Reviews (page 2 of 10)
Amazing as always. No notes.
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)
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
Independente das controvérsias, as Courteney é um mulherão de artista
Perfecto.Simplemente perfecto.Definitivamente uno de los mejores álbumes de todos los tiempos.🙌💫
if you don’t like hole or even this album you’ve gotta be crazy
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.
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
Proof that autistic people make the best music
Ok yeah this is peak
Courtney had some issues to deal with, but the music was generally alright.
new favourite album krahh
underrated classic, so many good songs on here "said he'd never ever ever go and heavens heavens heavens no, and he'd never ever ever go away-ay...baby i've gone awayyy"
Celebrity Skin es una obra de arte atemporal del rock de finales de los noventa y un manifiesto sónico que ha envejecido bien gracias a su impecable equilibrio entre la crudeza y la sofisticación melódica. Desde una perspectiva de diseño formal, el álbum es una catedral de sonido californiano; las capas se entretejen muy bien, combinando ganchos melódicos con el toque alternativo para ofrecer una claridad de estudio deslumbrante donde la distorsión convive con armonías pop perfectas. El viaje a través del disco detona una inmediata total nostalgia al encontrarse con piezas inolvidables y enérgicas como el tema homónimo "Celebrity Skin" y la luminosa "Malibu". Sin embargo, el verdadero núcleo emocional se revela en la acústica e intimista "Northern Star", donde la voz es muy conmovedora y proyecta una fuerza y calidez que transmiten autenticidad desarmante, consolidando una autoridad superior desde la vulnerabilidad. Detrás del brillo de Hollywood y sus ritmos contagiosos, el disco es un documento conmovedor, crudo y real que opera como un potente llamado a la conciencia sobre la alienación y la decadencia de la cultura de las celebridades. Posee una extraordinaria sensación de paz y fluidez estructural que lo vuelve idóneo para múltiples usos diarios, destacando con fuerza para acompañar el ejercicio, caminar o activar el trabajo creativo.
Malibu remains one of the best songs ever. This album is raw, beautiful, honest, and a kick in the teeth.
Punk feel, girl power, drums/guitar/alt rock
MON FAVORITE. C'EST EXACTEMENT. Bien sûr, je l'ai écouté tant de fois, mais c'est toujours un plaisir de le réentendre..
I'm already familiar with Hole and this album (I love the music from the 90s). I loved "Live Through This", but this album took me a few listens to grow on me. It's a lot more poppy and polished but there's hints of the grunge-y classic Hole sound throughout, not to mention the upbeat catchiness of many of the songs. "Celebrity Skin" is a pretty perfect song with a very recognizable riff that everybody probably knows. "Playing Your Song" is a song that could have been on "Live Through This". "Petals" is another one of my favorites: it's longer and darker-sounding, but it makes a good closer to the album.
Celebrity Skin Awful Use Once & Destroy Northern Star Playing Your Song
oh yes
No skips. No flaws.
very good
Familiar with Hole but not aware of any particular songs. Easy rock n roll album to listen to, I’ll possibly explore more of Hole’s music in the future.
Kind of fire. Spin this one back
Stellar
Much poppier than Live Through This...maybe Courtney was feeling happier after getting away with murder? Kidding. She clearly just liked money. Hole and Liz Phair both went pop after their big breakthroughs. I like this album better. Malibu is good. You forget how good Courtney Love was based on how she is now. I'm really liking this, outside the singles this is a really tight album. It all sounds like Hole without sounding exactly the same. I am loving this album. I did not give Hole their due when they were popular. Great album, this was a surprise.
Kände inte till bandet men kände igen flera av låtarna. Kanon!
5 de 5 Álbum importante para el power pop y alternativo, que se caracteriza por adoptar un sonido más refinado y una producción pop pulida y glamorosa. Una carta de amor y odio a L.A, donde las canciones se destacan entre algunas melodías pegajosas y otras con letras agras hacia la fama y fortuna, también explora la súperficialidad, la búsqueda de identidad tras la tragedia, todo desde la perspectiva de una Courtney Love madura pero sin dejar de ser cínica.
