Hole

Celebrity Skin

For my taste Hole turned with their third album "Celebrity Skin" too much in a direction which I would classify rather as arena rock than power pop or post-grunge. It's undeniable powerful and energetic, but I cannot get in touch with it easily. Listening to the album I'm back to like Courntey when she sings "Dying", "Northern Star" or "Petals".

Hole's third album is a triumph of sound and quality but also a long tale of drama. The album took four years to make, due to singer Courtney Love's budding Hollywood career, as well the drug use of drummer Patty Schemel (though this is disputed by the drummer) as well the on-and-off again friendship/collaborator with Smashing Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corrigan who co-wrote many of the album tracks. Overall their most radio friendly album that still adheres to their punk-rock aesthetic. ... read more

With Celebrity Skin, Hole moves away from grunge and goes more commercial. While the album is an enjoyable experience from start to finish, some tracks seem overproduced such as Dying (the demo is superior), but it's still a great album.

I’ve been a fan of the song Celebrity Skin since its release, it’s just so catchy. I don’t think I ever get sick of listening to that song. The other singles on this album never lived up to that level. Malibu is good but it was nothing I would purposely go out of my way to listen to and I thought Awful never got much attention in Australia. So I went into the album knowing I’d love the first song but not sure what to think of the full album.

I was surprised to see ... read more