Hole - Celebrity Skin (Vinyl)
Hole have sounded angrier, rawer and more vital than they do on 1998’s 'Celebrity Skin', but there’s something about its sleek shininess that feels magnificently defiant, like someone raising a middle finger clad in swanky velvet gloves. For years, dullards had insisted Love was a fame-chasing phoney. Why bother proving them wrong when you could have so much more fun seemingly proving them right? 'Celebrity Skin' is so unashamedly populist it feels like an act of gleeful provocation. It’s selling out and sacrilege as insurrection. It’s the band who released ‘Retard Girl’ and ‘Teenage Whore’ making an album dominated by what Love called the “internal AM pop radio in my heart”. It’s mainstream gloss weaponised into one glorious fuck-you.
Coveting mainstream success had been a blasphemous idea in Seattle’s underground, but
the results sound fabulous - ‘Malibu’ is a gorgeous, longing swirl of Californian dreams, sighing melodies and burnt-sunset acoustic guitars. But while 'Celebrity Skin' is prettier on the outside, its gloss shouldn’t be mistaken for froth. Kurt Cobain’s death, the subsequent media circus and the turbulent Live Through This tour all took their toll. They sacrificed old friends, old sounds and old ideals, but even if Hole’s Faustian pact didn’t deliver the mainstream-conquering success they craved, there’s something to be said for the fact they tried to beat the devil at his own game to begin with. “Everyone says they’re going to subvert the system from the inside and then everyone gets mad because no one ever does it,” said Love in 1999. Hole didn’t manage it long-term, either, but they tried their damndest. For those 50-odd minutes, they weren’t just the band with the most cake; they were able to eat it, too.
180gm reissue.
Tracklist:
A1 Celebrity Skin 2:42
A2 Awful 3:16
A3 Hit So Hard 4:00
A4 Malibu 3:50
A5 Reasons To Be Beautiful 5:19
A6 Dying 3:44
B1 Use Once & Destroy 5:04
B2 Northern Star 4:58
B3 Boys On The Radio 5:09
B4 Heaven Tonight 3:31
B5 Playing Your Song 3:21
B6 Petals 5:29
Hole have sounded angrier, rawer and more vital than they do on 1998’s 'Celebrity Skin', but there’s something about its sleek shininess that feels magnificently defiant, like someone raising a middle finger clad in swanky velvet gloves. For years, dullards had insisted Love was a fame-chasing phoney. Why bother proving them wrong when you could have so much more fun seemingly proving them right? 'Celebrity Skin' is so unashamedly populist it feels like an act of gleeful provocation. It’s selling out and sacrilege as insurrection. It’s the band who released ‘Retard Girl’ and ‘Teenage Whore’ making an album dominated by what Love called the “internal AM pop radio in my heart”. It’s mainstream gloss weaponised into one glorious fuck-you.
Coveting mainstream success had been a blasphemous idea in Seattle’s underground, but
the results sound fabulous - ‘Malibu’ is a gorgeous, longing swirl of Californian dreams, sighing melodies and burnt-sunset acoustic guitars. But while 'Celebrity Skin' is prettier on the outside, its gloss shouldn’t be mistaken for froth. Kurt Cobain’s death, the subsequent media circus and the turbulent Live Through This tour all took their toll. They sacrificed old friends, old sounds and old ideals, but even if Hole’s Faustian pact didn’t deliver the mainstream-conquering success they craved, there’s something to be said for the fact they tried to beat the devil at his own game to begin with. “Everyone says they’re going to subvert the system from the inside and then everyone gets mad because no one ever does it,” said Love in 1999. Hole didn’t manage it long-term, either, but they tried their damndest. For those 50-odd minutes, they weren’t just the band with the most cake; they were able to eat it, too.
180gm reissue.
Tracklist:
A1 Celebrity Skin 2:42
A2 Awful 3:16
A3 Hit So Hard 4:00
A4 Malibu 3:50
A5 Reasons To Be Beautiful 5:19
A6 Dying 3:44
B1 Use Once & Destroy 5:04
B2 Northern Star 4:58
B3 Boys On The Radio 5:09
B4 Heaven Tonight 3:31
B5 Playing Your Song 3:21
B6 Petals 5:29
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