Reviews (page 9 of 10)
Maybe I didn't give this the attention it deserved because i see so many positive reviews. My opinion was this the other Hole album was waaaaay better. This one seemed tame by comparison, and often downright annoying. DIdn't seem worthy of inclusion.
Have you ever seen a cripple dance? Seriously? I did not listen to Hole back in the 90s and now I know why. I’m all for power pop. Just not this power pop.
ok
meh
Nej
Courtney Love would like to thank Mr A Hitler for pushing the standard of 'History's most hated artist' just slightly out of her reach.
An album that sounds of the time with a bit of an annoying female singer (especially clear in "Northern Star"). I found it all very underwhelming. It's not an album that needs to be on this list.
I admire the passion but at a certain point the album felt pretty one dimensional. Northern Star just highlights how bad a singer Courtney is
Definitely transports you straight to the 90’s. More of a fan of the earlier Hole albums.
Can tell Kurt didn't write this one. After track 1 (Celebrity Skin), not much to get excited about.
#122/1001. The album was playing on as I had a boating accident in my garden, failing to change my mood for the good or for the worse. Had to give it a second chance though. 2nd listen: solid playing, good production, ok songs, and music that just doesn't interest me at all.
2/5
good but not my thing
Generic 2000’s sounding album. I suppose it gets points for being first as it’s a 90’s album but it did not age well.
2 at the most.
Courtney Love has a mind blowing career. At 21, she acted opposite Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb in one of my all-time-favorite movies, Sid & Nancy. Here she is--a rock star--13 years later with one of the 1001 albums you must listen to before you die sandwiched between starring roles in The People vs. Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon, opposite Woody Harrelson and Jim Carrey, respectively. Like, she made it in the entertainment business, on two fronts. Yet, she is remembered as an addict, an afterthought, a punchline. Of course, there is...Everything. Else. But still, it feels like she does not get enough credit for her accomplishments. Having said that, the real star of this album, for me, is Courtney Love's crop top on the cover.
I don't think that I've ever listened to this album before, despite knowing their first album fairly well. Not really a fan, but found it listenable.
Averag bar one song
This is a pretty fucking excellent album to capture one of the 90s greatest rock / grunge acts in their more mature phase. Courtney Love is one of the most genuine rock stars of our time and deserves to be shouted. But this does not belong in my precious remaining 1001 days before I die!!!! Two stars only for that, three stars otherwise in terms of musicality, performance, songwriting, emotion (I would rate Live Through This higher).
while i enjoyed some tracks, i felt like it all sounded the same
Never actually listened to hole. Everyone says Kurt cobain wrote a lot on it, the opening track was like a nirvana love letter. Didn’t feel the album struck me like nirvana does, not bad, not great
Ibland bra, ibland rätt jämntjockt, både i produktion och sång. Men sen dyker en bra melodi upp och då blir det bra, men sen slår det över i gnälligt och då blir det tråkigt. 2-3 starka toppar sen albumspår typ. Lyssna igen?: bara hitsen Bästa spår: d - Malibu Dw- Northern star Betyg: d - 5 av 10 (2 av 5) Dw - 5 av 10 ( 2 av 5)
Meh. "Celebrity Skin" is a great song but the rest of the album is a bit of a dud.
