5 keepers
keeper avg .416
Even given my limited familiarity with Hole's 1994 debut album "Live Through This," it's clear that Celebrity Skin is a different animal. Compared to the warm, idiosyncratic fury of "Violet," the mindless buzzsaw opening title track presents as more catchy and focused, but also jarringly much more commercial. But I did say catchy, and it's the band's only charting single. Of course, the contributions of the album's most significant outside writer, the Great Pumpkin himself, can't be ignored. Billy Corgan is credited on nearly half the album, mostly on the more consistent A side, and Courtney Love credits his input in the studio for challenging and motivating her to up her songwriting game. Corgan may put it differently.
The next track "Awful"**** (a full-band composition) is the first of several tracks that are firmly in the jangle-pop genre (not that far from The Bangles); these tracks include the relaxed, dreamy "Hit So Hard", "Boys on the Radio", "Heaven Tonight", and the angsty "Petals," most of which are thoroughly listenable but not exactly memorable. That's not a word I'd use to describe the sublime "Malibu"*****, which I designate as one of the short-list greatest single songs of the whole post-grunge era, and certainly Love's and (some of) co-writer Corgan's finest work; the melodically sophisticated composition is ultimately a wistful song Love wrote about her first boyfriend, and it also consolidates the album's vague California theme.
It's the middle of the album that has the most stylistic variation, ranging from the restrained and weary "Dying"**** to the "my Hero" (Foo Fighters, 1997) adjacent industrial-flavored stomp "Use Once & Destroy"**** (full-band composition). "Reasons to Be Beautiful"****, a substantial rocker and one of Love's most interesting songs, is another full band song co-written with Jordon Zadorozny. "Northern Star" is the album's only bummer, and not suited to Love's vocal style at all. Interestingly, though it's conspicuously similar to "Disarm" (Corgan's signature ballad) in rhythm and orchestration, it's credited solely to lead guitarist Eric Erlandson (he's also credited with "Heaven Tonight"). Subsequently, the album defaults to the aforementioned jangle-pop sound until the end, broken up by the angry, stereotypically grunge "Playing Your Song," complete with dated guitar effects.
What are the chances that a little noise-punk band from a backwater city would not only explode in popularity and change the entire face of pop music, also launch the multi-decade super-stardom of its drummer of all things, but also that the lead singer's girlfriend would have substantial success as a musician/entertainer (not that this was necessarily Cobain's doing at all); something in the water. With all due respect to Love, I find this album to be so much better than it had any business being; almost every song is catchy and reasonably well-written, and it contains one of the greatest songs of its era. Sure outside writers didn't hurt, but according to Love, Corgan acted more as a coach than as a contributor, and 1998 wasn't exactly the height of his powers anyway. On a side note, though Love isn't exactly an artist I identify with, it's clear her attitude and charisma were hard-earned; just the Wikipedia version of her biography suggests her life story is an iceberg topic.
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