Pretty on the Inside
Encyclopedia
Pretty on the Inside is the debut studio album by American alternative rock
band Hole
. Released August 23, 1991 on Caroline Records
, it was Hole's first major label release after their formation in 1989 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love
and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson
. The album featured newly-recruited bassist Jill Emery
and drummer Caroline Rue, and was produced by Sonic Youth
vocalist/bassist Kim Gordon
and Gumball
frontman Don Fleming
.
Pretty on the Inside is noted for being the band's only work to be predominantly influenced by noise rock
and punk rock
, due to its graphic lyrics, distorted guitar riffs, screaming vocals
, and "sloppy punk ethics". The album was very well-received by rock critics upon release, garnering favorable reviews in major music periodicals such as Spin
and NME
. In contrast to its moderate popularity in the United States, the album received much more attention in the United Kingdom where its lead and only single, "Teenage Whore
", entered the UK Indie Chart
at number one in September of that year.
Pretty on the Inside has sold over 600,000 copies worldwide and gained a contemporary cult following
among rock fans, though frontwoman Love has, in later years, referred to the album as "unlistenable". The album was reissued on vinyl LP in the United States in August 2011 to celebrate its twentieth anniversary.
stating: "I want to start a band. My influences are Big Black
, Sonic Youth, and Fleetwood Mac
". Eric Erlandson, along with over a dozen other musicians, answered the ad. Love would later say that she knew Eric was "the one" as soon as they met, saying he had a "Thurston Moore
quality about him" that she liked.
Erlandson has said that early in Hole's career, they were more interested in "making noise" than achieving success and before drummer Caroline Rue joined the band that they had no percussion whatsoever. It was not until Love and Erlandson heard Mudhoney
's "Touch Me, I'm Sick" that they began to think about taking the band to the next level. Early on, the band was most influenced by the New York No Wave
art and music scene of the 1980s, which featured visual artists, such as Richard Kern
, as well as scuzz rock acts, such as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth, and Pussy Galore
. The band also featured a third guitarist in its early days: first Mike Geisbrecht and second Errol Stewart. After the band's first four shows, the original lineup disbanded and Hole recruited bassist Jill Emery
in 1990.
In the documentary film Not Bad for a Girl
, Love, who had been in the erotic dancing
industry for years prior, stated that she worked as a stripper
to help support the band in its early incarnation. She also cited her work as a dancer as being one of many inspirations for the songs on Pretty on the Inside: "I was blonde, wore makeup, had to support my band by dancing, and had to play this ridiculous archetype at work... so I took, you know, high heels and white pumps, and I had a wiglet— I just took that and messed with it."
" on Sympathy for the Record Industry
and "Dicknail
" on Sub Pop
. According to Love, she had initially wanted to release the album on Sympathy for the Record Industry, but was "talked into" signing on with Caroline Records
. After signing, Love sought Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon to produce the album. In January 1991, Love sent her letter, a Hello Kitty
barrette, and copies of the band's early singles, mentioning that the band greatly admired Gordon's work and appreciated "the production of the SST
record" (referring to Sonic Youth's EVOL
or Sister
). Gordon agreed on the condition that her friend, Gumball frontman Don Fleming, assist.
The band entered Music Box Studios with Gordon and Fleming in March 1991 and worked on the album for seven days; the songs were recorded over a period of four days, and were mixed over the course of a further three days. During the recording sessions for the album, Love was reported to have gargled whiskey and smoked cigarettes excessively to "give a raw edge to her vocals".
The sessions were said to be stressful in many ways, with an anonymous band member saying that Love was "on a total power trip" the entire time, making sure she had the final say of "everything in terms of album cover design, order of musicians' credits in the liner notes, and even the spot where the price code went on the back". Fleming was impressed by Love's "focus and intensity" and especially while recording vocals for one song when Love "literally ripped her clothes off while she sang". Fleming also later noted:
Gordon noted that Love "was either charming and nice or screaming at her band" but that she was "a really good singer and entertainer and front person".
, experimental playing, wah pedals
, and use of sampling and sound collage. Rapid sliding techniques
and string muting
are also heavily present on the album. Love's vocals range from whispers to violent screaming, often in succession with the extreme shifts in speed and volume present in the songs.
The album also contains a great deal of conspicuous references to the works of other musicians, showcased in the album's two experimental noise tracks, "Sassy" and "Starbelly". The main riff to "Starbelly" is based on Neil Young
's "Cinnamon Girl
" and features analog
cassette excerpts from "Rhiannon
" by Fleetwood Mac
and an early recording of "Best Sunday Dress" by the Pagan Babies
, one of Love's earlier bands with Kat Bjelland
. "Sassy", the other noise track featured on Pretty on the Inside, includes snippets from an angry message left by Nymphs
singer Inger Lorre
on Love's answering machine.
Love also admitted that the main riff to "Mrs. Jones" was copied verbatim from "Dark Entries
" by the gothic rock
group Bauhaus
. The album's closing track, "Clouds", is a musically and lyrically re-worked cover of Joni Mitchell
's "Both Sides, Now".
In a 1991 Canadian television interview, Love commented on the album's coarse musical structure, stating that since the band was from Los Angeles, the "metal capital of the US", they thought they were making a "pop record with an edge", and were surprised by people's reactions when they were told it was violent and extreme. Love also commented, saying "It was all about the expression of my experience. I was not coming from a black void; I was trying to create light... I was trying to heal."
