Celebrity Skin

Beavis: Check it out, Butt-Head…our 69th album just got generated. Butt-Head: uh-huh-huh, you said “69”. Beavis: oh, yeah, I guess did….heh-heh… Butt-Head: so, uh…what is it? Beavis: Uhh…69 is the sex number, Butt-Head…Jeez Butt-Head: I know what 69 is, dill-weed. What record are we, like, supposed to listen to? Beavis: oh…yeah, cool…I knew that…uh, it says we’re supposed to listen to Celebrity Skin by Hole. Butt-Head: uh-huh-huh…Hole. Beavis: yeah! and it’s, like, our 69th record, Butt-Head…Heh-heh…69…heh-heh-heh…Hole…Get it? Butt-Head: Whoa…that’s cool. This generator must know we’re, like, super cool badasses who like to score. Beavis: uhh…Butt-Head? We, like, don’t score very much at all. Butt-Head: Uh…speak for yourself, butt-munch. Ladies love the Butt-Head…Now go put on that Hole record, you wuss. Beavis: oh, yeah…sure thing, Butt-Head. [they listen to the record] Beavis: Hey, Butt-Head? Butt-Head: Uhh….yeah, Beavis? Beavis: Is it just me or does this record kind of suck? Butt-Head: yeah, Beavis…it sucks. She’s, like, singing about seeing God and stuff. Beavis: Yeah…singing about God sucks. This is lame. Butt-Head: We should, like, leave a bad review and demand the Generator give us a new album that’s, like, cool to listen to for number 69. Beavis: Yeah! This sucks! I want a refund or I’m gonna find the Generator and, like, smash it with a baseball bat…and then, I’m going to take all the pieces, gather them up and set them on fire! Yeah, fire! FIRE! Heh-heh…that’ll teach them to make us listen to things that suck. Butt-Head: uh-huh-huh…Breaking things is cool. Beavis: It sure is, Butt-Head…It sure is.

I didn’t Courtney Love it, but I did Courtney Like it 👍🏾

Courtney Love called out Harvey Weinstein before most people said a word.

I'd like to publicly apologize to Courtney Love for just dismissing her as a tabloid time waster. I hadn't listen to any Hole music on principle until now. My loss. I'm sorry. This was really excellent.

I had no idea Courtney Love’s music was actually good! I’d grown up just knowing she had a band and was married to Kurt Cobain but had wrongly assumed the band was trash. This whole thing sounds so full and the melodies are as catchy as they come while remaining powerfully aggressive. Love it!

I've been waiting for this generator to give me more stuff like this. This is my groove, my era. I want to live inside the 90's and never leave. This album hits every level of alt-rock greatness and just demolishes.

Easily Hole's biggest release (and their last), Celebrity Skin is a powerhouse alt-rock album. It's got everything you could want from a rock album in '98. It has bad-ass female power vocals, chunky riffs, meaningful lyrics, and all the attitude you can eat. It's a great album.

Great grunge album. Not every song is a winner, but the ones that are bop.

Solid but middle of the road, probably unnecessary for me to listen to prior to my ultimate demise.

Someday soon (possibly even while I'm still going through all of these albums), there are going to be serious arguments about either Courtney Love or Hole should be elected to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. I'm not saying her or the band will make it, but the two albums deservedly on this list sure make a good case for election. Both "Live Through This" and "Celebrity Skin" come close to being perfect for their genres and time. I find myself preferring this one, and not because it's more accessible. Courtney leans more into a polished pop sound (similar to what Liz Phair did post Guyville) that seems to suit her more. Some dissed her for that, suggesting she sold out. Courtney could never do right in her critic's eyes. As far as "California Albums" are concerned, I'll put this up with the Beach Boys, Eagles Byrds and Doors similar conceptual albums. Maybe by the time she and Hole are eligible for the Rock Hall, voters will judge Courtney on her musical contributions and forget that she had anything to do with killing Kurt Cobain (allegedly, don't @ me).

Awful, Northern Star, Reasons to Be Beautiful are all excellent. Northern Star is the masterpiece I can’t believe I haven’t heard before.

Celebrity Skin is a great power pop album and an interesting way to depart from the grunge style from previous albums produced by Courtney Love's Hole. The changes in the line up and production style resulted in a album about California that works very well as a single theme record. Love's lyrics are at her peak, exploring themes of superficiality and sexism that fits very well with the California motif. "Celebrity Skin" and "Malibu" are alt rock classics and great late 1990s songs.

