Live Through This

33⅓ Main Series #103

by Anwen Crawford

Courtney Love has never been less than notorious. Her intelligence, ambition and appetite for confrontation have made her a target in a music industry still dominated by men. As Kurt Cobain's wife she was derided as an opportunistic groupie; as his widow she is pitied, and scorned, as the madwoman in rock's attic. Yet Hole's second album, Live Through This, awoke a feminist consciousness in a generation of young listeners.

Live Through This arrived in 1994, at a tumultuous point in the history of American music. Three years earlier Nirvana's Nevermind had broken open the punk underground, and the first issue of a zine called Riot Grrrl had been published. Hole were of this context and yet outside of it: too famous for the strict punk ethics of riotgrrrl, too explicitly feminist to be the world's biggest rock band.

Live Through This is an album about girlhood and motherhood; desire and disgust; self-destruction and survival. There have been few rock albums before or since so intimately concerned with female experience. It is an album that changed lives – so why is Courtney Love's achievement as a songwriter and musician still not taken seriously, two decades on?

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Feminism, Essays, Biography, Pop Culture

123 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 4, 2015

About the author

Anwen Crawford is an Australian writer. She is the music critic for The Monthly magazine, and her essays have appeared in publications including Frieze, Overland and Loops: Writing Music.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hideously overwritten in some places at the beginning, which put me off initially despite having hunted this text down. I persisted, and was rewarded to a degree, but the text suffered from some glaring defects that substantially hampered my reading experience.

Most conspicuously, it is unstructured to a fault. Or, perhaps, not unstructured, per se, but misstructured. This isn't to say that the overarching architecture of the text was necessarily ill-suited or inappropriate. Crawford relies on a song-by-song structure, primarily (or ostensibly) utilizing the lyrical content of each song as a basis for her analysis. Courtney was so blatantly honest in the lyrics of Live Through This about the costs imposed upon her that the type of analysis that Crawford seeks to offer could certainly have been workable. But Crawford unwisely strikes outside of the confines of the structure, and so the end result is muddled and inconsistent at best. Why, for instance, was an entire subsection decided to the experiences of a fan's reaction to Hole's previous album, Pretty On The Inside, filed under the analysis of 'Miss World'; further, why was this the first subsection, with no mention of the song, the themes contained therein, or even the album it was on?

There was also some strange omissions and inclusions, and I was puzzled by the choices that Crawford made. A great number of the songs are excluded from a formal subsection altogether. She doesn't, for instance, include a section on 'Doll Parts', yet she refers to it several times throughout the course of the text. Instead, Crawford utilizes the majority of the section on 'Softer, Softest' to discuss 'Doll Parts', which is a decision I feel would leave any reader baffled. She justifies this by claiming that 'Softer, Softest' is 'in some ways a mirror of "Doll Parts"'. But she's evidently itching to discuss 'Doll Parts', and does so on a number of occasions throughout the text, so the exclusion of its own chapter is incomprehensible.

On a more personal level, I was disappointed that Crawford omitted a section on 'Plump', which has always represented one of Courtney's more compelling works to me. Her lyrics on the pressures and failings of motherhood is surely one of the most ripe for analysis (in addition to the resultant corporeal disconnection she felt, which is I think likely impossible in this case to disentangle from the pressures placed upon her as a particularly controversial public body for consumption in the public eye, since the default reaction to female contradiction and complexity such as Courtney perfectly embodies is to demand her to doubly adhere to the conventional) . Crawford instead dismisses it offhand as 'gutbucket rock'. Regardless of whether the song is, musically, your Crawford's taste, surely any lyrical analysis of the album would beg for this song's inclusion - even if only because Crawford also discusses the Lynn Hirschberg/Vanity Fair debacle and its fallout, which obviously had a substantial impact on both Courtney and Kurt.