Don’t mention Nirvana challenge: Impossible. Three words in baby. New record. Let’s get this out of the way. I definitely think that the depressed drug addict who was actively suicidal was in fact, murdered. Classic scenario. It’s the perfect crime. Anyway. Time for some Hole. Wait, that didn’t come out right. Time to dive into Hole. Fuck. This isn’t working out for me. Let’s uhh listen to this band. Celebrity Skin - Any song that was in Rockband immediately got fried into my brain as a Rockband song. It’s a certain feel. Trying to listen to it as a normal song. It’s too hard, I can still see the word “slut” flashing across my parent’s TV before my 12 year old eyes. This is their hit, and it’s pretty good. Awful - Well the review of this track writes itself doesn’t it? Go ahead. Start writing. Ugh. Anyway, this song reminds me of Avril Lavigne. That’s not something I would consider a positive. This would “slap” if I was a 16 year old girl in 1998. For now, I can only thank my lucky stars that wasn’t the case. Hit So Hard - Now the songs are lying. This song does not hit hard. It “goes hard on mute” as the unfunny nerds on the internet regurgitate. Wait a second I just regurgitated it uhhh. Well. There’s your confirmation. Malibu - Where is the edge? No, that isn’t a flat-earther takedown, but rather a plea to Courtney et al for some roughness to the music. I beg of you. Oh there’s a little growl. The music is just so weak here. Bleh. Reasons to be Beautiful - Finally a riff that contains something. The previous few tracks were severely lacking iron. Anemia was setting in. Get them a steak posthaste. We’ve got something in this track. This one grooves pretty hard. Very simple rock song with a dose of that punk lethargy of the 90s. Dying - This chorus/entire song was pretty obnoxious and I kind of hated it. Makes me pine for Obituary’s version of the song (it’s a different song). Use Once & Destroy - We’ve returned to the “boring songs” portion of the album. Very controversial of them to include boring songs. Perhaps a statement against the state of modern music at the time. No? They intended this to be a good album? Oh. Northern Star - Ughh this one is killing me. Maybe she did do it. Boys on the Radio - This is so dull. Just another three chord rock song but with this gross sort of melody. Heaven Tonight - Is this going to be another one that is tinged with radio accessible sadness? This rips a riff from Spirit of the Radio, and is again, pretty boring. I don’t think I’m the target audience here. Not offensive, but so middling. Playing Your Song - Solid song. Trying to save this thing near the end. Good to hear a little more vitriol. The riff kind of sounds like that one song I remember from “Disney Skate Adventure,” which is a wild pull. I played a lot of video games as a child. Petals - What a sleepy closer. We get a hey ey ey ey reprisal to close this sucker out, but referencing an earlier, better track won’t save this puppy. Man this was not as vibrant as I expected. Sure, vibrant might be the wrong word but Celebrity Skin was just so listless. It used that slacker energy to its advantage a few times, but mostly they just seemed to put very little effort into the riffs and it felt like the whole thing was just to fulfill a label requirement. Very little about this felt urgent. The lyrics were obviously very dense (in a good way) and spoke to some genuine emotion, but the actual music was not great for too much of this. Back into the hole, ladies. Time is money and we’re running dry on both. 2 HIGHLIGHTS: Celebrity Skin, Reasons to be Beautiful, Playing Your Song
Boring. Babes in toyland for me any day of the week.
Meh.
Not for me.
Eh
Pretty forgettable run-of-the-mill alternative rock. I kept waiting for something interesting or different to happen, but it was a fruitless fifty minutes of nothingness. Cut-and-paste melodies, totally expected instrumentation, and below average vocals. Difficult to understand why this would be an album anyone must hear, unless it's just to get Courtney Love on the list or perhaps as an example of the yawnsville American alt-rock scene of the late 90s. 2.0/5.0: Disappointing
I like “Malibu”. That’s about it.
Hole (and more specifically, Courtney Love) was such a polarizing and controversial entity in 90s music. While she gave teeth to the Riot Grrrrl movement, I found her tiring.
Favorites: Celebrity Skin, Awful, Malibu Yeah, I'll be honest... I wasn't a fan of this one. I love Live Through This, I think it's one of the rawest and most interesting grunge records to come out of that genre's boom. Unfortunately, their follow-up is so much weaker, with only a few songs I found myself interested in. Very disappointed.
everything this album is striving towards has been done better before them.
gronge
147/1089 - Sounds like alternative rock with a hit or miss vocalist. Why is this on the list? Maybe lyrically it has something going on but that's not music, that's literature. Musically it's nothing special at all.
1 good track but Courtney Love still sucks
Starts strong then descends into utter trash
Nothing interesting for me here. I probably wouldn't skip a song on a random playlist, but it's nothing remarkable. Listened to the album and couldn't remember one piece afterwards.
2.4 Murderer
Better than expected, but aside from a solid opening to the album and a few songs that made me nostalgic, there's not much here.