In an interview with Spin magazine several years after its release, Love said that she was "posing in a lot of ways" with the album: "It was the truth, but it was also me catching up with all my hip peers who'd gone all indie on me, and who made fun of me for liking R.E.M.
and The Smiths
. I'd done the whole punk thing, sleeping on floors in piss and beer, and waking up with the guy with the fucking mohawk and the skateboards and the speed and the whole goddamned thing. But I hated it. I'd grown out of it by the time I was seventeen." In a 1994 interview with Kurt Loder
, Love admitted to having been "consciously self-conscious" when making the record due to her feeling the need to compete with her peers at the time.
In retrospect, Love stated that the album contained "nothing melodic", and in a 2011 interview for Hit So Hard (2011), a documentary on later Hole drummer Patty Schemel
, Love referred to Pretty on the Inside as "unlistenable".
", and self-destructiveness.
The Seattle publication The Stranger
noted that the track "Mrs. Jones" was a "particularly rattling sketch of what appears to be a rape scene, with Love seamlessly handling three perspectives: the ugly attacker ("Look into the bloodrot, you suicide bitch / It takes an hour with you to make me want to live"), the vengeful victim ("The abortion left an abscess / Don't ever talk to me like that again"), and the supportive narrator ("Just like a pro, she takes off her dress / And she kicks you down in her snow white pumps")."
"Garbadge Man
", discusses abandonment and alienation, as well as crisis of spirituality, and is one of the few songs on the album to feature a verse-chorus-verse
composition. The album closes with two songs that are bridged together as a single piece: "Pretty on the Inside", noted for its hostile lyrics and allusions to vanity, and "Clouds", a dark and raucous cover of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now" from her 1969 album Clouds. The cover of the song features altered lyrics that appear to reference drug abuse and self-hatred.
Several of the songs on the album had alternate titles at one point; a set list published in Love's semi-autobiography, Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love, reveals this. "Pretty on the Inside", which the album was named after, was originally titled "Pretty from the Back" in its early incarnations. Likewise, the song "Berry" had the working title "Bury Me"; "Loaded" was originally named "Weird Red Light"; and "Garbadge Man" was simply titled "Garbadge". In the book, Love also writes that the album was "our tribute to Black Sabbath
and Leonard Cohen
."
The album's lyrics were deemed explicit enough to garner it a Parental Advisory
logo in the United States, largely due to the lurid nature of many of the songs as well as their usage of profanity. Female-aimed curse words such as "bitch", "slut", and "whore" are prominent in the songs, though in a presumably subversive manner. Verses like "Slutkiss girls, won't you water her rack? / Is she pretty on the inside? / Is she pretty from the back? " and "The sun spits on your raw hide / As you dance to the sound of a suicide" are examples of the brusquely sexual and violent imagery present in the songs. "I try to place [beautiful imagery] next to fucked up imagery, because that's how I view things," said Love in a 1991 interview with Everett True
. "I sometimes feel that no one's taken the time to write about certain things in rock, that there's a certain female point of view that's never been given space."
In spite of its graphic lyrics, the underlying pro-feminist slant that is found in several of the songs lead many to mistakenly tag the band as being part of the riot grrl movement, a movement that Love was highly critical of.
The back side of the album features an oil painting
by bassist Emery, displaying an abstract image of a topless woman looking at herself through a hand mirror, with two disembodied hands reaching toward and away from her head while tears spill from her eyes. On her chest is a red heart surrounded by arrows, and below, her ribs protrude from her sides, possibly a reference to anorexia
and body image issues, a heavy theme on the album and its successor Live Through This. The painting reflects themes present on the album, particularly the "preoccupation with feeling plain and feeling ugly, and the vanity and competition amongst women."
The interior artwork, presented in a booklet on the CD version of the album and on the record sleeve on vinyl releases, features an assemblage of scribbled and typewritten lyrics, personal "thank you" notes, cutouts of Catholic
and Renaissance artwork, as well as childlike drawings and storybook pictures juxtaposed with photos of women in bondage
. The collages in the album's liner notes have been described as looking like "the scrapbook of an incest
victim." In the liner notes, the album is dedicated to Rob Ritter of the LA punk group The Bags
.
", was released several weeks prior for promotion. "Teenage Whore" entered the UK Indie Chart's Top 10 at number one in September 1991, beating out "Heaven Sent An Angel" by Revolver
, "Let It Slide" by Mudhoney
, and "Love to Hate You
" by Erasure
, among others. On The Chart Show
on Channel 4
, the song's title was censored with ellipsis
in place of the word "whore".
The single's success in the United Kingdom led the band to perform a twelve-date tour of the country in August and September 1991 with Mudhoney supporting. The subsequent success of both the album, single, and tour saw Hole embark on a further three tours of the United States, Germany and Western Europe in the latter half of 1991, playing again with Mudhoney, as well as alternative rock acts Daisy Chainsaw
and Therapy?
. In spite of the album's popularity in the United Kingdom, it failed to chart in the United States despite extensive touring, though it was known to be outselling Nirvana's output before the band's release of Nevermind
the following week.
The band played their final show of the tour in San Francisco opening for The Smashing Pumpkins
, which ended with Love infamously smashing her guitar headstock
onstage at the end of their set after the audience failed to respond well.
Los Angeles Times journalist David Cromelin noted in his review of the concert:
After the tour concluded, a music video for the track "Garbadge Man" was released, though the album's only single, "Teenage Whore", did not receive a music video. The video is fairly abstract
and a reflection of Hole's no wave influence at the time, with shots of Love and other band members in a car interspersed with shots of them performing outside the window. It was shown on MTV
's 120 Minutes
in 1992 during an interview with Love and Kim Gordon, and was broadcast again on the show in 1994 and 1995 but was never as popular as the band's later videos. For the music video, an alternate mix of the song by Gordon was used to eliminate profanity.
