Celebrity Skin

2 Pretty jarring going from The Carpenters to this. I’ve never been able to get much into Hole or Courtney Love - Maybe it’s because all of their music sounds like generic, uninspired alternative rock, maybe it’s because vocally she sounds like a less interesting version of contemporaries like Kim Shattuck or Kathleen Hanna, maybe it’s because she had Kurt Cobain murdered. Regardless, I can’t help but feel the only reason this album is even listenable let alone somehow acclaimed is due to Billy Corgan’s influence in the studio. I genuinely couldn’t tell you what’s supposed to make this album special. As mentioned, this feels about as generic as 90s alternative rock can get. Supposedly it’s supposed to be conceptually focused around California, but that feels like a very loosely applied afterthought to give some kind of direction to the album. I didn’t completely hate it, but not much stuck with me. On a second listen, I’ll admit Awful and Petals grew on me a bit. Overall, it felt a lot longer than it is.

Not bad, but definitely wasn't as interesting to me as their previous album; it was poppier and less heavy, iirc. I can see why Kurt Cobain liked her I liked Dying and Petals

Hard to say how I felt about this, at first I was quite into it then I think it nose dived horribly I thought. The one about northern lights or norther stars was dire, honestly thought I'd got onto a Pheobe from friends track. First tracks were fun though

Not great

Hating blindly on Courtney is lame, but that being said that album just isn't really good to me. What I liked about Hole is all gone on this one and they went full pop-rock while leaving their edge way behind. You can hear Billy's touch on a lot of these tracks and to be honest some of them are well done, but I just feel like there's no power to them. From a commercial standpoint I guess it was a huge success, but I don't think this is what Hole will be remembered for in the end.

Pretty dull 90s pop rock.

90's average rock roll. I dont think it deserve all this attention..

M’eh

Meh

Pretty generic album for late ‘90s grunge. I like the instrumentation on half of the album, and the lyrics are just okay, but I really dislike the vocals from Courtney Love.

It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hole again.

Only listened to a few tunes, was OK but nothing special

Dreary

Quite a mixed bag, enjoyed a couple of songs.

Meh. Don't dislike it but does nothing for me. I've listened to "live through this" in the past, which I much preferred.

Kurt Cobain's girlfriend tries to reach Nirvana Highly produced belongs in the time it's from.

Pretty bland and unremarkable, not necessarily bad, but in my opinion not very special.

A lot of the songs on this album sounded the same to me. Some songs had interesting parts, but the way they progressed wasn't interesting to me and was often predictable. The beginning of the album left me underwhelmed for the most part, but I think the album got a little better towards the end. My favourite songs were Northern Star and Hits so Hard.

The title song was really good but every other song sounded the same.

Ça commence fort et je m’attendais à ce que les toues que je ne connais pas soient plus punk/trash/irrévérencieuses. C’est plutôt l’inverse ici. Le reste de l’album est plus pop/rock. J’avoue que c’est un peu décevant.

It’s aight but felt a lot of conflicting themes

First song is fun

Some great songs in the first half but it drifts away. Great production - the bass tone is awesome. Wouldn’t listen to it again.

A few of the tracks weren't too bad, but overall, a forgettable album.

I like listening to this but then it gets boring

It's ok. A few songs that I already knew and liked but a bit middle of the road and hasn't got anything to push it up a place

Not good not terrible.

OK - not listened before, but it is a bit 'grunge by numbers' for my taste

Tylsähkö 2/5

I always preferred Live Through This and still have it on CD, this one, not so much but Celebrity Skin is a good track

this album features decent performances by all band members and also from Billy Corgan who helped write a few of the songs. Overall it's a fine grunge album, but unfortunately I was never a bing fan of grunge.

If this was a film soundtrack, the film would star Alicia Silverstone and Woody Harrelson. It's about as mid-90s as one could imagine, and does show a bit of an evolutionary change away from grunge while still having grungy roots. Yes, it's more upbeat that their previous album. It's not as bad as I want to believe it is. The inescapable fact of this album is that merely whispering "don't make me over" will lodge the opening bars of Celebrity Skin into your brain for at least half a day. This isn't a good thing.

Never got into this. A bit pretentious.. imo

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I was going to. As noted previously, I am not a fan of grunge. At the time, Hole seemed like such an out-there band, but now they barely feel like more than a step away from The Pretenders.

Didn’t know Courtney Love had a band

Meh.. You don't need to listen this album..

Forgettable album. Nothing very unique about this band. Only a couple good songs.

