This is the second single to be released from Hole's most recent album, Celebrity Skin. Needless to say, it's an import, as usual. But I'll only focus on the one I have, which is the Australian EP. Again, I won this one at an Ebay auction. But this particular version of the "Malibu" single was released only in Australia, and this one came with certain goodies that we Americans are so deprived of. But I guess the release of the single overseas helped to promote Hole's then-recent tour in Australia in early January 1999.

This single was released on November 16, 1998 in Australia. It seems that all Hole singles' covers paint a clear picture of what the title song is about. The cover is a picture of a silhouetted woman against a background of ocean at a sunset. At first I assumed that this was a picture of Eric Erlandson, but I realized that a 37 old man like Eric wouldn't have those type of hips. Maybe it's Courtney herself, who knows. The inside cover lists the tracks and has a picture of the band (without Patty) that appeared in a recent issue of Rolling Stone.

The b-sides of this single leave something to be desired. I can kind of guess why they didn't appear on the final album. Maybe I haven't given them enough time to grow on me yet. But I was kind of disappointed when I heard them for the first time. The 2 last "tracks" are CD-ROM videos of "Celebrity Skin" and "Malibu." Those two videos made this CD worth the money.

Malibu - This title track quickly wore off on me, what with it's California sound and background, but it's still a decent song.

Drag - This song was named well. The song takes after it's name. But when I heard it, I heard too many simularities between it and Hole's old song "I Think That I Would Die." The opening guitar riff sounds almost exactly like "I Think" and the lyrics are hard to deciper in a Courtney-fashion. But it's easy to tell that Courtney is having an obsession period with Malibu, California, with the closing lyrics stating "Drive away, drive away, drive away to Malibu." The overall sound of the song is over-produced. I'm assuming they had a fun time with this song in the studio.

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - The second b-side on this single. This is a Bob Dylan cover, and Courtney must of had a connection with the lyrics, cause the song sounds like something she would want Hole to put out. This song sounds alot like the above track "Drag" with it's cheesy over-production. The song isn't bad but it's not going to be one of my favorite Hole cover songs anytime in the near future.

Celebrity Skin (video) - though can't be played through a CD player obviously, it's a good addition to this somewhat disappointing single. It's the full video, to be played on a personal computer.

Malibu (video) - again, the full video, to be played on a personal computer using the multimedia CD player. This CD-ROM also has web links (but to be able to get those "links" you have to already be connected to the internet; it automatically takes you to www.geffen.com/hole), a help menu, and the video menu.

frankie_82@yahoo.com