The album was released solely on CD and tape cassette
in the United States, but received a release on vinyl LP
throughout Europe by City Slang, based in Berlin, Germany. The first 3,000 pressings of the LP featured blue vinyl, while the following pressings were in standard black. In June 2011, Plain Recordings, an independent American record label specializing in cult
album re-issues, announced that a 180 gram vinyl re-release of Pretty on the Inside was being introduced to their catalogue; it was released on August 2, 2011. The LP reissue marked the first vinyl release of the album in the United States.
, the album was positively compared to Patti Smith
's Horses
, as well as the debut albums of The Ramones, Television
, and New York Dolls
, and was branded as being in "a class of its own", while Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote in The New Yorker
that "Pretty on the Inside is such a cacophony... very few people are likely to get through it once, let alone give it the repeated listenings it needs for you to discover that it's probably the most compelling album to have been released in 1991."
Q Magazine called the album "loud, ugly, and deliberately shocking", giving the album three out of five stars. Spin noted in their review that it "revolves around a fascination of the repulsive aspects of L.A.— superficiality, sexism, violence, and drugs. Love is the embodiment of what drives the band: the dichotomy of pretty/ugly... The pretty/ugly dynamic also comes across in Hole's music... a song like "Teenage Whore" at first comes across like a ranting noisy rage, but underneath is a surprisingly lush melody." Melody Maker
columnist Sharon O'Connell said the album was "the very best bit of fucked up rock 'n' roll [I've heard] all year", and the album earned a spot in the "20 Best Albums of the Year" by Spin magazine in December 1991.
Deborah Frost of The Village Voice, in her review of the album, called it "genre-defying" and noted:
In 1995 Alternative Press magazine ranked the album at #74 in their "Top 99 Of '85-'95" list, noting that "Love works in extremes and wears that scarlet letter
when she feels like it, and when she doesn't she rips it off, never neglecting melody and language as the real medium for her message." In 2009 PopMatters
called it an album with "bold musical splendour on display" that "[leaves one feeling] nothing short of gobsmacked."
In a 1994 article, Rolling Stone
journalist David Fricke called the album "gloriously assaultive" and "a classic of sex-mad self-laceration, hypershred guitars and full-moon bawling [...] in particular the spectacular goring of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now" (aka "Clouds") at the end of the record. You don't really know the solitary despair at the core of that song until you've heard Love's embittered delivery of the last two lines — "It's life's illusions I recall / I really don't know life at all" — over guitarist Eric Erlandson's fading squall."
frontwoman Brody Dalle
in an interview as a seminal album in the development of her music. British rock band Nine Black Alps
also cited the album as a major influence on their third release, Locked Out from the Inside
(2009). Contemporarily, the album has also gained a cult following
among rock and punk music fans.
The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock called the album a "surly milkshake of broken rock shards... from the artistic misspellings of song titles to the lyric collage on the inner sleeve and the abrasive, abstract guitar noises on the songs, Pretty on the Inside reveals the band's fascination with the New York no wave art and music scene of the '80s." According to Billboard
, the album had sold 27,000 copies by 1994, when the band released their wildly popular followup album, Live Through This
.
In more recent years, frontwoman Love has had a more oppositional stance toward the album, and has stated that it contains "nothing melodic". In a 2011 interview for Hit So Hard (2011), a documentary on later Hole drummer Patty Schemel
, Love referred to Pretty on the Inside as "unlistenable".
Nonetheless, the title track of the album was performed regularly at Hole concerts between 1993 and 1999, and Love opened shows with the song during Hole's 2010 tour, but refused to play any other songs from the album. While touring in 2010, a fan at a Houston concert asked Love to play "Teenage Whore", to which she responded, "No 'Teenage Whore', I'll tell you why— I watched [a performance of] 'Dicknail' last night, and I am done with that shit. I am coming up on 46 in four days, huh uh. No toplessness, no 'Teenage Whore'... some things you just grow out of. If you were there, kids, it was awesome, but you're never gonna see it again."
.
Technical personnel
Singles
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
. Released August 23, 1991 on Caroline Records
Caroline Records
Caroline Records started out as a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label during the early to mid 1970s. The label originally specialized in putting out budget price LPs by mainly progressive rock and jazz artists generally not considered to have a great deal of 'mainstream' or...
, it was Hole's first major label release after their formation in 1989 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson
Eric Erlandson
Eric Erlandson is an American musician known as the co-founder, former songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole.-Early life and career:...
. The album featured newly-recruited bassist Jill Emery
Jill Emery
Jill Emery is an American artist and former musician based in Los Angeles, California. Best known as the bassist for the alternative rock band Hole from 1990 until 1992, Emery left the band after the subsequent tour for the band's debut album, Pretty on the Inside and was replaced by Kristen Pfaff...
and drummer Caroline Rue, and was produced by Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
vocalist/bassist Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
and Gumball
Gumball (band)
Gumball was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1990. The original lineup consisted of Don Fleming , Eric Vermillion , and Jay Spiegel . In 1992, a fourth member was added, Malcolm Riviera who had previously played with Fleming and Spiegel in the Velvet Monkeys.-History:After Fleming...
frontman Don Fleming
Don Fleming (musician)
Don Fleming is an American musician, best known for being the frontman of Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L., and Gumball.-Biography:...
.
Pretty on the Inside is noted for being the band's only work to be predominantly influenced by noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
and punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, due to its graphic lyrics, distorted guitar riffs, screaming vocals
Screaming (music)
Screaming is a vocal technique that is most popular in subgenres of heavy metal, punk and hard rock, including metalcore, deathcore, post-hardcore, groove metal, black metal, and grindcore...
