Released April 6, 2010 Length 5:13 | Format Digital download | |
Recorded August 2009 at Electric Lady Studios, New York City Genre Alternative rock, power pop Label CherryForever
Mercury/Island Def Jam
(Universal Music Group) | ||
"Pacific Coast Highway" is the fifteenth single from alternative rock group Hole. It is the second single from the band's fourth studio album Nobody's Daughter. It was released as a digital download on April 6, 2010, and was added on Modern Rock radio in the United States on May 5, 2010.
Contents
Background and history
"Pacific Coast Highway" was written by Courtney Love in a Los Angeles hotel on December 24, 2005. The song was later contributed to by producer Linda Perry and Billy Corgan. In 2009, when being recorded as a Hole song, various new additions were made to the song, most notably a solo and a final bridge, both of which were written by guitarist, Micko Larkin.
Critical reception
The track was described by NME as,
One of the earliest songs on the session, toughened up from the Perry era, this confessional song is nonetheless one of the record’s more plaintive moments, in the vein of 'Malibu'. Lyrically, it finally addresses the scars she still bears over her husband’s death in the most brutal fashion: "I knew a boy who came from the sea/he was the only boy who ever knew the truth about me... I knew a boy who left me so ravaged/do you even know the extent of the damage? ... I’m overwhelmed and undersexed?/Baby what did you expect?/I’m overwrought and so disgraced/I’m too ashamed to show my face/And they’re coming to take me away now/what I want I will never have/I’m on the Pacific Coast Highway/With your gun in my hand".
In its week of release it became the most added song to modern rock radio in the United States. An AOL exclusive acoustic performance video of the track was released as a part of the AOL Sessions, and "Pacific Coast Highway" peaked at #6 on Billboard's Top AOL Music Video chart in May 2010.
Track listing
- Pacific Coast Highway - 5:13
Music video
On May 24, 2010, Courtney Love stated that a promotional music video for "Pacific Coast Highway" was in the works.