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5 Responses

1. 
   Anonymous 
   

   Celebrity Skin is a brilliant, shimmering guitar-driven album that showcases everything from divine hallucinations induced by orgasms (“Hit So Hard”) to the posthumous gross commercialization of a certain nineties icon’s musical legacy (“Playing Your Song”) in a style that is as serious as it is tongue-in-cheek. Undoubtedly one of the best musical works of the nineties (a list which includes their 1994 breakthrough, Live Through This), Celebrity Skin blends variety, musical genius, lyrical fortitude, and unabashed irony. Prelegend lead vocalist Courtney Love isn’t afraid to illuminate her songs with intense intimacy and a self-proclaimed warped view of California crumbling into the sea, while not so much as flinching about fans’ frequent accusations of selling out (which 9/10 times indicates an artist has made a great record). The real hero here, however, may be Eric Erlandson, the songwriter and man behind the axe, who has an unsurpassed ability to create sickening-sweet atmospheric riffs and (without any warning) rip into them in cutthroat, perfect punk rock form. Boasting no throwaways and a sonically perfect soundscape, the sometimes underrated Celebrity Skin is a destined classic and a must-have for all serious guitar rockers, whether you like Love’s provocative persona or not…

2. 
   Daniel Maltzman 
   

   Courtney Love sure made a big transformation between 1994 and 1998. She went from a grunge/alternative-rock icon, better-half of Kurt Cobain, to a glamorous fashion model and all-around celebrity. I don’t mean this disapprovingly, but rather just stating a fact.

   Hole’s music reflected the change. Abandoning the grunge/alternative sound in favor of a glossy, popish one, Hole released their third album “Celebrity Skin” in the fall of 1998.

   Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) joined Love and guitarist Erick Erldandson in creating the new album (Erldandson later revealed that he disapproved of Corgan’s involvement).

   Compared to Hole’s first two albums “Pretty on the Inside” (1991) and “Live through This” (1994), “Celebrity Skin” is far more radio-friendly, with a far glossier production. Be that as it may “Celebrity Skin” is hardly an upbeat, cheerful album. Indeed, beyond the sunny exterior lies a distinctly dark album. Many of the album’s songs were written about the death of Kurt Cobain. The sharp contrast between the album’s dark tones and it’s sunny, glossy exterior, makes for an intriguing listen.

   While not everything works, most of the album is quite strong. The Def Leppard-like title track gets the CD off to a good start. “Awful” and “Hit so Hard” are quite melodic and tuneful. The radio-staple “Malibu” (written about Cobain’s last stint at a rehabilitation center there) is one of the best singles from the late 90s. The edgy “Reason’s to be Beautiful” and “Use Once and Destroy” don’t quite work. They would have sounded great stripped down and raw, but don’t really mesh with the glossy production. “Dying,” works because of its sincerity, but is too popish for its own good. The downbeat “Northern Star” and the Go-Go’s sounding “Boys on the Radio” are great. The latter very underrated. The lush “Heaven Tonight” is effective and keeps up the momentum. “Playing your Song” is one of the more aggressive songs on the album that actually works. The very bleak “Petals” makes for a good closing number.

   It would have been easy for Hole to have written a “Live though this” part II, but instead the band chose to take a chance and go in a different direction. While “Celebrity Skin” does have its flaws, most of the songs work. If you bought “Celebrity Skin” back in 1998 and were disappointed, try giving it another spin, without trying to compare it “Live though this.” You may be pleasantly surprised.

3. 
   P. Fry 
   

   I don’t listen to a lot of newer alt or punk, but I just have to say that “Boys on the Radio” blows me away time after time. It is a great punk anthem in the tradition of “Pretty Vacant” or “Personality Crisis”. The other songs are great, especially “Malibu”, “Heaven Tonight” these are great anthemic pieces with soaring melodies, poignant guitar work, tight harmonies and an incessant beat.

   Both the song-writing and the production of this album is simply beautiful. Great CD to drive to.

   As crazy and self-destructive as Courtney Love is, she proves that she has the talent of her late husband, Kurt Cobain. Hopefully her life will have a happier ending and she’ll treat us to more great tunes and less gossip column fodder.

4. 
   M. G Watson 
   

   I want to start by saying I know jack-all about music. I am one of those silly sods who only knows what he likes, and this is a hell of an album.

   As I recall, when “Celebrity Skin” hit the market it took a fairly heavy beating from all quarters. Rock critics found the album to be a bit too “glossy”, fans made the usual accusations about “selling out” and the morons who write for music magazines and music television harped about its “disappointing” sales. Lost in all this furor was the fact that Hole had produced some bloody fine music if anyone cared to shut their gob and listen.

   “Celebrity Skin”, being a Courtney Love & Co. production, is obviously riddled with angst, cynicism, depression, desperation, melancholia and the occasional dose of rage. BFD, you say? Well, what distinguishes it from the whole punk-grunge-indie-alt mob doing exactly the same bloody thing is that Love’s vocals, and more importantly the lyrics behind them, are truly first-rate. Some of the songs are so well-written they have to be read as text to be fully appreciated. “Use once and Destroy” is an excellent example of how lyrics can often do stand-in for first-class poetry:

