For Love, underground rock's favoirte pinata, the mainstream lean of
Celebrity Skin is bold - and logical. By embracing anti-punk - the
clang 'n' cuddle of Seventies California rock - she kicks male-driven,
noise-mutiny purism right in the eye and traces the grunge generation
back to its true, radio-candy origins. Hole's version of that sound is
arsenic and silver lamé: Love's rusted-switchblade singing; the
stacked, distorted glitz of Eric Erlandson's guitars; the compressed,
every-hook-counts songwriting (the wily hand of Smashing Pumpkin Billy
Corgan shows in five numbers). Love may have stormed into a cul-de-sac
with this album; she goes so deep into the sugar that it may be hard
to get out again and back to the margins. But for now, Celebrity Skin
and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Lauryn Hill) add up to the pop
lesson of the year: Go your own way.<br><br>

~ David Fricke, Rolling Stone<br>
December 24, 1998 - January 7th, 1999