Doll Parts

Taking into consideration what I know about Courtney Love's life, I've always took this song as being about yearning for love and not getting it (or at least not thinking you are going to get it). It encapsulates that romantic hopelessness that I've felt my whole life, so it really resonates with me personally.

Throughout the whole song you get the sense that she's attacking herself because she feels unworthy and empty (like a doll), hence the "bad skin", "big veins", and other bodily criticisms. She takes it a step further by blaming herself for wanting and expecting too much ("I want to be the girl with the most cake"), and although she can pretend all she wants ("I fake it so real I am beyond fake"), there's still that inner turmoil and loneliness seething inside her.

The "someday you will ache like I ache" is kind of like wishful thinking, like she's telling herself that her emptiness and pain will someday be felt by those who in the current moment are fulfilled.

It's really, really sad, and I think the reason that it remains one of Hole's most popular songs is because it perfectly describes an almost-universal feeling: the feeling of being alone, and desperately wanting someone by your side.