Conversely, she included 'Credit In The Straight World', which is the album's only cover. This doesn't preclude it from analysis as a distinct piece of Hole's music, of course, but if you had to choose (and apparently Crawford did - I would assume for spatial reasons), 'Credit In The Straight World' would not rank high on my list. Crawford's analysis here seems to hinge on the use of the word 'straight', and while the intersection of Hole's music and reception and the experiences of gay, lesbian and queer fans is a worthy topic of analysis, its inclusion here seems forced rather than authentic. She also dedicates a number of pages to off-topic analysis like a quick rehash of Kurt's love of the English band The Raincoats, which the author failed to hear until she was 18; this is discussed well before Crawford mentions that the song was a cover, originally by Young Marble Giants. She barely says this, though, instead preferring to provide a magazine-level summary of the band and its style, looping it back to the beginning of the section by comparing them to The Raincoats. What any of this really has to do with Live Through This remains to be seen.

A few of the reviews here compared this text to a thesis, which I patently disagree with. I'm unsure what theses they've read (and I don't deny that terrible theses do abound), but the text here isn't academic in nature, despite its publisher. You can absolutely be reflexive to a degree in academic writing (which I personally, as someone who heavily embraces subjectivist epistemology, highly endorse) but nonetheless it must be firmly grounded within the academic literature, and academic knowledges and ways of understanding the world. This book decidedly is not - which is not a criticism. It is still a work of some sociological value, but it is a semi-popular one, and not an academic one. It does not once cite an academic source or theory, and quite clearly does not meet the threshold required for a thesis (and nor should it; this is not that type of text).

At one point Crawford writes - and not directly in relation to Courtney - that a town's 'provincial morality is too narrow for her own life force'. This is one of the the most accurate ways of describing Courtney I've ever encountered. It is immensely frustrating and boring that the popular discourses around Courtney, and Hole, are banal, repetitive, and tired. They are certainly below her worth. Ultimately, despite the problems I've enumerated here, Crawford does an admirable job at pushing past this level of bullshit and affording her subject some value. I am frustrated in part because she performs this well, but not well as I believe she could have.

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 5 out of 5]

Courtney Love is one of the women who has had the largest impact on my life musically. Hole changed my life with Live Through This. No part hyperbole. It's in my top 10 life-shaping albums.

Anwen Crawford expertly shared the ways in which Courtney Love changed many a young girls' life with her ability to be living proof that we didn't and don't have to conform to whatever the fuck anyone says, has said or thinks about us. There is vulnerability and madness in every breath Courtney takes. Anwen highlights the importance of Courtney existing as herself in the mainstream and highlights the most important fact of the book; which is that she's still here. SURVIVING. THRIVING. ALIVE and still breathing despite everything. It's inspiring and important how she survived and continues to survive every day even when labelled all the labels in the book. Madonna/Medusa. She's still here.

Personally, listening to Live Through This as a teenager taught me to fight for what I want, and how to tell the unfiltered truth. She taught me how to say FUCK YOU to everyone and anyone. I played the record over and over and over and over. Laughed to it. Cried to it. Screamed to it. Anwen showed me that it wasn't only me. She also added in contributions from other women of colour on how the record impacted them. The impact that Courtney has had. Blatantly stated. Never overstated.

One of the best of the 33 1/3 I've ever read.

[Michael Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Anwen's writing and it's great that here she's got the length of a book to really stretch her wings. Someone who wants a detailed description of Live Through This or deep discussions of how it was made, will be disappointed - this is about the cultural impact of Hole and Courtney, especially the effect they had on young women and girls. It's a brilliant piece of cultural criticism - a gem.

[Emily K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt like a long drive with a friend who is really into the same things that you are but puts them into a different shape than you would. It’s casualness doesn’t take away from the fact that it thinks deeply about the complicated place that a woman like Courtney Love lives in. Especially reading this book in the wake of discussions of Mac DeMarco and Ariana Grande—what are we to make of messy women, complicated women. This was a great lil read. Go listen to Live Thru This n read this book. It has the same community feeling of listening to yr friends tapes while reading their zines, remembering that yr not alone in the world because yr sharing these moments of what and wonder.

[Big Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love this record, so I enjoyed reading statements from other people who also have deeply connected to Live Through This. It’s funny how Courtney Love in some weird way has served as a positive role model for many (weird) teen girls figuring out their place in the world. While most of the world finds Courtney Love’s vitriolic music, messy aesthetic, and brash personality abhorrent, she become a mythical/heroic figure for misfit girls who cannot or do not want to conform to society’s expectations of what pretty/nice women should be. Though this essay explores interesting ideas in regards to Courtney’s persona/media representation, the author often jumps too quickly through the various topics which makes this feel more like random blog posts compiled together rather than a cohesive statement.