A perfect distillation of that nineties sound, Hole were kind of alt / kind of pop, tabloid fodder lead singer / artist with integrity, cynical / sell out - holding all these contradictions together in the one hole. And accordingly, it’s one of the best albums of the nineties. It captures that mood so perfectly - disaffected rich kids, LA is so shallow but means the world.

Courtney Love is a genuine rock star. Intense, angry, articulate, unpredictable, controversial, ambitious, unfiltered, strong, damaged, impulsive, charismatic. She has copped a lot of flack over the years, some self-inflicted damage, but a lot of grief for being crime of being a woman. This album came at an interesting time when a major label would drop significant coin on a very abrasive band from the punk tradition to record like they were Fleetwood Mac (a comparison that they would acknowledge themselves, following their cover of Gold Dust Woman on the Crow soundtrack). This has all the hallmarks of a major label blockbuster production; big name producer, 9 months of sessions in various expensive studios across multiple continents, high profile songwriting collaborations, replacing the drummer's tracks with a session guy, drama, drugs, balancing an acting career, etc etc. If you had asked me five years earlier if Courtney Love and colleagues had a big shiny major label rock album in them, I would have scoffed. They were an angry, shouty punk band, with a controversial point of view, and I was chuffed that they had been given enough money and support to make 'Live Through This', which I regard as their artistic peak. A great sounding record, but still true to who they were and what they did best (energetic, noisy, uncompromising). While Celebrity Skin is still, I believe, true to Courtney's vision and voice, although I think it is a bit uncomfortable and a stretch of her abilities to try and make a mainstream hard rock record. But try and succeed they did, and this was a substantial success. The singles are pretty listenable, but, to my own tastes, I prefer it when Courtney gets a chance to really cut loose. For me, Live Through This was the perfect balance between decent production and wild abandon. This record, by way of contrast, aims for the radio play (which they achieved) and mainstream sales (which they achieved). It's just not as much to my taste, but a successful effort at what they were aiming for. As a coda, I think you can really see that this was the beginning of the end for the band. The process of recording the record effectively forced Patty Schemel out of the band, and interviews with Melissa auf der Maur and Eric Erlandson suggest that maybe this approach wasn't quite their preference. While Courtney achieved her ambition of producing a mainstream success, I don't think this satisfied her (in retrospect), and the band (in this form) never made another album. Be careful what you wish for, Courtney, you might get it.

Meh. I prefer "Live Through This". To me, it has a more raw feel and grunge was about "raw".

This follow-up to Hole's best album 'Live Through This" is warmer, shinier and has what I imagine to be a Los Angeles feel. Every track is great. I don't understand the hate for Courtney Love but I suspect it has something to do with latent misogyny.

Kicks off very strongly with "Celebrity Skin", but gets a bit lost in the middle of the album. A good album and screams 'the 90s'

A somewhat uneven album, that doesn't quite contain the passion/angst of live through this and adds a layer of polish that dilutes the predecessors energy. Awful and Celebrity Skin are highlights.

Energetic, heartfelt, and rock and roll to its core. I listen to so much music like this nowadays that I can't help but wonder how much Hole has influenced this generation's indie rockers. I don't know if they largely invented this sound or not, but regardless, they know what how to make it strong and moving.

I'm a bit biased, because this album came out when I was 16 and I was crazy for it. I bought it on release. I was *there* for it. But 25 years on, I still think this album is fantastic. There's some elements of it that feel a little "filler" ("Playing Your Song"), but for the most part, this is a wonderfully melodic, brutally personal album from Courtney and Eric (and Billy Corgan).

Just a classic for women who wanna fight the patriarchy

I was honestly blown away by this album. Song for song, just a ton of great rock songs. Courtney is such a great front woman, and every hook hits for me. No lulls, no filler, just great track after great track. I will 100% come back to this.

1/13 Great album with a real seedy, shady, Hollywood vibe to it. Standout Tracks: Awful, Dying, Use Once & Destroy, Northern Star, Playing Your Song

One of the staples of the "alt music with lead woman who sounds like she doesn't care"

Surprisingly good but nothing special

Not a fan.

When I got this album I said to my listening buddy, “I can sing you this entire album start to finish, without accompaniment” I loved it then and I love it now.

My second favourite album by my favourite band. I have loved Hole since I was a teenager and now in my late 30s I still listen to them several times a week. This album reminds me of being a teenager in the 90s and trying to pretend I didn’t like this album because Courtney Love had “sold out” and made a pop album but secretly I loved it. Listening to this album now still makes me dream about moving to California.

