Celebrity Skin by Hole

Pros: Accessible, sometimes simple, sometimes angry. Always entertaining!
Cons: Seeing so Courtney’s voice was patched up with great production, there are few cons.

Coming off their emotionally charged, breakthrough album, 1994’s L ive Through This, Hole had really made an impact in rock music. The pressure was on for the band to follow up their previous success with 1998’s ...

Pros: Great set of songs; Hole matured into a beautiful sound
Cons: Some boring songs (Hit So Hard, Use Once and Destroy) drag down Skin

Bold seems like the best word to describe the new sound of Courtney Love's band Hole and their album Celebrity Skin. After years of anguish, anger, bitterness, drugs, suicide, and plain ole pain, it is utterly ironic that Hole and more specifically ...

Pros: A sort-of-good Hole record? Pinch me!
Cons: cough*sellout*cough

I admit, I've always thought that Hole was sort-of cool. Courtney Love always bothered me, and I preferred her shouting because her other singing always sounded like a strange bellowing and talking. But I decided to check out Celebrity Skin (the first ...

Pros: Great lyrics that show Love can be a siren instead of a banshee.
Cons: Billy Corgan may have had a hand in the different sound. F*ck you, Billy!

I’m not going to front like I’ve got a lot of history with Courtney Love and her band, Hole. You see, I, like many before me, discovered Courtney Love and her band, Hole, via her husband, Kurt Cobain, and his band, Nirvana. Don’t get...

Pros: Excellent lyrics; easy to listen to again and again
Cons: Not gritty due to overproduction; too many Cobain references

Softer? Possibly. Overproduced? Maybe. Sell-out? Most likely.

But who honestly cares about that anymore?!?

Celebrity Skin is a 12-track lush rock experience. From the opening riffs and first lyrics of "Oh, make...

Pros: Mostly Harmless
Cons: Gotta watch the cussin around them kiddies

Me identify with Courtney Love? The skank queen? Who'd a thunk it, but it is so. I used to be a purple haired punker, back in the day, so I was surprised that I had changed to the point that I only looked down my nose at Ms. Love, her skanky band, and...

Pros: the band shows they have matured and are unafraid to show it off, Love matures greatly here, singing with passion, fire, and conviction
Cons: the cries of "sell out"

OK, so I admit that I was (and sometimes still am) one of those people who just cannot fathom it when Courtney Love does music. I find her to be tolerable on screen as an actress, but for a long long time, I just could not stand her music. The worst...

Pros: The songs are just good
Cons: Not for die-hard old school Hole fans

Now, I've been listening to Hole for about 5 years now, and I also own the album Live Through This. Hey- there is NO COMPARISON. It is apples and oranges, people.

That said, I am here to review Celebrity Skin. And I can tell you that I found...

Pros: Female lead rock and roll in action
Cons: Repetitive, unrepresentative, and not the Veruca Salt album it occasionally resembles.

Nevermind that this record was four years in the making. Nevermind that I sat down with my guitar and in half an hour had figured out how to play three songs from the album (which is no way due to any amazing ability on my part). Nevermind the media...

Pros: excellent, catchy rock music. Excellent lyrics.
Cons: Billy who?

You gotta love Courtney Love just because it's so easy to hate her. She's like the female Marilyn Manson, ticking off everyone she works with and even everyone she doesn't. But the girl can spin lyrics above the rest of them, and she's got one of the...

Pros: Track 5-7 are Brilliant
Cons: tracks 3,8,9,10...... are not. whole album could have been better

What can I say about this album... It's good. yes, it's very good, and coming from anyone other than Courtney Love and Hole, it probably would have been great, but based on what the band can do, based on the energy and the feelings Hole has previously...

Pros: Upbeat and gets you pumped
Cons: Of course, Courtney is no Mariah Carey

Before purchasing Celebrity Skin, Hole's 1998 release, I never would have thought I'd become a fan of the band. Now I am, and thanks to this album.

Courtney Love was thrust into the spotlight due to her marriage to the late Kurt Cobain....

Pros: Third record finds Courtney Love and company having some sun-drenched fun
Cons: A few moments of pretentiousness keep it from being a masterpiece

Critics and nay-sayers everywhere, take note: Courtney Love doesn't care if you like her band Hole's newest CD, and with good reason: IT'S DAMN GOOD! In fact, CELEBRITY SKIN, the more-polished, more-pop-sounding follow-up to 1995's brilliant LIVE...

Pros: Good music, half-decent lyrics
Cons: Much too calm and gentle, poor image

'Celebrity Skin' cannot be compared to Hole's past albums. There is no comparison. I guess that I hold a soft spot in my heart for Courtney but I am really unsatisfied by this album. The power that Hole displayed on their other albums was magnificient....

Pros: new sound, change is good
Cons: new sound, who likes change?

Why do all of Hole's albums change in style? Their first album, Pretty on the Inside is grrl at its best: it is gritty and dark. The second album, Live Through This, was a big change. Though still angry, it is definitely a lot more mainstream than...