Hole is back with a brand new album, Nobody’s Daughter, the first since 1998′s much celebrated Celebrity Skin.  With Courtney Love releasing a much maligned solo album in 2004 and then originally starting work on this as another solo album with the title “How Dirty Girls Get Clean”, a lot of people were wondering what would come out.  Well there’s good news and bad news.

First the bad.  This isn’t Hole.  It really wasn’t even made a Hole album until relatively late in the process, and the legality of even calling the band Hole without Eric Erlandson’s permission is in question.  However the band has already sold out several dates (I’m seeing them next week).  This album definitely feels a lot more like America’s Sweetheart than anything Hole ever put out.  However it’s not America’s Sweetheart.  This is much more put together.

You can use the little widget above to preview tracks or buy the whole album on Amazon MP3.  It comes out Tuesday April 27th.  But now for the good.  This is still a good album.  If you remove the “Hole” from the equation and think of it as a Courtney Love album then you will be satisfied.

The album starts off with the title track, Nobody’s Daughter, which is sort of disappointing.  The track is rather mellow and not a “I’m back with a vengence” rocker like on previous albums.  Still it gives you a good feel for the album in general, which is much more mellow than previous efforts yet still keeps Love’s lyrical prowess on the forefront.  Skinny Little Bitch is up next, and as the first single really feels like just that, a single.  It’s very different and almost out of place on the album.  It’s also a little immature.

Honey is a good song but doesn’t really grab me.  However Pacific Coast Highway, perhaps one of the earliest written songs on the album is quite spectacular.  It’s got emotion and it’s catchy.  It feels almost like a bridge between this album and America’s Sweetheart.

Your whole world is in my hands

Samantha is up next, apparently Billy Corgan wrote the catchy riff for this one, but I won’t hold it against it.  This is another single.  It packs a punch though and will stick in your head for weeks after you hear it.  This one I feel might resonate more with a younger crowd.  Somebody Else’s Bed is a nice slower tune that is brimming with emotion and makes you start to really appreciate the album.  It’s followed by For Once In Your Life, which I think is one of the standout tracks and probably one of the songs I’d recommend listening to first.  It’s another slow emotional track but the lyrics are pure Courtney singing about trying to survive.

I’m crawling on grass to grasp at straws

This is followed by an even slower, more emotional song, Letter To God.  This is easily my favorite song on the album and is really worth the price of admission alone.  It’s a very open, honest Love writing a letter to god.  It’s sad and you feel every line.

I never wanted to be some kind of kind of comic relief/please tell me who I am/I’ve been tortured and scorned since the day that I was born/but I don’t know who I am

Loserdust is next.  It’s a straightforward rock song.  The most upbeat thing on the album and feels like it’s trying to be something like Live Through This’ “She Walks Over Me”, but failing horribly, managing to be one of the weakest songs on the album.  How Dirty Girls Get Clean is up next and I think I’ll like it a lot more after a few more listens.  It’s good but it’s not standing up to the rest of the material here. Never Go Hungry finishes out the album.  It’s a sort of middle ground song.  Lyrically it’s strong and seems to be Love trying to channel Dylan.  It’s an enjoyable song.

The iTunes version comes with bonus tracks “Happy Ending Story” and a cover of Buffy Saint-Marie’s “Codiene”, which only comes if you pre-order the album (meaning do it by Tuesday).  Usually I’d provide a nice iTunes link here that would allow you to buy it and support this site at the same time but iTunes is being shitty right now and not letting me link to this album for some reason.

Anyway to summarize, this is a good album, it’s just not a good Hole album.  Courtney is back in fighting form and it’s great to hear her smoky, unimitatable vocals once they kick in.  However musically the omission of Eric Erlandson, as well as Melissa Auf Der Maur (and of course the deceased Kristen Pfaff) and Patty Schemel (or Samantha Maloney) is felt and this could have been a really great Hole album with one or all of their involvement.  Buy it all the usual places, or over at holerock.net (the official site) where they have special packages available with things like thermals, makeup, sashes, and more.  Or at Amazon using the link below, but definitely buy it (the hardcopy cd is only $8.99 at Amazon!).  It’s good to have some real rock back, and there’s no autotune here.