Released: September 8, 1998
Courtney Love makes Hollywood sound inviting on Celebrity Skin. The guitars gleam, the choruses open wide, and the people in the lyrics keep getting used up. That leaves Hole with an awkward question: can you sell the dream while being honest about what it costs?
Released September 8, 1998, through DGC in the United States, Hole’s third studio album gives that contradiction room to develop. Michael Beinhorn produced, with Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson central to the writing and Billy Corgan sharing musical credits on five tracks. The arrangements favour clear melodies, carefully layered guitars, and vocal harmonies that soften the sound around Love’s rasp. Every word has room to register.
The title track gets the transaction underway in under three minutes. Its clipped opening riff leaves gaps between the chords, giving Love space to spit out each phrase. Then the chorus opens into ringing guitars and a melody you can catch immediately. She moves through actresses, waitresses, and discarded women as though the distance between them is mostly a matter of timing. You’re already enjoying the makeover while she’s describing the people it leaves behind.
Beinhorn keeps the distortion sharply defined. The guitars scrape and buzz without swallowing the vocal, and the firm snare gives the shorter songs a regular, almost impatient snap. There’s a difficult recording detail behind that precision: although Patty Schemel received the sleeve credit, Deen Castronovo played the finished drum tracks after she was replaced during the sessions. The distinction matters when discussing how this version of Hole sounds.
Love’s singing does plenty of the work. She lets notes stretch, follows the melody through longer phrases, and then roughens a word at exactly the point where sweetness might become reassuring. Melissa Auf der Maur’s backing vocals add a smoother upper layer without disguising that friction. Love can sound pleased with herself, exhausted, and openly disgusted within a few lines. The cleaner arrangements make those shifts easier to hear.
“Awful” is particularly slippery. Its buoyant guitar rhythm and sweet harmonies make the prospect of being young, wanted, and signed sound pretty appealing. The references to ownership and saleable rebellion complicate the invitation. Even the repeated title is easy to sing along with. Love understands the problem well enough to participate in it: a complaint about being packaged becomes a song people can happily consume. The melody makes that uncomfortable possibility part of the experience.
“Malibu” offers more breathing room. Clean, chiming guitar figures give way to broad distorted chords, while the steady beat keeps Love’s pleading vocal moving. The chorus has the release you might associate with finally reaching the coast. But the water in her lyrics is bound up with drowning, scars, and the effort to save someone. The arrangement makes escape sound possible even when the words suggest how little a change of scenery can accomplish.
That openness disappears in “Use Once & Destroy.” A thick, repeating bass figure anchors the song, with drum hits and guitar accents reinforcing its circular movement. Love sings over a groove that keeps returning to the same spot. Against the title’s language of disposable goods, the repetition suggests being caught in something you understand and still can’t leave. It’s also satisfying to listen to. Hole leave that pleasure intact.
So yes, Celebrity Skin can sell the dream and question it, because Hole let the attraction sound convincing. The bright guitars and harmonies explain why Love wants what she’s describing; her delivery and lyrics explain why wanting it hurts. “Malibu” brings those impulses closest together: the chorus makes escape sound within reach while the plea to save someone goes unanswered.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
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