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The Age
Friday March 12, 2010
–GOOD news for those who love to delight in the obvious: Courtney Love is back. The debate over who's the subject of Skinny Little Bitch (Rating: 3/5), the first single in a decade from Hole, should be full of wide-eyed pop culture pontification (my three nominations are Taylor Swift, Karl Lagerfeld or Courtney's daughter Frances Bean Cobain). Courtney's quotes on Twitter aside, the track is a solid throwback to 1994 and Hole's best album, Live Through This, with a neo-grunge grind from the new backing band. The hellion vocal is somewhat forced but the lyrics are pure theatre. It's showtime.–MELBOURNE'S Otouto (pronounced "otto-ootoe") are sisters Hazel and Martha Brown and Kid Sam drummer Kishore Ryan. On Astronauts (Rating: 3.5/5), the first track from their forthcoming debut album Pip, the song and their performance of it keep changing identities: ethereal harmonies, a lo-fi backbeat and winsome percussion fills come and go. Through it all, however, a romantic scepticism endures.–PAUL Weller's Wake up the Nation (Rating: 3/5) has a terrible title and obvious target €” celebrity culture €” but the voodoo glam arrangement is beguiling and the vocal performance is spat out with sinister intent.
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