Reviews (page 2 of 10)
Most of these songs could’ve been 2 minutes shorter and Love’s voice gets grating really quickly.
Loved this
This was a really solid grungy rock album! I knew "Celebrity Skin", but was pleasantly surprised to find almost every song was really good! I'll have to do more of a deep dive!
More pop-y than prior, but still fantastic. Guess you can say I Love it.
This was fun in a cheesy 90s alt rock kinda way. I think I appreciate it more as a piece of pop culture than I do for the music itself. Overall enjoyable though. Celebrity Skin was great. Petals was stuck in my head for the rest of the day, and I'm still not sure if I liked it.
terrifically turn-of-the-century sound. the first half is so fucking average blah but the second half picks up. really liked Northern Star and Dying. solid 3
Rating: 7/10 Very cool album. Hole deserves the multiple entries in the list for being the most notable band of alt rock women ever and Celebrity Skin justifies it in being a lot of fun with some depth. It does start to fizzle out the further it goes on, cutting one or two of them would have ideally helped the pace and flow of the whole record. There are two strong tracks in Boys on the Radio and Petals, and the other two that are easily the most skippable in Heaven Tonight and Playing Your Song. The whole first half of the album in particular is a great run of tracks, and the title track is a highlight of the genre. Awful and Malibu were a couple of my other favorites, I put the first half back on again on the car ride home cause I wanted to hear all those tracks again. I said almost nothing negative in my whole review so. 4
Tätä on tullut julkaisun aikaan kuunneltua. Ihan ok levy, ei mitään mullistavaa.
Celebrity Skin - 4.5/5 Awful - 4/5 Hit So Hard - 3.5/5 Malibu - 4.5/5 Reasons to Be Beautiful - 3.5/5 Dying - 3.5/5 Use Once & Destroy - 3.5/5 Northern Star - 3.5/5 Boys on the Radio - 4/5 Heaven Tonight - 3.5/5 Playing Your Song - 3.5/5 Petals - 4/5 I had always seen Hole as more grunge-adjacent (in more ways than one), but this definitely leans more towards a power-pop aesthetic rather than going down the post-grunge (and eventual butt rock) trend. I think that departure and the lyrical content make this a good match. A lot better than I was made to believe and I'm interested in hearing their earlier work to compare once it comes up on here. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Celebrity Skin, Malibu
안들엇
Kurt’s widow can rock!
the title track sure is something, eh?
Decent
Great pop record. I feel Hole should have featured more in my life at the time. I think I was still probably in my Boyzone, Savage Garden, Lighthouse Family era.
I think I might love Hole! This album is definitely an evolution on the previous Live through this, which was excellent. It falls victim of the long album crime. Which is a shame, because if this was 36 minutes long and had less songs, it'd be a perfect 10 from me.
I’m just not a fan of grunge and this album doesn’t change that but some of the songs here were alright
Nice but not really my thing
Fantastic album you can hear a lot of Kurt in here and Nivana so there is definatley a grunge feel to it. I like it great sound to it. Courtneys voice is good and there is some solid tracks on here. She is so much more than a tabloid dream and the ex of Kurt.
A younger me might have got into this
lovely
love petals, the rest was ok
Solid album. Sorry the group blew up after this.
Quite liked this. It wasn’t perfect but there was a lot to enjoy. 4/5 ⭐️ 269/1089
Not at all interested though thanks. I did skip thorough the songs and they are just…plain. The singles are yawners. And Courtney never really sounds fierce and feral which is when she is at her most effective. I like the previous two hole albums but this is a snoozer.
Mah...ricordano molto i Nirvana, soprattutto sapendo che Kurt Cobain ha collaborato alla scrittura di più pezzi. Non mi è dispiaciuto.
Hole have been my favourite discovery of this project. It's insane that Courtney Love isn't more highly regarded as a musician, whatever her subsequent public image has been.
8/10
Not bad, just thoroughly average.
Pretty bland
Celebrity skin - 5 Awful - 4 Hit so hard - 3 Malibu - 4 Reasons to be beautiful - 3 Dying - 3 Use once & destroy - 3 Northern star - 4 Boys on the radio - 3 Heaven tonight - 4 Playing your song - 4 Petals - 3
I was going to say I was surprised by this and that this is better than the Smashing Pumpkins. But then reading the other reviews I realise Corgan was all over this, so maybe that's why it reminded me of them so much. Northern Star is amazing, and the whole album is brilliant. I need to listen to Live Through This.
after a lot of new albums it was refreshing to get an album that i already know quite well. this felt like coming back to an old friend after a long time away.
I love celebrity skin. I was excited to hear more tracks like it and as an opening track it is incredible, really builds up to rock aggressively in a fairly unique way (I'm sure I have looked this up before and felt the same)... And then the rest of the album is nothing like it. The rest of the album sounds like a 90s indie band, maybe even fairly britpop at times. And don't get me wrong, I like that music... But in this case I really like celebrity skin and I really really wanted more of that. And I was not treated to more of that. It's not bad, but it's not what I wanted. So I can't give it a 4.
3.75 still catchy as hell.
Call me coo-coo but I think is one of the best 10 albums of the 90s and one of the best 50 ever. Boys on the Radio is extremely underappreciated. Pretty fantastic from start to finish. Don't know how the Hole creative process works for this album and Live Through It, it was rock and roll genius.
I liked this more than I thought I would. I don't think I ever gave Hole much of a chance. This is easy to listen to, especially this more polished version of their sound, but still has enough edge to not be boring. A strong 3.49 stars.
While there's plenty to like about this album—primarily the huge-sounding guitars and general catchiness—it entails way more servings of Courtney Love than I want to consume in one sitting. She's a laborious hang, no matter how well-crafted the music around her is.
Courtney Love was definitely more than just Mrs Kurt Cobain. A great front-woman in her own right and I enjoyed this more than I expected to. Probably 3.5 stars but rounding up to 4.
Startar bra med titellåten. Fler bra låtar kommer men även vissa som känns som utfyllnad. Kortare skiva hade nog gett högre betyg. 3.5 av 5.
Never listened to this before, solid 3.5
Excellent. Even the songs that I felt weren't as strong were still 4/5. Strong start and end to the album, very good. Great vocals, every song feels 'full' in terms of instruments etc.
Really good chemistry with the band. Courtney is a very good frontwoman and her voice is great.
Solid record, they go a lot poppier here but it does work well for them
Good/solid
Aikansa tuotteita nämäkin. Tuttuja biisejä, Malibu, ja nimikko biisi celebrity skin.
Malibu is one of my favorite songs ever
Courtney Love just ain't doing it for me. Didn't really enjoy this one, but the title track is still catchy radio fodder
Delicious sparkly pop rock that doesn't spare any space to get bored, consider me a sucker
1998. Relatively palatable late 90's heavier alternative album. Courtney Love as the lead overshadowed the bands performance.
