"Nobody's Daughter" (2010), the aborted Courtney Love solo record released as a "Hole" album

The original “Nobody’s Daughter” album is superior. She calls them demos but they were indeed going to be the final product. What I recall happening was the songs either leaked online or the online reaction to them in the documentary was there were no hit songs.

So she wrote “Samantha” and then went down a rabbit hole of years of re-writing and reworking the songs while adding new ones. She brought on Michael Beinhorn who produced “Celebrity Skin” and he quit towards the end and she was left to finish producing the album on her own.

The final album was a mess. It sounded outdated and loud and her vocal production was terrible.

I imagine the same exact thing happened to “America’s Sweetheart”. She overthinks and doubts the work too much and ends up choosing the wrong collaborators to produce the final product.

She’s always so close but she gets in her own way.

R1 I totally agree. She is definitely her own worst enemy, in more ways than one. I do think, had the album been released as intended in 2006 (prior to all of the retooling), it would've fared much better. It seems she's gone the same route with her "Died Blonde" project. She has been talking about it for years, and a couple of months ago there was a leak of multiple tracks, but she's been radio silent about it. I am wondering if she's entirely scrapped that album and said "fuck it" at this point.

This is my favorite song from the album and my favorite version. Gut wrenching. It’s definitely the sequel or younger sister to Liz Phair’s “Shatter”. I think they’re both about being too “dirty” to be genuinely loved.

And the woman is a true lyricist. I love how the chorus is about “do the right thing for once in your life” and she’s singing to the man who betrayed her and ends the song with “there’s no context for once in my life” cause she’s betrayed herself.

Just love this song.

Nobody's daughter.... aborted, indeed.

R3 those Myspace sessions are legendary to me. "Samantha" had a totally different outro and was a different song at that point. Arguably better. Courtney was not well at that time though—I think she was still using. She certainly looks it. This was the period where she'd been a cocaine and crack addict, which went on for a number of years. I think she was still popping numerous pills (such as Xanax) around 2010 when the album finally came out , but I don't think she was doing street drugs anymore at that point.

Murderess!

There were some interesting choices made for the final product, not necessarily for the better though. For example, the guitar on the original studio recording of "Samantha" had a lot more reverb and the song had a different sound. On the final 2010 release, the guitar was heavily compressed in the mix, which gives it a more jarring and snappy consistency. It's much more attention-getting, but I don't like it as much.

I just never know what to make of her. Can't connect with her sound or her lyrics, but I can tell she's objectively talented.

Oh Courtney, you can't just go around your whole life with a big hole running through you.