, and "sloppy punk ethics". The album was very well-received by rock critics upon release, garnering favorable reviews in major music periodicals such as Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
and NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
. In contrast to its moderate popularity in the United States, the album received much more attention in the United Kingdom where its lead and only single, "Teenage Whore
Teenage Whore
"Teenage Whore" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written collectively by the band. The song was released as the band's third single and the first and only from their debut studio album, Pretty on the Inside, in August 1991...
", entered the UK Indie Chart
UK Indie Chart
The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered...
at number one in September of that year.
Pretty on the Inside has sold over 600,000 copies worldwide and gained a contemporary cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
among rock fans, though frontwoman Love has, in later years, referred to the album as "unlistenable". The album was reissued on vinyl LP in the United States in August 2011 to celebrate its twentieth anniversary.
Background
Hole had formed in 1989 in Los Angeles, California when frontwoman Courtney Love, after years of fruitless attempts at forming bands, bought her neighbor Lisa Roberts a bass and posted an advertisement in local fanzine FlipsideFlipside (fanzine)
Flipside was a punk rock fanzine published in Los Angeles, California from 1977 to 2000.As one of the first and longest running US punk rock fanzines, this publication extensively chronicled the world of independent and underground music during this era. Known for its highly opinionated cast of...
stating: "I want to start a band. My influences are Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...
, Sonic Youth, and Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
". Eric Erlandson, along with over a dozen other musicians, answered the ad. Love would later say that she knew Eric was "the one" as soon as they met, saying he had a "Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
quality about him" that she liked.
Erlandson has said that early in Hole's career, they were more interested in "making noise" than achieving success and before drummer Caroline Rue joined the band that they had no percussion whatsoever. It was not until Love and Erlandson heard Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...
's "Touch Me, I'm Sick" that they began to think about taking the band to the next level. Early on, the band was most influenced by the New York No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
art and music scene of the 1980s, which featured visual artists, such as Richard Kern
Richard Kern
Richard Kern is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time...
, as well as scuzz rock acts, such as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth, and Pussy Galore
Pussy Galore (band)
Pussy Galore was an American garage rock band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1985. They had a constantly fluid line-up until their demise in 1990. Like many garage rock outfits, they were dogged by substance abuse problems...
. The band also featured a third guitarist in its early days: first Mike Geisbrecht and second Errol Stewart. After the band's first four shows, the original lineup disbanded and Hole recruited bassist Jill Emery
Jill Emery
Jill Emery is an American artist and former musician based in Los Angeles, California. Best known as the bassist for the alternative rock band Hole from 1990 until 1992, Emery left the band after the subsequent tour for the band's debut album, Pretty on the Inside and was replaced by Kristen Pfaff...
in 1990.
In the documentary film Not Bad for a Girl
Not Bad for a Girl
Not Bad for a Girl is a rockumentary on women musicians of the 90's from the indie rock music genre grunge and Riot Grrrl and celebrates madness, creativity, and gender play. Tina Silvey was the executive producer. Silvey Co...
, Love, who had been in the erotic dancing
Erotic dancing
Erotic dance is a major category or classification of dance forms or dance styles, where the purpose is the stimulation or arousal of erotic or sexual thoughts or actions....
industry for years prior, stated that she worked as a stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
to help support the band in its early incarnation. She also cited her work as a dancer as being one of many inspirations for the songs on Pretty on the Inside: "I was blonde, wore makeup, had to support my band by dancing, and had to play this ridiculous archetype at work... so I took, you know, high heels and white pumps, and I had a wiglet— I just took that and messed with it."
Recording and production
Hole had previously released two singles, "Retard GirlRetard Girl
"Retard Girl" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love. The song was released as the band's debut single in April 1990 on 7" vinyl by Sympathy for the Record Industry. The single was produced by Love's then-husband, James Moreland,...
" on Sympathy for the Record Industry
Sympathy for the Record Industry
Sympathy for the Record Industry is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by record industry anti-mogul Long Gone John...
and "Dicknail
Dicknail
"Dicknail" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson. The song was released as the band's second single in March 1991; however, like the band's first single, "Retard Girl", it was only released on 7" vinyl....
" on Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
. According to Love, she had initially wanted to release the album on Sympathy for the Record Industry, but was "talked into" signing on with Caroline Records
Caroline Records
Caroline Records started out as a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label during the early to mid 1970s. The label originally specialized in putting out budget price LPs by mainly progressive rock and jazz artists generally not considered to have a great deal of 'mainstream' or...
. After signing, Love sought Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon to produce the album. In January 1991, Love sent her letter, a Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty
is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States...
barrette, and copies of the band's early singles, mentioning that the band greatly admired Gordon's work and appreciated "the production of the SST
SST Records
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment...
record" (referring to Sonic Youth's EVOL
EVOL
Evol is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released in 1986 on SST Records, and recorded and mixed by New York recording icon Martin Bisi. The album cover features a picture of Lung Leg, a still taken from Submit to Me, a film by Richard Kern...
or Sister
Sister (Sonic Youth album)
Sister is the fourth album by alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released in 1987 on SST Records. It was re-released in late 1994 on DGC.The album furthers the band's move away from noise rock towards more traditional pop structures, while maintaining an aggressively experimental approach. It...
). Gordon agreed on the condition that her friend, Gumball frontman Don Fleming, assist.
The band entered Music Box Studios with Gordon and Fleming in March 1991 and worked on the album for seven days; the songs were recorded over a period of four days, and were mixed over the course of a further three days. During the recording sessions for the album, Love was reported to have gargled whiskey and smoked cigarettes excessively to "give a raw edge to her vocals".