Holes outstanding legacy in my opinion. Courtney Love kinda sucks but damn can she write some good music.

The stuff I can remember people saying and writing about Courtney Love is just unhinged misogyny. Any male punk/alt artist with bad behavior is glorified, but I've seen her name dragged through the mud way too often. Hole is a great band, and this is a great, pop-tinged grungy rock album. Some songs are kinda samey, but plenty of cool stuff. Liked Malibu and Boys on the radio especially, pure 90s alternative

Kind of just sounds like indie pop of the 90s. I would probably have been really into them if I heard this in middle school.

this blew out my HOLE so fiercely. i was so pleasantly surprised with how much i enjoyed this. not perfect but absolutely wonderful.

Finally listened to the Hole album haha! Kick ass lead vocals and grungy tunes. Nothing to dislike here.

i bet Kat Stratford loved this album

Le chat persan ci-présenté a une jolie tête ronde et des joues bien développées. On notera cependant que le front paraît trop large et les yeux trop proches du nez, ce qui est un défaut que l'on trouve souvent chez les persans trop racés. Note générale : 3/5

Aujourd'hui je remarquais avec satisfaction que le generateur faisait peau neuve, en offrant un classement des reviewers les plus populaires. Or, stupeur, ni mon camarade roblumière, ni moi, ne figuront dans ce top 10. Si il est évident de comprendre pourquoi rob ne figure pas dans ce top, étant donné la qualité minable de ses commentaires, ma non présence a fait l'effet d'une bombe dans le petit monde du générateur. Des émeutes ont été recensées à New York, Sidney et Bangkok, pour protester devant ce traitement infâme imposé par le Diktat de Robert. J'appelle tout le monde à garder son calme, nous allons tenter de trouver une solution pour palier à ce coup de trafalgar infligé par Robert.

Not awful. But pretty generic stuff

Songs are good enough, but this album was made in 98 and grunge was already dead and this sound played out. It's all generic and been done already. It was fun to revisit/reevaluate the Courtney Love drama as an adult, I feel a bit more empathy for her in hindsight.

I love "live through this". I always had to defend the album to my male friends. It's shrouded in some controversy, but it holds up. I remember being deflated when this came out. I could not have been any less into power-pop at the time. The singles just screamed "sell out". I never listened to the album. I'm shocked by it's inclusion and glowing reviews. It's not as bad as I was expecting, but there is no way a younger me would have like this. Way too polished.

It’s 50 minutes long. I could only hack 40. It sounds like kurt in drag but saccharine sweet and over produced. Maybe Kurt sounded like her though. It reminded me of when I used to think Latoya Jackson was Michael in drag.

Fuck Courtney Love. Billy Corgan wrote all the good songs on this album, and when I say all, I mean just the one.

Boring, flat. A lesser album than the other hole album on the list, no idea why it's on here.

Not a grunge gal but this album is peak grunge and should receive way more attention. Exceptional.

Great

What an interesting album. I must say, Hole has been slandered by me because of Kurt and Courtney. But this album is an alt rock masterpiece.

Enjoyed the whole thing

Billy corgan having a writing credit on this makes sense. Liked it more than the other hole album; high 4 or low 5

Przyjemnie sie slucha, zapisuje. (ale nie jest idealne ale nie daje czworek, a to rzeczywiscie bede jeszcze sluchalaxd)

This album is so good. It’s 90s pop rock at its best. “Celebrity Skin,” “Awful,” “Malibu,” “Dying,” “Northern Star,” and “Petals” are the best songs, but there’s really no low points on this album. Courtney Love hasn’t sounded better than she does here. Maybe I’m just a moody girl, but this album speaks to me on many different levels. Definitely the best Hole has ever done.

Don't think I've ever listened to the whole album before (maybe when my wife has played it), so didn't realize all the Hole songs I know are on it. Great stuff.

Brilliant

This was fun! I was familiar with the Title song but wow, the instrumentals and vocal work really work for me here. Definitely want to go back for another listen and an artist deep dive. 'Malibu' was my fave.

I've given a lot of 5* recently and this is gonna be another. Not quite as hard hitting and angry as "Live Through This" but more melodic. The title track is obviously a belter but it's full of rocking songs with strong hooks. And Courtney Love is just a force of nature - what a singer and personality

I'm sorry I slept on this band in the 90s. Clearly my loss.

I’ll be damned… shit’s good!

