Hole new sound

By Maria Vega, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, September 16, 1998

Hole's much anticipated new album, "Celebrity Skin," is a 180-degree turn from its last, largely in part because Courtney Love sounds like she cut down to one pack of cigarettes a day.

While "Live Through This," the band's last album in 1995, sounds like rage- induced wailing, "Celebrity Skin" is melodious and borderline pop-rock.

Most of the songs on the album seem to be a tribute to Love's late husband, grunge legend Kurt Cobain, and late Hole band member Kristen Pfaff. Cobain committed suicide, and Pfaff overdosed on heroin - both in 1994. In "Malibu," one of the best songs on the album, Love sings about images of suicide, "Oh come on be alive again. Don't lay down and die."

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CD REVIEW

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The title song, "Celebrity Skin," one of two fast hard rock songs on the album, takes aim at Hollywood and its frivolity, "Oh, look at my face, my name is might have been, my name is never was, my name is forgotten."

Listeners will be surprised if they are looking for typical anger-ridden Hole songs. What they will find instead is some serious song writing with emotional value and excellent music.