The following is a Designated Cheerleader piece by @KolleenCarney for the Best Album of 1991 tournament. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you follow the link to vote in the tournament. Thanks!

When people think of Courtney Love they think of Kurt Cobain, and in my opinion you can't be a Nirvana fan without at least tangentially being a Hole fan. I was incredibly young when Pretty on the Inside came out, and it would be just a few short years later that I really became a lover of grunge. It was like nothing I had ever heard before, having not gotten into the Riot Grrrl movement yet. It was gritty, it was angry, it was overtly sexual, in your face  and without apologies. 

The album opens with Courtney howling "When I was a teenage whore..." What did it mean to me, to hear Courtney explaining her promiscuity because she "wanted that shirt and wanted those pants"? A whole hell of a lot. Growing up in a Catholic household and attending Catholic school, the whole thing heavy in shame, it was a revelation, a personal revolution. 

Really the whole album seemed so strange to me, sounded so surreal. "Babydoll" feels like a drug induced dream. What the hell is up with "Sassy"? I think that song introduced me to sound loops, with audio of Courtney saying "You're so stupid/ I would have done anything for you". And that cover of "Both Sides Now" (credited as "Clouds" for some reason) is superior in my opinion. 

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Courtney Love, hated by so many, revered by so many. She is my scream queen, my grunge princess. The most tragic figure of the whole scene. I love this album because it predates all that, predates Kurt Cobain, predates Frances Bean. This is Courtney with just her band, with no other context.

My first day of public high school, I wore a Hole belly shirt. That's who I was going to be, and I wasn't going to apologize for it. And I never did.

– @KolleenCarney