Published: August 23, 2026 · 9:26 PM EDT
Courtney Love and Hole’s 1994 and 1998 classics return September 18 newly remastered for vinyl, with animated music-video imagery, previously unseen footage and restored archival packaging
Hole are opening their 1990s catalog again in 2026, but two of the most important releases in the new campaign are designed to do something more unusual than simply put familiar albums back on vinyl.
Live Through This and Celebrity Skin will both return on September 18 as limited-edition zoetrope LPs, transforming visual material from Hole’s original music-video era into animated images that appear across the spinning records.
The two editions are part of a broader archival campaign overseen by founding Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, encompassing the band’s first three studio albums: Pretty on the Inside, Live Through This and Celebrity Skin.
All three have been newly prepared for vinyl, but the zoetrope editions give the 1994 and 1998 records an additional connection to the imagery that surrounded Hole during two defining periods of the band’s career.
For Live Through This, the zoetrope uses animated loops drawn from the album’s original music videos together with previously unseen material from those video shoots. The Celebrity Skin edition is even more specific: its moving imagery comes from the original videos for “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu.” More than three decades after Hole emerged from the alternative underground, those films are effectively being transferred from the screen onto the physical records themselves.
The idea behind a zoetrope predates recorded music. A traditional zoetrope creates the illusion of motion by placing a sequence of slightly different images around a rotating surface. When those images are viewed in rapid succession, the eye perceives movement rather than a collection of individual pictures. A zoetrope vinyl record applies that principle to the LP. Sequential images are incorporated into the record’s visual design so that, when the disc rotates and is viewed under suitable stroboscopic conditions or through a camera setup capable of isolating the image sequence, the artwork appears to animate.
That makes the format very different from conventional colored vinyl. A splatter, marble or translucent pressing changes how the record looks while sitting on a turntable. A zoetrope uses the actual rotation of the LP as part of the artwork. With these Hole editions, that technique also serves an archival purpose because the source material comes directly from the visual history surrounding the albums.
Released in 1994, Live Through This was Hole’s second studio album and the record that dramatically expanded the band’s audience. The album featured Courtney Love on vocals and guitar, Eric Erlandson on guitar, Kristen Pfaff on bass and Patty Schemel on drums, with Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade producing.
Its 12 tracks included “Violet,” “Miss World,” “Doll Parts,” “Asking for It,” “Jennifer’s Body” and “Softer, Softest.” The new edition has been newly remastered for vinyl under Erlandson’s supervision and retains the original artwork while restoring elements of the physical presentation. For the zoetrope edition, however, the record itself becomes part of that restoration.
The animated loops are based on imagery from the album’s original music videos, while the design also incorporates footage that has not previously been seen from those shoots. That detail gives the pressing more historical substance than an ordinary picture-disc concept. The material used to create the animation comes from the same visual period that helped establish Hole’s image while Live Through This was reaching a much larger audience. The package also restores the original album booklet, another element of the 1994 presentation that accompanies the new edition.
The timing of the vinyl campaign has created another unexpected connection to the present. Only weeks before the September reissue, Slayyyter performed Hole’s “Violet” for triple j’s Like A Version.
Slayyyter explained that “Violet” had been one of the first songs she tried to teach herself on guitar as a teenager, and Courtney Love subsequently praised the performance.
Read: Slayyyter Covers Hole’s “Violet” for Like A Version as Courtney Love Praises Performance
That places one of the key songs from Live Through This in two different parts of music culture at almost the same moment: a contemporary artist is introducing it to part of her audience while the original album is returning as a newly remastered physical release. For a record originally released in 1994, that continuing circulation is part of what gives archival reissues meaning beyond nostalgia.