   It’s the emptiness that follows you down
   
   It’s the ache inside when it all burns out
   
   It’s poisonous it muscles it aches
   
   It’s everything you had when it breaks
   
   It’s the emptiness that’s all you have left
   
   Too terrified of your frozen breath
   
   It’s a bitter mouth it’s buttered and knived
   
   It’s the awful truth you fight for your life
   
   It might as well it might as well hurt
   
   It might as well it might as well
   
   I went down to rescue you
   
   I went all the way down
   
   Fill your hungry wretched life
   
   Here they come it’s closing time
   
   It’s the bitter root it’s twisted inside
   
   It’s the heart you used to have when it died
   
   It’s the emptiness it poisons it lies
   
   It’s everything that you’ll never find

   Like all great albums, this one manages to create an atmosphere which pervades each individual track, so that each cut, even when their moods differ, nevertheless feels like its part of a whole. The atmosphere, of course, is not exactly happy. As usual, Love sounds like she’s cruising through a hefty dose of scrip drugs washed down with red wine; her mood is like a parabola and each individual emotion (despair, fury, futility) represents a point on its descending curve. Nevertheless, between the fusilades of angry and cynical words comes the occasional blast of humor (“Love hangs herself/with the bedsheets in her cell” is a good one; so is the line about “hooker/waitress/model/actress”, which if you’ve been to L.A. is a pretty good description of the people). In fact, as the title implies, a good bit of “Celebrity Skin” is directed at the Music Industry, with all the tenderness and gentility of of a Molotov cocktail hurled through a window; but Love is not merely ranting about “the business”; it’s the people that make it up she wants to bleed, and that clearly includes herself. I think to a certain extent, Love got caught between identities — the grungy, angry, combat-booted one she started with and the Versace-wearing, Oscar-pandering, I’m-so-glad-to-be-here one she ended up with. The lyrics of the superb “Malibu” (“how’d you get so burned when you’re barely on fire?”) are probably more about her than she ever realized.

   So why didn’t it do better? Somewhere in the album there’s a line about how “beauty blinds.” This album is beautiful, but it’s a vicious kind of beauty, like a left hook to the liver. What can I say? Love hurts baby.

5. 
   Unscathed 
   

   first of all i really cant stand how people diss hole justbecause courtney is not generally likeable or down to earth. get pastthat because hole is one of the best bands in the past 10 years and this album is a great testimony to that fact. celebrity skin starts out spitting venom with the title track, where instead of building herself into a rock monolith, she degrades her own duality and shallowness along burning riffs that make it an instant classic. next is awful, where she pokes fun at the commercialization of music and how music is made to appeal to an individual and then “royalty-rated” and sold out. it also hints at self deprecation. then comes hit so hard, a sonically awesome song either about being beaten up by your lover or as someone else suggested orgasms. either way or both ways, its a perfect song and has some really subtle but mindblowing sexual connotations. the harmonies are incredible. now comes the huge sonic soft rocker, malibu which combines pop and punk into one beautiful song about destruction and trying to salvage yourself (or someone else?) from a terrible situation. it is completely one of a kind and ive never heard anything like it before. i think few bands could pull this song off this well. the climax of the song is amazing by the way. up next is an LA anthem, reasons to be beautiful, this song agonizes over the meaning of beauty and trying to mask the pain and misery with a palette of exterior, probably autobiographical. the sleeper hit of this disc is dying, a quiet and sentimental song probably about being obsessed with your (deceased?) lover to the point of wanting to join he/she in the grave. THE BRIDGE IN THIS SONG IS AMAZING. It goes from quiet and somber to this revelation of being finished, the life is over. Absolute genius songwriting here. Use Once and Destroy is up next and I dont really like this song as much except for the interesting ending where there is a shift in the mentality of the entire song. It’s still pretty good though. Northern Star comes up and is obviously referencing her late husband Kurt Cobain. It’s incredibly somber telling the story of a lover lost and almost worshipping him as a spiritual entity. There are tinges of anger in it and a the climax comes with an emotional thought that “no misery is worth you.” It’s very angry and sad but it will make you tear up because there is obviously something very authentic behind it. Boys On the Radio is next and it should definitely be released as a single. It is about how girls listen to the boys on the radio and take everything that they say to heart and completely seriously. It suggests that these girls want to save the rebellious boys from the trials and tribulation of stardom. It’s the most beautiful song on the record and touches on something that is rarely used as a subject of rock music. It comes at the subject fiercely and paints these girls as indulgent on the beauty of these men. One could go as far to say that she is talking about girls that are infatuated with pop acts like the backstreet boys. while it could be made into something horrible, it comes off as something magical and incredible and a growing pain of youthfulness. next comes another poppy beauty that seems to discuss going completely kamikaze over someone you love. getting so caught up in the advent of love and happiness that you close off the rest of the world and you are prepared to die just to die and go to heaven together. Very Shakespearean. Next is Playing Your Song, which is a jump from the sonic splendor and upbeatness of Heaven Tonight. This song is fiercy autobiographical. It seems like a manifesto to her late husband. This one is more built on anger. Anger at the record industry (for presumably capitalizing off of Cobain’s tragic suicide) esp. “theyve taken it and built a mall”, anger at Cobain like “your’re drunk on apathy,” and anger at fans for turning him into some kind of patron saint because of his suicide. It’s high octane grunge and it is one of the best songs of its kind in recent years and evokes some of the acidic courtney of live through this. lastly, a powerful look at getting older and maturing (perhaps as a musician), petals tears away the exterior beauty and basically says that after it inevitably leaves youre left with yourself, lonely. the riffs are atmospheric and haunting and this is a wonderful way to end the album. overall i think that this album is one of the best in recent years and will rise to classic status in years to come. never has such a fluent, varied album come together so well since Nirvana’s Nevermind. While it relied on self-deprecating angst, Celebrity Skin relies on bitterly honest obsession. I own 4 copies of CS, if that’s indicative of a quality album or my own warped musical taste, you decide. Buy this one.