[Ross Maclean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A personal — but not overbearingly so — reaction to the lasting internal and cultural impact of an album upon a life. Razor sharp on the dichotomies of the public perception of Courtney Love and with just enough insight into the production of the album to feel insidery, despite no direct input from the band.

[Corey J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book. I am a fan of the 33 1/3 series and Live Through This is one of my most favourite albums.

I wanted a deep dive into the music; every instrument and overdub, every late night recording session that birthed a new riff, the setup of Patty Schemel's magnificent drums. I wanted interviews with the musicians, including Courtney, about the album specifically for this book.

What I got was more akin to a feminist treatise on what Hole means to the author and her friends. The interviews were mostly with other Hole fans. The focus was solely on Courtney as an ant-riot-grrrl icon and feminist, with a sweeping analysis of the occasional snippet of lyric.

Perhaps I am judging too harshly because the album means so much. I could be forcing my own interpretation of Live Through This on the author. But the 33 1/3 series is usually a more visceral look at the music and the sound.

By focusing on the fact that Courtney is a woman in a rock n roll world dominated by men, to me, just seems dismissive of the fact Live Through This is a great %^$*ing album, by anyone, male or female.

[Charlotte Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courtney did nothing wrong. I <3 Hole!

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another exhibit in the "The best 33 1/3 books are excellent pieces of sociology half-disguised as music criticism" show.

However, there are a couple of issues in this one that I'm less sanguine about, than in, for example, the Carl Wilson book that sets the standard for these. It is de rigueur for a certain type of counter-intuitive, to attempt to reclaim maligned pop figures, and Courtney Love is a fair subject for some measure of reclamation, if only for some of what she was dealing with while she was dealing with everything else, as it were, but while this book gets at some of those things, and brings in quite a few external testimonials to vouch for her art improving others' lives, I'm not sure the argument gets to the place the book thinks it does.

Courtney Love is complicated*. This does and has done quite a bit to earn a lot of the dislike tossed her way. The book makes the reasonable point that marrying Kurt Cobain is the thing most people hate her for, but is the thing she should least be criticized for. Fair Enough.

But, some of the complaints about sexism don't seem to me quite correct. Crawford admits a reason Love is treated horribly is because of her lack of authenticity and her ambition (absolutely true), and this would not be the case if she was a man. This is patently not true. Particularly in the land of alternative music of the early-corporate era, lack of authenticity and lack of ambition were the only coin of the realm. Ask Eddie Vedder how perceived lack of authenticity works out. Ask Dave Grohl about how "original" fans treat his ambition. Courtney Love is, or was, as much punished for the fact that she dared to pound on both of those keys at the same time by a certain brigade of alterna-fans. She is like a Southern Baptist preacher who made it onto CNN and then started preaching tolerance. The ones that perceive themselves as being turned against after getting you there will have terrible levels of venom.

Likewise comparisons to how the press treated or now treats Saint Kurt relative to Courtney are a little silly. Time is gradually fixing its perception of him, and if you ask a 25 year old today who writes better lyrics: Kurt Cobain or Thom Yorke (I'm partially choosing him because he's well past 27, which means he is maybe past the 15 year old demo, but at least it doesn't seem like I'm wishing tragedy on him), they'd go Radiohead. The same way a 75 year old guy would tell you Jim Morrison was a better lyricist than Cobain. And 50 year-olds think Morrison was a self-destructive drunk, and 25 year-olds think Kurt Cobain was a sad self-destructive addict, if they ever think of him at all. That is the nature of time, and press, and life, and worrying about ephemeral impressions of people is a bit silly, after all, even though that is, ostensibly the purpose of this book.

And, back to complications with reclaiming Courtney's image, she did admit to using heroin while she was pregnant with her daughter. Which, the public admission has nearly as much potential to screw up the poor girl as the heroin usage, possibly - I'm not a doctor, obviously.

And, more recently, she swore up and down she'd never release a Hole album without Eric Erlandson, ... and then did.

