‘A walking study in demonology’
So Courtney sings on ‘Celebrity Skin’. I guess that sums it up really. She is so self aware that it is difficult to throw criticism at her that she hasn’t thrown at herself already. To all those that can’t stand Courtney Love, this record will not change a thing. To all those that think ‘Celebrity Skin’ and the previous album ‘Live Through This’ are underrated gems (as this reviewer does) this is more of the same.
Let’s get the rant out of the way first. If Courtney Love were a man would she be so hated? She’s a drug addict, a shameless exhibitionist, a loud mouth, at times a wreck, sometimes a victim, sometimes a bully, she has an ego the size of Canada, she is almost without doubt completely round the bend and hugely unpredictable. Surely that’s the job description for rock star isn’t it? Yeah but she’s a bad mother isn’t she. You pious arseholes! What, Kurt Cobain was a great father? I must have missed the part in the good parenting guide that tells you to blow your head off. A gold digger then, hanging off the coat tails of the more talented, richer, artistically revered rock star men? Maybe there is some truth in this but there’s enough rock stars out there who have escaped from the shadows of great talents to prove their own worth to critical acclaim. Still in doubt? Read ‘Heavier than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain’ by Charles R Cross, a fantastic book that might just change a few of those romantic notions about St Kurt. C’mon, let’s face it, it’s because she’s a woman isn’t it?
I digress. Let’s talk about the music. Courtney deals in polished American rock with elements of punk (punk in the American sense eg; not very). This record veers from the fierce garage of recent single ‘Mono’ right through to rubbish ballads that delve to the mawkish depths epitomised in closing track ‘Never Gonna be the Same’. In between we have an almost exact rip off of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in ‘I’ll do Anything’ with the typical shrinking violet chorus of ‘Give me white boy skinny / give me big black men’, we have ‘Zeplin Song’ (sic) which does exactly what it says on the tin and we have a song called ‘All the Drugs’ which is about the belief that all her money and all her love do not feel as good as all the drugs in the world. Which even Shaun Ryder might think twice about.
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The production is glossy and crystal clear covering the album in a sticky sweet sheen. There is no pretence at valve amps and archaic recording techniques, it must have cost a fortune and it doesn’t care who knows it. In sound it is very much in the LA rock tradition and sounds as much like Guns ‘n’ Roses as anything else. It even boasts a song called ‘Sunset Strip’ (just as Celebrity Skin had a song called ‘Malibu’) so it’s not really pretending to be anything it’s not. Collaborators range from Linda Perry (ex 4 non Blondes, has worked with Pink) to Brody Dalle (the Distillers) to Bernie Taupin (Elton Johns writing partner!), which sounds like the weirdest threesome you’ll ever have the misfortune to stumble across.
The end result is an excellent album, probably nestling somewhere between the previously mentioned last two Hole albums, not as good as ‘Celebrity Skin’ better than ‘Live Through This’ (you have to be some kind of masochist to listen to their first album). Most importantly, just like the rest of her life, its never boring. It’s good to see you back in the day job Courtney.
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