| Celebrity Skin | ||||
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| Studio album by Hole | ||||
| Released | September 8, 1998 | |||
| Recorded | Conway Studios & Record Plant, Los Angeles; Quad Studios, New York City; Olympic Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 50:23 | |||
| Label | Geffen | |||
| Producer | Michael Beinhorn, Eric Erlandson | |||
| Hole chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Celebrity Skin | ||||
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Celebrity Skin is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released worldwide by Geffen Records on September 7, 1998 and one day later in the United States. Similarly to vocalist and guitarist Courtney Love's refined image during this era, the sound of the album itself moved away from Hole's harder alternative rock past and toward a cleaner and more radio friendly pop rock format.
The album was the group's first to feature bassist Melissa Auf der Maur after the death of Kristen Pfaff, and was the band's last album before their eventual departure in 2002.
Celebrity Skin proved to be Hole's most commercially successful album, garnering them a #1 hit single on the Modern Rock Tracks chart with the title track. Critical reaction to the album was largely positive, though not as universally so as the band's previous record, Live Through This (1994).
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After attempts to record Hole's third album in New Orleans after their reported hiatus, Hole made plans to record the album in 1997. Love penned all of the lyrics and the music was written by the band, most notably by Eric Erlandson. Some songs were co-authored by Smashing Pumpkins frontman, Billy Corgan who had recommended the studio for Hole's previous album, Live Through This. Producer, Michael Beinhorn was also hired for the album's production. The studio work, which took place at various locations, including Los Angeles, New York City, London and Miami, took almost a year and a half, due to Love's rising movie career, and fruitless recording attempts in New Orleans and Nashville.
The album title, which was originally Use Once & Destroy but was changed as it "was just a one-to-one sick relationship that was quite quick", was conceived by Love as early as 1995, as during an interview on Later... with Jools Holland on May 5, 1995, Love joked the album's title was "Celebrity Skin... 'cause I touched a lot of it!" She later stated that "there was this real loser band in [Los Angeles] called Celebrity Skin, there were like, totally horrifying. And then there's this magazine called Celebrity Skin;;, it's like a nudy magazine of uh, famous people that have like, maybe a nipple out or you know, something. Women, generally. Women, exclusively. And it's a bootleg, so I can have the name."[1]
Eric Erlandson posted several messages on the bulletin board KittyRadio.com about the album's recording sessions in 2005. According to Erlandson, Love was allegedly "not caring about" playing her instrument on the record, focusing only on singing and songwriting. He also confirmed Billy Corgan played bass on "Hit So Hard" and that former drummer Patty Schemel did not play drums on the album, though she is credited as a both a Hole member and drummer on the sleeve and in the liner notes. "Malibu" and "Dying" were already in the works and almost complete when Corgan contributed his involvement for eight days. Courtney Love later revealed on the hole.com forums in 2002 that Billy Corgan also played bass on "Petals" because Melissa Auf der Maur was unable to play it. It has been said that this may be the reason why they never played the song live whilst Melissa was a member of the band. It wasn't until 2010, with the new lineup, that Petals was played live.
In a 2011 documentary on drummer Patty Schemel, it was revealed that she had left the band after the recording sessions when producer Michael Beinhorn sought to replace her with a session drummer. Schemel was replaced with Samantha Maloney for the album tour, and a "lookalike" was hired to play drums in the music video for "Celebrity Skin". In retrospect, at a MoMA screening of the documentary, Courtney Love called Bienhorn a "Nazi".[2]
In spite of the extreme measures undertaken by Hole's label, DGC Records, to prevent the album from leaking (including an "iron clad" agreement that prohibited music journalists who received advance copies from allowing anyone else to hear or record the album), the first single from the album, "Celebrity Skin", was leaked three weeks before its intended release dates and played "nearly a dozen times" on New York radio station WXRK (92.3 FM) and their Los Angeles-based sister station, KROQ-FM (106.7 FM), on the weekend of July 31 to August 2, 1998.[3][N 1] DGC spokesperson Jim Merlis denied that the leak originated from them and issued WXRK a cease and desist order on August 3.[3] Nevertheless, San Francisco radio station Live 105 (105.3 FM) played the single again the following weekend.[4]
There have since been claims that Samantha Maloney did not play drums on the album, and that her parts were done by a hired session musician. Either way, drum takes were recorded after Patty Schemel left the band during the recordings and photo shoots for the album.
The domestic releases of the CD and LP differed in track order. Some international releases included bonus tracks.
CD
LP
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UK limited bonus discA limited "Tour Edition" release included a bonus CD of six live tracks:[5]
The live tracks featured on the limited bonus CD also appeared on the Awful: Australian Tour Souvenir EP. |
Japanese bonus trackThe Japanese release included a bonus track, which was an outtake from the Celebrity Skin sessions and later used as a b-side:[6]
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [7] |
| The Austin Chronicle | [8] |
| Blender | [9] |
| Los Angeles Times | [10] |
| NME | (8/10)[11] |
| Robert Christgau | [12] |
| Rolling Stone | [13] |
| Q | [14] |
NME mentioned that,
"the first thing you think when Celebrity Skin smacks you in the nose is that you may never need to hear a rock 'n' roll record ever again. It feels that good as soon as Courtney sneers the word "demonology" across a monster riff revived from somewhere in LA in the late-'70s."[15]
The two-line review of the album from Blender called it a "mild letdown, not for the greedy pop leanings, but for the subject matter: Hollywood."[16] Rolling Stone described the album as,
"sprung, flung and fun, high-impact, rock-fueled pop with the body and flexibility of really good hair. ... [It] teems with sonic knockouts that make you see all sorts of stars [and is] accessible, fiery and intimate – often at the same time."[17]
The album was featured in several year-end "Best Of" periodicals and also holds a spot in 1001 albums you must hear before you die. Celebrity Skin was certified Platinum by the RIAA on December 21, 1998.[18]
Album chartsThe album charted in more countries than any other Hole release. It debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 with just under 86,000 copies sold in its first week, and has sold over 1.4 million copies in the US (as of 2006), making it multi-platinum. It has also achieved platinum status in Canada and gold status in Australia.
Single chartsIn the United States, three songs appeared on various Billboard charts, and Celebrity Skin became a #1 hit. Malibu was a #3 hit in the US as well, and went gold in Australia in 1999.
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The album received three nominations at the 41st Grammy Awards:[19] Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. "Malibu" received a Grammy nomination at the 42nd Grammy Awards, for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.[20] The music video for "Malibu" also resulted in a 1999 MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Cinematography for Martin Coppen[21][22][23]
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