It is noisy and poppy, but as a whole album it is boring. I Didn’t make it through, and stopped on the middle
Nepotism level of production value. But the music got more and more generic for each song. Northern Star was very Phoebe Buffay
All I hear is missing Kurt Coban
This one was a pleasant surprise, I’ve never liked the title track so I didn’t expect much going into this. Honestly I still don’t care for it. The three singles from the album were probably the weakest tracks for me but take them away and there are some belters on here. Top Track - Northern Star
Decent album
This is my American Idiot
Boys on the Radio is a perfect song.
Hole - Celebrity Skin (1998) I bought this when it came out but haven’t listened for years. It’s full of bangers. I probably prefer this to Live Through This. Very 90s polished grunge. An easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
i skipped ahead to listen to this since i needed to listen to another album made by women so badly. this album is *good*. it feels very cohesive and just goes hard - i love the very grunge vibe of the whole thing.
Finally some women!
Kedeligt, men ikke det værste af dem alle. Kender kun deres titel nummer celebrity skin og Petals var ret fedt, hør dem igen
Opening track is obviously a huge hit, I've never dived deeper and found the rest of the album really good, with much more range from delicate and emotional songs to happy candy pop tinged rock. Really enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised
Me gustó, tiene canciones muy tranquis, otras un poco más tiradas a americana o pop de principios de los 2000s La vocalista le da mucha personalidad a cada canción evoca muy bien lo que quiere transmitir Entiendo que su mejor trabajo es el anterior a esta así que lo tenemos pendiente de ver Recomendado
Quality, this, er, slaps, wasn't expecting that!
Courtney has a great rock voice. Two openings tracks still hold up. But I am not terribly excited by this sound. ”Live through this” is definitely better.
I didn't really know any of this music even though it sounds so familiar. I probably have heard Celebrity Skin, and this whole album is like quintessential 90s alt. More upbeat than pure grunge, still grimier than most stuff from the 2000s. The album opens with a great title track, and then there is some forgettable stuff like the next track Awful. This album bounces a lot between the two, with some great songs and some that wouldn't be missed. My favorite is probably Northern Star, it has a nice acoustic guitar riff and Courtney gets to grovel a bit. Nostalgic and foreign at the same time, and ultimately an average album.
Celebrity Skin, Awful and so on… Unfortunately, the music is all the same, repetitive and not enough variations to please me. The lyrics are too trivial. I think another one Star Album.
Added some of the songs to my playlist, but in general not my type of music…
Okay but vocally not great.
not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue
From the moment I hears "Oh, make me over" opening line from Celebrity Skin , I rolled my eyes. I used to listen to this song and see this video quite a bit in 1998/99 on MTV Brazil while I was waiting to see Backstreet Boys and All Saints. I had flashbacks of "ugh this again". I really tried to see through more critical lenses than when I was 12, but, while most of the songs are really well crafted the voice of Courtney Love and attitude are a really turned off- that was the thing that annoyed me back then and still strikes me to roll my eyes. The album is not too bad, but I really struggle to see why Hole is on the list ( and I believe there is another one, right?) It is the sound of many rock bands at the time and honestly, Sleater Kinney is present as well and they do a better version of the punk. Funny how Cranberries or even New Radicals that had an impact on rock pop are completely ignored... Celebrity skin is an ok album, 3/5
OK, not grea.t
instrumentais gostosinhos. confesso que a pegada desse tipo de rock não é tão minha vibe, principalmente com o quanto eu relaciono ele a trilha de sonora dos filmes de adolescente da época. gostei muito das letras só achei elas melodramáticas demais algumas horas mas funciona, em destaque pra hit so hard e reasons to be beautiful. mas no final nao é o tipo de música que eu escuto.
A more polished sound of Hole, which is not always working out. Some tracks become really plain rock songs and the more grunge style of earlier releases seems far away. Overall a decent rock album, nothing more, nothing less
If you're gonna listen to a Hole album, make it "Live Through This". While that album sounds like good Nirvana, "Celebrity Skin" sounds like bad Smashing Pumpkins. It picks up a bit halfway through, but really, you don't have to listen to this before you die.
More like 1.5. Besides the title track, the rest is fine.
Not bad, mildly catchy pop rock tunes. Very much at the poppy end of US indie rock of the 90s, and without the “indie” label attached it’s just female fronted LA pop rock in th 80s to 90s vein. Better than the earlier Hole stuff I heard at the time, the somewhat grungier earlier stuff, though not consistent through the record. Does kind of sum up the end of the US scene, as another reviewer on here sums up well the whole contradiction of it all. The depth in the shallowness of it all, made by cynical rich kids. Dismissed C Love at the time, mainly because of the tabloid feeding frenzy, on the basis of this that’s probably a little unfair as there is some decent pop rock here. But then there was a lot of others at the same time, who aren’t on this list so why this. Not sure what makes this standout? Then or now. Think the main word about this whole thing is the one in the title of the record. So maybe it sums up the time and belongs here, maybe it’s a middling pop rock “indie” album? that had a lot of press for things other than the music. You make a half descent record and the exposure does the rest. Maybe that’s a lot of music and why there are so many hidden gems. Take your choices 2.5 star
I wouldn't have thought Courtney Love could be this good but what an incredible album!
I preferred Live Through This but enjoyed this one a lot as well
Fav: Malibu, Use Once and Destroy L: Dying 3 Very much of it’s time in a sort of good way. I don’t know that there’s anything special about this one though for me. Northern Star sounds very much like a Smashing Pumpkins song. Cover: 2.5 Name: 2.5 Minecraft Parody: Ender Pearl (Northern Star)
A couple of tracks were okay
Fantastic. Although, I do like 'Live Through This' more.
Really really liked this.
Nice enough grunge, but it doesn't make sense to me that Hole have 2 albums here while Pearl Jam Soundgarden and AIC all only have 1.
Reasons To Be Beautiful stood out. A lot of great lyrics on this album. 3.5/5
This was fine. I probably could have died without having listened to it.
Surprisingly enjoyable, liked the style and the vocals (I seem to just love female fronted rock bands). Also very interesting history of the band!
For a rock album it was alright to be fair. The vocals were pretty awful at times though.
pretty good!! i’m more familiar with “Live Through This”, but found “Celebrity Skin” to have a lot of great moments spots
I'm surprised to see this averaging well above 3. This is almost objectively not good.
I like Hole but curious that this album make the list. It’s a fairly average album in my opinion.
I did not realize Courtney Love was in this band prior to listening to this album. I also had never heard any of Courtney’s music, so this was a whole new experience. The album starts strong with Celebrity Skin and Awful, but slips down a slow descent after that. On the back half, there are a few moments where I have to wince through the vocal performances (Northern Star… rough). Without knowing any context about this album, this project is just another somewhat forgettable 90’s album. But even with context, this album doesn’t hold the same weight it seems to have had almost 30 years ago.
