops Sound in Marietta, Georgia alongside producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade.

Highlighted by Violet, Doll Parts, Jennifer’s Body, and Miss World, it has influenced successive generations while continuing to grow in stature. Live Through This appears on countless Best Of lists, including Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,”, Rolling Stone’s “50 Greatest Grunge Albums,”, and NME’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

Pitchfork also awarded it a rare perfect 10.0 score. Its influence extends beyond music, inspiring the title of the 2009 cult horror comedy Jennifer’s Body, while Miley Cyrus delivered a celebrated cover of Doll Parts on the Howard Stern Show.

More recently, Slayyyter delivered a blistering cover of Violet for Triple J’s Like A Version, earning a public co-sign from Courtney Love, who shared the performance on Instagram before posting a mashup of Hole’s Celebrity Skin with Slayyyter’s “BEAT UP CHANEL$.”

Hole capped off the decade with Celebrity Skin in 1998. Welcoming Melissa Auf der Maur on bass, the group worked with producer Michael Beinhorn at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Upon release, the album debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, was later certified Platinum, and earned four GRAMMY® Award nominations, including Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for Celebrity Skin, as well as Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for Malibu.

In a recent retrospective, PitchforK awarded the album a 9.0 rating, writing, Though Hole’s sound had expanded, their bite remained razor sharp. Doja Cat has also performed her own rendition of Celebrity Skin. To date, the album has amassed nearly one billion cumulative streams.

In 2026, Hole’s music remains as incendiary, irresistible, and inimitable as ever. There was never a rock band quite like Hole, and there never will be another.

As for that we are reviewing here today, well, for those still unaware, Live Through This was the second studio album by the aforementioned alternative rock band Hole. The title is actually derived from a quote in the film Gone With The Wind. Considered a contemporary classic, this record now features production by Sean Slade and Paul Q Kolderie with mixing by Scott Litt and J Mascis.

Side A:
A1: Violet
A2: Miss World
A3: Plump
A4: Asking For It
A5: Jennifers Body
A6: Doll Parts

Side B:
B1: Credit In The Straight World
B2: Softer, Softest
B3: She Walks On Me
B4: I Think That I Would Die
B5: Gutless
B6: Rock Star

To me, this was a near perfect grunge record. It made Courtney Love into the star she always wanted to be. There is a special counterculture quality to this record. While the production is glossy - this is a major label affair, after all - but it only serves to make the music more accessible not water down the feel.

For me the entire album turns on the cover of Young Marble Giants “Credit In The Straight World”. Reimagined as a full throated scuzzed out Nirvana like rocker the song writes the dynamics and stakes of the capitalist battle for grunge kids that lay ahead.

And so without the decades of hype, rumor, and vitriol that have inundated us music lovers since this record came out, listening now all I hear is early 90s indie rock - polished just enough to give its idiosyncrasies a fair hearing: the alternate-tuned guitars, interesting changes across a handful of water-color chords, aggressively feminist-“not-feminist” lyrics, and the Laurel Canyon folk-rock foundation.

It was always conspicuous how Love shifts, usually by the chorus or second verse, between her natural voice and a full-throated scream; now I wonder why we expected her to sing in one octave. Soon enough, Love made it hard to stay a Hole fan, but I remain charmed by their engagingly blunt style and how they made alt-rock a place for babydoll dresses, female rage, and Stevie Nicks idolatry.

OK, sure, at its dark heart this is a fractured and uneven album. It oscillates between abrasive guitar riffs and muddled production, often sacrificing subtlety for rawness. But it was a massive commercial success, in part due to the “coincidental” timing of release (one week after Cobain’s death) along with rumors that still persist today that Cobain actually ghost-wrote all of the material, of course.

Simply put, Love’s voice is so forward in the mix, that you can feel her spittle and smell her cigarette breath! The music plows into you and then right through you! It’s an unscratchable itch and fingernails on the chalkboard! Absolutely brilliant songwriting and performances toboot.

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