Celebrity
Skin Hole |
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Courtney Love is a suprising woman. At first she appeared to be yet another wannabe latching on to the next big thing when she hooked up with Kurt Cobain. Then, oddly enough, the marriage seemed to be holding up quite well -- despite all the pressure that was going on around them. Unfortunately, Kurt did'nt hold up well, and showed the entire world that he loved Heroin more than his wife and child. Courtney not only didn't follow Kurt's cowardly example, she publicly berated her late husband about it. Then movies -- respectablilty -- and now, Celebrity Skin.
I didn't really care for the early Hole releases -- I heard her screeching occasionally on MTV, and quickly moved on to other things -- but this one is actually musical. Granted, no one will ever call Courtney's voice lyrical, but the screech content is minimal enough -- and the occasional backing harmony adds a nice touch to what is probably milder music than the die hard Hole fans want to hear. Kurt Cobain fans may not be too excited about some of the lyrics that paint thier hero in a less than glowing light, but hey -- she was there, she lived through it, and didn't give up. My picks of the tracks? Celbrity Skin and Malibu have both been on MTV, and for relativley good reason -- they are the most obvious hit single material on the disc. Use Once & Destroy has an interesting synth driven sound on it, and is definately one of the more unique tracks. Heaven Tonight borders on '60's bubblegum pop, and only the lyrics and Love's voice keeping it from being mistaken for something by the Archie's. Boy's on the Radio follows a similar, mellower flavor -- where they actually get to be musicians instead of noisemakers (although there is a bit of that going on too). The rest .. like any album, there's good bad and indifferent -- Reasons to be Beautiful and Playing Your Song appear (to me anyway) to be directly referring to the previously mentioned former husband (although others seem to hint at times too).
Don't get me wrong, this isn't album of the year material -- but it is quite a bit better than a lot of other stuff out there -- and it is well worth a listen, even if you don't think you'll like it. As I said before, Courtney Love is a suprising woman.