Maybe this felt landmark at the time. Now it’s merely Eh.
lets go ladiez! ja tuota ei voi ei. jee jee ysäri musiikki :( voi harmitus :/ heey heeey heeyy lets do it yeaa yeaa yeaaa! ai toi yks on mies ehkä, femiini androgyyni kuningas. tai transu. eihän se nyt kammotus ole mutta äänivalli vaan ja tylsä semmoinen. silmät liukuu ylös kalloon ja aivot sulkeutuu... tärisee vaan horroksessa semmonen fiilis tulee tälläsestä... omg msiikki ei koskaan tälläistä uudestaan, kun olin nuori nuorri 1998 nii tämä top tier musiikki ulostettiin! ei ole parantunut siitä lähtien polvet taikka albumien laatu. imekä celebrity skin
First song is good. Not really into the rest of it.
Not my favorite of the genre or era, but the final song is decent
The effect is poppy grunge, with Courtney Love’s cutting lyrics slightly undermined by the major key upbeat mess of the music. In the end you just have to decide how much she really means it and how much this is a knowing pop product and the truth is I honestly don’t know. Musically I found it underwhelming, formulaic and derivative.
After Hit So Hard, the songs kinda blended together and felt lyrically too adjacent to each other. -Celebrity Skin -Awful
The album cover seems to suggest something like... From the ashes of grunge's demise rises this Phoenix of mediocrity. The dude's expression on the right side of the photo accurately sums up the band's lack of enthusiasm when making this lame record. They as he might, Billy Corgan just couldn't save this album. And I'm not just some boomer hater. I'm gen X all the way and even saw Hole in concert once in 95. Hell, I even own a Courtney Love signature model guitar. But there is no just reason for this album to be on this list. Blind Melon's 'Soup' was robbed! 1.5/5 Album 17/1001
Went on a bit with very similar songs... Not a fan 2/5
Meh. I had never heard of Hole but this didn't interest me much and I'm usually a fan of 90s alt-rock.
Started promising bur descended into generic teen movie stuff quickly
Not really for me. Occasionally enjoyable in parts.
Maso
I think I would have liked it more if not for Love's voice/range
Fun indie pop
This is surprisingly unpleasant. I was pretty irritable during my first listen, and it tweaked me out. So I gave it a second shot, but even then, I was just waiting for it to be over.
Highlight: Celebrity Skin In a nutshell: formulaic AF. The problem with 90s albums is that many reuse riffs and chords. So many same sounding songs are on here. The album begins with a bang then from Awful onwards I find myself asking "what happened? Why are we in cruise control?" I just think this isn't the album to represent Hole. That said, there is no love (pardon the pun) lost from me towards Courtney. She - along with Shirley Manson, Fiona Apple and Kathleen Hanna - are the unapologetic female role models us 90s kids needed in our lives. Flaws and all. Overall: 3/10
Other than the Title Track, it was sub-par. It became stale, repetitive 1990s alternative music over, and over. Favorite Song: "Celebrity Skin".
i hate this album. the song Celebrity Skin rocks though
It wasn't that bad, but I couldn't say I loved it.
2/5 Prima sound, elk nummer wel dezelfde vibe
There's a couple of radio friendly unit shifters on this album but it's mostly pretty bland. Not anywhere near as good as Live Through This.
Not sure I would listen again - I enjoyed this less than I thought I would - I really wish we could give half star reviews. Still love it for mailbu tho. Other faves: the title track (of course)northern star, and boys on the radio.
I didn’t really listen to this because I don’t want to but I recognized the first song from when it was popular.
"Celebrity Song" ist ein wirklich guter Song. Aber dann wird es zu einem Einheitsbrei das Album. Nach drei Songs musste ich nachschauen, ob die Repeat-taste versehentlich eingeschaltet war. Der Gesang und die Arrangements sind mir zu langweilig auf die Dauer
Музыка банальная, да и Кортни безголосая
It’s a bit too poppy for me but there’s some catchy stuff on here.
meh with a side of ok
Good album but nothing special. It feels very average. Bar a few songs I would not listen to this again. Celebrity skin and hit so hard are good songs. Favourite song: Hit so hard Least favourite: All are OK. Album artwork: Cool cover.
I really loved Live Through This but this album not so much. Love's voice is really grating and the songs aren't nearly as interesting.