This is not to say that the vast majority of people who publicly dislike her are not doing so in an uncomplicated fashion, or that there are not misogynist assholes all over the place and the Venn diagram of them and Courtney Love haters looks like a bulls-eye.

Instead, saying anything about Courtney Love has always seemed so incredibly fraught for a certain set of feminists (who Crawford calls out a bit) and guys who are sensitive to these issues, and I can't help but think that a meditation on that would have been a more interesting book, though perhaps for me only. This book is interested in only the reclamation project, and collection of testimonials as to "Live Through This" changing fans lives' for the better.

An interesting aspect I hadn't considered, probably because I am not in any sexual minority, is that Crawford has enough people talk about how much easier it was to come out because of the events surrounding this album (and Kurt Cobain's easy and fluid sexuality) that it makes one wonder if the current wave of LGBT civil rights maybe had some deep roots in that music scene. That seems, perhaps, a broad or slightly grandiose claim, but it is indirectly nodded at, rather than made.

Also, there are some short passages about the Miss World pageant, beauty standards, beauty as power, conflicting feelings of self, and other observations. Honestly, most of that seems tacked on, a bit, as in many Grantland pieces in which a second (or third) thread is brought in to never quite dovetail with the first.

One weird note about the beginning of the book. Crawford states, as a mark of pride, that she has never purchased or listened to "Celebrity Skin." I actually felt the same way about that album and refused to purchase it for a couple of years after it came out, which turned out to be a mistake. It's a great disc that has all of the "Live Through This" influences still around, but with song-writing and polish that are a few years further along. As to rumors that Billy Corgan wrote parts of it, I discount them, because it would have been the tightest Smashing Pumpkins record by a mile and it has aged a *lot* better than the Pumpkins albums have.

Second weird note, and thing I learned: The song "Rock Star" was replaced with the song "Olympia" after the liner notes to "Live Through This" were printed. I knew the song "Olympia", or course, and think it closes out the album brilliantly - I just thought that, as a title, "Rock Star" was a non-sequitur. I don't know if I'm disappointed that that isn't the case.

* My favorite sentence of the book goes to an Eric Erlandson line: "You watch Behind the Music and think, ‘Oh, now I know her.’ But you don’t know shit."

-> My second favorite line belongs to Ms. Love herself: "I am a populist. I believe that everyone, not just people that know Fugazi personally, has a right to revolution," I love that she got the tense switches correct, as well as the sentiment.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first listened to Live Through This back in 2003, which is pretty late and to be honest I re-listened to it recently - I like do to that before I read the book - and that strong 90's alt sound makes the album feel a bit dated (except Asking for it) but lyrically it still is very relevant.

Anyway Anwen Crawford dissects the album and she does a fantastic job. First of all I like the fact that she dispels the silly rumors that Kurt Cobain wrote the album and the other Courtney Love conspiracy theories. Also she doesn't just focus on Courtney Love but on the band, especially during the recording process. Thirdly I like the fact that Crawford contacted the fans and got their opinons on Live Through This AND she interviewed producers Paul Q. Koldrie and Sean Slade. The end result is an insightful book about an album that is a gateway to Riot Grrrl culture and is the work of a person who wanted to make a powerful statement of independence.

[Maddy Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so inspiring to me. Confirmed all my suspicions about the career odds Courtney Love, her ambitions, her desire for independence faced with the media’s refusal to acknowledge her as a being independent of her husband, how explicitly she voiced experiences I’ve had many times before through her music. She’s a total fucking badass, and even though she’s made so many mistakes, her art is impactful and singular. She really goes there. Live through This is such an incredible album, and Courtney Love really is an anomaly. Everyone literally expected her to spin out and die. Surrounded by so much death, she made a vow (she’s quoted) that all the controversy and all the drugs would not drive her to madness, like Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Karen Carpenter, Amy Winehouse, etc. and she fucking survived. Would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about Hole, or Courtney Love, or anyone interested in music and vaguely feminism or punk music.

[Kathyanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, I am a fan of Courtney Love. That's a brazen thing to say. I didn't even like Nirvana first. I genuinely listened to Live Through This front to back zero skips probably hundreds of times, and then listened to a few Nirvana songs. I bought a copy of Pretty On The Inside from Daddy Kool's. I also really like Celebrity Skin.

