Seattle’s Finest: Courtney Love names her favourite grunge albums
Has there ever been a person who has divided the rock world as strongly as Courtney Love? Sure, she has made some claims that have landed her into some hot water over the years, but ever since the death of her husband, Love has either been considered a has-been in the eyes of the media or the Yoko Ono of the 1990s hellbent on breaking up Nirvana. For all of the bile thrown her way, there’s hardly ever talk of Courtney Love as a musician, and as a legend of grunge, she has a firm understanding of what made the genre work in the first place.
Before we dive into Love’s record collection, what exactly is grunge? Everyone knows what the fashion of the movement looked like with the flannel shirts and ripped jeans, but was there ever a definitive answer to what the genre stood for other than angst and pain for their listeners?
Well, the definition seems to be a bit more fluid than any other subgenre of rock. Going through the big four of the genre, Alice in Chains were practically an alternative metal band, Soundgarden was a 1990s answer to Led Zeppelin, and Pearl Jam seemed like a long-lost classic rock outfit that happened to take shape a few decades too late.
Where Love stood, it all came down to the punk rock sensibilities of the genre. For all of the posturing that some wannabe grunge bands wanted to make, the core ethos behind every song was authenticity, which came from years of listening to alternative and indie music like Husker Du.
When picking out the greatest albums of the 1990s, though, Love had a special connection to Superfuzz Bigmuff by Mudhoney. Whereas grunge was meant to be a little bit dirty from a production standpoint, Mark Arm didn’t give two shits about sounding like a professional rock band. Although a song like ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’ sounds absolutely disgusting from a sonic standpoint, it might be one of the biggest indicators of what grunge actually was, namely, just a bunch of kids in their garage making the most feral music they could.
Then again, is it really possible to talk about Love’s taste for grunge and not bring up Nirvana? Ignoring the fact that her husband wrote all their songs, Love’s other two picks for favourite grunge albums included Nevermind and In Utero. While we dubiously leave Bleach on the side, Nirvana’s second and third records were the unintended mission statement of where rock bands could go in the alternative sphere.
Most people don’t really need to be told the importance of an album that birthed ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, but In Utero might actually be the better listen by a few margins. It wasn’t the most radio-friendly, but hearing Cobain lash out against the press and still try to find some sort of peace through his music is one of the many instances of a cultural icon reminding everyone that they are human.
And that’s really the crux of what Love was all about. For all the people complaining that she wanted nothing but publicity, it’s hard not to look at albums like Live Through This and Celebrity Skin and not feel like they’re coming from a genuine place. It’s not always pretty, but Love would much rather be true to herself than have to put on a facade for the camera.