Bland, formulaic, cookie-cutter sound. This is what happened when the band no longer had Courtney's hubby as a safety net for their writing. They get an extra star for having the guts to keep going anyway.

It's got that typical American hard rock sound to it, that: I don't like, and Makes too many of these albums sound the same to me.

Apart from the title track, I thought it was rather dull and predictable.

Can't always catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Was alright….

I think Hole always got a little less than a fair shake. It's not Courtney's fault that she married a rock icon and he killed himself. Or, maybe it is - I don't know. The fact remains that this is a decent late-90s grunge-pop album (which, isn't saying much). A lot of bands were doing this about as well as Hole was, though, so I'm not sure what makes them different. They're 75% female - which is something, but it doesn't really impact the sound outside of the vocals. But, even in that sense, it's not unique to them (Garbage, anyone?)

grungy rock a little more radio friendly than expected

Several good songs here

Didn't get into this 90's rock vibe

Solides GrungePop Album. 1er weniger wegen Courtney Love.

4/10

Nothing new for me.

I remembered really liking this album when it came out. There was a lot of talk of the "softer" Hole and about Billy Corgan writing on the album. Revisiting it now I'm less impressed by it. I'd say the singles hold up but the rest of the album is so so.

Late 90s moaning. Music to listen to on a wet weekend with a girl who wears bowling shoes and a ballerina dress. Best Tracks: Celebrity Skin; Awful; Malibu

Decent

Niet echt mijn album, beetje zeurderig. De stem van Courtney is ook niet mijn ding.

Not bad...not my cup of tea...like tock version aimee mann...Malibu..like

Alternativ 90’er rock, hooks, courtney love

2 stars. I think Kurt Cobain killed himself because he had to listen to this…. It’s actually not that bad but why is it on this list? The lyrics are bland, the music is not interesting enough to stand out, and Courtney’s voice isn’t good

End of an era. Thank god

Meh. First song of the album is their hit. I guess it‘s not my thing.

(Un)regrettably, my opinion of Love never allowed me to appreciate this album. Some great hooks, though. My loss(?)...

It's a well-suited title... There's a special cardinal sin allocated to counter-culture bands who sell out. This album, especially for the first 4 tracks, feels a lot like Hole decided to throw in their chips in the Grunge/Punk scene in favour of stadium-friendly pop rock. Hole are wearing that superstar skin here for sure, but it doesn't fit and it doesn't suit. It does pick up considerably in the middle, to be fair; Reasons to be Beautiful is a pretty good tune. On this, they finally get to the grunge, and it showcases a pretty good lyrical and vocal performance from Love. I'd say it's the best track on the album, and they know it - comes in at over 5 minutes which almost breaks a law in Grunge/Punk. It nearly starts to drag, but just about gets away with it. Enjoyed this. Dying starts off strong too, with another interesting and surprisingly understated vocal performance from Love. Pretty cool rhythmic beat in the background, and it's a pretty solid track until it reverts to stadium content in the last minute and a bit. Use Once and Destroy is OK too - again, they're at their best at their Grungy roots, but this song is trying too hard to hit stardom. And I actually really like the guitar riff and string arrangements on Northern Star. Given the opening, I'll admit these 4 tracks pleasantly surprised me. But it's back to naff on Heaven Tonight. Really not good... The riff on Playing Your Song is cool, pretty spacey effects thrown over it and the song is heavy as balls. Nothing special though. The last few tracks are somewhere in the middle - feels like Hole had kind of lost a spark somewhere, and didn't know how to go back and dig it out, or drive on and create something new.

2000s punk greenday vibes dont rly like

Ripping opener title track, then downhill from there. Often mediocre and dreary. I remember quite liking 'Live through this', their debut, but in this they see, to have swapped energy and personality for production values. The lyrics are still pointed and bitter but a lot of the music, especially in the middle parts, is just bland.

i fuck with this aesthetic. the music was okay ish. it sounds good i guess but i cant get into it.

I needed this like a hole in the head. Cracking first track.

half decent grungyish tunes with a few good tracks.

Dull

Enjoyable enough, overall album was a bit samey though.

Captain Marvel

Eh, I was just so bored with it the whole time.

Grunge är kanske min största antites, men det är inte helt värdelöst tack vare Courtney Loves röst.