Love was, and I mean this, the worst front person for the band Faith No More. This was a couple of months in the later 80's. It was interesting in that the band was post-Chuck Mosley but still sounded like FNM...except Love...who insisted by sheer will on being who she is. Which is a very mediocre artist. Hole sounds like someone doing an impression of grunge/alternative. If it were not for her multiple dalliances she likely wouldn't have ascended to a fair degree of fame. I would have 50+ minutes of my life back. What I will grant this album is that it is very well laid out and quite consistent. Like some artificial nutrient paste shaped skillfully into the impression of a complete supper. The entire album I cannot find one moment of excitement. Big Yuck to this album.
This album is pretty mediocre. It has a couple of good songs, but it’s too poppy for me and some of the songs are pretty throwaway.
A dull plodding album with little that stands out.
Ok
Sounds like a bunch of Smashing Pumpkins songs instead with female vocals. Okay album but not sure if I’ll listen again.
Celebrity Skin gave me high hopes
When a new musical trend emerges, music executives are desperate to find something similar to flog and you end up with tat like this landfill alt rock. Celebrity Skin (the song) is fine, Malibu is just about tolerable, but the rest of the album is so dull. It felt a lot longer than its 50 minute run time. Boring
Groupe inconnu. En fait non, j'avais déjà entendu Celebrity Skin (+) sans l'associer à ce groupe. J'aime bien le son de basse sur cet album. Mais c'est à peu près tout. Pas désagréable à écouter, mais rien d'original et très mou. =>2/5
The first two songs are awesome. The rest is not so remarkable – on a positive note, it was nice to find out that Courtney Love had an actual musical career
Not particularly bad, but extremely generic for me. Celebrity Skin could be the sole OST for a US high school teen drama set in the '90s where it is obvious that the actors playing the students are well over 30. 2.5
Quite repetitive but very jumping on bed as teenager 90s classic. Title track was great and overall not a bad listen. I'll go with a decent 2.3.
When my daughter was fourteen, she queued for hours at HMV Record Store in Sydney to get Marilyn Manson’s autograph, so I gave her my Hole CD, the one that included a cover of The Ronettes’ He Hit Me(And It Felt Like A Kiss), unbelievably written by Carole (You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman) King, for a member of Hole to autograph - both bands were out here for the Big Day Out. And she got me Courtney Love’s autograph. I really like the three singles off the album & can’t really be bothered with the rest.
one good song…
..
**Review:** This album starts strong but quickly becomes underwhelming and generic. Despite a few highlights, it lacks originality and feels forgettable. Not as good as some of their other stuff.
This sounds like a bland final attempt to keep a dying genre alive well past the point where it was exciting and fresh. This is "bad ass girl rock" for those who don't know about Sleater-Kinney or PJ Harvey. It's a snoozer that offers up almost nothing of note other than an opening track you've heard in movies.
I find Courtney Love to be quite the compelling character, but that sentiment does not extend to her music.
2.5
Not a lot to say about this album. It was mostly fine, generic late 90s hard rock. A few standout moments but nothing great or offensive. Does feel a little commercialized at times, but the ending of the album does enough to keep it decent. Top tracks. Reasons To Be Beautiful, Playing Your Song, Petals
Uninteresting
I really had high hopes for this album after the first two cuts with their high-energy melodic pop rock sound - after the fantastic opening the rest of the disc was rather disappointing and the vocals quite awful...
Underwhelming
I challenge the fact that there are 2 Hole albums on this list!
Didn’t age well
Celebrity Skin They love the title track on 6 Music, it seems to be on multiple times a week. I’m actually a little partial to it, it’s quite a pleasing bit of late 90s alt rock pop. Didn’t realise Billy Corgan co-wrote it. Awful I enjoyed too, I liked the bubblegum surf vibe to it. After that it descends into a soup of formulaic alt rock I was expecting, with not much musical or melodic variance or interest, making it quite hard to discern the difference between any of the songs. The only one that I noticed on the first listen was Heaven Tonight, it’s synth lines giving it a bit of personality and uniqueness. Second run through I liked it a little more, noticing some quite nice harmonies and backing vocals, particularly Malibu, but overall I still struggled to find much interest in it, it’s fine for what it is and what it’s trying to do but ultimately it all a bit meh. Not terrible, just not something that interests me much ⭐⭐
downloaded 3,6,8&9. didn’t like it much despite the downloads
Sole less pop rock with female vocals.
nothing attention-worthy, almost all of the tracks sound the same except the last one, which was actually good to my surprise overall:4.5/10
avril lavigne if she was bad
Not my cup o tea. To me this honesty just sounds a bit winy and loud.