My God this is bad through and through. Every bit as cynical and calculated as a Christina Aguilera album, with none of the talent.
I might be jumping the gun on this one, but I can't get behind these vocals properly. It starts with a bang, but it's really evident that Billy Corgan's hand in this writing process is thick and involved. The song could be a Pumpkins B-side, which feels disrespectful to Hole, but those guitar tones are extremely borrowed. In the heaviest sense borrowed. I think the best songs on here could be some of the most middle of the road Pumpkin jams. I think this album is carried by the lore, by the experiences and the 90s happenings that whirled around Courtney Love and her personal life. I think the song themes are very loose, and the 90s jams are very well put together but they don't really inspire much in me. I think it falls somewhere between a 2 and a 3. Her vocals are grating at points. It's iconic for it's time, maybe. I don't see it as a necessary inclusion on this list. I see the influences on today's women in rock, so I guess I'll give it a 3. I am feeling very cynical and I want to give it a 2. I'm torn.
Serviceable but generic alternative rock record. I wish it had a little bit more mess to it; it’s a cleaned up version of their contemporaries and would fit right into any college radio rotation. Pleasing melodies, but blasé work.
women's wrongs are usually justified
This is a brilliant record and Hole might be the most underrated band of the 90s. There’s always seemed to be a sneering attitude to Love and a reluctance to look beyond her celebrity persona and see her as an artist in her own right, but that is an injustice. Here I’m getting sharp alt-rock songcraft in the manner of the Replacements, lush sweeping sounds reminiscent of the Smashing Pumpkins, and California pop-punk attitude.
4.25
Growing up on a diet of Daria soundtracks, this is the kind of 90s MTV grunge rock I like a lot. All the tracks are enjoyable for me, with Awful a standout and Boys on the Radio (basically the same tune, a bit downbeat with different lyrics), Hit So Hard and Playing Your Song also highlights. I'm not going to add many of these to my playlists but I enjoyed them while they were playing.
Celebrity Skin itself was familiar, but the rest of the album was more surprising to me. I expected more of the same glossy, trashy pop rock but got slightly more interesting jangly 90s rock tunes. Enjoyable, but not something I would seek out again.
If you had told me at the beginning of this project that Courtney Love would be responsible for two five-star albums, I’d have laughed in your face.
This sounds like a lot of other band from the 90s grunge scene, and nothing really stood out.
- Überraschend gut obwohl ich eigentlich kein rock-typ bin - Angenehm zu hören - Abwechslungsreich
I liked this more that I expected. I never listened to Hole back then, but I do love a lot of their peers. Maybe I was too young to get over the connection to Cobain.
creo que no es el estilo q me gusta. osea me irrita
i know of Hole and like a couple songs. Malibu is really good and oh hey it's on this album. dunno how i'll feel about the rest of it realizing how many times i've played Celebrity Skin in rock band lmao. pretty good track something about the vocals on the verses on Awful rubs me the wrong way a bit i do fucking love Malibu. i don't know why i like Reasons To Be Beautiful a lot. i think i prefer it when she's like... letting her voice be kinda rough? i'm not sure. i feel like sometimes she's trying too hard to sing 'normally' and it sounds really weird lmao. i like her voice a lot when it sounds lower/throatier/rawer Use Once & Destroy is almost phenomenal. i do really like it regardless fuck. again, Northern Star is like... ALMOST there do not like Boys On The Radio. or Heaven Tonight, frankly Playing Your Song is again, frustratingly, almost really good and i don't like Petals. though the outro is cool i like this, but i feel like there are the bones of an album i love here, and it's just not quite getting there. i'll start to hear something interesting but it doesn't commit, or i'll be feeling it and it'll make a choice i'm not thrilled about. and there are a couple tracks on the back half of the album that i'm not into. i can't decide whether to give this a 2 or a 3. i do really like a couple songs and i almost really like several more. it's just frustrating that i feel like it's almost there. i think i'm going with 3
Muy buen disco de rock clásico. Me gustó más el principio que el final pero lo disfruté.
Some decent tracks
This albums nothing groundbreaking, but has good sounds and is classic 90's music. Glad I listened to it before I died.
“If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party in the Four Seasons, don't go” - Courtney Love, 2005
An old favorite
Ville nok have været 4 hvis den var skåret til. For lang!!
Popgrunge. Huskede den her plade som bedre
Sounded nice. Better than expected, but it's Courtney Love, so bar was pretty low.
Pretty decent album. It was nice to listen to a different type of sound from the late 90s. Appreciate the authenticity in their sound.
Of course they've lost a lot of the edge from their earlier records but these are absolutely brilliant songs
More mainstream alt rock than I remember. Like a rocked up Bangles at times. Sounds a bit over produced to me but could be my switch to better headphones. Hit So Hard and Boys on the Radio sounded like a less literary ramped up (less good) 10,000 maniacs. Liked Dying. Easy / harsh 3. She is a talent. Too mediocre maybe for a 4.
A few standouts and then the rest. Solid stuff though, probably a 7 but I'm always a bit of a glass half empty kinda guy
Courtney Love could definitely rock a night at a motel That said, this is far more polished than I was expecting, and maybe looking for - although still superior to much else that was around at this time.
Significantly more accessible than I was anticipating and more enjoyable for it. Largely consistent and well bookended. A nice surprise!
Much better than Nirvana IMO
There are some nice hooks and I might even quite like some of this in smaller doses, but the production style and mannerism ended up puting me off to the extent I couldn't really hear anything else.
Ta weno
Very good album. I will always love celebrity skin so its cool to see the other songs that populate the album with it 8/10
It's been so long since I last listened to this album that, aside from the hits, it was almost like listening to it for the first time. It won't take that long for my next listen, I tell you h'what.
cool hearing poppier stuff from them very dope. lowk becoming one of my fav grunge bands
punk rock for sure. no song stuck out but it's not bad.
At its best the songs are reminiscent of great quiet Velvet Underground tracks. At its worst it’s bland third wave punk.
Courtney Love group - ehh 2
Second day in a row with a Hole album! Never happened to me that I got the same artist two consecutive days. I liked this album as much as I did yesterday’s (“Live Through This”). It has a very nostalgic, 2000s teens movie soundtrack, Freaky Friday-ish, vibe to it. You want to blast this in a car, windows down, going to the beach.