They are so cool. This is so cool.
Super! I like it.
Greaaaaaaat! Superb
Apologies Courtney Love, I was unfamiliar with your game. This album was fucking fantastic, great songs, great melodies and just great everything.
5/9
How have I never heard this before...what an absolute beauty of an album. It has everything you could want in an alt rock album. There's not a single song I would skip, just peak after more peak. Can't believe I haven't heard this before.
love it. I love the song "petals", my fave.
DIS-CA-ZO. Siempre me gustó la banda y en especial este disco. Un gusto volver a escucharlo después de tanto tiempo. Awful y Petals mis favoritas!
no es mi género fav, de hecho me recuerda mucho a lo que yo entendía como rock a los 10 años, sin embargo tenían canciones que me gistaron
Yeah this rules. I feel bad that Courtney Love (publicly) has become kind of a punchline because there is some truly talented stuff going on here. Obviously the opening riff to Celebrity Skin is just quintessential 90's rock but the album is much deeper than that and is really really well written and produced. I've kind of always preferred grunge and heavier alt rock to punk because it (luckily) did not inherit the idea that your music has to sound bad for it to be real, and I think Hole is a great example of balancing a live and rougher sound with studio quality. Lots of great pop influences on this album too - hearing echoes of The Go-Go's, Blondie, even Bowie. One of the cool things about this 1001 Albums deal is that 100+ albums in I feel that I can really start to pick up influences and throughlines within genres and across decades much better than before since I have a lot more exposure to the "sound" of each genre/decade and know what was going on. I guess that's sort of the goal of this and I think it's neat. Anyway yeah this kicks ass!
Still rules
This album is excellent: the perfect pop/rock/grunge sound, amazing songwriting, fun but also impactful songs. This is my favorite from Hole and just an all-time classic. I could see myself revisiting this album many times and growing on me even more. I feel like I would get something new out of every listen. Top Songs: Celebrity Skin, Awful, Malibu, Use Once and Destroy, Petals
Enjoyed it. Great album.
This albums rocks. I particularly like Celebrity Skin and Malibu but the rest was great as well.
Gritty 90's dirt rock
Awesome grunge album, I enjoyed every song.
When to listen: Rage-y but cheerful, powerful. Assumed anything Courtney Love would be scream-y but this was... awesome.
Fun and big sound.
i did not rly look into this before i threw it on, and have no previous experience with hole, but i was still taken so far aback by the power/jangle pop slant lmao. rly rly intensely melodic in a way thats kinda overwhelming, particularly when paired with the fact that despite the "sellout" production values, the sensation of this is still so flailing and complicated and Messy in all its emotions. truly hard to imagine a non-misogynistic reason to not consider love a stellar rock performer based on this alone, she injects so much force and punk and pathos into all the jagged slippery words and luxurious songwriting. a little side A heavy, but the strengths on display never go away, its a brain-scratching and heart-grabbing listen front to back. i flipped back to Always like three times in a row after i finished the rest of the record!
I actually remembered Hole as the band that was only famous because Courtney Love was married to Kurt Cobain. Around 1993, I had heard a few Hole songs that confirmed my opinion, and I didn't pay any more attention to the band after that. It turns out that was a bit hasty, because “Celebrity Skin” is not only much better than what I remembered of Hole, but also a truly mature alternative rock album with a distinct Hollywood flavor. I can't quite put my finger on what makes it so, but the great guitar sounds and the slightly punkish, sleazy vocal style are definitely part of it. (btw: for me, the ultimate incarnation of this sound is found in Vigil of War.) In any case, “Celebrity Skin” is now on par with such great recordings as “Californication,” and contrary to my original opinion, quite rightly so. It's a shame I missed it back then! This album might have corrected my opinion of female-fronted bands earlier.
I really enjoyed this!