I Remember this band, still not my jam
Meh. American wining
Meh. And I love the 90's
Kilka fajnych, większość taka sama. Trochę taka chylinska
Live Through This is a much better album. But given the state of mainstream rock in 1998, I guess you could have done worse than this album. Still, I didn't like it then and it hasn't grown on me since.
I have a strong dislike for Hole. +1 for Celebrity Skin 2/5
I had obviously heard the one song Hole had done, but never heard the whole album. I truly never liked them because of her weird relationship with Kurt, but it wasn’t bad. There were some highlights in there.
meh as fuck
Langweilig.
Pretty basic rock, and not in the “theyre really good at this” way, more like the “hey this sounds like every rock song ever” way not very good. Reminds me of blondie with a shitty voice LOL ITS COURTNEY LOVE IT LITERALLY IS BLONDIE WITH A SHITTY VOICE Still it waznt bad Favorite: celebrity skin Least favorite: Malibu 2.8
Did I really need to hear a second Hole album before I die? I think I would have been OK hearing none. At a different time in my life this might have made it to 3 stars. I didn't hate it, I could listen to it not wishing for my early demise but this is still not my thing. 2.5/5
Meh.
Perfectly fine 90's alt rock, but I don't think it is particularly noteworthy overall
Un peu chiant.
Not a Courtney love fan so I wasn't looking forward to this, but it was better than I expected.
This listens like AI tried to make a 90s album. No riffs, just simple chord progressions. Singing is intentionally off key. Guitars are super distorted. But the songs could just as easily be reproduced as Britney Spears songs. So in one way, you know me well AI. I'm here for this. Just most of the songs aren't very good. A couple interesting gems at the end though.
Boring. Couldn’t finish
It’s a certain kind of catchy. Not really my cup of tea, but not as loud as I expected it to be.
This album starts off with the best written song on the album, the albums self titled track. It still sou ds great to this day. Another notable song is Malibu (I believe this was another single). The rest of the songs are pretty mediocre at best. The song Awful is far to repetitive and too long and, well... I wish I could say it is Awful because that would be funny... But it's just mediocre - a lot of words for a song where nothing is being said. Reasons To Be Beautiful is just Courtney Love rambling on and on and on. Dying sounds kind of pathetic angsty. Actually this whole album's overbearing theme is Angst. I feel like Courtney Love is really trying to channel her inner Kurt Cobain - I know the comparison is low hanging fruit... But let's be honest, we know, she knows, that her career would not have gone anywhere if she wasn't Kurt Cobain's wife. I know Courtney Love would tell me to Fuck off and that I don't know what i am talking g about. But it's a hard pill to swallow, isn't it Courtney? Use Once & Destroy is another good song on the album. There are some cool musical arrangements that didn't sound like typical Hole style music.. I had to check to see if this was actually Love's writing. Nope. There's a good chunk of songs that thr musical arrangements were written by Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins. Go figure.
High school garage band with female lead vocals. I made it through the whole album at least.
