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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).

Background and history

Recording history and title

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,[citation needed] 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]

Production and post-production

Eric Erlandson posted several messages on the bulletin board KittyRadio.com about the album's recording sessions in 2005.[citation needed] 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]

Release

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]

Musicians and personnel

Musicians

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.[citation needed]

Personnel

  • Paul DeCarli - programming
  • Max Risenhower - programming
  • Chris Vrenna - programming
  • Nick Franglen - programming
  • Chris Whitemyer - studio technician
  • Jim Barber - A&R
  • Joe-Mama Nitzberg - art direction
  • Janet Wolsborn - art direction
  • Maggie Hallahan - photography
  • Robert Dawson - photography
  • Richard Prince - photography

Track listings

The domestic releases of the CD and LP differed in track order. Some international releases included bonus tracks.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[9]
The Austin Chronicle[11]
Blender[7]
Los Angeles Times[14]
NME(8/10)[8]
Robert Christgau(2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention)[12]
Rolling Stone[13]
Q[10]

Reviews

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]

Awards and nominations

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]

References

Notes
  1. ^ The leak also affected another album Michael Beinhorn was producing at the same time, Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals.[3]
Footnotes
  1. ^ Love, Courtney. Interview on Later... with Jools Holland. May 5, 1995.
  2. ^ Cooper, Leonie (24 March 2011). "10 Things We Learn About Kurt Cobain And Courtney Love From Hit So Hard". NME. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  3. ^ a b c Kaufman, Gil (1998-08-04). "Marilyn Manson, Hole Tunes Leaked On Radio, Net". VH1. MTV Networks (Viacom). Retrieved 2011-07-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  4. ^ "S.F. Station Jumps Gun On Manson, Hole Singles". VH1. MTV Networks (Viacom). 1998-08-12. Retrieved 2011-07-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  5. ^ CMT.com : Hole : Album
  6. ^ CMT.com : Hole : Album
  7. ^ Blender Review
  8. ^ NME Review
  9. ^ Allmusic Review
  10. ^ (September 1998)
  11. ^ The Austin Chronicle Review
  12. ^ Robert Christgau Review
  13. ^ Rolling Stone Review
  14. ^ LA times Review
  15. ^ Hole : Celebrity Skin - Album Reviews - NME.COM
  16. ^ Celebrity Skin - Blender
  17. ^ Rolling Stone Music | Top Artists, News, Reviews, Photos and Videos
  18. ^ "Gold and Platinum Database Search". Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  19. ^ http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/specials/1999/grammys/bigpicture.html. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) [dead link‍]
  20. ^ "42nd Annual Grammy Awards nominations". CNN.
  21. ^ Hole Trivia and Quotes on TV.com
  22. ^ Miami Entertainment News, Movie, TV, South Beach Celebrity | NBC Miami
  23. ^ A few years after the music video for "Malibu" was nominated for an MTV Music Award its cinematographer won the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award in Cinematography from the Music Video Production Association. See Error in Webarchive template: Empty url.
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