Utterly generic grunge pop, of its time

No too bad..... unlikely to ever feel the inclination to listen again though.

meh

Courtney Love...this band would be so much better if she wasnt the singer, and if she just wasnt involved at all...matter a fact, it would just be a better band if it was a different band all together. #Nirvanasupremacy

Really not for me. Trying to be open minded - it's definitely some people's idea of a good thing. It just feels to me like it leans very hard into something that felt trendy (in an alt way of course) at the time. That voice trends a fine line and sometimes that belt effect works quite well, but often I find it a bit grating

Yea honestly not very good. Some good guitar works and everything. But I don’t like Courtney loves voice and it’s not very melodic.

no. Nipples though.

Didnt liked it

I really don't like her voice and I didn't find any of the lyrics interesting or clever.

Nej tack. Tonårsrock, inte min grej. Hade passat bra i high-school filmer från usa.

Just shouts

My opinion of this record is summed up in the title of the second track. That was nearly an hour. Title track still bangs though

Couldn't finish. She killed Kurt

lol. no. -5 If I could...

I have a lot of thoughts about this album. I had always assumed, probably uncharitably, that Hole's music was primarily Billy Corgan and Kurt Cobain throwaways. I was soon dispelled of that myth because holy shit, I don't think either of those guys would be physically capable of writing songs this poor (well, maybe Corgan could now, but not in the 90s). This is not second-rate Nirvana. It's not even second-rate 'There is Nothing Left to Lose'-era Foo Fighters. Calling it second-rate 'Lindsay Lohan's band from Freaky Friday' is probably giving it more credit than it deserves. I've never heard a professionally recorded album with someone so clearly devoid of talent as Courtney Love. Considering how simple the melodies are, the struggle she has navigating them is unbelievable. I honestly have haard yowling cats that seem to have a better grasp of melody than Love shows here. If Kurt Cobain had to listen to her singing in the shower (insofar as I can believe she did shower), then no wonder he blew his fucking head off. Make no mistake, this is bad music. Like, I've developed a bit of a guilty pleasure of watching compilations of bad music from the internet (shout out chatatonicyouth), and there's moments of this album that would fit seamlessly alongside some of those clips. But worse than that, there's something so cynical about all this. Taking a line from Kurt Cobain's "suicide" note and twisting it, a line about "taking over the world with a song". It just seems so inauthentic, which is ironic for an album whose title track seems to be extolling the virtues of authenticity. A completely worthless and weirdly disturbing "album". Truly terrible.

Second track speaks for itself.... The only redeeming factors are Malibu and the opening riff of Heaven Tonight

sla não gostei

My God. Another Hole album? I used up my Hole jokes on the last review. This shit is awful.

I...just can't...her voice...not my cup...I listened to 8.5 songs though.

Not a fan

I just don't care. It's not an engaging album to me, I find Ms Love to be an obnoxious singer and this album feels very pieced together. It just feels shiny and fake.

This album is trash. Literal garbage.

Title track is a banger, and probably kicked ass when it came out, and who didn’t have a thing for Courtney love back in the day. Sadly I wasn’t into the rest of the album, I can understand why they were big, mainly because of the whole Courtney/kurt. Personally I thought they were a one hit wonder anyway and this really consolidated it, I do like the alt rock girl band set up specially from the era, abit like no doubt and bands like that. I just think like no doubt we’re a lot better and a lot more influential than this band. Must mean nirvana will be popping up at some point atleast

The best of the Hole bunch, which isn’t saying much. Honestly, can’t we all admit they got their fame from the notoriety of the famous hubby? Otherwise, average grunge band. Courtney is the weakest link; voice is crap, and her guitar work is shit. Have you seen the vid of her guitar isolated during a live performance? They basically turn her guitar off. She can’t play. Good thing their shows are loud; hides her glaring flaws. Yes, I was a kid from Seattle. Saw Nirvana and Hole live. Kurt killed himself blocks from my home. Listened to Courtney at the fountain as she sobbed about failing to save him from himself. Poor little Courtney. The rest is painful history. Courtney’s a tramp who capitalized on Kurt’s death, then continued to fuck her way up the ladder. Yuck. Can’t like this. It’s got her stink on it.

Ah, the 90s, the era where everybody thought that all you needed to make a record was a bunch of crunchy power chords and a layer of glossy production. *Celebrity Skin* follows that formula to the letter, resulting in generic and monochromatic record, utterly devoid of memorable hooks, riffs, or really any distinct sonic character at all.

Beverly Hills 90210-kompatibel grunge light. Kurt skulle rotera i sin grav om han hörde detta.