This book is for everyone who wants to say that they like Cortney Love, or who listens to Hole in their closet, quietly, afraid to tell anyone, because of all the misogynists who swear she killed her husband.

The format of this book is like many articles. I thought it was going to break down each song, or give a look into the bands, personal lives, and it does a little bit of both of those, but not enough of either.

Quick read though, and not a waste of time.

[Allison Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, with source material like this, how can you go wrong?? You cannot, even if you did, because with Courtney Love, going wrong is so often exactly right, and precisely the point. I love the way the author engaged with her subject (Courtney effin' Love!), and all the subjects surrounding her subject (i.e., misogyny in popular culture, and, hell, the world at large, female archetypes, the "martyrdom" of Kurt Cobain, the magnum opus that is Live Through This, and pretty much anything she has something to say about). What a glorious, accidental find at Sub Pop's store at the Sea-Tac Airport! It almost made my preposterously delayed flight worth it!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not terribly familiar with Courtney Love’s entire biography but I found some interesting finds with this read. I like how there were fan accounts woven into the chapters and how her music helped amplify their teen angst. Personally I like Courtney Love. She’s intelligent, complex, a voice with an air of mystery.

[Camila · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Courtney was true to her own ambition, vanity, pain, neediness, anger--and so her real, her presence in the public world, was full of complexities and contradictions. This, I think, is why she matters to me, why Live Through This matters to me: the representation of what is unresolved. Despite the title--a command, a plea, a promise--this album is not a document of triumph or overcoming." (108)
this was an excellent piece of music writing and cultural criticism. live through this was one of the formative albums of my teen years and still means so much to me, so reading a thorough analysis of the album and courtney love's image at the time of its release just reminded me of how impactful courtney's art was to me and so many others.
crawford's slim but mighty book brought up points about the album and its performances that i'd never considered, like its potential influences from feminist performance artists like yoko ono, marina abramovic, and karen finley. or that, before this album, there wasn't really any rock music about motherhood. or how fandom is viewed as a feminine pursuit. overall, just an excellent book that's so fitting for an iconic album.

[James Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know "that" list, the one where you are "allowed" to sleep with three famous people and it doesn't count as cheating?

Courtney Love is number one on my list. She's also numbers two and three as well. I utterly adore the woman and (pretty much) all she has done over the years.

My Love love affair began with Hole's performance on the 1995 MTV music video awards. Until that point I'd never really bothered with the whole grunge thing, I was a Guns n Roses kid, but that performance changed everything.

So my problem with this book isn't the subject. I have also read the 33 1/3 books about Paul's Boutique (the greatest hip hop album ever recorded) Dummy (Sublime) and Loveless (a beautiful racket)

Those books were informative and interesting, I've also got the Unknown Pleasures one to read.

This one is a bit of a mess, it rambles and lurches and doesn't really achieve anything. It reads like a collection of blog posts rather than a dissection of a truly great album.

Maybe I just wanted more than there was to give. Maybe I have been spoilt with the previous entries to the series. All I know is this was a slog yo get through.

[Lauryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very tiny book means so, so much to me. <3

I would love to imagine that this well-researched, thoughtful and big-hearted little book about the making of one of the greatest albums of the 20th century would put to rest the misogynist slander that has plagued the legacy of the brilliant but spiky Courtney Love for all these years. But I know that it will not, because nobody that NEEDS to unlearn that particular part of their sexism is actually going to read this.

I’m gonna go look at the reviews of this book and then I’m going to regret it. That’s my plan for the evening.

[Petty Lisbon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been my favorite book in this series so far, although it's also one of my favorite albums of all time. I appreciate how fan reaction was tied to the significance of the album. It tied the band's history well with what it meant for the music. I found it funny how they plugged in the In Utero book at the back cover.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

With lines like "Violet (or mauve, or mauveine, or aniline purple) was the first colour to be produced as a chemical dye, in 1856, by William Perkins, who was then an 18 year old trying to synthesize quinine for the treatment of malaria." I just can't read beyond page 8.

[Licca · Rating 1 out of 5]

This record deserves so much better. The author rambles about herself or nothing. The few times she actually talks about the record itself, she speaks in pure aesthetics. Her thesis might be "Courtney Love is a girl boss for weirdos". I think. This crap is so incoherent its anyone's guess.

