Live Through This

Love said she wanted the record to be shocking to the people who think Hole have no soft edge, without losing the very hard one. The band booked Triclops on the advice of the Smashing Pumpkins, who had made Siamese Dream there, and hired Kolderie and Slade. Sessions started on 8 October 1993 and finished on 31 October. Scott Litt mixed the album in Los Angeles and Seattle, apart from Gutless, which J Mascis mixed in New York.

Slade said the basic tracks were completed within five days and that Pfaff's bass parts needed no overdubs. He also said Hole had a new rhythm section, and that it was much more musical. Dana Kletter sang backing vocals on seven songs. The producers avoided double-tracking Love's voice and left in imperfections, among them a crack in her voice on Doll Parts. The one cover is Credit in the Straight World, by Young Marble Giants. The title comes from a line in Gone with the Wind. The cover photograph, of the model Leilani Bishop in pageant dress, is by Ellen von Unwerth, and Rolling Stone placed it thirteenth on its 2024 list of the best album covers. The last track is printed as Rock Star, a mislabel of the outtake Olympia.

Reception

The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 55 and peaked at number 52 in January 1995 after 68 weeks on the chart. It went gold in December 1994 and platinum in 1995, and has sold 1.6 million copies in the United States. It peaked at number 13 in both the United Kingdom and Australia. David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote of Love's "corrosive, lunatic wail". Charles Aaron in Spin called it "the hookiest slambook ever released by a major label". In 2018 Pitchfork gave it a ten, writing that Hole walked a high wire between bone-deep rage and syrupy hooks. Rolling Stone placed it at 106 in its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums, and NME at 84 in 2013. It is also in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.