The song "Celebrity Skin" is catchy and thoughtful enough, so satisfying in a way. Also familiar, being the big hit and title track on the disc. I'm going to break down what I don't like about this and I'll try to keep personality issues out of it. Although I find it to be in extremely bad taste to attempt to force your drummer to quit. Really really bad form. Just have a meeting: "Listen, after doing two albums with you both of which were really succesful and Critically Acclaimed™, we just want to go in a different musical direction and we don't think you're going to want to hang, I'm sorry." Hole was of course just a Courtney Love project, but you don't have to be an asshole. Read the wikipedia article about how Love and the producer conspired to record this with studio guy Dean Castronovo. Even more unethical is not pulling the original grrrl drummer off the credits, keeping Hole's (almost) all girl grunge band aesthetic intact but still able to pull this over-produced attempt at a commercially appealing rock album. This attempt at a grunge-pop mashup (originally perfected by Nirvana) feels extremely disingenuous. Also whatever attempt at the "Califorinia sound™" {citation needed} would be the antithesis to that punk/grunge aesthetic that they were faking before. Nothing about the band Hole feels genuine. From their going to Minnesota (!) to recruit Kristen Pfaff, guitarist Eric Erlander's girlfriend who overdosed at 27, 4 months after Courtney Love's husband, to the above mentioned drummer shell game, to the bizarre choice of Production and musical direction. The best songs here are co-written with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, which is telling. As a whole it is really not as great as you're being led to believe. So many other grrls did this better, from PJ to The Breeders to L7. Courtney love's singing ruins it for me. It's not good. I love the heavier genres like punk, grunge, an metal, but this is a cash grab or something and it sounds like it to me.
I’m a Hole hater but it wasn’t that bad
Gear: Hifiman Arya Mix: Bass und Gitarren oft rotzig - die Vocals sowieso. Hi-Hats etwas zu klirrend. Musik: "Celebrity Skin" ist einfach nen geiler Opener. Billy Corgan's Einfluss merklich in den ungestümeren Nummern - leider auch ne Menge erschreckend braves Pop-Rock Gedudel dabei ("Awful" + "Hit So Hard" u.v.a.). Wertung: 2-3/5
Strammer Gitarrenrock. Zwei Sterne.
Overwraught slashing guitars and yelled lyrics, truly the sound of the 90's grunge-rock. Dying, Northern Star, and Heaven tonight were a welcome foray into country twanged ballads.
Courtney love is a hack
Very middle of the road, sanitised and over produced.
Favorite Tracks: Celebrity Skin Northern Star
Very very 90s. Some boppers, some meh songs. Not one of my favorites from the era. Love’s voice does grate a bit. She has a whiny quality to her singing voice. 2
started strong but became mostly noise
Really wished I liked the vocals as everything else was great.
Solid punk rocky, got tastes of smashing pumpkins, not my favorite style but cool. 3/10
I didn't dislike it, but the after a while the songs sound too similar to stand apart from each other. Loves vocals were the biggest drawback on the album, but that just made the vocal harmonies sound that much better. Best Songs: TBD Listen Again: Probably
Background tracks over background vocals. Boring
Meh. I only knew the first song coming in but I kinda just don’t like Courtney Loves voice. I did like Northern Star though but none of the rest really did much for me. 2.5 that I’m rounding DOWN.
I think this band is okay, but they never really clicked with me. Most of grunge didn't, even though there are plenty of superb artists who contributed to that genre. Just a personal preference.
well, well, well. I don't relly know
album doesn’t live up to the promise of the first track 2/5
I didn't like it. Sorry courtney
A couple of strong tracks, too many that sounded like an angsty teenager trying too hard.
Would make a really good instrumental album. Courtney's screech get to you after a couple of tracks
Started out strong with the first half. The title track is probably their strongest, where Courtney Love’s snarly Billy Corgan impression works best. Awful is also a surprisingly sunshiny jangle pop tune. By the second half though, the vocals are worn out and annoying and the lyrics are just bad (Northern Star, yuck). Overall it’s much longer than it needed to be, they could have scraped 3-4 songs and this would have been a much better album. 2.5/5.
Not bad, but just okay. Decent enough 90s alternative, but nothing that really jumped out at me
Started out strong, but I quickly got tired of it.
The opening deceptively suggests someone involved in the band cares to write tunes with dynamics, riffs that linger, and choruses - it's a worthwhile tune. Tedium trails Love's drawl and wail, and I chafed at the slack in each song, each a minute more or less too long. Towards the end, I realised I'd made a listener error, and that this cruise-control, repetitive chord parade has purpose, the equivalent of a truck driver simulator or certain minimalist techno, where each song's sequence is repeated until we hypnotically mumble along.
Not abysmal
90’s alt rock. One decent overplayed radio hit. Not sure why it's on the list.
I don't hate this, it's fine, but it's not particularly inspiring. Definitely more listenable than the previous Hole album we had, but a bit more generic too - and you really can't get away with a voice like that when you're singing music like this (whereas she kinda could with the proper grunge album before). 2/5, but a high 2.
