Pretty on the Inside is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 17, 1991, in the United States on Caroline Records. Produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and Gumball frontman Don Fleming, the album was Hole's first major label release after the band's formation in 1989 by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson.
Blending elements of punk rock, the album features distorted and alternating guitar compositions, screaming vocals from Love, and "sloppy punk ethics", a style which the band would later distance themselves from, opting for a less abrasive sound on subsequent releases. Love's lyrics on the album are often presented in an abstract narrative form, and describe disparate scenes of graphic violence, death, and female sexuality. The record was dedicated to Rob Ritter of the Los Angeles punk rock acts the Bags and the Gun Club.
Upon release, Pretty on the Inside was well-received by alternative music critics, garnering favorable reviews that drew comparisons to the works of Black Sabbath and Patti Smith. It was met with considerable commercial success in the United Kingdom, where the record's lead single, "Teenage Whore", entered the UK Indie Chart at number one in September 1991. It has sold over 200,000 copies in the United States and gained a contemporary cult following among punk rock fans, and has been cited as a seminal influence for songwriters and musicians such as Brody Dalle and Scout Niblett. Despite its critical acclaim, frontwoman Courtney Love went on to refer to the album as "unlistenable" in later years, though her stance on it eventually shifted, as she commented in 2021 that she had "really put the album down," and that making it was a "transformative" experience for her. Vinyl LP versions of the album have been reissued several times.
Background
Hole formed in 1989 in Los Angeles, California when frontwoman Courtney Love, after years of fruitless attempts at forming bands, bought her neighbor Lisa Roberts a bass and posted an advertisement in a local paper stating: "I want to start a band. My influences are Big Black, Sonic Youth, and Fleetwood Mac." Eric Erlandson, along with over a dozen other musicians, answered the ad. Love later said that she knew Eric was "the one" as soon as they met, and that he had a "Thurston Moore quality about him" that she liked.
Erlandson said that early in Hole's career, they were more interested in "making noise" than achieving success and before drummer Caroline Rue joined the band that they used no percussion whatsoever. It was not until Love and Erlandson heard Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" that they began to think about taking the band to the next level. Early on, the band was most influenced by the New York No Wave art and music scene of the 1980s, which included visual artists, such as Richard Kern, as well as scuzz rock acts, such as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth, and Pussy Galore. The band also featured a rhythm guitarist in its early days, Mike Geisbrecht. After the band's first four shows, Geisbrecht and Roberts departed from the band. Hole recruited bassist Jill Emery in 1990, and the band remained a quartet instead of replacing Geisbrecht.
In the documentary film Not Bad for a Girl, Love, who had been in the erotic dancing industry for years prior, said that she worked as a stripper to help support the band in its early incarnation. After signing, Love sought Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon to produce the album. In January 1991, Love sent her a letter, a Hello Kitty barrette, and copies of the band's early singles, mentioning that the band greatly admired Gordon's work and appreciated "the production of the SST record" (referring to Sonic Youth's EVOL or Sister). Gordon agreed on the condition that her friend, Gumball frontman Don Fleming, assist.
The band entered Music Box Studios in Los Angeles with Gordon and Fleming in March 1991, and worked on the album for one week; the songs were recorded over a period of four days, and were mixed over the course of a further three days. During the recording sessions for the album, Love purportedly gargled whiskey and excessively smoked cigarettes before takes to give a raw edge to her vocals.
Fleming stated he was impressed by Love's "focus and intensity", especially while recording vocals for one song when Love "literally ripped her clothes off while she sang". "Courtney was amazing", said Fleming. "She was the most gung-ho person I've ever met. She was going to make the greatest record ever—I like that attitude in the studio. Courtney was like 'Let's go, fuckers', and I loved that." In a later interview, Fleming said: <blockquote>Courtney was great at the time—it was before she even knew Kurt [Cobain]. She gave 180%. I've worked with some people that you've had to coax the performance out of them. With Courtney, there was no attitude. She was gonna give it all. And she did and it was really impressive to me ... I loved the whole band; they were a lot of fun. That early lineup of Hole—I felt they were the real deal. They were Hollywood misfits—all of them. I felt it really captured what they were.</blockquote>
Gordon said that Love "was either charming and nice or screaming at her band" but that she was "a really good singer and entertainer and front person."
From her own recollection, Love said that the recording sessions lasted "about a week... Eric was in charge of the [guitar] tones, and I just did whatever the fuck I wanted." Love's vocals range from whispers to violent screaming, often in succession with the extreme shifts in speed and volume.