Two opinions first: 1. Courtney Love is probably top 10 90s vocalists for me. 2. Hole is a band that deserves two entries on a list of 1000 must-hear albums. Now the conclusion of my relisten to Celebrity Skin after many years: Celebrity Skin is not an album that needs to be listed, it's not good. But to start from the beginning, the album does start out well. The title track is a really good one. Then "Awful" made me think I may have unfairly assessed the album BITD. "Hit So Hard" was another good track, "Malibu" too. All really well-made tracks, good lyrics, definitely more polished and radio-friendly than "Live Through This" but it's not a major change. This isn't a sellout album like some people say. "Reasons to Be Beautiful" is a mostly solid tune, too, until it takes a wrong turn in the last minute, and then the album is really pretty bad after that. "Dying": not good. "Use Once and Destroy": OK as filler for better tunes, but... "Northern Star" is a real stinker. After that it's pop-rock retreads that you've heard in every decade since the 70s. "Heaven Tonight" is just so basic on every level, really pop-rock dreck. In the back half of the album, everything that made "Pretty on the Inside" (absolutely everything that made that album great!) and "Live Through This" great albums, and made Courtney Love and Co. compelling as a band -- all that is gone. Polished away. "Playing Your Song" almost reclaims it, but there's just so much production slathered all over the somewhat weird chords... nope. Anyhow, the two slots that Hole deserves on a must-listen list should have been for "Pretty on the Inside" (the really great, really confrontational version of the band at their noise-punk DIY best) and the more mature masterpiece in "Live Through This." "Celebrity Skin" is just a good example of post-grunge late 90s rock in decline.
Starts strong, finishes blah. 3.5/5
Super mediocre rock band
I thought I would hate it but I didn’t.
Live Through This is the better Hole record. This didn’t really connect with me.
This is about what I expected it to sound like. I liked it more than I was expecting. I'm honestly shocked 2 Hole albums have showed up on this list so far.
2.75 - Sometimes great, often just fine.
I like this a lot more than the other Hole album. I feel like there was more variety and I really liked the last 4 tracks. It might lack the previous rawness but I don’t think that makes this worse.
I’ve never been a big Hole fan…or maybe I should say I’ve never really been a big Courtney Love fan, and by virtue of that I’ve never really gotten into Hole. Im trying to listen to this record with an open mind, and I think it’s been long enough since Courtney Love’s public persona overshadowed the band that I think I can give Celebrity Skin a fair shake. It’s legitimately ok. I do remember that this record was pretty big in its day, so I guess I understand why it would show up on this list. And I could see how it resonates with some people. I don’t think it’s brilliant, but it’s ok. There are some catchy numbers, and I can appreciate that sometime Love actually sounds a little like Belinda Carlisle. On the whole though, I don’t think it’s something I’ll ever come back to; I guess I don’t feel like there’s really a ton of proverbial meat on the bones of this record, even if it wasn’t an unpleasant listen. 7/10
I can just *feel* the 90s essence in this one, like I'm an extra in a WB teen drama and this is being aggressively pumped out of the speakers of one of the lead character's second-hand sedans.
i'll let it slide because of the vocalist but not that much Would I listen again: no. Deserves to be on this list: no 2.5
Tough listen for a 70’s rock guy. Tried to be open minded, but really didn’t care for it. A couple songs ok, but just not my genre.
With Paramore as my favorite band, was I primed to love a female led alt rock band? Perhaps. I was introduced to Hole a couple month ago through their Live Through This album, which blew me away. Even before this popped up on our project, Celebrity Skin would likely be in my top 10 Spotify wrapped songs for 2026. This is my music. Passionate vocals, moving instrumentals, and lyrics made by and for women. Easily my favorite discovery to date for this project.
The greatest trick the patriarchy every pulled was convincing the world Hole didn't exist.
Hole had zero name recognition for me so when Celebrity Skin (the song) started playing and it was a song that I knew and loved I knew I was off to a great start. I kept waiting for a song that would give me a reason to not give this five stars and there was not a single one. Then looked up the band and got another surprise in finding out it was Courtney Love’s band. Excellent discovery, feels very early pop punk but with a strong female vocalist which is a recipe for a great time.
4/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/hole/celebrity-skin/ Not every song is a hit, but I just know that if this had been released today (and perhaps without the whole background of Courtney Love), this would have been received so much better than when it was released back in the 90s. A song like Awful is just a poppy rock song that could fit on either a Olivia Rodrigo or Alvvays album.
Heavily underrated album - and I am including my former self in this diagnosis. She wasn't just latching onto fame... stands on its own merit with undeniable hooks, making it obvious what Kurt saw in her inherent talent. Loses steam at the end, but Malibu remains today as one of my all-time favorite songs. Survivors: Celebrity Skin | Awful | Malibu | Northern Star | Boys On The Radio
Celebrity Skin is missing the spark that Live Through This had. I mean, it's ok, but if I listen to Hole I want to feel angry and angsty, I don't want to feel like I'm listening to adult contemporary.
In the recesses of my brain think I’ve heard of Hole before but never listened to them. Courtney also rang a bell but couldn’t say if she was the Cox or Love variety. Might have been same person as far as I was bothered. Having this indifference did not bode well but the lead track did hold my attention. Tack 2 sounded the same as did track 3 so I gave up to revise my Coutney problem. 2/5 21/8/26
Like a lot of albums, I actually enjoyed the tracks that didn’t make it onto MTV a lot better.
Hole became Whole on several songs in the second half, losing the primal scream and sounding more like 90’s pop. They are at their best when upset.
OMAGAAA zespól żony Kurta Cobaina Gdybym mogła dałabym 3/4 gwiazdki
I did not think Hole would be able to top Live Through This, but somehow they managed to change up genres and make a far more accessible Alt Rock album that still kicks ass over 25 years later. This album still keeps the melancholic sounds heard throughout all of Hole's other releases, but this time makes it a lot less noisy and more subtle and even soft at times. This project is also nearly double the length of Hole's past projects which I think helps them out a lot more with being able to truly open themselves up and have a bunch of emotions and kick ass songs to help fill the time. I get why people wouldn't be crazy about this, but it really is what I wanted to hear, and proves that Hole and Courtney Love can make a good project without Kurt being in the picture. It is super consistent and cohesive and that's all I want in an album truly, but even still this managed to impress me with how simply great it is. Sometimes things don't need to be super complicated to be great or amazing, there can be simple projects that hit just as hard and this is one of those for me.
Thoughts before listening: I think that Live Through This is one of the best albums of the 90s, but Courtney Love as pop star/celebrity always annoyed the hell out of me. This album feels like Courtney's attempt at big poppy radio hits, and the hits are catchy for sure. However, I felt at the time that this paled in comparison to its predecessor, and I never owned it. Review: Yeah, its just not as good. There's a poppy arena rock sheen, which I believe is often credited to Billy Corgan's involvement in this album, and this did produce a couple ear worms in the title track and "Malibu". I also like Courtney's iconic growly yet melodic vocal style. There are a handful of good deep cuts on here outside of the hits, but for the most part, I am not that into the album as a whole. Its missing the punk edge that drew me to the Live Through This album. That one is a 5-star to me, but this gets 3-stars.