Great sound, great songs, great album.

love courtney love

This album is perfection. It’s a 6. I will fight you on this. This is the hill I will absolutely unalive myself on.

could i write poetry to this? Y

Can we all just agree that Courtney Love is a genius who deserves much more credit than she ever got for her work? Despite her being perceived as a drug-addled wackadoo widow, Love proves here that she is a shrewd, literate, and tuneful songwriter. This ode to California should have shamed the Red Hot Chili Peppers into giving up and writing songs about Nebraska or Utah or Kyrgyzstan. I'll tag this as a five-star album, with the caveat that I still like "Live Through This" just a tiny bit more.

This is peak late-90s music right here. Nearly every song could have been a radio hit.

okay i love hole but i vehemently disagree about including a second hole album and picking this over pretty on the inside. still rules though

God I fucking love Hole. All certified bangers here and that's all I got to say about that

Album 675 of 1001 Hole - Celebrity Skin (1998) Rating : 4.5 / 5 Hole with a polished, radio-friendly sound. I've always liked this album. Not changing that now. A good listen that deserves at least a few plays a year.

Didn’t listen because it’s really no my thing

Love this LP

Solid

I really liked this album. Kind of punk, kind of grunge, but definitely something I enjoyed. 5/5

One of my favorite albums. Must have listened to this thousands of times back in my youth. Love it so much! 5/5

This rocked, her voice is so good, powerful when it needs to be, soulful when it needs to be. Yeah I loved this

Pazzesco "Celebrity Skin" è famosissima e non avevo mai sentito né il nome della canzone, né del gruppo. azz lei è Courtney Love e la canzone è scritta insieme al fidanzato! Billy Corgan!! Anche "Awful" è molto interessante. Ma va che è un gran bel disco.

The single Celebrity Skin always slammed for me. But this first listen to the album was revelatory. Especially Nothern Star. What an incredible amount of talent Vobain surrounded himself with, not the least being his wife. Mad respect, Courtney.

5/5

Reviewing as I listen along. Have only heard "Celebrity Skin" before. Track three now. It's going well. Poppy post grunge alt rock has circa never managed to excite me and I thought this'd be my review, "and it doesn't today", but this is cool. Tracks seven to nine (there's the timpani roll from "Disarm", no?), I zoned out a bit, but whatever. Attitude, melodies, nice. Quality stuff. A great slice of that time in music. Will I return to it? Not so sure, but I enjoyed this. By the way. ★★★★★: Music I've always loved and still do at the time of my review. Albums I truly had fun with, also at the time of my review. ★★★★☆: Albums I very much respect but which do not really manage to be quite my cup of tea. ★★★☆☆: When I'm mostly bored but not yet annoyed. Also, sometimes: I should like this, but it rubs me the wrong way. Or I do not like this at all but totally appreciate its existence. ★★☆☆☆: I'm very bored and kind of irritated. While I don't fully hate this, make it stop. Or: shit that I respect, begrudgingly ★☆☆☆☆: This is just shit or aggravates me for whatever reason. And always at the tip of the scale: Is this an AYMHBYD? Glad I could clear this up.

this is PEAK also guy from the cover kinda looks like Ryan Gosling from the movie Stay, so bonus points for that

Monet kerrat tämäkin levy tullut entuudestaan kuunneltua eikä vieläkään kyllästyttänyt. Vaikka Courtneyn Hole ehkä hieman ratsastanut Cobainin maineella, niin hyvä, koska maailma ansaitsi saada ko. levyn tuntemakseen.

really loud and really awesome rock music. if you're looking for alternative rock that's really vocal centered and almost has a strong rebellious force to it, please give this one a gander. it's kinda giving no doubt if it was grunge. this i feel like is an album that's perfect for playing in the summertime, where the sun is blinding and there's not a cloud in the sky. courtney love's voice REALLY shines in this one.

In the wake of a dead man, a woman is left to make sense of the emotions he was unable to bear. The weight of that, the process of that, and the pain of that is all on display on Celebrity Skin. Listen. Courtney Love – complicated individual. Hole, however, is an excellent band, and Love is an amazing front-woman, and a particularly great lyricist. She has her poetic tics, I’d say, but there’s a raw gut-punch of emotion that she’s really good at conveying, both on the page and on the stage. This is a lyrically devastating record, one that explores genuine feminine heartbreak. It’s made better by the fact that these songs have been stuck in my head for days. I’m not going to pretend that this is the most earth-shattering ‘90s alt rock/grunge I’ve ever heard in my life, but god, can Hole write a banger! And can do so with some variety and flair. This album has catchy acoustic joints and slow jams, big radio rock songs, and moodier, edgier spaced out tracks. I think you could argue that Hole does sometimes feel a bit stereotypically grunge, and especially seem to mirror The Smashing Pumpkins, but I’d say the hooks, charisma, and lyrics on Celebrity Skin overshadow that critique. I don’t know if it’s an essential record, given that it can sometimes have a slightly derivative sound (which I think is just the sound of the genre in 1998), but if anything, it’s an essential record to understand the impact of Cobain’s death, and truly understand who exactly had to deal with the fallout of that. It was all on Courtney Love, and I think she processes it in a way that created a great work of art. I also think I’m just naturally predisposed to like Hole, but I also think this album is really good front-to-back, and going to stay in rotation for a while.

