The Return Of Courtney Love

She’s notorious for her confrontational stage presence and outspokenness, not to mention some pretty formidable demons. Rolling Stone calls her “the most controversial woman in the history of rock.” She’s the Yoko Ono of grunge, a polarizing icon of pop culture, but love her or hate her, Courtney Love is back.

For the past five years, Love has been working on the soon to be released Nobody’s Daughter. Not quite on par with Axl Rose's decade-long promise to deliver his magnum opus, Nobody's Daughter has been painfully slow in coming nonetheless. The album, slated for release sometime in 2010, has been plagued by false starts. Originally set to drop in February 2007, the record’s release has been postponed numerous times, for one reason or another.

Love began writing Nobody's Daughter back in September 2005 when she was sentenced to six months in a rehab facility for violating a drug probation. During that time, which she describes as “like living in a nunnery", Love was visited by friend and producer Linda Perry who gave her a Martin acoustic guitar and encouraged her to write new songs. Love says about that girl-and-her-guitar period, "My hand-eye coordination was so bad, I didn't even know chords anymore. It was like my fingers were frozen. And I wasn't allowed to make noise (in rehab). So I'd sit there and try to quietly write and struggle. 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."

Halfway through her sentence Love was released to serve out the remaining three months under house arrest. She resumed her Nichiren Buddhist practice and allegedly began the discipline of writing a song a day, at times collaborating with both Perry and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins.

The trio assembled a backup band for Love, which included guitarist Paul Thorn, bassist Paul Ill and drummer Nathan Washington, and set out recording Nobody’s Daughter with Perry producing and Corgan acting as a guitarist and arranger. In a September 2006 interview, Love predicted the album would drop in February 2007 and then pushed it back by a month to avoid having the record come out in winter which, she declared, would make her “go insane.” The March 2007 release date was also scrapped when, after performing some of the new material live, she decided to re-record the album with a new band and a different producer.

Love would continue to waffle concerning a release date for Nobody’s Daughter. In the January 2009 issue of Elle Magazine, she announced that Nobody’s Daughter would be released for download on her website on January 1, 2009. That date came and went with no sign of the album. The following day a blog was posted on Love’s MySpace explaining that the album had in fact been delayed again due, in part, to technical sound issues at the recording studio.

Then in June 2009 came word that Courtney Love was resurrecting Hole—this time with Micko Larkin on lead guitar, Shawn Dailey on bass, and Stu Fisher on drums—to coincide with the release of Nobody’s Daughter, which was now rumored to drop in January 2010, this very month, in fact, but—not. Love also made mention of a possible tour in 2010 and that Melissa Auf der Maur would return as bassist for the band, although Auf der Maur has claimed to be clueless about a reported Hole reunion.

And then there’s the matter of Eric Erlandson who co-founded Hole with Courtney Love in 1989. The two have been the only constant members of the band throughout its history. Erlandson maintains that no Hole reunion can take place without his involvement to which Love has responded, “MY band, MY name and MY trademark.” Whether Erlandson or Love have any legal right to the band name remains to be seen as does whether or not Nobody’s Daughter is released as the fourth Hole album or as Courtney Love’s second solo record (or, for that matter, whether or not the album gets released at all.) Conflict be damned, Hole opened a Facebook page and new website promoting Nobody's Daughter on January 1, 2010. You’ve got to love a woman who knows what she wants and goes after it half-cocked.

As for the album, press comments on previews of Nobody’s Daughter have been roundly positive. The record is drawing comparisons to Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks with some saying it has the potential to be Love’s masterpiece. Raw and confessional in nature, Nobody’s Daughter is said to be bluesy and billowy and is certain to be one moody body of work. As is to be expected, fan reaction to the news of an upcoming album and a Hole reunion runs the gamut from vicious to rapturous.

Courtney Love wrote music to help her find a way through a very dark, tumultuous time in her life. That she might feel somewhat protective of Nobody’s Daughter, maybe even a bit reluctant to release something so close to her, speaks more to her vulnerability, and perhaps a burgeoning maturity, than it does her history.

Hole are scheduled to perform at Shepherds Bush Empire in London on February 17, 2010; at Magazzini Generali in Milan on February 19, 2010; and at Paradiso in Amsterdam on February 21, 2010. Be sure to check out the band’s new website at www.nobodysdaughter.com.