Loved it, perfect grungy sound with great vocals
The guitar solo on Heaven Tonight was the only solid thing I heard. Not my cup of tea.
It felt weaker than the last one we had on the list.
More pop oriented then the last album of theirs, but still good. 3.5 rounded up.
I can hear the influence of Smashing Pumpkins in this one. Courtney holds onto the angry woman singing nihilistic depression songs roughly and slightly flat a little too long on this one though... it needed a little more variety.
Knew the hits, but enjoyed the other songs much more than I expected to. Maybe it's just nostalgia...
an enjoyable and light enough grunge/r.e.m album to hear as a casual listen, as well as one to throw around and show how you do listen to female musicians, you swear.
Solid! Almost exonerates her for killing Kurt!
Pretty good
Mostly an ok album, but Malibu is good and the first two tracks are phenomenal
Tem músicas incríveis e outras mais simples. Daria 4.5
I gave Live Through This a five but I don’t understand why this is on the list. Some good songs but overall nothing special
- Zio. Boycotting. - The album is good melodic polished 90s pop-grunge. - Instrumentation is tight and clean, and the vocals fit the vibe, except it sometimes gets more nasal and off-key than I like. - I find that the album is front-loaded - for the most part, it's not as catchy after Malibu (plus Heaven Tonight). - When you click on Hole in the Review section, Wikipedia takes you to an entry on, well, holes. lol
Not really into this.
Courtney Love is actually a very good songwriter. She got a lot of flack for sounding like Kurt Cobain (which is more of a compliment than anything) but she seethes more than the rage that he presented. She is also just a bit pricklier a personality than women in music are/were allowed to be and that meant that public criticism of her was something of a popular pastime in the music press. She was openly feminist but was sold, to some extent, as a sex symbol and that tension was a bit much for the 90's (and would not necessarily even be in tension, today). I'm in the camp where much of that wasn't her own fault and her 'angry' public persona is pretty understandable given the ways she chafed under the yoke of the Madonna/whore complex. A great frontwoman, a very punk symbol of rebellion and, unfortunately, the focus of a lot of misogynist conspiracy theorizing after Cobain's suicide (he'd been dead for four years, at this point). So how's the album? Excellent. Though the title track was the big single (and it's good), I think 'Use Once & Destroy' is the best example of the band at work on this record. Love's and Eric Erlandson's guitars sound driving and grungy, the song contains some fun late-90's feedback noise, Melissa Auf der Maur's bass just thunders along with the drums (acutally Deen Castronovo, rather than Hole's regular Patty Schemel). It actually sounds like Smashing Pumpkins, though Billy Corgan's writing contributions on the album are elsewhere. He later claimed he should get writing credit on the whole album but that marks another in a long line of claims that Love and Erlandson didn't write their own music and also just grandiose claims by Billy Corgan. It's an album of disillusionment and a grungy, seething anger. It's a fairly perfect reflection of the sentiment of the youth of 1998 (though Love was 34). It's occasionally bright and vibe-y ('Heaven Tonight'). Hole were always treated as something of an unserious stunt but they deserve recognition as a force of the 90's, in their own right. They survived numerous tragedies (their second bass player overdosed on heroin months after Cobain's death), a vitriolic music press, frequent rumours that they didn't write their own music (no evidence supports this) and just the general chaos that Courtney Love cultivated but any band led by a man (see: The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Doors, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.) would be celebrated for most of it. Sit with this. Not quite a masterpiece, but one of the stronger 4/5's from the 90's.
You can't judge a kook by it's lover.
I thought this album would be bad but it was amazingly easy to listen to!
Courtney and crew do not get enough respect. This is a solid album from beginning to end with an all-timer in Celebrity Skin kicking things off.
Moments that make you realize the people writing this book are full of it "Patty Schemel's drums smack and crash"...except Patty isn't playing on the album. Schemel did drums on the demos, not the album (that's Deen Castronovo). Not the first factual inaccuracy I've found in this book. Glad I didn't buy it. You can read it on archive.org, btw. Anyway, album is pretty ok. Maybe if I had heard this in high school I would have been into it.
The self-titled track is one of those perfect rock songs. Edgy guitars, pounding drums, terrific melody and harmonies, evocative (and mean!) lyrics, brilliantly produced. One of my favorite songs of all time. The rest isn't quite up to that standard with some uneven songwriting, but "Boys on the Radio" and "Heaven Tonight" are both pretty great, and the general sound throughout is pleasantly hard.
Even though i dont like Courtney Love i reckon that Hole has a great sound and they are super iconic! Amazing album!
90-luvun puolessa välissä Courtney Love oli jäänyt leskeksi, joutunut roskamedian riepottelemaksi ja tehnyt onnistuneita sivurooleja muutamissa elokuvissa. Useat Celebrity Skinin kappaleista tuntuvat kertovan näistä kokemuksista. Bändi oli liikkunut Live Through Thisin grungesta kohti siloteltua valtavirran soundia, mutta se ei tarkoita että kyseessä olisi mikään hampaaton poppilevy. Levyltä löytyy monta melodista rock-biisiä ja pari tunteellista balladia. Muutaman biisin olisi voinut tiputtaa pois ja vain japanilaisella painoksella julkaistu Best Sunday Dress olisi ollut loistava lisäys. Celebrity Skin on heikkouksistaan huolimatta toimiva kokonaisuus, vaikka Live Through This onkin suosikkini bändin tuotannosta.
C’était plutôt cool ! Un peu grunge, un peu pop… c’est très accrocheur au début, mais c’est un chouïa redondant, mon intérêt s’était pas mal réduit vers la fin. Mais je reste content de cette écoute !
Enjoyed this, great 90s rock
I like it now, a whole lot better than I did back then when it came out.
Det er jo for det meste bra, bare ikke den typen rock jeg foretrekker. Noen av låtene tråkker dessverre i dritten. Boys on the Radio er ikke en bra låt. Lett å høre at Billy Corgan var med på å skrive noen av disse. Spesielt Petals.
Likte de 3 første låtene veldig godt, mens resten av plata høres for grunge ut for meg.
Celebrity skin er en rå start på albumet! Awful..ly bra! Likte det, 2000s skate/snowbord Playing your song var litt masete Overall digga det
Har hørt Celebrity skin før, hadde ein periode med y2k jenterock og syns fortsatt d e ganske kult (blir masete i lengden) Introen te playing your song va kul. Syns heile albumet e veldig stilreint, så om man fusst får dillå på sounden så e d mye å ta av. Beste sang: Celebrity skin
love, especially petals so cute and alt!
