Customer Reviews

Celebrity Skin

5 star:		(221)
4 star:		(99)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hole's "Celebrity Skin" is nothing like any of Love's other albums. That's just a statement of fact; don't buy this if you want to know what she's really about. Love is grunge and screaming and almost-vulgar honesty, and you don't get a lot of that on this record. But if you want to hear some high-quality, edge-of-mainstream music, then this is a good bet.

"Skin" has, for better or for worse, changed Love's image. It was regarded by many Nirvana and early Hole fans as a sell-out, a betrayal of their earlier work. In the mainstream music world, "Skin" was a hit. It's now the album most people recognize when they think of Hole, and it had decently popular hits in "Celebrity Skin" (also known as "Make Me Over"), "Malibu," and "Reason to be Beautiful." Love has stated many times that her intention on this album was to make a pop record; she says that most musical elitists don't "get it." She was sick of comments about her one-dimensional act (a howling product of drugs and promiscuity with a foothold in screeching guitars and raw lyrics) and this does showcase her versatility as an artist.

What you'll find in "Celebrity Skin" depends on what you're looking for. If it's an extension of "Live Through This" or "Pretty on the Inside," stay away. If it's your first taste of Hole and you're a little nervous about it, or if you think their other material is too loud and unpolished, this is perfect for you.

But if it's your first Hole purchase and you think you're ready for the unleashed, Kobain-influenced Love, I would recommend "Live Through This." Happy buying!

Forget comparisons. If you approach this album hoping that Hole have re-recorded Live Through This in the late 90's, then you'll be disappointed. I very nearly made that mistake and after the first listen I was ready to bin it. But rather than screaming 'sell-out' with all the others, I listened to the album a second time, as the independent recording that it is. And that's when I realised that Celebrity Skin, rather than being a stale re-release of Live Through This, is an atmospheric Live Through This for the late 90's. Lyrically Courtney Love has produced a masterpiece of nuances and subtleties with more than several passing references to Kurt Cobain, and musically, being co-written with Billy Corgan, the album encompasses a broad range of emotions, and has equal if not more angst than the previous album. Yes it has a softer feel to it, but Hole have in no way sold out, creating a moving, catchy album which proves that they are the only early nineties grunge band still kicking out the same blistering emotions at the end of the decade that they did at the start.

The opener and title track starts the album on a high, rocking all the way with a bitter attack on Hollywood and a chorus that sticks in your mind long after you have finished listening to it. 'Awful' follows it, a pop-rock number which somehow manages to become heavier midway through the verse by the addition of a second guitar whilst still sounding poppy. It represents the new Hole, musically uplifting yet imbued with deep cynicism underneath. 'Hit So Hard' is a slower number, swaying music and awed vocals. 'Malibu' is another subtle blending of pop, rock and punk, that conjures up perfect images of sunsets in California and palm trees silhouetted against the ocean, and thus on atmospherics it scores very highly. Then, for die-hard grunge fans, comes 'Reasons to Be Beautiful', a scathing song with striking imagery throughout that only loses the heaviness at the end to break into a moodier, reflective outro. 'Dying' is a beautiful, violin-fuelled ballad that is clearly Corgan influenced, all soft and haunting and oh so Pumpkins, but made entirely Hole by Love's mournful and touching lyrics. 'Use Once and Destroy' is probably the weakest song on the album, with a decidedly poor verse but a redeeming chorus where the vocals and guitars fit seamlessly together in grungy musical harmony. 'Northern Star', far from Mel C's screeching, is an acoustic expression of mourning for loves lost, and it succeeds on both musical and emotional scales. 'Boys On The Radio' is the least memorable track on the album, with nothing remarkably noteworthy about it that separates it from the other songs; it is catchy and uplifting and cynical, slotting in almost unnoticed within the others. The next song, 'Heaven Tonight', is another atmospheric masterpiece of pop-rock, which somehow enshrines the emotion of teenage crushes within its midst. If angst is your thing, 'Playing Your Song' is the epitome of anger and loathing and hurt. Probably the heaviest song on the album, the 'Song' of the title is undoubtedly Cobain's, Love attacking the music industry for capitalising on his suicide, his fans for glorifying the death, and even Cobain himself for committing that fateful final act. Reminiscent of 'Something In The Way', the last track of Nirvana's Nevermind, 'Petals' is a moody and equally moving ending to the album. If there is one track which summarises the whole album, it is this one, building up at the opening from its acoustic guitars to a sombre and dark chorus with a haunting backing vocal. It continues onwards to a heavy and emotional bridge, before a quiet verse takes you into the final heavy chorus and then out via an orchestral, sentimental violin.