Hole – Celebrity Skin (1998) On Day 64, Celebrity Skin delivered a smooth 5-star experience with the most consistent energy I’ve encountered in a while. The LP hits hard, especially with the title track’s exploration of how the weight of fame and expectation can leave you feeling "used up." That concept of waking up in your makeup and feeling exhausted by the world is incredibly relatable and gives the high-level production a real, "conscious" weight. The tracklist is remarkably strong, with Celebrity Skin, Awful, Hit So Hard, Malibu, Reasons to be Beautiful, Northern Star, and Heaven Tonight all standing out as highlights. It’s an immaculate body of work that balances a "triumphant" power-pop sound with a dark, cinematic undercurrent. This is a decent LP that I will definitely be returning to. A definitive 5/5.
есть проходные треки но селебрити скин бьет всё. 10/10
biurifo
Love the vocals and instruments. Nice and grunge-y.
Yes
I was familiar with Live Through This, and like it pretty well. But somehow I'd never heard any of Celebrity Skin before. It's great! I think I put all but two or three songs on my (very large) favorites playlist. I prefer its slightly more polished sound to Live Through This -- come to think of it, it's kind of like how I like Bleach but love Nevermind.
I owe Courtney Love a huge apology. I thought she got her exposure because of who she was married too rather than any talent. I was wrong. This album is excellent. Really, really good - it’s a grungy, rocky, nicely polished slice of what it was like to be in your twenties in the ‘90s.
I own this one
Goood
Such an incredible album with no skips.
love itttt chadore😼
Good one. Courtney gets a lot of hate, but I have always liked Hole.
Dunno about celebrity skin but i definitely burned a hole in my trousers looking at this album cover with my rager
Listening to this album made me teenaged for fifty minutes. I listened to it and read about the band at the same time. And then I read about CL. I know what power pop is now. Kind of. John said his favourite Hole album is Live Through This. I’m listening to it now.
As someone who hadn't listened to much Hole ever before (partly due to ignorance and partly due to an irrational avoidance of Courtney Love), this was a very pleasant surprise. The album kicks off with a high power title track, and the great instrumentation and lyrics carry on through the rest of the album. My favorite track is probably Reasons to be Beautiful, but there are a fair few great songs on there. Hole is still a stupid name for a band, though.
This was the fivest five to ever five. It’s a five, folks. Five.
Solid record. Comes out of the gate hot, solid mid-way through, and finishes on another real high note. Takes me back to the late 90s in a fun way. Revisited to bump this up, as I've come to embrace my "enthusiast" label.
Love this album, brought me back
Great album. 5
Nice
<3
Almost every song is fantastic. Good shit.
When this popped up my first thought was, if I never have to see the words 90s, American and alternative-rock together again I would die a happy man. But I was wrong. This record is fantastic. It has the same wild frenetic, raw, angry spark of a young P J Harvey or Liz Phair. Really, really enjoyed this one, so much more than i thought.
Celebrity Skin is an absolutely fantastic album that i enjoyed the whole way through. I was already sure i was going to like it but this album still kept taking me by surprise with all the things it tried. The album could show many different styles from hard and rebellious like the title track or epic and melodic like Northern Star. And of course it is all backed up by some absolutely sublime music with some awesome guitar riffs and great vocals from Courtney Love. There was also never a song which went anywhere close to being bad as it was just banger after banger for this whole album. This is easily one of the best albums on this project. Best Song: Playing Your Song Worst Song: Malibu
classic. Never listened before and totally loved it.
Really like this, and I can't believe I slept on Hole for so long. I prefer the more raw sound of Live Through This, but there are still many great songs on here. 9/10
10/10
so much heart in grunge or should i say hole. so much hole in grunge. classic. excellent excellent album. Hole just makes really fuckin good music.
Love this
Really good album.
One of my faves
peak I love hole!!
Me ha gustado un montón. Había escuchado antes la primera canción del disco. Le doy un 8,5 sobre 10.