This is a monster of an album. Catchy, humorous, rocky, accessible, vulnerable and intricate, all at the same time The band’s first record isn’t that great and the fourth album should have been released as a Courtney Love solo album. “Nobody’s Daughter” isn’t Hole. From the two good albums, I had always thought that “Live Through This” was the superior record. However, I’m not so sure now. Both are 5/5 (I didn’t give them out to any old slop), but “Celebrity Skin” embraces a far more poppy sound. It jettisons the anger of the previous record, but maintains slightly defensive vibe. Of course, the band’s signature tongue in cheek attitude is present almost throughout. Courtney Love’s vocals are fantastic from start to finish. She can sing, snarl, scream and shout. The music works well and the production is spot on. Nothing is perfect though. The eighth track, Northern Star, is a slight mood killer. Easily the worst song on the album. It’s still not bad though. The record quickly recovers with a few infectious anthems to close out. Even the bonus tracks (particularly Best Sunday Dress) are worth a listen too. 12 tracks. 11 bangers. 1 okay song. Yeah, I’ll take that all day long. This truly is one of the great 90s albums.
Not really a grunge guy, but this is decent
Big Hole guy now
A part of me really likes this, and I think it's the part that jammed out to Avril Levine as a pseudo-angsty preteen. Justice for one of the most unfairly maligned women of the 90s!
Anthony clocked me so well when he told me he thought I’d really like this album (I already loved it lol)
fun to actually hear Courtney Love's band. pretty meh for me overall though
Some of that was pretty cool but start to all sound the same.
Amazing as always. No notes.
you can hear Billy Corgan influence
It's fine, I guess. Courtney's singing voice never really worked for me, and this album doesn't change that, though there are moments when she's ALMOST on key. Maybe that's why she's famous.... Not a bad recording, decent musically, and culturally Courtney has had her moments, so sure, an album one should hear before they die. I guess
Courtney Love deserves to be more popular because of her music and less popular because of her outrageous media persona. I had never paid much attention to Hole, but this album is a perfectly fine power pop record with several great songs and fewer duds than I would've expected.
Celebrity Skin might be the only work of Courtney Love's that I'm at all familiar with. She's much better than the tabloids laid her out to be. And it was unfortunate that she basically was in the musical shadow of Kurt. It's not my favorite piece of 90s nostalgia, but really listening to it has opened me up to other Hole albums. Celebrity Skin Malibu
First time listening to this. Other than "Celebrity Skin", I have basically no knowledge of Hole or Courtney Love's music in general. I was pleasently surprised with most of this album. Great vocal hooks, guitar work, and bass playing and backing vocals from Melissa Auf der Maur. There are quite a few cock-rockers that stink up the place, which prevents me from giving it a top score. The story behind the album is a bit iffy as well, with the drummer Patricia Schemel getting replaced for a session drummer at the producer's request and getting kicked out of the band not much later. The Billy Corgan assisted songs are actually surprisingly great. I enjoy a lot of the 90s distortion and pop melodic structures, and the lyrics in songs such as "Dying" are quite heartbreaking and memorable. Hole really nailed their sound commercially here. A toxic ode to fame-based culture in LA and California, much better than the Eagles ever did. 4 stars, as I find this to be really relistenable as time goes on.
Grunge, schmunge. Hole are a really good power pop band, and this is a really good power pop album. Courtney Love has spawned a million weak imitators, but she can pull off some brilliant lyrical feats.
this is lowkey the perfect album because not only did i like basically every song, i added all but one to my playlist. genuinely has never happened before (excluding my musical/browdway/soundtrack playlist)
Owned this album, and was probably the only Hole album I actually enjoyed. Celebrity Skin, the opening track, is. Great tune. Overall the album is ok, certainly my favourite Hole album, but probably only gets a 3 in the grand scheme of things.
Kind of dull. I thought it might have had more bite to it but maybe I'm thinking of their earlier stuff.
Enjoyable - was expecting more punk
highlights: celebrity skin awful malibu use once & destroy heaven tonight
I liked this more than I thought I would. More variety than I expected I like her voice and the production
It's ok
Finally a female artist.
Perfect for background music. Pretty bland.
I like it when they skew closer to grunge/punk than pop/balladry.
More appealing to others, I felt like this was already done and didn’t have much to say.
Pretty good but still patchy as an album. Better than I expected. When they nail it, they really nail it. Where it misses the album kinda drags
Idk why people hate on Courtney love. This is a solid record
I had no idea I liked Courtney Love's music. This was great
ngl this is a bop
4 sterne
No le tenía mucha fe a Cortney Love, solo conocía Calebtity Skin y Malibu, pero el disco no está mal
Really like the sound and the music, sorry I missed them first time round
Grungey in a good way Fave track: Petals
The bad news is that the ruthless run-through is not going very well. The good news is that the ruthless run-through is not going very well because I’ve hit a run of great albums. A good problem to have. 3.5/5
Nice record, shifting from grunge to a more pop/rock sound was clearly a good commercial choice by the band. Though the existential crisis of selling out debate does not favor this band at the moment. Songs are good, but nothing special. Actually slightly boring at times. I also don't like Courtney Love. I'm still waiting for this website to give me the real thing, something that is truly an album you HAVE to have listened to. Sadly I feel I could've died without ever having heard this one, and I wouldn't have missed much.
Interesting at parts, nothing memorable though
pelo amor de deus
2nd Hole album on the list. Surprisingly enjoyed thr first album so not a shock I love this. This one has more a country tinge not as angry but more reflective.
Pretty good! Excellent in fact
Liked: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11 Disliked: 8,12 Total Songs: 12 Ratio: 10/12 Converted Score: 4.17/5 Top 3 1. Celebrity Skin 2. Awful 3. Reasons To Be Beautiful
Took two listens to get into it. There’s a few too many softer ballads in the first half, but it’s well balanced with grungier tracks like Use once and destroy and Playing your song. They probably had great live shows. 3
Amo rock de gurias
i really liked the song i already liked, but didn't discover any new songs
Independente das controvérsias, as Courteney é um mulherão de artista
This was a nice trip down nostalgia avenue.
really good album !!
ok the main thing that strikes me about this album is that it feels like garbage (like, the band "garbage") but like. slightly underseasoned. yknow? like its just not quite there. maybe its that the production is a little too clean, maybe its i'm missing the grit of shirley manson's voice, maybe its just that there's no shadow the hedgehog ass songs on here. idk. but despite the sounds being pretty similar on paper, i definitely enjoyed this a lot less than garbage. that said i don't think its actually bad or anything. its a decent enough listen and there's a couple tracks i really do like a lot, especially "awful" and "playing your song", both of which got me humming along even on the first listen. there's good sounds to be enjoyed here. it's just a shame most of the album doesn't go so hard as this....
