"Miss World"

Hole
(DGC, 1994)

The most bittersweet song on one of the decade's most important albums (Live Through This), this soft/loud, acoustic/electric, ballad/rocker also represents the bittersweet apex of feminism in American rock and roll. Every bit as unclassifiable yet instantly comprehensible as the wrenching music, Courtney Love's lyrics are an admission of powerlessness and fucked-upness delivered with an edgy, aching vocal that nonetheless demonstrates masterful strength and control. These contradictions have never been laid so bare on popular commercial radio. As Love elsewhere puts it, "They get what they want, but they never want it again."

-- Franklin Soults