Learned Courtney Love was founder of hole. Good 90s alt and grunge vibes. For when Alanis just won’t do and you’ve heard every Nirvana song ever lol Knew the songs and had no idea I did lol
An exceptional cup of tea ☕
Really good alt-rock album with grit. I prefer the earlier, grungier albums but this is still top notch and better than 90% of the rock albums of this time.
Я очень сильно пресильно люблю Риту!!! После этих слов скажу, ЧТО МНЕ ОЧЕНЬ ПОНРАВИЛСЯ ЭТОТ АЛЬБОМ!!! Я слушал первые два альбома до этого и для меня Celebrity Skin стал самым любимым альбомом Hole!
Oooof
I remember really enjoying this one. I’ll have to return to confirm.
Good vibes, not really my thing though
Not a grunge gal but this album is peak grunge and should receive way more attention. Exceptional.
Liked that way more than expected - Celebrity Skin, Boys on the Radio, Awful, Hit So Hard, Malibu all bangers. 4.5
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’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
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.
I did not think I would enjoy Hole. Don't know why. Loved rocking out to this record.
When I started this I didn’t realize that “Celebrity Skin” is one of those songs that I recall really loving decades ago but whose name or artist had never stuck with me. So I was thrilled to hear this song again, and I love it still! The rest of this album is up to that standard. Fantastic! Now that I’ve loved the albums Live Through This and Celebrity Skin, I guess I should dispel those lingering feelings of doubt when I think about listening to Hole.
i think i like the more polished sound a little better than live through this. really great album, easily five stars, everything i liked about live through this and a little more.
10/10 god DAMN! I’ve listened to some Hole before but this one really blew me away!
Just nice hard rock, lovely punk feminist aesthetic.
Toppen! Mycket bättre än nirvana?
Fantastic
Celebrity Skin is a great song. This album fucking rocks. See: Reasons To Be Beautiful. Northern Star is a good one. You can really tell Billy Corgan's fingerprints on this album.
Brilliant
This album is pure late 90's nostalgia. I've never heard this album before, but it is tapping into my memories of being an punky teen girl.
Great album but you have to wonder was Kurt giving pointers
Stunning, what a solid record start to finish! Love it.
Really enjoyed this one! A pleasing combination of grungy female vocals and rock instrumentals. Can definitely sense some of Courtney Love's hurt trying to escape through her lyrics Had only heard "Celebrity Skin" before - thank you generator for unlocking the rest of the record for me!
Wow what a great 90s rock album. Front to back this has everything I like in a rock record. Great guitar tone. Production as a whole is actually quite nice. Light angst, good pace. This is one of the few times I’ve felt genuinely compelled to listen to more of the bands music. 5
4 sterren van mij en een extra ster voor Klaske. Hole is een van haar lievelings bands
Slaps
Je regrette que les gens laissent leur opinion de Courtney Love influencer leur perception de Hole. Les textes sont excellents, toujours d’actualité pour les femmes. La musique n’a rien à envier aux autres groupes de l’époque, vraiment de bons riffs de guitare.
I Am A Feminist.
I loved this album. I love Courtney Love’s vocal style and lyrics. It’s got a raw honesty even if it’s sometimes hard to admit. I’ve given Live Through This a couple listens and liked it but this was truly amazing
Pleasantly surprised by this. Catchy melodic grunge-rock. Interestingly, the vocal delivery in the slower songs reminded me of Lucinda Williams.
