A walking study in demonology
All the stars explode tonight
How'd you get so desperate?
How'd you stay alive?
Help me, please
Burn the sorrow from your eyes
Oh, come on be alive again
Don't lay down and die!
Hey, hey
You know what to do
Oh, baby, drive away from Malibu
Celebrity Skin is the third studio album recorded by American Alternative Rock band Hole. It was released globally through Geffen Records on September 8, 1998, and through Geffen's DGC Records label in the United States the next day. It was the band's last album before they dissolved in 2002 after a period of inactivity.
The era surrounding this album was a tumultuous time for the band, with drummer Patty Schemel being replaced with session drummer Deen Castronova at the suggestion of Record Producer Michael Beinhorn, causing her to quit the band and drop out of the tour. Celebrity Skin is also the only album featuring bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, who replaced previous bassist Kristen Pfaff (who tragically died in 1994).
The album is notable for being Lighter and Softer than Hole's previous albums, Live Through This and Pretty on the Inside, and features contributions from musicians outside the band, primarily Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins, who co-wrote five songs on the album.
Celebrity Skin is Hole's most commercially successful record, selling 1,400,000 copies in the US alone, peaking at #9 on the Billboard 200 album chart and #11 on the Official Charts Company album chart, becoming Platinum certified in Australia, Canada and the USA, and becoming Gold certified in the UK. Three singles supported the album: the Title Track, "Malibu", and "Awful". All three were high hits on the Billboard Alternative charts (with "Celebrity Skin" hitting #1), and would be Top 40 hits on the UK Pop chart.
The song "Celebrity Skin" would also be used in both American Pie and Captain Marvel (2019).
Tracklist:
- "Celebrity Skin" (2:42)
- "Awful" (3:16)
- "Hit So Hard" (4:00)
- "Malibu" (3:50)
- "Reasons to Be Beautiful" (5:19)
- "Dying" (3:44)
- "Use Once And Destroy" (5:04)
- "Northern Star" (4:58)
- "Boys On The Radio" (5:09)
- "Heaven Tonight" (3:31)
- "Playing Your Song" (3:21)
- "Petals" (5:29)
Trope low, sweet chariot, so awful!
- Call-Back: 'Celebrity Skin' features a Call-Back to 'Asking for It', from the previous album Live Through This.Asking for It: Every time that I sell myself to you, I feel a little bit cheaper than I used to.
Celebrity Skin: You want a part of me? Well I'm not selling cheap.- The chorus of 'Petals'note was also taken from the first verse of 'Asking For It'note .
- Central Theme: California.
- Genre Shift: Celebrity Skin is more pop than Hole's previous output.
- Grief Song: 'Malibu' and 'Reasons to Be Beautiful', about the death of Courtney Love's husband Kurt Cobain.
- Lighter and Softer: Than the Grunge Live Through This and the Noise Rock Pretty on the Inside.
- Non-Appearing Title: "Celebrity Skin", taken from the eponymous magazine
, never appears in the Title Track. - One-Word Title: 'Awful', 'Malibu', 'Dying', 'Petals'.
- Shout-Out: Plenty of these throughout the album.
- The line '"Oh look at my face. My name is Might-Have-Been" in 'Celebrity Skin' references Dante Gabriel Rossetti's A Superscription.
- "I'm glad I came here with your pound of flesh" from the same song is a reference to The Merchant of Venice.
- "Swing low, sweet cherry", the opening lines of 'Awful' are a Shout-Out to American spiritual song 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Samantha started out the promotional cycle with red hair, just in case they could convince Patty to come back to the band before anyone noticed that they had a new drummer.
- Urban Legend: There's a persistent one that Billy Corgan wrote the entire album, although in reality he only collaborated on five songs.
