Hole - Nobody's Daughter

Okay, let's just get this out of the way: Nobody's Daughter is not the self-immolating abomination many hoped for and more probably expected. As potentially dreadful comebacks go, this is certainly no Bat Out Of Hell III and surely a marked improvement on Courtney Love's abysmal "solo" album.

However that's not to say this album isn't predictable in the extreme, frequently wince-inducing, juvenile, petulant and numerous other adjectives commonly levelled at Courtney herself. Billy Corgan has once more played a significant part as has ProTools -- you can almost hear the processors furiously whirring as Love's idiosyncratic rasp struggles with some of the high notes.

Grating adolescent tirades on Skinny Little Bitch and Samantha are a fairly accurate reflection of Hole's contemporary demographic, albeit perhaps ruefully augmented by wistful nostalgia-fiends pining for the visceral, relevant days of the early nineties. In short, Nobody's Daughter is a slickly produced and somewhat vapid collection of adequate, committee-written pop rock. [Austin Tasseltine]