Indierocken från 90-talet och början av 2000-talet har inte stått sig särskilt väl (obs, stor skillnad på indierock och indiepop). Allra minst den amerikanska som låter oerhört mycket highschool. Hålet är inget undantag. Jag har genuint svårt för soundet. Melodierna är inte mycket att hänga i granen och CLs röst är inget man jublar över. Det är inte Pearl Jam-dåligt, men ser för den skull inte vad man ska det till. På gränsen att nå en tvåa men inte tillräckligt.

Tråkrock. Förlagan till Pink! och annan tuff på ytan-musik.

A venn diagram of things I dislike: "girl rock", pop punk, 90s music, thin production, syllable bending to fit the rhythms instead of using the proper lyrics, over-dubbed backup vocals while claiming to be "gritty", songs built out of a single uninspiring guitar riff, one single f bomb to be "edgy" but still Pg13. Blegh

Blech

naja

Still sucks.

I won't listen to this band

1. Skin - 1 2. Awful - 0 3. Hard - 1.5 4. Malibu - 1.5 5. Beautiful - 1 6. Dying - 1.5 7. Destroy - 1 8. Star - 1.5 9. Radio - 1 10. Tonight - 1 11. Song - 1 12. Petals - 1

Garbage

My gut instinct was to refuse to listen to anything that features Courtney Love. Then I looked at the reviews and this album got an overwhelming number of 5 stars. Maybe I missed something. First track, a reminder of how much I hate her voice. Skipped immediately to track two. Sounds like she infused grunge, or by this time post-grunge, with pop. That is a horrible combination, an affront to all that grunge was. Skipped. Listened to bits of the next couple tracks before I remembered that I could listen to virtually anything else in the world and its absence of Courtney Love would make it much better. I don’t know if I wasn’t listening to the same album as those reviews or I just can’t get past the visceral response I have to Love, but this was awful.

More American drivel that don't, and will never know how to do music. Yet another album that I didn't need to hear before I die. Dig a HOLE, place this album at the bottom, fill with earth, get on with life.

★½

Terrible singing, ok music

She's knows what she did.

The grunge that ages well does so because of its musicality. Hole was always more about emotion than sound. That's a long way of saying this does not hold up for me. When it first came out, I felt kinda meh, and that has slowly slid down to a genuine boo.

lol

Hole load of garbage

Shite

This is a giant piece of shit. Courtney drones on and on and on. She should team up with Yoko Ono, they would sound great together. This should not even be in the top 10,001 albums to listen to before you die. The next album in my queue is Rio by Duran Duran. On what planet should this album and that be on the same list? This is a crime against humanity.

Incredibly generic 90s guitar rock. Makes "Live Through This" seem visionary. I respect her journey, but not this album.

This is undoubtedly my personal worst album. Courtney can't sing man

Joooj, nope, nope, nope. Ovo mi je tako očajan pokušaj pank rocka da malo boli. Još 90e ej, kakav waste of effort. Druga pjesma ima dosta dobar naziv, ne treba se ništa ni dodati. Ne volim ni nju, još manje njenog pokojnika. Nastavljam ovo mučenje od 50 faking minuta. Teški hejt. Listen Once & Destroy 😂 Uz najbolju volju (stvarno sam htjela), ne mogu ovo slušati do kraja, anksioznost me hvata, čak i Jazz počeo vrištati tu po dnevnom. Zadnje tri pjesme će ostati neposlušane. 1/5, 1/10.

Nije ni čudo što se Cobain propucao. Drugi komentar - Oasis s Temua Zašto ovaj album ima 12 pjesama? Aha, album je iz 98', Cobain nikad nije čuo ovaj album. Blago njemu. Malibu je Natalie Imbruglia nakon što je preživjela heroinsku ovisnost Reasons to be beautiful zvuči kao prva dva riffa svake nirvanine pjesme, oni su ih bar imali 4 Ma nema ovo smisla, tnx

Decent! It's got a lot of elements of other stuff that I like, but kinda the worst of all of them? But of nirvana, bit of smashing pumpkins, bit of weatus and Alanis. Altogether is just aggressively 90s and most songs are fine but just missing a hook

This album is the salt in the wound we were expected to absorb in place of Kurt Cobain, the true voice of our generation. Hard to listen to this dumpster fire of an album on so many levels.

Courtney Love has scabies and makes my skin crawl. Regardless, this is a guilty pleasure that I'll never own up to.

Best celebrity since Hillary, who was a vacuous empty shell following slick Willie’s wake. Courtney surely followed Kurt’s wake. Poor singing and playing.