The sessions were said to be stressful in many ways, with an anonymous band member saying that Love was "on a total power trip" the entire time, making sure she had the final say of "everything in terms of album cover design, order of musicians' credits in the liner notes, and even the spot where the price code went on the back". Fleming was impressed by Love's "focus and intensity" and especially while recording vocals for one song when Love "literally ripped her clothes off while she sang". Fleming also later noted:
Courtney was great at the time— it was before she even knew Kurt [Cobain]. She gave 180%. I've worked with some people that you've had to coax the performance out of them. With Courtney, there was no attitude. She was gonna give it all. And she did and it was really impressive to me [...] I loved the whole band; they were a lot of fun. That early lineup of Hole— I felt they were the real deal. They were Hollywood misfits— all of them. I felt it really captured what they were."
Gordon noted that Love "was either charming and nice or screaming at her band" but that she was "a really good singer and entertainer and front person".
Musical structure
The music of Pretty on the Inside is most often noted for its extreme abrasiveness, and almost contradictingly, for its sophisticated use of melody which is buried under arrangements. A great majority of the album's songs are composed of power chords and barre chords, which are accentuated by overt use of feedbackAudio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...
, experimental playing, wah pedals
Wah-wah pedal
A wah-wah pedal is a type of guitar effects pedal that alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect, mimicking the human voice...
, and use of sampling and sound collage. Rapid sliding techniques
Slide (guitar technique)
A slide is a legato guitar technique where the player sounds one note, and then moves their finger up or down the fretboard to another fret. If done properly, the other note should also sound....
and string muting
Palm mute
The palm mute is a playing technique for guitar and bass guitar executed by placing the side of the picking hand below the little finger across all of the strings very close to the bridge and then plucking the strings with the fingers while the damping is in effect. This produces a muted sound...
are also heavily present on the album. Love's vocals range from whispers to violent screaming, often in succession with the extreme shifts in speed and volume present in the songs.
The album also contains a great deal of conspicuous references to the works of other musicians, showcased in the album's two experimental noise tracks, "Sassy" and "Starbelly". The main riff to "Starbelly" is based on Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's "Cinnamon Girl
Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young song)
"Cinnamon Girl" is a song by Neil Young. It debuted on the 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, which was also Young's first album with backing band Crazy Horse...
" and features analog
Analog recording
Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which among many possibilities include audio frequency, analog audio and analog video information for later playback.Analog recording methods store signals as a continual wave in or on the media...
cassette excerpts from "Rhiannon
Rhiannon (song)
"Rhiannon" is a single released by Fleetwood Mac in 1976. The song was written by Stevie Nicks."Rhiannon" was voted #488 in The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. Its US chart peak was in June 1976, when it hit #11...
" by Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
and an early recording of "Best Sunday Dress" by the Pagan Babies
Pagan Babies (band)
The Pagan Babies were a short-lived American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed by Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love circa late 1985...
, one of Love's earlier bands with Kat Bjelland
Kat Bjelland
Katherine "Kat" Bjelland is an American musician who is currently the lead singer-guitarist of the band Katastrophy Wife, and is the former lead singer and guitarist of the punk rock band Babes in Toyland....
. "Sassy", the other noise track featured on Pretty on the Inside, includes snippets from an angry message left by Nymphs
The Nymphs
The Nymphs were an alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s with lead singer Inger Lorre. The band was signed to Geffen Records, and released their only album in 1991. The Nymphs were known for their wild stage shows and their rebellious attitude towards record companies...
singer Inger Lorre
Inger Lorre
Inger Lorre is an American singer who is best known for her bands The Nymphs and Motel Shootout.-The Nymphs:...
on Love's answering machine.
Love also admitted that the main riff to "Mrs. Jones" was copied verbatim from "Dark Entries
Dark Entries
"Dark Entries" is the second single released by British gothic rock band Bauhaus. It showcases the guitar playing of Daniel Ash and tight rhythm section of David J and Kevin Haskins...
" by the gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
group Bauhaus
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
. The album's closing track, "Clouds", is a musically and lyrically re-worked cover of Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
's "Both Sides, Now".
In a 1991 Canadian television interview, Love commented on the album's coarse musical structure, stating that since the band was from Los Angeles, the "metal capital of the US", they thought they were making a "pop record with an edge", and were surprised by people's reactions when they were told it was violent and extreme. Love also commented, saying "It was all about the expression of my experience. I was not coming from a black void; I was trying to create light... I was trying to heal."
In an interview with Spin magazine several years after its release, Love said that she was "posing in a lot of ways" with the album: "It was the truth, but it was also me catching up with all my hip peers who'd gone all indie on me, and who made fun of me for liking R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
and The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
. I'd done the whole punk thing, sleeping on floors in piss and beer, and waking up with the guy with the fucking mohawk and the skateboards and the speed and the whole goddamned thing. But I hated it. I'd grown out of it by the time I was seventeen." In a 1994 interview with Kurt Loder
Kurt Loder
Kurt Loder is an American film critic, author, columnist, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone, during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire, Details, New York, and Time. He has also made cameos on...
, Love admitted to having been "consciously self-conscious" when making the record due to her feeling the need to compete with her peers at the time.
In retrospect, Love stated that the album contained "nothing melodic", and in a 2011 interview for Hit So Hard (2011), a documentary on later Hole drummer Patty Schemel
Patty Schemel
Patricia Theresa Schemel is an American drummer, most notably known as the drummer of the alternative rock band Hole from 1992 until 1998.-Early music career:Schemel learned to play drums after her father bought her a drum kit at age 11...
, Love referred to Pretty on the Inside as "unlistenable".
