Nobody's Daughter is the fourth and final studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 23, 2010, by Mercury Records. The album was initially conceived as a solo project and follow-up to Hole frontwoman Courtney Love's first solo record, America's Sweetheart (2004). At the urging of her friend and former producer Linda Perry, Love began writing material while in a lockdown rehabilitation center in 2005 following a protracted cocaine addiction and numerous related legal troubles. In 2006, Love, along with Perry and Billy Corgan, began recording the album, which at that time was tentatively titled How Dirty Girls Get Clean.
Following a number of live performances of the new songs between 2006 and 2007, Love decided to scrap the project, and began writing new material with guitarist Micko Larkin, who had joined her backing band in 2007. She subsequently hired Michael Beinhorn to produce the record and began a second run of recording sessions in Los Angeles before relocating to New York City in 2009, after which Beinhorn left the project; Larkin subsequently took the role of producer. In mid-2009, it was announced that the album, retitled Nobody's Daughter, would be released as a Hole record, with guitarist Larkin, bassist Shawn Dailey, and drummer Stu Fisher as members.
Before the album's release, former Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson publicly disputed Love's use of the Hole name, claiming it violated a previous agreement between the two, which Love contested. On its release, Nobody's Daughter received generally mixed reviews from music critics, with some praising its instrumentation and lyrics, while others criticized it for its folk rock elements as well as production issues and Love's vocals. Despite this, Love said in 2010 that she considered it the best record she had made.
Background In September 2005, after violating a legal drug probation, Courtney Love was sentenced to a six-month program in a lock-down rehabilitation center, Beau Monde, from which she was released after one half of the sentenced time and completed the other three months under house arrest. While she was in rehab, her friend and producer Linda Perry — who had previously produced her 2004 first solo album, America's Sweetheart — visited Love and supported her by encouraging her to write new songs, gifting her a Martin acoustic guitar. Love then borrowed a Panasonic compact-cassette recorder and began writing material during her time in rehab. "My hand-eye coordination was so bad, I didn't even know [guitar] chords anymore," Love recalled. "It was like my fingers were frozen. And I wasn't allowed to make noise [in rehab]." She also told of how she would "sit there and try to quietly write and struggle", as well as of her negative mindset. "I never thought I would work again. 'No one is ever going to talk to me. I'm never going to get a record deal. I'm never going to get on stage again.' So, I just kept writing. This is a very personal album."
Shortly after her release from rehab in November 2005, Love revealed the working titles of several of five of the eight tracks she composed, which included "My Bedroom Walls", "The Depths of My Despair", "Sad But True", and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean." The same month, Love entered the studio and recorded a series of demos with Perry and Billy Corgan, which she dubbed The Rehab Tapes. Moby, to whom Love sent several recordings, commented: "I thought the music was remarkably good, it reminded me of Irish protest songs or old Bob Dylan. It was just her with an acoustic guitar." At one point, Love suggested she would be working with Moby on the album, though she subsequently chose Linda Perry as producer. The album was originally conceived as Love's second solo album and followup to America's Sweetheart.
Recording 2006–2007: Initial sessions
In January 2006, Love, with Perry producing and Corgan arranging, entered the Village studio in Los Angeles to begin recording the album. By Love's account, the sessions lasted "66 and a half days." An NME profile of the recording sessions announced the titles of several additional songs planned for the record, including "Wildfire", "Never Go Hungry Again", and an "anti-cocaine" track entitled "Loser Dust." Another track, "Letter to God", written solely by Perry years before (without Love's involvement), was also recorded. Perry recalled that Love had been "scrolling through my computer filled with songs and heard it and said, "I want to do this song." The lyrical content totally made sense for her. But it's not her type of song. It was more cinematic and more dramatic. It wasn't guitar-driven. It was more vulnerable, so it took me by surprise that she gravitated towards that." Several guest musicians contributed to the recording sessions, including Anthony Rossomando of Dirty Pretty Things and Ben Gordon of The Dead 60s. Gordon, who joined Love on guitar, recalled of the sessions: "I had an amazing time. I think she's got some really good ideas. The songs sound fresh." At the time, Love cited Bob Dylan's album Blood on the Tracks as a primary influence on the record.
On April 29, 2006, Love made a surprise appearance at a Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center benefit with Corgan and Perry, where she performed acoustic versions of the new songs "Sunset Marquis" and "Pacific Coast Highway". In an interview covering the event, Love stated that the songs were "dramatically different from the demos... The songs are smashing now. I wouldn't fuck around here, this is the best shit I've done since the Live Through This period." In September 2006, a documentary entitled The Return of Courtney Love aired on More4 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which followed Love in her recovery as well partly documenting the recording of the album. In October that year, Love performed an acoustic version of "Never Go Hungry Again" for a Rolling Stone interviewer, who observed: "this proud confessional combines simple folk-rock soundcraft with the guttural scream and lyrical fire of a never-to-be-retired riot grrrl."
