A gaping hole

What ever happened to Courtney Love? This album's as puffed out as her plastic pout.

Hard as I tried to approach Hole's latest without the filter of Courtney Love's unhinged Tweeting about her daughter Frances, or the images of her surgically plumped up lips, I have to admit - I failed miserably.

After all, it was her unknowingness, her roughed-up edges that helped make her early work so compelling. With these rapidly vanishing, courtesy of Love's love of social networking and plastic surgery, it's hard to take lyrics about anguish and misery and skinny little b***hes to heart. Only towards the end of this 11-track album - on songs like Never Go Hungry - does Love begin to approach the unnerving, but riveting, sonic attacks that made albums such as Live Through This so very good.

I love you *** ½ Amanda Blank

Amanda Blank has attracted a lot of critical attention for an obscure Philadelphia rapper, with many condemning her as a crotch-thrusting purveyor of copulatory rock (they use a shorter word, but this is a family magazine), but for her fans she is totally The Excreta. Okay, that's also a PG version of the actual phrase. The point is, her debut album, I Love You, is far from PG. It contains sexually explicit content rapped out at a million miles a minute, showcasing Blank's vocal dexterity. - Aubrey Paton

Survival Story *** ½ Flobots

This is the Denver Band's sophomore album, continuing their trademark medley of organised confusion, a blend of slightly arhythmical tub-thumping combined with glorious, even ecstatic moments of pure melody, delivered by resident viola player, Mackenzie Roberts. Reviewers have condemned their political hip-hop as overly reliant on dissonance and their anti-establishment brand of rap rock as jejune, but this is too harsh, and Survival Story is distinguished by occasional flashes of brilliance. - AP

Thank me later ***** Drake

It was almost a year ago when I wrote the review for Drake's acclaimed mixtape, So Far Gone. Since then, he has been everywhere and recording with almost everyone. So, quite obviously, I was worried about this album - over-exposure can be suicide for a young artist. But I'm happy to say my fears were unwarranted. This is a great album, the 23-year-old has shown why he's the it boy of hip-hop. Songs to look out for include Fireworks (featuring Alicia Keys) and the one I have on repeat right now, Shut It Down (featuring The Dream). - Lerato Tshabalala