Pretty on the Inside

About Pretty on the Inside

Pretty on the Inside is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 17, 1991, in the United States on Caroline Records. Produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and Gumball frontman Don Fleming, the album was Hole's first major label release after the band's formation in 1989 by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson. Blending elements of punk rock and sludge metal, the album features distorted and alternating guitar compositions, screaming vocals from Love, and "sloppy punk ethics," a style which the band would later distance themselves from, opting for a less abrasive sound on subsequent releases. Love's lyrics on the album are often narrative, graphic, and abstract, detailing issues of violence, self-realization, and womanhood. The record was dedicated to Rob Ritter of the Los Angeles punk rock acts the Bags and The Gun Club. Pretty on the Inside was well received by alternative music critics, garnering favorable reviews in Spin, NME, and The Village Voice. It received considerable commercial success in the United Kingdom, where the record's lead single, "Teenage Whore", entered the UK Indie Chart at number one in September 1991. It has sold over 200,000 copies in the United States and gained a contemporary cult following among punk rock fans, and has been cited as a seminal influence for songwriters and musicians such as Brody Dalle and Scout Niblett. Despite its critical acclaim, frontwoman Courtney Love has, in later years, referred to the album as "unlistenable". Vinyl LP versions of the album have been reissued several times more »