Celebrity Skin is the third studio album by Hole, released on September 8, 1998, in the United States on DGC Records and internationally on Geffen Records. It was the last album released by the band before their dissolution in 2002. Hole intended for the record to diverge significantly from their previous noise and grunge-influenced sound as featured on Pretty on the Inside (1991) and Live Through This (1994). The band hired producer Michael Beinhorn to record Celebrity Skin over a nine-month period that included sessions in Los Angeles, New York City, and London. It was the band’s only studio release to feature bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. Drummer Patty Schemel played on the demos for the album but was replaced by session drummer Deen Castronovo at the suggestion of Beinhorn. This issue created a rift between Schemel and the band, resulting in her dropping out of the tour and parting ways with the group, though she was still credited.
The band sought to use Los Angeles and the state of California as a unifying theme and began writing what they conceived as a “California album” in 1997. Unlike Hole‘s previous releases, the final songs on Celebrity Skin featured instrumental contributions from several musicians outside the band, primarily Billy Corgan, who co-wrote the musical arrangements on five songs. Auf der Maur‘s former bandmate Jordon Zadorozny, as well as Go-Go‘s guitarist Charlotte Caffey, also contributed to the composition of one track. Frontwoman Courtney Love, who wrote all of the lyrics, named the album and its title track after a poem she had written that was influenced by T. S. Eliot‘s “The Waste Land”. Motifs of water and drowning are also prominent throughout the album.
Celebrity Skin is Hole‘s most commercially successful album. It peaked at number nine on the US Billboard 200, number four on the Australian Albums Chart, and number 11 on the UK Albums Chart. To date, it has sold over 1.4 million copies in the United States alone, has been certified as double-platinum in Australia by the (ARIA), and platinum in Canada by Music Canada (MC) and the United States by (RIAA). It garnered Hole a number-one hit single on the Modern Rock Tracks chart with the title track, “Celebrity Skin”. Critical reaction to the album was very positive and it was listed on a number of publications’ year-end lists in 1998. The album was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Tracklist:
- Celebrity Skin (Love, Eric Erlandson, Billy Corgan)
- Awful (Love, Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur, Patty Schemel)
- Hit So Hard (Love, Corgan, Erlandson)
- Malibu (Love, Erlandson, Corgan)
- Reasons to Be Beautiful (Love, Erlandson, Auf der Maur, Zadorozny, Caffey)
- Dying (Erlandson, Corgan)
- Use Once & Destroy (Love, Erlandson, Auf der Maur, Schemel)
- Northern Star (Erlandson)
- Boys on the Radio (Love, Erlandson, Auf der Maur)
- Heaven Tonight (Erlandson)
- Playing Your Song (Love, Erlandson, Auf der Maur)
- Petals (Love, Erlandson, Corgan)
- Best Sunday Dress (Love, Erlandson, Kat Bjelland (Japanese edition bonus track)
Hole
Courtney Love: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Eric Erlandson: lead guitar
Melissa Auf der Maur: bass, backing vocals
Patty Schemel: drums
Guest musicians
Deen Castronovo: drums (uncredited)
Billy Corgan: bass (3, 12)
Craig Armstrong: strings (6, 12)
David Campbell: strings (8)
Production
Michael Beinhorn: producer, programming
Eric Erlandson: additional producer
Paul Northfield: engineer (at Conway Recording Studios)
Rob Eaton: engineer (at Quad Recording Studios)
Joe Barresi: engineer (at Record Plant West)
Frank Filipetti: engineer (at Olympic Studios)
John Nelson: additional engineer (at Conway Recording Studios)
Ben Holt: additional engineer
Ann Mincieli: additional engineer
Paul Walton: additional engineer
Technical
Tom Lord-Alge: mixing (1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12)
Chris Lord-Alge: mixing (4, 5, 8, 10)
Jack Joseph Puig: mixing (3)
Leo Ferrera: mixing assistant
Femio Hernandez: mixing assistant
Rob Hoffman: mixing assistant
Mike Dy: mixing assistant
Jim Champagne: mixing assistant
Ted Jensen: mastering
Paul DeCarli: programming
Max Risenhower: programming
Chris Vrenna: programming
Nick Franglen: programming
Chris Whitemyer: technician
Design
Joe-Mama Nitzberg: art direction
Janet Wolsborn: art direction
Front cover: Guzman (Constance Hansen & Russell Peacock)
Back cover: Ophelia Drowning by Paul Steck, 1895 (Giraudon/Art Resource, New York)
Maggie Hallahan: photography
Robert Dawson: photography
Richard Prince: photography
