Music Reviews The Tattoo

Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’ was worth the wait

BRISTOL, Connecticut, U.S.A. — After years of taking in 1994’s release of ‘Live Through This,’ Hole fans finally have another album to buy. ‘Celebrity Skin’ is the band’s newest contribution to the world of music.

While it carries many of the qualities that define Hole’s music, there are definite differences between it and the band’s other albums.

Courtney Love delivers her characteristic throaty yelling and drawn out singing. She also takes credit for all the lyrics.

Hitting you with statements like “they know how to break all the girls like you and they rob the souls of the girls like you” is something to expect from her. In this respect, the strength and anger of previous songs are paralleled.

If you flip through the CD booklet, you’ll notice that there were significant contributions by people outside of the band. Credit is given to Corgan, Caffey and Zandorozny.

Only half of the songs were written without the aid of one or two of the three contributors noted.

This is very unlike Live Through This, where all but one song was written by Hole alone.

Also, there are less hard guitar bits and rough edges to the music.

All in all, the album is a little more mature than their last release. There is slightly less screaming and swearing. There is more melody and recognizable words.

It is still a very powerful collection of songs. With statements like “love hates you” and “this world is a war” I think Celebrity Skin lives up to the slap in the face tendency of Hole’s music.

Shaina Zura is a Reporter for Youth Journalism International.

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