In early 2007, Love announced she planned to mix the album—at the time tentatively titled How Dirty Girls Get Clean—in London with Danton Supple, best known for his work with Coldplay. Over the following year, she made several further live appearances showcasing the new material, including a June 2007 appearance with Perry (performing on guitar) at the Los Angeles House of Blues. The following month, on July 9—Love's 43rd birthday—she performed a secret show at London's Bush Hall with a new backing band, including guitarist Micko Larkin and bassist Patricia Vidal. During this time, Liam Wade also served as an additional guitarist in Love's backing band. Three days later, on July 12, Love performed a free show at the Hiro Ballroom in New York City, and at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on July 17.
2008–2009: Subsequent sessions In May 2008, after several attempts at recording the album with Corgan and Perry failed to reach fruition, Love announced she was planning to scrap the record and begin reshaping it with guitarist Micko Larkin, who had joined her backing band. Later that year, she hired Michael Beinhorn, with whom she had worked on Celebrity Skin (1998), to produce. Under Beinhorn's supervision, a new backing band was enlisted, consisting of guitarist Larkin, bassist Shawn Dailey, and drummer Stu Fisher. Recording sessions began in Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California in January 2009 and continued there for a number of months. Further recording was done at Henson Recording Studios in mid-2009.
In late June 2009, it was reported by NME that Love intended to release the album—now titled Nobody's Daughter—as a Hole record, the name of her former band. Melissa Auf der Maur, former bassist of Hole, told The Guardian at the time that Beinhorn had asked her to "sing on [Courtney's] new solo record—which is what I understood it was. And I said 'Yes' because I enjoy working with him and ... well, she and I have a history of making music together... I don't know what to say about [the situation]. I'm a little confused as to what the plan is. All I can tell you is that I like singing ooos, ahs and la-la-las behind [Courtney's] voice."
After instrumental tracks were recorded with Beinhorn, an "erratic" Love "slowed to a stop for several months," failing to complete vocal tracks for the album. At the time, Love felt "distracted" in Los Angeles, and in late 2009 relocated to New York City to complete the record without further involvement from Beinhorn. Larkin took over production duties for the remainder of the recording. Reflecting on the relocation, Love said: "I can be in the real world here [in New York]. Here I can participate in life." After spending several months in New York working with life coaches, therapists, and renewing her devotion to her Nichiren Buddhist practice, Love began recording the final vocal tracks for the album. Bassist Dailey stated that, after relocating from Los Angeles, Love seemed like "a different person... in L.A. the record was one of many things she was doing. It was just another part of her personal life. She used to have five or six people at the studio every day waiting to have meetings with her about movie deals, about her finances. In New York she made her personal life a nonissue. She became a member of the band, just like the rest of us." During this period, Love and Larkin reworked several tracks and wrote further material together.
Final sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady Studios in New York City throughout late 2009. According to Love, during the later recording sessions, she had been listening to Elvis Presley and various blues artists, which she cited as influential on the track "Someone Else's Bed". She also cited David Bowie's album Diamond Dogs (1974), Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), and 1980s gothic rock as influences. By Love's account, she financed the making of the record herself, estimating that it ultimately cost $2 million to record and produce.
Linda Perry, in a retrospective interview, expressed disappointment with the subsequent recording of the material: "[After we initially started recording in 2006], Courtney disappeared and came back fucked-up again. And they [Love, Beinhorn, and Larkin] re-recorded these songs badly and a beautiful record got ruined and sounded like shit. I love Courtney. She's a fabulous disaster, but she really is a genius and one of the smartest people I have ever met. I wish her well. I wish she would just do one more really serious, great record. One day I'm going to mix that [unreleased] album and fucking leak it out there. If it's ever leaked, just know that it was me who did it." Perry receives producing credit on two tracks on the album: "Letter to God" and "Never Go Hungry", as well as writing credits on five of the eleven tracks.
Artwork
The album cover is a portrait of Marie Antoinette by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, cropped at the neck, implying Antoinette's execution by guillotine. This same portrait of Antoinette (in full) was also featured in the interior artwork of Hole's compilation album My Body, the Hand Grenade (1997).
The back artwork of the album features a thematically similar portrait of Anne Boleyn, also cropped at the neck, while the inlay displays the 1834 painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, depicting Lady Jane Grey blindfolded in the moments before her execution. "The art is pretty-self evident," Love commented. "We always seem to get rid of the good dames."
In the interior panel of the album liner notes, a painting titled Accident (2009) by contemporary artist Gretchen Ryan is featured, which shows a number of ballerinas walking toward the edge of a precipice; alongside it is a photo by Bennett Miller of a woman's bloodied foot in a broken glass slipper.
Release and promotion Label and sponsorships