Idk why I never listened to Hole back in the day because that was the sort of stuff I was listening to back then. Maybe I was internalising the misogyny that surrounds Courtney. Anyway, this is great. I’ve been torn on the rating but I’m going to be generous

A nice album. It’s really got that 90s sound and I’m here for it. This album was probably used in movies for the next 10 years and thousands of teenagers rocked this on road trips. It’s got a very nice sound, surprisingly really enjoyed it.

90s af

Love, she’s a genius

☺️

4.6 - I had no idea that this was courtney love and i'm really glad I didn't before I listened to it. I loved it and thought it was such a solid great album. Great vocals and felt like it was a mix of so many great bands. 100% going to listen to going forward. Separating the art from the artist here I think cos doing heroin when you're pregnant is really fucked

Actually the greatest grunge album?

I’m at a (slightly biased) 4.5 that I think I’m gonna go ahead and bump up to a 5. This is the general soundscape I’ve kinda been waiting for – I have a lot of love for like, the Goo Goo Dolls or Matchbox Twenty, so this album finally hit around that sound, and it does it super well. The guitar work in particular, while occasionally way too loud in the mix, is really good throughout this whole album. Courtney Love’s vocals, which I’ve never really heard before now, have a great tone to them, especially when she holds notes on the lower end of her register; there’s just a deep grit there that really makes the lyrics pop more. It’s just a really solid album where everything clicked for me, and I just liked almost every track here; obviously, there’s a number of references to Kurt Cobain, and Courtney’s reputation and image in light of what happened. This album, I believe, was her first chance to really respond with some music, and what emerged is an album that fits right alongside some of its contemporaries for 1998. I feel good bumping it up to a 5; I just enjoyed it that much.

Feels very dated but it's a good vibe.

Honestly it was awesome I liked it way more than I thought I would, definitely out of my comfort zone but was really cool

I remember when this album came out. I heard the hits on the radio, but I wasn't buying much music at this time. So this is the first time I've listened all the way through. It's a solid album and enjoyed most of it.

Smashing album, I had never really listened to much of Hole but Courtney Love is so much more than the paramour of Kurt Cobain. Fun and feisty, yes!

A wonderful album that I really enjoyed when it came out, and still do today.

I adore this album. When I first listened to it, though, I thought Live Through This was better. I was wrong! This album is basically if Live Through This was more polished, and I respect the artistic decisions to do that. Billy Corgan wrote some of the album’s songs, and it’s pretty cool to see all of them be good songs. That’s why I think this album deserves a 95.8%, or a 4.79/5. Fav: Boys on the Radio Least Fav: None

Нормально, могло быть и лучше

Definitely has that 90s sound.

Tell you what, finding out that I like Hole was one of the more painful moments of my life. (Phrasing). Favorite track: Heaven Tonight

holy moly Hole is easily THE discovery for me off this list. I knew they were good but these are two perfect albums.

A record that surpasses the grunge boundaries. Sounds fresh and direct.

Super surprised about how 90s this is and how forward looking it feels. Some of the choruses are quintessential 90s grunge, but the eponymous song (Celebrity Skin) feels very 2000s alt-rock. The final bridge in Awful is a hilarious angsty teen surprise, and Petals gives (oddly enough) real Monkeys energy with the brooding baseline. I'm sure in the context of today, most might find this album boring, but as a big alt-rock/grunge junkie, I was really surprised how much this album touched upon the various motifs in the genre.

Love the sound, love the energy, love the voice and the writing.

Un muy buen disco de post-grunge de la mano de la musa más grande de Kurt Cobain. El trabajo, sumamente pegajoso, no teme mezclar el rock, el pop y los sonidos más pesados para construir quizá uno de los álbumes más sólidos de los '90s, que probablemente influenció el sonido de las guitarras femeninas en el rock.