Hole "Celebrity Skin" (1998)
After finishing touring their "Live Through This" album, Hole took time
out to pursue various individual projects (most notably Courtney Love's
excellent performance in the film "the People Vs Larry Flint" with Woody
Harrelson). They regrouped and started working on new music but were
having trouble finding their groove.
They decamped to LA and enlisted the help of Smashing Pumpkins' Billy
Corgan as an executive producer. Corgan ended up co-writing the music
for a number of the songs. Meanwhile, Love decided to base her lyrics
around the theme of California, both the ideal and the reality (a vein
mined by Mr Bungle and the Red Hot Chili Peppers around the same time).
Even then the sessions were not without their problems, with producer
Michael Beinhorn bullying drummer Patty Schemel and convincing Love to
go with a session drummer instead, leading to Schemel quitting the band.
The music, collaborators and theme saw them move further away from their
initial noisy, punky beginnings to a kind of washed out, hungover
version of sunny California pop. They still have some raging moments
such as on the title track
and "Playing Your Song". Corgan's gift for melodic, catchy rock is
noticeable on the title track and single "Malibu", but guitarist Eric
Erlandson acquits himself nicely with melodic-yet-raw tracks like "Northern Star" and "Heaven Tonight".
Love makes the whole thing her own, ably supported by new bass player Melissa Auf der Maur's strong backing vocals.