Lyrics and themes
The album is often lauded for its literate and biting lyrics, which were described by Q Magazine as "confrontational" and "genuinely uninhibited". Many of the lyric compositions were heavily drawn from Love's personal life and experiences in her teenage and young adult years. In a press release promoting the album, Love said: "These songs are about my own weaknesses and impurities; things about myself that I hate... paranoias, petty concerns, and pithy, pathetic things that are inside of me." The lyrics often describe shocking scenes of human-caused violence, and, particularly, violence against women. Other themes largely discussed in the lyrics include elitism, beauty. and self-image, as well as the more disconcerting themes of abortion, prostitution, suicide, "red lightsRed Light District
Red Light District may refer to:* Red-light district - a neighborhood where prostitution is common* The Red Light District - the title of the 2004 album by rapper Ludacris* Red Light District Video - a pornography studio based in Los Angeles, California...
", and self-destructiveness.
The Seattle publication The Stranger
The Stranger (newspaper)
The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...
noted that the track "Mrs. Jones" was a "particularly rattling sketch of what appears to be a rape scene, with Love seamlessly handling three perspectives: the ugly attacker ("Look into the bloodrot, you suicide bitch / It takes an hour with you to make me want to live"), the vengeful victim ("The abortion left an abscess / Don't ever talk to me like that again"), and the supportive narrator ("Just like a pro, she takes off her dress / And she kicks you down in her snow white pumps")."
"Garbadge Man
Garbadge Man
"Garbadge Man" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written collectively by the band's original line-up. The song was featured as the third track on the band's debut studio album Pretty on the Inside, released on August 23, 1991 by Caroline Records. The name of the song, which features...
", discusses abandonment and alienation, as well as crisis of spirituality, and is one of the few songs on the album to feature a verse-chorus-verse
Verse-chorus form
Verse-chorus form is a musical form common in popular music and predominant in rock since the 1960s. In contrast to AABA form, which is focused on the verse , in verse-chorus form the chorus is highlighted...
composition. The album closes with two songs that are bridged together as a single piece: "Pretty on the Inside", noted for its hostile lyrics and allusions to vanity, and "Clouds", a dark and raucous cover of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now" from her 1969 album Clouds. The cover of the song features altered lyrics that appear to reference drug abuse and self-hatred.
Several of the songs on the album had alternate titles at one point; a set list published in Love's semi-autobiography, Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love, reveals this. "Pretty on the Inside", which the album was named after, was originally titled "Pretty from the Back" in its early incarnations. Likewise, the song "Berry" had the working title "Bury Me"; "Loaded" was originally named "Weird Red Light"; and "Garbadge Man" was simply titled "Garbadge". In the book, Love also writes that the album was "our tribute to Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
and Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
."
The album's lyrics were deemed explicit enough to garner it a Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory is a message affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to audio and recordings in the United States containing excessive use of profane language and/or sexual references. Albums began to be labeled for "explicit lyrics" in 1985, after pressure from the Parents...
logo in the United States, largely due to the lurid nature of many of the songs as well as their usage of profanity. Female-aimed curse words such as "bitch", "slut", and "whore" are prominent in the songs, though in a presumably subversive manner. Verses like "Slutkiss girls, won't you water her rack? / Is she pretty on the inside? / Is she pretty from the back? " and "The sun spits on your raw hide / As you dance to the sound of a suicide" are examples of the brusquely sexual and violent imagery present in the songs. "I try to place [beautiful imagery] next to fucked up imagery, because that's how I view things," said Love in a 1991 interview with Everett True
Everett True
For the cartoon character, see The Outbursts of Everett True.Everett True is a British music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford, Essex...
. "I sometimes feel that no one's taken the time to write about certain things in rock, that there's a certain female point of view that's never been given space."
In spite of its graphic lyrics, the underlying pro-feminist slant that is found in several of the songs lead many to mistakenly tag the band as being part of the riot grrl movement, a movement that Love was highly critical of.
Packaging and artwork
The artwork for Pretty on the Inside is abstract in comparison to Hole's later album artwork. The front cover of the album features a heavily-saturated pink press photo of the band amidst forest underbrush, taken by photographer Vickie Berndt. The photo is similar to several others taken during the same shoot, one of which was featured in a Spin article in 1991.The back side of the album features an oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
by bassist Emery, displaying an abstract image of a topless woman looking at herself through a hand mirror, with two disembodied hands reaching toward and away from her head while tears spill from her eyes. On her chest is a red heart surrounded by arrows, and below, her ribs protrude from her sides, possibly a reference to anorexia
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
and body image issues, a heavy theme on the album and its successor Live Through This. The painting reflects themes present on the album, particularly the "preoccupation with feeling plain and feeling ugly, and the vanity and competition amongst women."
The interior artwork, presented in a booklet on the CD version of the album and on the record sleeve on vinyl releases, features an assemblage of scribbled and typewritten lyrics, personal "thank you" notes, cutouts of Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Renaissance artwork, as well as childlike drawings and storybook pictures juxtaposed with photos of women in bondage
Bondage (sexual)
Bondage is the use of restraints for the sexual pleasure of the parties involved. It may be used in its own right, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage, or as part of sexual activity or BDSM activity.- Private bondage :...
. The collages in the album's liner notes have been described as looking like "the scrapbook of an incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
victim." In the liner notes, the album is dedicated to Rob Ritter of the LA punk group The Bags
The Bags
The Bags were an American rock band formed in 1977. They were one of the first generation of punk rock bands to emerge out of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...
.
Release
Pretty on the Inside was released on August 23, 1991 in the United States on Caroline Records and on City Slang in Europe. The album's lead single, "Teenage WhoreTeenage Whore
"Teenage Whore" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written collectively by the band. The song was released as the band's third single and the first and only from their debut studio album, Pretty on the Inside, in August 1991...
