(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Thu 4 December 2025 21:36, UK
It’s incredibly hard to compare new artists with those who have already made a name for themselves, given that music evolves, and the means by which people make and release it is constantly changing, but that doesn’t stop Courtney Love.
Throughout her career, Love has constantly had an ear to the ground when it came to making good music. She has always tried to push creative boundaries with her own work while soaking up what other people in the industry are doing for a well-rounded appreciation for music that stretches across multiple genres and generations, and this includes Trent Reznor, undoubtedly one of the most talented musicians when it comes to modern music, with his approach to sound and the versatility that it can bring, something other artists should take note of.
He has never allowed himself to be confined to one particular style or sound, and instead, his free-flowing approach to sonicscape means that everything he releases remains an exciting prospect.
Love no doubt appreciates Reznor as a musician, given she uses his name as a benchmark for talent; however, that doesn’t mean the two haven’t had their issues in the past. In 2021, Love posted comments where she called Reznor a “creep” and said that she had witnessed the “systemic abuse of kids, girls as young as 12, by him and his crew”, for which she later apologised, saying, “I am truly sorry for those I’ve hurt, and I will do better”.
Looking past this period of tension between the two, she clearly admires his music, even if she might hold him, as a person, in contention at times. She is additionally a big fan of Brian Eno, and while his music may be a bit different to the kind of style Love has played with in her life, she also uses him as a benchmark for different artists, which can be understood given the major innovations Eno has made within the world of ambience and electronica.
Rick Rubin once spoke highly of Brian Eno, highlighting the way that he managed to take music and make it less band-centric, which isn’t to say that bands are no longer needed, but Eno proved that you didn’t necessarily need to be in one in order to make something excellent. This is a standard mindset for musicians to have now, but that wasn’t always the case.
“He seems to be the one who really broke down the walls of anything sounding like a band,” said Rubin, “I think up until the time of Eno, the idea of the band being the centrepiece of the recording was the thing that you built on or veered from. I think his idea was music is music, and it’s not about the band. It’s about the sounds. Whatever sounds put together in an interesting way is what it is.”
So, both Eno and Reznor are musical behemoths, and while some people might try to tell you that no artist will ever come close to achieving what these two did, these people aren’t keeping a close enough eye on modern music.
In this, one artist that she felt particularly inspired by was Sofia Isella, with whom she confirmed had been working in 2024. Isella is a new artist, but Love was keen on working with her more, given she had the ability to drag the grunge star out of her comfort zone, and when talking about her work and production style, said that she was “Either the Gen Z Trent Reznor or Brian Eno; I can’t decide”.
Unfortunately, the song that the two of them worked on together wasn’t ready to be used, as Love said that it was too left field for the time being, explaining, “That song didn’t make the cut. I was straying too far out of my lane…”
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