[Gregisdead121 · Rating 2 out of 5]

An illuminating look into the history and impact of Hole's 1994 masterpiece "Live Through This ". A personal ten out of ten album for me , it was just about time that I picked up this edition of the 33⅓ series.

Penned by Anwen Crawford, "Live Through This " avoids the pitfalls of the last issue I read " In Utero " where the author just regurgitated Wikipedia instead of exploring the record at hand in depth. Crawford charts a throughline from her own awkward adolescence, relationships with men and her body to Courtney Love's blistering fuck you to rock&roll. Picking apart the minutiae of it's conception by going through the histories of those who came together to create it. Each segment of information broken up according to the tracklist, Crawford makes a convincing case for the record's inclusion into not just rock& roll's elite but as a crown jewel for the entire medium. Honning in on the raw and ugly t's&c's of the human condition, with an emphasis on the female experience in a patriarchal world.

At its best this edition is hilarious, honest and informed. Anecdotes from the authors childhood about her weight or her introduction to grunge and Hole, communicate the deep love she feels for the record. But at its worst it's desultory and fragmented, some ideas are concluded just as they find their footing, inchoate musing on fame and addiction leave a lot to be desired. And those same anecdotes can boarder on self indulgent. So overall I'd only recommend this to someone who really loved this record and wants to geek out about it with Anwen Crawford. As it can be quite redundant without that motive.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another great entry in the 33-1/3 series.

The author chose not to interview any members of the band but instead focused on people like herself—people for whom as a teenager Hole grabbed hold of and changed their lives. She focuses on the contradictions of what society in general, and the music industry in particular, demand of women—the boxes they try to put us in, the demands to be one way and no other ways, the ones who must carry the emotional loads but also be in need of male dominance, etc.—and how Courtney Love stood her ground against those expectations, even when that had detrimental effects on her life, her career, her marriage. There’s no way to untwine Courtney Love and Hole from Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and one of the most intriguing things talked a lot about in this book is how much Kurt also wanted Courtney to become the bigger star. It really makes you wonder what the dynamics would have been (for real, and as portrayed in the media) had he not died when he did.
.
(Btw, although the author did not interview any band members—she quotes them from other published interviews—she did interview the producers of the album and I really loved those parts.)
:
One of the joys of this series is how different every book is, how each author seems to have been given free reign to examine the album and the artist in whichever way they please.

[Emmie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Live Through This is one of my favourite albums of all time. So when i found out about this book series that features all different albums and found this one, i was so excited. i wanted to know everything about this album, not just the lyrics but the instrumentals the mixing and production. I didn’t get much of that. In fact i didn’t get much of anything. the author is obviously a fan of courtney love, i get that courtney is a controversial figure and basically the face of the band, but i didn’t want to hear about the controversies. obviously there are some which are intertwined with the album. but this book was such a mess, there’s a section about the raincoats which the reason for is yet to be found. there’s a section about the relationship between courtney and madonna for some reason. again it didn’t go anywhere. i did like the little section about motherhood in rock and how there wasn’t a space for it before this album. but other than that this book kinda just goes through courtney’s life and how the media perceived her. which would’ve been an interesting read, if that’s what i picked this book up for. but it wasn’t, i wanted to learn all about my favourite album. this was such a let down i hope the other books in the series aren’t like this

[Madison Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars may seem like a generous rating, but what can I say? I loved these essays, and they reminded me of just how much I still love “Live Through This”. Like Anwen Crawford, I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Seattle grunge scene or Courtney Love herself, but finding this album was still a watershed moment in my life, even though it was 2013-14 (I can’t remember which) and I have never looked or acted much like a riot grrl. But this album is more than a moment in 90s culture. It’s a work of art that speaks to people of many different stripes, and Crawford did a great job at examining just what is appealing about it. Maybe I should finally listen to more 90s female grunge rock...but then again, I never liked this album because it was 90s grunge. I liked it because it hit me hard, and it still does. There’s really nothing in my life that I can compare it to. “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath? Whatever the secret ingredient is in this album, I can’t get enough of it, and these essays have rekindled an old love for me. As a result, “Live Through This” was the first full album I listened to in 2025, which is pretty perfect, I think.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I lived in Oregon in the early 1990s and, so, feel I was a fairly close observer of the Courtney and Kurt/Nirvana and Hole thing. And I liked both bands while not truly being a fan of either. I remember feeling bad for Courtney when Kurt killed himself - for both the personal pain that would have to bring but also the bizarre public accusations thrown her way.

