Pretty on the Inside

Love wrote to Gordon asking her to produce, and Gordon agreed on condition that Don Fleming of Gumball assisted. The band entered Music Box Studios in Los Angeles in March 1991. The songs were recorded over four days and mixed in three more. The sound leans on feedback, distortion and what Love and Erlandson described as Sonic Youth tunings, with Love's vocals running from whispers to screams.

The lead single, Teenage Whore, entered the UK Indie Chart at number one. Love later called the record unlistenable, though she said in 2021 that making it had been a transformative experience. Rolling Stone's David Fricke called it gloriously assaultive in his 1994 review of its successor.