", was released several weeks prior for promotion. "Teenage Whore" entered the UK Indie Chart's Top 10 at number one in September 1991, beating out "Heaven Sent An Angel" by Revolver
Revolver (band)
Revolver were a London based guitar band in existence from 1990–1994, comprising Mat Flint , Hamish Brown and Nick Dewey...
, "Let It Slide" by Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...
, and "Love to Hate You
Love to Hate You
"Love to Hate You" is a song by Erasure which was released in 1991 as the second single from the duo's fifth studio album Chorus.-History:...
" by Erasure
Erasure
Erasure are an English synthpop duo, consisting of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Andy Bell. Erasure entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love Like That"...
, among others. On The Chart Show
The Chart Show
The Chart Show is a music video programme which ran in the UK on Channel 4 between 1986 and 1988, then on ITV between 1989 and 1998. The production company was Video Visuals, and was credited as "A Yorkshire Television Presentation" from 1993 and 1998...
on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, the song's title was censored with ellipsis
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is a series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the original text being quoted. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence...
in place of the word "whore".
The single's success in the United Kingdom led the band to perform a twelve-date tour of the country in August and September 1991 with Mudhoney supporting. The subsequent success of both the album, single, and tour saw Hole embark on a further three tours of the United States, Germany and Western Europe in the latter half of 1991, playing again with Mudhoney, as well as alternative rock acts Daisy Chainsaw
Daisy Chainsaw
Daisy Chainsaw was an English alternative rock band, active between 1989 and 1995. It originally featured KatieJane Garside as lead vocalist and lyricist on the band's early EPs and debut album, Eleventeen , before her departure in 1993...
and Therapy?
Therapy?
Therapy? is an alternative metal band from Northern Ireland. The band was formed in 1989 by guitarist–vocalist Andy Cairns from Ballyclare and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing from Larne, Northern Ireland. The band initially recorded their first demo with Cairns filling in on bass guitar...
. In spite of the album's popularity in the United Kingdom, it failed to chart in the United States despite extensive touring, though it was known to be outselling Nirvana's output before the band's release of Nevermind
Nevermind
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records...
the following week.
The band played their final show of the tour in San Francisco opening for The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
, which ended with Love infamously smashing her guitar headstock
Headstock
Headstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
onstage at the end of their set after the audience failed to respond well.
Los Angeles Times journalist David Cromelin noted in his review of the concert:
Smashing Pumpkins' singer-guitarist Billy Corgan referred to himself as "a frustrated Midwestern youth" at the Whisky on Tuesday [...] Smashing Pumpkins was preceded by smashing guitars, courtesy of Hole. The tortured, transfixing L.A. group's pairing with the headliners should have made this a bill to remember, but the audience was primed for Pumpkin and didn't take to Courtney Love's powerful howls of anguish. Hole ended its set in a tantrum, as Love ordered the band to halt and hurled her guitar to the ground. Guitarist Eric Erlandson finished things off by demolishing his instrument with a few impressive swings. Frustrated Midwestern youth, meet frustrated California youth.
After the tour concluded, a music video for the track "Garbadge Man" was released, though the album's only single, "Teenage Whore", did not receive a music video. The video is fairly abstract
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
and a reflection of Hole's no wave influence at the time, with shots of Love and other band members in a car interspersed with shots of them performing outside the window. It was shown on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's 120 Minutes
120 Minutes
120 Minutes is a television show in the United States dedicated to alternative music, originally airing on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then on MTV's sister channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003....
in 1992 during an interview with Love and Kim Gordon, and was broadcast again on the show in 1994 and 1995 but was never as popular as the band's later videos. For the music video, an alternate mix of the song by Gordon was used to eliminate profanity.
The album was released solely on CD and tape cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
in the United States, but received a release on vinyl LP
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
throughout Europe by City Slang, based in Berlin, Germany. The first 3,000 pressings of the LP featured blue vinyl, while the following pressings were in standard black. In June 2011, Plain Recordings, an independent American record label specializing in cult
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
album re-issues, announced that a 180 gram vinyl re-release of Pretty on the Inside was being introduced to their catalogue; it was released on August 2, 2011. The LP reissue marked the first vinyl release of the album in the United States.
Critical reception
Although reviews were generally mixed, Pretty on the Inside was received with positive acclaim by some British and American alternative press. In a review by NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, the album was positively compared to Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
's Horses
Horses (album)
"Horses" is often cited as one of the greatest albums in music history. In 2003, the album was ranked number 44 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. NME named the album number 1 in its list "20 Near-as-Damn-It Perfect Initial Efforts"...
, as well as the debut albums of The Ramones, Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...
, and New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
, and was branded as being in "a class of its own", while Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
that "Pretty on the Inside is such a cacophony... very few people are likely to get through it once, let alone give it the repeated listenings it needs for you to discover that it's probably the most compelling album to have been released in 1991."
Q Magazine called the album "loud, ugly, and deliberately shocking", giving the album three out of five stars. Spin noted in their review that it "revolves around a fascination of the repulsive aspects of L.A.— superficiality, sexism, violence, and drugs. Love is the embodiment of what drives the band: the dichotomy of pretty/ugly... The pretty/ugly dynamic also comes across in Hole's music... a song like "Teenage Whore" at first comes across like a ranting noisy rage, but underneath is a surprisingly lush melody." Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
columnist Sharon O'Connell said the album was "the very best bit of fucked up rock 'n' roll [I've heard] all year", and the album earned a spot in the "20 Best Albums of the Year" by Spin magazine in December 1991.
Deborah Frost of The Village Voice, in her review of the album, called it "genre-defying" and noted:
Courtney Love embodies the gnawing fear that doesn't make "Enter SandmanEnter Sandman"Enter Sandman" is a 1991 song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the first single from their eponymous fifth album, Metallica. The music was written by Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich...