The need to pump up the volume comes from the lack of raw power and noise earlier recordings spread. It‘s like artificially faking big boobs - silicone rock from Hollywood.
This was unlikely to appeal to me, and this has proved to be the case. One song felt like it was merging into another and I couldn't get excited about any of these tracks
This is a shame. Nothing close to Live Through This. The first song sounds like what a radio hit sounds like. The rest of it is not so hot.
I can see why this was a big album - pop-rock with a bratty edge that is hummable in a very breezy way. By the same token, I cannot see why it's on this particular list. Cultural impact? Because on the basis of the music, it's as anodyne as could be. It's not bad, by any stretch - but it is bland. 'Celebrity Skin' is a good track though.
Music is ok, but I don't like the singing.
2. Ok but probably won't listen again.
:))
I almost enjoyed this at the beginning, but man... it dragged on and all started sounding the same. If we're being honest, this is just pop dressed up like grunge. Not into it.
Fav tracks: Celebrity skin, Petals
I've never listened to this full album before. For as much as I love Live Through This, Celebrity Skin is surprisingly disappointing. Seems like they leaned hard into what a lot of other post-Grunge era bands were doing, and it just doesn't suite them, IMO.
Nah. D…+, I guess.
You can totally see the bold girl's nipples on the cover of the album. This is very 90/00's grunge rock and I'm here for it. It's not terrible, there are some good songs, but overall not super capturing me. It started out strong but ended up pretty boring after that.
3 March 2023: I'm still deciding on my rating. I might need to listen a third time. 21 August 2023: When I came across Celebrity Skin while going through my master list, a slight jolt of panic went through me--I was afraid that I gave this a 3 when I couldn't recall a single song or a beat, let alone remember if I even listened through it all the way. Thank goodness I ignore my problems when I'm indecisive.
Courtney Love’s nips couldn’t save this from feeling like I was taking a shower with a low pressure faucet. Hole went completely Hollywood here with the music, lyrics, and album cover. They also went completely Hollywood by choosing their new producer over their original drummer, who gave Live Through This most of its heart.
Really? On the 1001 albums you *must* hear? Goodness me.
Not a rock fan so didn’t vibe with the album unfortunately. Celebrity skin was a good single though.
Tracks 2-11 are the definition of MOR 'alternative' radio rock, complete with teenage angst lyrics written by a 34 year old. Track 1 is Nirvana-esque, complete with 'heeeeeeys' and 'yeaaaaahs' in place of actual lyrics. Overall, there is very little of interest on this somewhat dull album. It comes across as little more than a shallow and commercially calculated endeavour to shift units. Rating: 1.5/5 Playlist track: Celebrity Skin Date listened: 06/03/23 (generated 27/02/23)
Ok album, niets speciaals, maar ook niet slecht.
Didn’t Courtney Hate it, but bored me a little at points. 2 stars.
I’d like it if they weren’t so damn whiny
I think this is a whole lot of nothing, really
I was expecting trash from a person I generally consider trash. She may live in infamy, but for killing Kurt, not for her music. But this album wasn't all that bad and now we have the Foo Fighters, so we got that going for us. I'm pretty sure I've heard Celebrity Skin and Malibu before and didn't think they were too bad. Personal favorites were Awful and Use Once and destroy. Awful for the line, I was a punk, now I'm just stupid. All in all, it was rock n roll with some decent songs. Nothing stood out as great, but did not think it was so bad I would struggle to get through. Now the genre it kicked into, on Spotify, after the album was done was kickass. A lot of Foo, Soundgarden, AIC, and Weezer so I spent a lot of time just listening to the classic greats of the greats! Oh yea, first song on Spotify after the Carpenters was Easy by the Commodores. Great tune. Back to the Hole. Another middle of the pack, meh for me. I'm going to score 2.5. Can't give a 3 to this, so will show as 2 Nothing here deemed worthy to download and probably wouldn't listen again 2.5
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.
pelo amor de deus
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.
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.
The 12 seconds of guitar intro to "Heaven Tonight" was the only bit of music that held any interest for me. 1 star
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.