"Celebrity Skin" is the third and final album before Hole's 2002 dissolution. It was produced by Michael Beinhorn and purposefully a move away from grunge and noise to a more rock-pop. And, to me, is one of the best albums in that rock-pop category: great melodies and choruses throughout. The band was struggling writing and recording; hey brought in Billy Corgan to help with the arrangements. Courtney Love wrote all the lyrics which supposedly used California as the American dream as a theme. The Go-Go's Charlotte Caffey and Blinker the Star's Jordan Zardorozny also were contributors. The album went on to be Hole's biggest commercial succes. The title was named after a T.S. Elliot poem "The Wasteland." The album starts off rockin with their first single "Celebrity Skin" and a rippin' guitar intro. Great guitar melodies throughout. About fame and fickleness (autobiographical?). References from Dante Rossetti and Shakespeare too. "Awful" continues the great song run in a more pop way. Great melodies as well and a rockin' edge. A Neil Diamond reference! The song is about music's treatment of girls and has a killer line "If the world is wrong, yeah, you can take it with one song." Their second single "Malibu" continues continues the great melodies and lyrics about getting away from someone (Cobain?) and escaping to Malibu. The second half of the album does not dip in quality either. "Boys On the Radio" starts with an acoustic guitar intro and kicks into classic rock-pop. The song was supposedly initiated by Courtney's reaction to the drowning of Jeff Buckley and is about self-destructive pop stars specifically Evan Dando and Brian Wilson. Maybe my favorite song on the album and its most rockin' (third time used) is "Playing Your Song." It's most likely about Kurt Cobain and selling out. Courtney tears it up with screaming and searing vocals. I love the first side of Hole's previous album "Live Through This" but then I think it takes a slight dip. "Celebrity Skin" does not take a dip and is my favorite Hole album. It accomplishes exactly what they tried to do and is one of the best albums of the late 90's.
good album; this is one of the top albums that i had not heard previously
I wasn't into much music in the 90s (too young), but still this album feels like a great reminder of that era. This album had everything I wanted and more. Angry, badass, rocking female vocals and lyrics, great guitarwork, and a feeling of nostalgia. Hole didn't have enough albums for my taste; I wish they had stuck around longer, but I understand why they didn't. Some of my favorite grunge (even though this is less grungy than the previous albums) out there.
Trigger warning. This is a perfect album. With the exception of Smells Like Teen Spirit every track on this album is better than anything Nirvana recorded.
No doubt this benefits from a hefty nostalgia bonus - probably my fave Hole album! Fave track - the title track maybe? It's a fantastic album opener. "Northern Star" is great too....
I was already a fan of Celebrity Skin and Malibu, but this album outperformed my expectations. I really like it when Courtney uses her voice differently, like the power pop sound of Awful or the Kurt inflection of Northern Star. When I read that Billy Corgan had contributed to this album I knew I'd like it. This album is a gem. One question. Surely Boys On The Radio is an REM track? The lyrics are a bit too direct, but the sound comes straight from Athens, Georgia.
The vibe from the end of the 90's is nice !
- didn’t realize it was Cobain’s girl. - Good strong female punk vocals - Nice tempo - Malibu has a nice riff - excellent lyrics - solid rhythm’s - excellent distorted guitar, with very interesting riffs and melodies - Brody Dalle styled vocals which I love - notable: Malibu, Reasons to be Beautiful, Celebrity Skin and Petals
Incredible late riot grrl/alt rock/power pop with so much energy and attitude and an absolute joy to listen through the whole way
Una joya
Great
Stevig album met wat grunge-invloeden
Ох. Ну и Кортни. Ай да молодец.
Legal. Divertido.
Really enjoyed Hole.
I liked this a lot. Never listened before because: Courtney Love Jingly jangly indie guitars rather than grunge, so that appeals to me as an indie fan, but also quite melodic, especially Malibu.
Never expected it to be so melodic... Loved it.
Very nice
This is great. Have power, noise, attitude, all rocks in it. Just love it.
Innovative
This album is great. I used to think it was the weakest of their albums, but listening to it now years later I think it is really strong. Definitely worth a re-listen.
I think imma give this one a 5! I like the sound of the band a lot, lyrics were interesting and I could see myself jamming to almost all the songs. The singers voice was really nice also
Nice album. Good songs. I really liked it.
I still listen to this all the time, so yes, I could listen to it weekly.
