For years, fans have demanded the return of Hole’s long out-of-print catalog to vinyl, and the band have answered the call. To create the definitive editions of Pretty On The Inside, Live Through This, and Celebrity Skin, Hole guitarist and co-founder Eric Erlandson personally spearheaded the curation, overseeing every aspect of the reissue project.

Pretty On The Inside and the original Teenage Whore 12-inch single have been newly remastered, while Live Through This and Celebrity Skin have been newly mastered for vinyl. Each release also features faithfully reproduced artwork, restored packaging, and sought-after collectible exclusives.

Thirty-five years ago, the world officially met Hole with the arrival of the band’s debut, Pretty On The Inside in 1991. The original lineup—Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Jill Emery, and Caroline Rue—recorded the album at Music Box Studios in Los Angeles with co-producers Don Fleming and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth.

To this day, it continues to inspire a cult following, fueled by standout tracks including the title track and Teenage Whore, which has generated more than 16 million Spotify streams.

Then came the Platinum-certified Live Through This. A game-changing sonic exorcism of rock, punk, noise, and pop, the 1994 landmark remains one of the defining albums of its era. With the late Kristen Pfaff on bass and Patty Schemel on drums, Hole recorded the album at Triclops Sound in Marietta, Georgia alongside producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade.

Highlighted by Violet, Doll Parts, Jennifer’s Body, and Miss World, it has influenced successive generations while continuing to grow in stature. Live Through This appears on countless Best Of lists, including Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,”, Rolling Stone’s “50 Greatest Grunge Albums,”, and NME’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

Pitchfork also awarded it a rare perfect 10.0 score. Its influence extends beyond music, inspiring the title of the 2009 cult horror comedy Jennifer’s Body, while Miley Cyrus delivered a celebrated cover of Doll Parts on the Howard Stern Show.

More recently, Slayyyter delivered a blistering cover of Violet for Triple J’s Like A Version, earning a public co-sign from Courtney Love, who shared the performance on Instagram before posting a mashup of Hole’s Celebrity Skin with Slayyyter’s “BEAT UP CHANEL$.”

Hole capped off the decade with Celebrity Skin in 1998. Welcoming Melissa Auf der Maur on bass, the group worked with producer Michael Beinhorn at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Upon release, the album debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, was later certified Platinum, and earned four GRAMMY® Award nominations, including Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for Celebrity Skin, as well as Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for Malibu.

In a recent retrospective, PitchforK awarded the album a 9.0 rating, writing, Though Hole’s sound had expanded, their bite remained razor sharp. Doja Cat has also performed her own rendition of Celebrity Skin. To date, the album has amassed nearly one billion cumulative streams.

In 2026, Hole’s music remains as incendiary, irresistible, and inimitable as ever. There was never a rock band quite like Hole, and there never will be another.

As for that we are reviewing here today, well, for those still unaware, with Celebrity Skin, Hole entered its most ambitious creative chapter. Overseen by founding guitarist Eric Erlandson and newly remastered, this definitive reissue revisits the acclaimed 1998 album that showcased the band’s growing confidence as songwriters and musicians while expanding the boundaries of its sound.

Produced by Michael Beinhorn, Celebrity Skin features Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur, and Patty Schemel. Certified Platinum by the RIAA and nominated for three GRAMMY® Awards, the album blends sharp songwriting with richly layered production across defining tracks including Celebrity Skin, Malibu, and Awful, cementing its place among the defining rock albums of the late 1990s.

Pressed on 180-gram black vinyl, this worldwide release delivers renewed depth and detail while preserving the character of the original recordings. Housed in thoughtfully restored packaging with the original album artwork, Celebrity Skin returns with the definitive presentation of Hole’s boldest and most expansive studio album.

Side A:
A1. Celebrity Skin
A2. Boys On The Radio
A3. Hit So Hard
A4. Malibu
A5. Reasons To Be Beautiful
A6. Dying

Side B:
B1. Awful
B2. Use Once & Destroy
B3. Northern Star
B4. Heaven Tonight
B5. Playing Your Song
B6. Petals

Hole had the good sense to realize that by 1998 grunge was over, and the chops to deliver a slick but credible album with a lot of strong melodies that still gave a passing nod to their punk roots. CELEBRITY SKIN relies heavily on ’70s arena rock as a jumping off point, but the sound suits the material quite well, and the production gives this solid batch of songs enough of an update to keep things from becoming stale.

Frankly, this sounded a lot tougher minded and harder rocking than much of the competition (Counting Crows, Matchbox 20 and the rest) when it hit the airwaves, and today it still sounds more evocative of that era (and just plain better) than most rock albums from the late ’90s (in my humble opinion).

The songs on display are more radio-friendly than Violet, Doll Parts, or Pretty on the Inside, that’s for sure. The titular Celebrity Skin is the song I have probably heard the most times on a radio down the years than any other Hole song. Which is not a bad thing at all. It is musically polished musically, and lyrically it is describing a fading celeb who never was a really big name. I also love the songs’ structure. It doesn’t go as you think it should from the off.

Awful is almost as great as the title song. Hit So Hard is another good song although not on the same level with the first two songs. Malibu is musically one of their most beautiful songs, the same goes with Northern Star and Petals. They all are good songs, but these few have a little more alt-fairy dust sewn into them to my ear.

In closing, and no matter how one might feel towards Courtney Love, the fact is this album rocks in a huge and intelligent way. It’s not a perfect record by any means but it delivers as the then next step in Hole’s musical output. Just as Live Through This was wildly different from Pretty On The Inside, this third offering loses the grunge influence and seems blissfully rooted in 70’s hard rock/ power pop.

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