Perfecto.Simplemente perfecto.Definitivamente uno de los mejores álbumes de todos los tiempos.🙌💫
very noice
From grunge to power pop. Hole are my guilty pleasure from this list.
Honestly not my fave pop album.
While others hated Courtney for the allegations, saying she had no talent, saying she couldn’t even write her own songs, I’ve been enamoured by her and her music since the 90s and first heard the song Violet. While this doesn’t have the anger of Live Through This, it does have a great mix of songs of different intensity - including some really solid ones. Not a front to back for me but pretty close. (Once again noting my own bias having listened to her and this album - although not as regularly with this one - growing up)
Meh. Courtney Love produced this album trying to distance herself from Seattle after Kurt passed, putting an LA sheen on punk/grunge. It works, but then it doesn't. You lose the edge of grunge and get serviceable rock. It's good, but not great. This album is propelled more into culture by it's association with Kurt than being excellent music. This is definitely not essential, and I did not need to hear it before I died. My Rating: 3/5
Greit
Dull
Hole is just not for me
This is a bit hit or miss for me, I enjoy one track and don't really like the next much. There are some good, chunky riffs but I'm not the biggest fan of Courtney Love's vocals, they're ok but at some points they're a little bit annoying. It does at points descend into butt rock a little bit for me Good, but not great Highlights: Petals, Playing Your Song
fun album
The title track opener is an absolute monster, but unfortunately the same energy and bite isn't sustained from there on in. Much of the rest is perfectly fine, but a little too straightforward and "radio" to grab me. Lyrically it's also a bit on the edgy side, but in what feels like a performative way.
I never gave this band the time of day because the Courtney Love discourse of it all is annoying. But wow, I really enjoyed it. My loss for not engaging sooner.
the only good one is hole
There is absolutely no reason why you need to listen to this before you die. This isnt bad but it isnt particularly good as a complete work either, couple of decent songs sprinkled in. I wish a 2.5 was possible.
Good
I'm sure it's great, just not at all my genre.
I can feel the influence of the Bangles and also the influence of Hole on other bands. Not bad.
I wasn’t so into the first half of the album, but the back half pulled me in with a burst of energy. Overall great rock album
I've always put hole as a second tier below my fave grunge bands, but I really found myself liking this one! It had some real good songs
Courtney Love. I’ll be completely honest, and I know I’m not the only one who’s mentioned this. I only know her as the person who ALLEGEDLY killed Kurt Cobain. Very popular urban legend that persists to this very day. To find out that she was also a singer doesn’t actually surprise me in the least. It’s probably one of the main things that drew Kurt to her in the first place. Not only that, but they both happen to be prominent members of the Grunge community, as was very common in the 90’s, naturally. That’s when Grunge was really created, the Seattle Sound. Anyway, Grunge is one of my all time favorite genres, so I happened to find this album pretty good. Courtney has a great voice that lends itself to Grunge well, and the guitarist also understood the assignment. Billy Corgan, her first ex, was also a composer on this album, and you can really tell. That’s a little strange, but ok. It gives the album a signature sound. I’m here for that. Now, this is pretty much entirely an album of filler past the hits at the top, and I’m not going to fault it too much for that, but it does need to be mentioned. It’s an alright album. It doesn’t really grab me like it should, perhaps my slight reservations to listening to Courtney are too great. I’m just kidding, that has nothing to do with it at all. It’s just very repetitive, and a lot of the filler is very skippable. It’s an easy 3 from me. This is the first of 2 Hole albums I have rolled for this project. Favorite song was by far the opener, which was also the only song I recognized, “Celebrity Skin”. Even then, it’s just alright. That’s my biggest problem overall with this album. I am obsessed with Grunge music, and Courtney can definitely sing. So why does it not really do much for me?? I don’t know. It was fine. Nothing memorable but good enough to spend the day with and vibe out to it. Still very much a 3. But it’s a high 3. Would I return to it?? Actually, yeah. I think I would return to this. While it doesn’t blow me away, I still had a lot of fun listening to this today, and that’s all that really matters in the end.
After the death of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love decided to take Hole into a new direction less influenced by Grunge and noise rock from their two previous records. Celebrity Skin is the result of that ambition. An ambition that you can hear right in the first song of the record, and in songs like Malibu and Awful which were the official singles. Michael Beinhorn who also worked with Soundgarden in Superunknown, was recruited as a producer to make an album more pop rock oriented, less agressive, and with a more commercial sound. Both Billy Corgan and Melissa Auf Der Maur from The Smashing Pumpkins contributed in this record writing almost all of the songs resulting in a charming and beautiful mix of influences that shouldn't dissapoint to anybody. Celebrity Skin might not be the heaviest or the most chaotic album by Hole, but it certainly puts you in a situation where you don't know if it's the same band that gave you previously songs like Doll Parts, Violet and was involved in the riot grrl movement. The truth its, Courtney never stopped fighting with the death of his husband, with her addictions, and what was going at the moment considering Kristen Pfaff who was the original bassist also died the same year. Many might say this is the record that sound less like Hole and more like a generic 90's alternative rock band, but when you go through these songs you can tell there is a beautiful nostalgia, and a deep sensation of what could have been that still chases most of the crowds they gathered until today. Grunge maybe died in 1993 with the release of In Utero, but alternative rock continued the expansion of his sound through the whole decade influencing the vast majority of the bands that came later on in 2000s. Celebrity Skin didn't cimented that death, but it certainly helped out to contribute with the sounds of what we hear today.
Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain
I didn’t dislike it but it just wasn’t that great. Nothing stood out to me that a lot of other rock albums have done and they don’t do it better. Malibu was a good pop rock song. I also just don’t like Courtney loves lyrics, and the vocals are good. Northern Star is lowkey insufferable. Boys on the radio and playing your song are great. Good grunge
I had reasonably high hopes for this and it let me down a bit. Can't say much jumped out at me and it was a bit samey. With the exception of Malibu which is excellent.
I liked this, but I do think I enjoyed Live Through This much more if I'm honest. The aggressive, female-led grunge is still there, but Live Through This takes it to a much greater extreme.