This is exactly the type of rock music I adore to play live and to listen to. Heavy guitars, melodies, great vocal delivery, perfect runtime. The songs belong with one each other, they flow well from one another, and are all produced the same. Courtney delivers puts the lyrics to life, singing straight from the soul.
Loved it.
Great Album, her voice fits great to the music and there is not a single bad song on the album
HIGH ART - DIA
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.
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.
Quite liked this. It wasn’t perfect but there was a lot to enjoy. 4/5 ⭐️ 269/1089
8/10
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
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.
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.
Delicious sparkly pop rock that doesn't spare any space to get bored, consider me a sucker
This is my American Idiot
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!
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
Quality, this, er, slaps, wasn't expecting that!
not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue
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
Reasons To Be Beautiful stood out. A lot of great lyrics on this album. 3.5/5
Surprisingly enjoyable, liked the style and the vocals (I seem to just love female fronted rock bands). Also very interesting history of the band!
women's wrongs are usually justified
4.25
This albums nothing groundbreaking, but has good sounds and is classic 90's music. Glad I listened to it before I died.
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
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
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
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.
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.
The greatest trick the patriarchy every pulled was convincing the world Hole didn't exist.
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.
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.
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.
Loved it, perfect grungy sound with great vocals
More pop oriented then the last album of theirs, but still good. 3.5 rounded up.
Knew the hits, but enjoyed the other songs much more than I expected to. Maybe it's just nostalgia...
Solid! Almost exonerates her for killing Kurt!
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
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.
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.
Enjoyed this, great 90s rock
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!
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!
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
Amo rock de gurias
i really liked the song i already liked, but didn't discover any new songs
really good album !!
very noice
From grunge to power pop. Hole are my guilty pleasure from this list.
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)
fun album
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.
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
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 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
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
Late 90s goodness.
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
Filled a hole.
You can make me hole again
I'm not a huge fan of Courtney Love, but she did create a couple of great albums, this being the second.
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
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
Love Courtney
Not bad
Feels more like alternativ pop rock than grunge. Many of the songs are quite catchy, and it’s a good experience. It gets a little flat in the end, but overall a good album. Favourites: Celebrity Skin, Awful and Malibu
Quite enjoyable.
I love grunge, but I always lacked the ability to list more than a few bands. I need to lurk more for these 90's bands, and courtney's voice is wonderful on this record.
Todo lo que escuché del disco me gustó, no sé bien qué taanto me gusta, pero lo voy a escuchar alguna vez más y veré.
Starts with a classic. The rest pretty good.
Empezó muy fuerte con un Temazo y nunca bajó el nivel, que buen álbum
(5/7) was negatively disposed towards this as "whatever Courtney Love did" but actually found it quite enjoyable
Incredible!! Glad to have heard this. Northern Star was amazing!! Underrated for sure.
Not as good as I remember it being but there are still a few great 90s rock songs in here. “Reasons To Be Beautiful” and “Use Once & Destroy” are maybe my two favorite Hole songs and them being on the same album is great. I think overall the less they stay in a major key the better they sound. The grunge instrumentation and production really favor a darker sound and it’s easier for the singing to match when the songs are angry and aggressive. Courtney Love has never had a cheerful voice and has also never been good at sustaining a note (Northern Star is almost unlistenable entirely due to this) so any song where she’s the real focus isn’t going to turn out great. Lyrically it’s a nice change of motif from the mostly male dominated similar songs of the time to hear something from a woman, but Hole has always done that so it wasn’t anything new. Courtney Love gets a lot of shit but Hole are good and I like them. This is probably my favorite album of theirs and I’m glad it’s in here.
Overall: 7/10 I've never been the biggest fan of Courtney Love as a person, but I'll always defend her as a musician and artist. Her music is great. Her voice is rough but there's a feminine beauty behind all of that. The songs may not be the most original or daring, but she does her style very well. I'll always recommend Hole to anyone who asks about them. Fav Song: Reasons to Be Beautiful
I liked this a lot more than I expected. Maybe I never gave Courtney Love a fair chance.