"'s all-time night terror list, as if casual, cavalier omission might kick it back where it belongs, just a little further under the bed. Courtney Love is the girl who won't shut up. She is all the things that should not be, and she shoves it, raw, right in your face.
In 1995 Alternative Press magazine ranked the album at #74 in their "Top 99 Of '85-'95" list, noting that "Love works in extremes and wears that scarlet letter
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an...
when she feels like it, and when she doesn't she rips it off, never neglecting melody and language as the real medium for her message." In 2009 PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
called it an album with "bold musical splendour on display" that "[leaves one feeling] nothing short of gobsmacked."
In a 1994 article, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
journalist David Fricke called the album "gloriously assaultive" and "a classic of sex-mad self-laceration, hypershred guitars and full-moon bawling [...] in particular the spectacular goring of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now" (aka "Clouds") at the end of the record. You don't really know the solitary despair at the core of that song until you've heard Love's embittered delivery of the last two lines — "It's life's illusions I recall / I really don't know life at all" — over guitarist Eric Erlandson's fading squall."
Legacy
Pretty on the Inside has had an influence on several alternative rock acts, being specifically mentioned by SpinneretteSpinnerette
Spinnerette is an alternative rock, indie rock solo project of Australian musician Brody Dalle. For this project she has collaborated with Tony Bevilacqua , Jack Irons and Alain Johannes...
frontwoman Brody Dalle
Brody Dalle
Brody Dalle is an Australian-born American singer, songwriter and guitarist. She rose to fame as lead singer/guitarist for the punk rock band The Distillers and currently fronts Spinnerette....
in an interview as a seminal album in the development of her music. British rock band Nine Black Alps
Nine Black Alps
Nine Black Alps are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester, named after a line in The Couriers by Sylvia Plath and fronted by Sam Forrest.-Career:...
also cited the album as a major influence on their third release, Locked Out from the Inside
Locked Out from the Inside
Locked out from the Inside is the third studio album by Manchester-based alternative rock band Nine Black Alps, released on October 5, 2009. The album was released digitally with the purchase of tour tickets on August 6, 2009...
(2009). Contemporarily, the album has also gained a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
among rock and punk music fans.
The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock called the album a "surly milkshake of broken rock shards... from the artistic misspellings of song titles to the lyric collage on the inner sleeve and the abrasive, abstract guitar noises on the songs, Pretty on the Inside reveals the band's fascination with the New York no wave art and music scene of the '80s." According to Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
, the album had sold 27,000 copies by 1994, when the band released their wildly popular followup album, Live Through This
Live Through This
Live Through This is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Hole. It was released by Geffen Records on April 12, 1994, just four days after frontwoman Courtney Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in their home....
.
In more recent years, frontwoman Love has had a more oppositional stance toward the album, and has stated that it contains "nothing melodic". In a 2011 interview for Hit So Hard (2011), a documentary on later Hole drummer Patty Schemel
Patty Schemel
Patricia Theresa Schemel is an American drummer, most notably known as the drummer of the alternative rock band Hole from 1992 until 1998.-Early music career:Schemel learned to play drums after her father bought her a drum kit at age 11...
, Love referred to Pretty on the Inside as "unlistenable".
Nonetheless, the title track of the album was performed regularly at Hole concerts between 1993 and 1999, and Love opened shows with the song during Hole's 2010 tour, but refused to play any other songs from the album. While touring in 2010, a fan at a Houston concert asked Love to play "Teenage Whore", to which she responded, "No 'Teenage Whore', I'll tell you why— I watched [a performance of] 'Dicknail' last night, and I am done with that shit. I am coming up on 46 in four days, huh uh. No toplessness, no 'Teenage Whore'... some things you just grow out of. If you were there, kids, it was awesome, but you're never gonna see it again."
Track listing
All songs written by Jill Emery, Eric Erlandson, Caroline Rue and Courtney Love; except "Clouds," written by Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
.
- Note: US/Canadian pressings of the album merge "Pretty on the Inside" and "Clouds" as a single track, since they were recorded conjointly.
Personnel
Hole- Courtney LoveCourtney LoveCourtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - Eric ErlandsonEric ErlandsonEric Erlandson is an American musician known as the co-founder, former songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole.-Early life and career:...
- lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure... - Jill EmeryJill EmeryJill Emery is an American artist and former musician based in Los Angeles, California. Best known as the bassist for the alternative rock band Hole from 1990 until 1992, Emery left the band after the subsequent tour for the band's debut album, Pretty on the Inside and was replaced by Kristen Pfaff...
- bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Caroline Rue - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussion
Technical personnel
- Kim GordonKim GordonKim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
- producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Don FlemingDon Fleming (musician)Don Fleming is an American musician, best known for being the frontman of Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L., and Gumball.-Biography:...
- producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Brian Foxworthy - engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
- Vicki Berndt - photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
- Jill Emery - artworkPaintingPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
(back cover)
Chart positions
Album| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | UK Indie Chart UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered... |
59 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | "Teenage Whore Teenage Whore "Teenage Whore" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written collectively by the band. The song was released as the band's third single and the first and only from their debut studio album, Pretty on the Inside, in August 1991... " |
UK Indie Chart | 1 |
External links
- Official music video for "Garbadge Man" on the Hole VEVOVevoVevo is a music video website. It is a joint venture among Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media with EMI licensing its content to the group without taking an ownership stake. The service was launched officially on December 8, 2009...
channel - Pretty on the Inside on Apple iTunesITunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
- AllMusic profile for Pretty on the Inside