8 / 10
I just dont get it man. This album is celebrated so much but I cant stand her singing just couldnt get over it
if you don’t like hole or even this album you’ve gotta be crazy
Courtney Love was always a hard no from me. The whole "Distressed Haunted Baby Doll" thing seemed so contrived, and also, gross. She just seemed gross in general, which I guess is the secret handshake here. I also found her morally bankrupt- doing heroin while she was pregnant, for example, and seeming to be a generally insufferable person. So imagine my surprise when this album is actually pretty good! It works for me as well as it does because Billy Corgan's fingerprints are all over this fucking thing, and I find Billy's music to be some of my favorite. The two big singles are blatant late-90s Pumpkins songs- "Malibu" feels a lot like "Stand Inside Your Love" without all the blazing guitars, and "Celebrity Skin," feels a lot like "The Everlasting Gaze" except less menacing. Many of the deeper cuts feature Billy's signature guitar tricks, or chord change pacing, or lyrics, or production style. The funniest example of this being "Northern Star," a song very clearly about Kurt Cobain, but featuring a song trying really hard to sound just like a combination of "Disarm" and "Tonight, Tonight." Since Billy and Kurt famously didn't get along (mostly because of Courtney?) I wonder how Kurt would feel about this. Courtney's vocals are...... interesting. And I'm not being snide here - sometimes her vocal style is perfect, and other times her voice is so bad it reminds me of Dirk Diggler trying to brute-force his way through "The Touch" in *Boogie Nights*. Anyways. The best songs work really well; a few of the deep cuts are good, the rest are filler. Overall, a strong late-90s pop-rock record. FOUUR STARS
Way better than expected. Kind of very much a secret pumpkins record.
Mira que me caía mal Courtney, a la que veía como poco talentosa, aprovechada de Cobain y sobre todo con muchas ganas de copar portadas y popularidad. Sin embargo con el paso de los años mi valoración ha cambiado, talento ella y su banda sí que tenían, además de una discografía envidiable para cualquier banda. Aquí, el siempre difícil tercer disco, lo solventan de maravilla. En su momento me pareció un desagradable intento por rebajar pulsaciones para atraer más público, pero el tiempo lo ha puesto a un nivel muy superior a otros coetáneos. Algo parecido me sucedión con el debut de Elastica, que luego sí he sabido disfrutar. La inicial Celebrity Skin potente pero engañosa para lo que vamos a escuchar el resto del disco, da paso a devaneos melódicos de gran altura en Awfull y Hit So Hard. Malibu, el single más conocido del álbum , no es de lejos la mejor del lote. Reasons to Be Beautiful sigue ese camino, que a mi se me hace algo plano. Dying se queda a medio camino entre lo acústico y lo dramático, pero se agradece el parón. Use Once & Destroy vuelve al buen camino y destaca sobre manera Northern star, de las pocas en las que no interviene Corgan (compuesta solo por Love y Erlandson) , pero suena 100% a Smashing Pumpkins. Boys on the radio, tiene un brillo que podría ser una canción de Weezer. Aún así se me hace un poco larga, algo que no me sucede con Heaven Tonight. Playing your song sí que suena a Nirvana. Petals es un buen cierre para un disco que se alejó lo suficiente del Grunge para mantenerse a flote.
Late 90s goodness.
Another album I'm not sure why I never heard before--starts like being shot out of a cannon and I don't know who worked with Courtney on vocals but holy shit they're 10x better than Live Through This. At times like Patti Smith or Liz Phair.
Really enjoyed this. Some amazing songs on here, really deep meaning when you listen to them properly. Great album overall.
Damn, this album kicks ass. This is my first experience with Hole (ha ha) having heard of them throughout my life but never really caring much to check them out. Love's vocals are raw and powerful and fit in with the sound of the band. None of the songs are very subtle, but they are poignantly in-your-face and just generally catchy. It's great 90s rock. Standout tracks on my listen were "Celebrity Skin" "Reasons to be Beautiful" and "Use Once & Destroy." The second half of the album drops off a little, but it's all still pretty solid. This album is like a 9/10 for me, very very close to a 5, and I want to get into more Hole (again, ha ha) later.
Bom
3/5
Okay
Good album. She is more fragmented that I thought. Nod to Billy Corgan for this one. 7/10 Top song Malibu
Solid album. CL is such a brilliant front person.
I think I'd heard a couple of songs before, but this largely unknown to me. Thought it was very good and strong over the whole album
Filled a hole.
You can make me hole again
El buen rock
no real highlights for me but i like their sound
Proof that autistic people make the best music
nah mid rock
sommige liedjes waren goed sommige minder.. ik vind haar stem niet zo
Hole, I love. Celebrity Skins in one of my favorite songs ever,though as an album, it was just ok. It shoud have been a single, as my friend should
Celebrity Skin is an absolutely incredible opener, full of brash energy, and Courtney Love's presence is absolutely infectious. The rest of the album follows this more polished sound, but unfortunately does start to bleed into one
I might be doing Celebrity Skin a bit of a disservice by listening to it immediately after Kid A. Going from one of the most experimental and groundbreaking albums I've heard to something that feels like a precursor to the polished power-pop and alternative rock of the mid-2000s makes this record feel a little safe. There are some solid riffs throughout, and "Malibu" is easily the standout for me, but it's hard when the first five seconds of the title track are the most exciting part of the whole album and the rest never quite reaches that same energy. Overall, it wasn't a bad listen—it was just a pretty forgettable one.
I'm not a huge fan of Courtney Love, but she did create a couple of great albums, this being the second.
Knew the first song. Was Okay but probably won’t listen to the album again
I assumed I would hate this. I assumed wrong.
The only saving grace for this album is Melissa Auf der Maur's bass playing. Courtney is just a whiny brat. Overall it's uninspired. Any stars I give will be purely for Melissa.
Pretty safe, maybe it's the production or maybe Billys influence but it feels like rock by numbers and doesn't light a fire under you. Paradoxically that guarantees airplay, go figure!
10/10 Just for the name but I really did enjoy this album and the screams and how amazing it is. Yeah. it's a classic not sure what to say
What a joy to listen to, the world is too awful to women (incredibly novel opinion) 4.5/5
90's alt-rock in a single album. Perfectly serviceable for people who like it. The title track is THE song I think of when I think of Hole, though I can never remember the name. If alt-rock's your jam, this is a great album. If its not, it's still not bad at all.
Solid Atleast the music sounded different. 6/10
5: I will happily play this album anytime 4: I may occasionally play this album of my own free will 3: I will happily listen to this if someone plays it in the background 2: I will tolerate this if it is playing in the background 1: I will leave the room if someone plays this in the background Enjoyed more than I thought I would. Almost, but not quite, a 4.
Meh. It was alright, slightly better than a 2 star album for me but i'll stick with 2 stars.
The 12 seconds of guitar intro to "Heaven Tonight" was the only bit of music that held any interest for me. 1 star
Back as a teenager I was always pretty critical of Hole due to all the rumours surrounding Courtney Love and Cobain's death, and Cobain writing Hole's songs. Apparently most of that was just BS, looking it up now. And in retrospect, a lot of this sounds like classic grunge/alternative from the era. Considering this was 98, it still maintains a kind of earlier 90s sound even while other Grunge acts like Stone Temple Pilots weren't sounding that grungy anymore. High 3, maybe a 4.
Ok yeah this is peak
It gives No Doubt. sounds like something that would be in a rom-com from my tweens/teens. Neither of these are bad things. Solid Album
Fun record but nothing too outstanding
Love Courtney
Not bad