Annwen Crawford was geographically much more distant from those events (living through her adolescence in outer Sydney) but psychologically, emotionally much closer. The 33 1/3 Series of books - each looking at a different album - are on Bloomsbury's academic imprint. This is the first of the series I've read and it is an interesting blend of an academic's analysis, personal/fan group memoir, and just an in depth consideration of the album and the people involved. All this done in 112 pages - small pages, the book is 16.5cm x 12cm.

If you are interested in this album or Courtney Love or the early 1990s - you'll probably like this book.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars.

This book is written in a scattershot manner that I found most pleasing. Chapters are further divided into short chunks that each touch on a topic that when combined with others builds around a theme. It doesn't strive to report everything about the band or Courtney Love but frequently drops little crumbs along the trail to indicate there is much more to be mined for the curious. Along the way, the book argues well the importance of Courtney Love (and by extension the band Hole) in spreading many ideas, especially to young women. (One such idea is self-acceptance with the flaws, not despite them. Another is not being or acting ashamed for what others wish to shame you for.) This highly publicized album would serve as a gateway drug to riot grrrl bands, among other things. (This same thing would happen when Green Day would serve as a gateway drug to punk for countless teens.) The book also analyzes the numerous double standards out there for women in rock in a fresh way.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this - rather than describe it here are a few of my highlights pasted below. On to re-listen to this album with more context and vantage point now.

Under no circumstances—none—is a woman’s anger ever regarded as reasonable.

There are precious few records in the rock canon about motherhood. The very spirit of rock music—bound up as it is with a celebration of the unfettered, sexually voracious masculine ego—seems opposed to it.

motherhood is, still, the most fraught terrain, one where systemic feminist analysis crumbles under the moral pressure of ‘maternal instinct’.

We perceive bad mothering as monstrous in the deepest sense, as a breach of the natural order. On Live Through This, Courtney fought back against the monstrousness of which she was accused.

Few people stopped to wonder whether Courtney perhaps had every right to be furious, abandoned as she was with a young child. ‘I have duties and responsibilities that are drawing me back,’ Courtney said after her husband’s death.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 3 out of 5]

The job of the author was to make me love this album. The author didn't succeed.
The specter of Kurt Cobain's death hung over this album when it first came out. Courtney Love was described as gold-digger, puppet of Cobain's, or a talentless attention seeker. The author does explain why each of these charges are incorrect. Those charges still stuck even to today. It wasn't a convincing argument. The death of Kristin Pfaff is detailed, but it didn't have an effect on the album.

The album had themes of womanhood, sexual hypocrisy and the music world. On it's own merits, it had a lot to listen for. Because the music wasn't a big departure from the sound of the time or Nirvana, this will always be seen as a Nirvana copy album.

This was a sold attempt to change that history, but it didn't do it for me.

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hole's 1994 riot grrl classic only gets better with age, and this guide by Anwen Crawford is an apt guide to the masterpiece, going on a whistle-stop tour through the tracklist. There's little analysis of the lyrical and musical content, and the book functions more as a twisted marriage portrait of Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. The former, naturally, shines through as a figure equal parts tragic and defiant, never quite given the respect she deserves. The latter figure, despite the book's clear-eyed and specifically against-the-grain depiction, haunts its pages in that he never really haunted the album.

[Peter O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great albums (or rubbish ones for that matter) mean different things to different people. I never particularly considered Live Through This as a feminist manifesto - I just loved it because it and Courtney Love kicked ass as hard as anything else I had ever heard. As such, I am happy to read anything about this classic album that is going to give me a greater insight. In this case though, the author, while happy to admit her lack of rock and roll chops, presents a personal account of how it empowered her as a young woman and still does to this day. I am glad it did and so it should but at the same time, since the focus seems to be only on what it means to women, that lack of objectivity could risk leaving some readers without a reference point.