'Celebrity Skin' is a near-perfect album. Perhaps reflecting Love's current acceptance into the movie world, it can almost be seen as the soundtrack to every facet of disillusionment, such is the atmosphere created by each and every song. Indeed, the title track has been used in several films, including 'American Pie', and 'Playing Your Song's psychotic intro is crying out for exploitation. Far from being 'Hole sells out' it is 'Hole recreate themselves to produce the same end result', and that is beautiful, affecting, timeless songs. Love's voice ranges far wider on this album, cutting from gruff and angry to soft and dreamy at a moment's notice. Eric Erlandson's guitar cannot be faulted, and Melissa Auf Der Mer's bass and backing vocals show that she was a more than adequate replacement for the tragically departed Pfaff. If you can try and forget the expectations that the follow-up to Live Through This inevitably inspires, this is a classic album which can only grow on you the more you listen to it. If you can't get over the fact that a hardcore grunge band is now a pop-rock band which approaches the same themes with the same energy but from a different angle, then this isn't the album for you. But then the title of the album sums it up. Hole may now be celebrities on the surface, but underneath, they are still Hole.

This album is SOOO completely different from Live Through This it is hard to believe its the same band. While I love their former album to bits Celebrity Skin has everything I wish for in music. Pretty yet powerful. Emotional and cathartic.

I guess its sort of a concept album. All the songs address the apparent beauty and promises that life seems to offer on the surface before being disillusioned when expectations on life fail to live up to your dreams. This theme runs consistent whether Courtney is criticising Hollywood (Celebrity Skin, Malibu) the music industry (Awful, Playing Your Song) or when reminiscent on Kurt's death (Reasons To Be Beautiful) and on relationships gone sour (Boys On The Radio, Petals.)

Musically, the album ressurects new-wave melodies resembling The Go-Gos, Fleetwood Mac and Cheap Trick and fuses them into dirty, grunge like riffs. The combination of the pretty and the dirty exemplify what this album is all about. Tracks like Awful, Hit So Hard, Malibu and Boys On The Radio sound air lifted from the sun bleached beavhes of California while Dying, Northern Star and Petals evoke a melodramatic sense of pessimism in a true Smashing Pumpkins style (Billy Corgan co-wrote some of the album's tracks his influence is obvious.) Reasons To Be Beautiful, Use Once And Destroy and Playing Your Song are heavy grunge tunes bridging between the power pop of Celebrity Skin and the straight out grunge of Live Through This.

Lyrically the album is often hard to come to grips with as it utilizes predominantly metaphoric visual imagery as a vehicle for expression. Although these mental pictures are very powerful, they are repeated too often throughout the album. Expressions like 'crawling under your skin' and 'slain angels' are used in just about every song.

Standout trakcs would have to be Malibu, Reasons To Be Beautiful (the juxtaposition between the heavy body of the song and the wishy washy, quiet ending is just so amazing, the intensity in this song just seems to seep through into yoru soul) Boys On The Radio (one of my favorite ever songs, distortion and a slightly syncopated bass never sounded so good, Playing Your Song and Petals (breathtaking.)

I could go on for hours about Celbrity Skin, but there's no point. At the end of the day, I couldn't reccomend this album more. Brilliant

I have thousands of CDs and I keep coming back to this CD as one of my very favorites.

When I first heard this CD, now about six years ago, I was disappointed. A couple of songs stood out, but, at the time, I didn't enjoy over half of the songs. I was expecting a grunge rock experience, more like "Live Through This".

Celebrity Skin is impeccably produced and has a fluid, soothing sound while retaining fantastic electric guitar.

Now I easily prefer this CD over "Live Through This", and I find almost every song to be very good, if not great.

Courtney Love's voice is amazing on this CD. I put her just behind Sinead as far as my favorite vocalists go.

The sad thing about this CD is it got rather horrible reviews from critics, who, as usual, are idiots; and who knows how Courtney Love, Hole, and Billy Corgan's life would have been different had Celebrity Skin been appreciated as the all-time great that it is.

I've got to say that I love this album. It's a far cry from Pretty On The Inside and Live Through This, but bands are always being critised for churning out the same music - it's a good change. I must admit I like punk Hole best, but this without a question is rock album, just not punk/grunge. The songs are flawlessly written - music and lyrics, and the album has been very well produced. There is a variety of different songs from the pure pop of 'Heaven Tonight', to the punk os 'Reasons to Be Beautiful' and 'Playing Your Song', to the atmospheric nature of 'Northern Star' and 'Dying'. The variety is amazing, and all the tracks are strong. Celebrity Skin is a brilliant opening track and things only get better. The tunes might sound 'pop' to Hole's hardcore fans, but there are messages in the lyrics and plenty of references to the late Kurt Cobain. I doubt very much that Hole have 'sold-out' - just changed. Standout tracks include: Celebrity Skin, Petals, Reasons to Be Beautiful, Playing Your Song, Boys on The Radio, in fact to me all of them are standout tracks. This isn't as good as Live Through This, however it is difficult to compare them as they are so different. I'd recommend this to Hole fans (even Pretty On The Inside fans), give it a try and don't write Courtney off as a sellout, she may be a movie star now, but she still has the punk ethics that sh has always had. Also new Hole material suggests that this 'pop' stage may well be only temporary.

Just enjoy the album for what it is - a work of art.