I understand why he blew his brains out now.

niente da fare non ascolterò questa roba

This sounded as if someone was pulled off the street and paid $5 to sing and it was unsuccessful. The voice just really bothered me because it seemed to not be trying and the music wasn’t loud enough to cover the badness of it. Just not good.

The first band where I've wished the producer DID overuse autotune. I hate this nearly as much as her lousy husband's overrated garbage. 2/10 1 star.

I know why thay named the song awful.

Nope. Not a single song.

Hard to separate the artist from the person they are. Even without that dilemma the music just isn't very good. Her voice grates on you for nearly an hour.

This is not one of the 1000 albums you should listen to before you die. Every listen, every stream, pays the person who had Kurt Cobain killed. She is a garbage human, and does not deserve to be listened to, she deserves to be imprisoned for life.

Overproduced late 90s alt rock garbage. Major letdown after the great Riot Grrl of Live Through This.

Never liked Hole, don't like Courtney or her voice.

Extremely mid

Hole aren't good.

This one was a drag for me. Sounded like very little effort went into it. Was on the last song before realizing it was Courtney Love. Didn't change anything though. I've heard her name but don't know much about her. Music just didn't connect though

Too evil. 1/5

I don't think this album knows what it wants to be. Too overproduced to be grunge. Too grimy to be California pop. It's a chaotic mess which basically describes Courtney Love most of the time.

This album marked a departure from Hole’s earlier grunge sound towards a more pop-oriented and polished style. The only enjoyable aspect of "Celebrity Skin" is the production, which was helmed by Michael Beinhorn and mixed by Scott Litt. The album is filled with glossy guitar riffs and catchy hooks that grab your attention from time to time. The songs are well arranged with layered instrumentation but the vocal performance from Courtney Love ruin a lot of the experience. A good example of this is the album's title track, "Celebrity Skin," a standout hit from the album but Courtney Love's trademark snarl over the punchy guitar riff just puts you completely off. With this album the band unfortunately abandoned their roots in grunge and whilst the album's production save it slightly, it’s not enough to avoid a 1 star here.

Straight trash. If I could give negative stars to this, I would.

Did not enjoy.

She had Kurt killed.

One hit wonder.

Punk pedorro de los 90, con mucha estructura pop. Todos los temas tienen la misma instrumentación, los mismos pasajes de batería. Mediocre a morir.

Weak, soft rock with female vocalist, that sounds like Garbage, but are actully rubbish. Jack Sharkey will probably like them.

fuck u courtney, only the title track is good and the rest is just a reiteration

I wouldn't listen to this if you paid me. Courtney Love is trash. (And a murderer).

It looks like Courtney Love could be a contender for the 1001 best fucks in the world, but I'm not sure why this album is here.

Meh, not really my thing.

Kolejna dziura na liscie, jak zawsze nie zawodzi, mialkosc tego albumu jest nawet wieksza niz na live throught this, oba albumy dziela 4 lata roznicy, a czas ten nie byl zmarnowany przez bande, ktora odeszla od grania garazowego i punkerskiego darcia mordy, na rzecz alternatywnego rokowania w najbardziej popowym odcieniu, pojawiaja sie nawet chorkowania, sklad bandy pozostal niezmienny, ale tym razem kto inny pomogl w pisaniu songow, bo pan kobajn juz dawno gryzl ziemie, to na pomoc pani courtney przyszedl kolejny kuk, tym razem byl to billy corgan, znany chocby z the smashing pumpkins, nie wiem z ktorej strony celebrity skin ma miec w sobie cos unikalnego, jakosciowego, artystycznego, ze znalazl sie na liscie, ale wydaje mi sie, ze autor listy musial byc mocnym fangejem bandy lub kolejnym kukiem od love, tym razem to juz chyba ostatni raz zegnam sie z hole, bo trzeci album grupy juz nie osiagnal znaczacego sukcesu komercyjnego, no ale wydany ponad dekade po ostatnim, wiec to album kombekowy raczej, a z takim brzmieniem ciezko o kombek w tak zmieniacej sie nurcie muzyki popularnej, na plejce laaduje kawalek napisany przez pana erlandsona, ktory jest jedynym meskim pierwiastkiem w tej babskiej bandzie, to jest northern star

It felt like I was suffocating my ears with nonsense. It's just guitars playing chords with a drum set and sometimes a bass. And there's a singer there too. There's no substance in the album. The only songs I enjoyed were the acoustic ones, and it's because it was only the singer contributing to the mediocrity.

Vapid girlboss charisma-vacuum 1.1

Liked it when it was current, hasn't aged well.

Mulher do kurt ..

RIP Kurt Cobain