LIVE THROUGH THIS - LIMITED EDITION ZOETROPE TRACKLIST
Side A
01. Violet
02. Miss World
03. Plump
04. Asking For It
05. Jennifer’s Body
06. Doll Parts
Side B
07. Credit In The Straight World
08. Softer, Softest
09. She Walks On Me
10. I Think That I Would Die
11. Gutless
12. Rock Star
Four years after Live Through This, Hole entered another distinct period with Celebrity Skin. Released in 1998, the album featured Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur and Patty Schemel and was produced by Michael Beinhorn. Where Live Through This balanced melodic songwriting against the raw urgency of Hole’s earlier music, Celebrity Skin presented a more expansive and highly produced version of the band. Its best-known songs included “Celebrity Skin,” “Malibu” and “Awful.”
For the 2026 zoetrope edition, UMe has gone directly back to two of the videos that visually defined that period. The disc features animated loops taken from the original “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” music videos. That distinction is important because, unlike the broader description given for Live Through This, the source films used for the Celebrity Skin zoetrope are specifically identified. The album has also been newly remastered for vinyl, with the original artwork retained and the physical packaging restored.
Once again, the aim is not simply to create a novelty LP. The record combines the music, artwork and moving-image history associated with the original campaign into a single physical object.
Celebrity Skin also represented one of Hole’s most commercially visible periods. The album was certified Platinum in the United States and generated three Grammy nominations for Hole across the 1999 and 2000 ceremonies. Celebrity Skin was nominated for Best Rock Album, while its title track received a nomination for Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The following year, “Malibu” received another nomination in the same performance category.
Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson and Billy Corgan were also individually recognized as songwriters when “Celebrity Skin” was nominated for Best Rock Song. Those nominations help explain why the choice of “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” for the zoetrope imagery is historically appropriate. They were not secondary songs from the album: they were central to the commercial and visual identity of that chapter in Hole’s career.
CELEBRITY SKIN - LIMITED EDITION ZOETROPE TRACKLIST
Side A
01. Celebrity Skin
02. Boys On The Radio
03. Hit So Hard
04. Malibu
05. Reasons To Be Beautiful
06. Dying
Side B
07. Awful
08. Use Once & Destroy
09. Northern Star
10. Heaven Tonight
11. Playing Your Song
12. Petals
The two zoetrope records should not be viewed in isolation. The 2026 campaign encompasses Hole’s first three studio albums and has been overseen by Eric Erlandson, who co-founded the band with Courtney Love. That continuity is significant for an archival campaign. Rather than treating the catalog only as record-company inventory, one of the musicians directly involved in creating the original albums has participated in bringing them back to physical media.
Alongside Live Through This and Celebrity Skin, Hole’s 1991 debut Pretty on the Inside is receiving its own extensive 35th-anniversary treatment. And in collector terms, that edition may be just as interesting as the zoetropes.
Released in 1991, Pretty on the Inside introduced the original Hole lineup of Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Jill Emery and Caroline Rue.
Produced by Kim Gordon and Don Fleming, the album came from a considerably noisier and more abrasive place than the records that followed. The new standard edition has been newly remastered for vinyl and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl, with the original artwork and restored packaging. But collectors also have a more elaborate 35th Anniversary Limited Edition 2LP.
That package pairs the remastered album with a reproduction of the original “Teenage Whore” 12-inch single, including the B-sides “Burn Black” and “Drown Soda.” The additional record is pressed on “Starbelly Splatter” vinyl. The expanded edition is housed in a newly designed gatefold jacket and combines restored archival elements with newly commissioned artwork, previously unseen photographs and rare imagery from Hole’s early years. It also includes an exclusive lithograph featuring a previously unreleased band portrait. That makes Pretty on the Inside an important part of the overall campaign even though it does not receive a zoetrope edition.
While the other two records convert music-video imagery into moving vinyl artwork, the debut reaches deeper into Hole’s photographic and physical archive.
Seen together, the reissues document how dramatically Hole changed during the 1990s.
Pretty on the Inside captures the confrontation and noise of the original band.
Live Through This retains that intensity but places it inside songs with greater melodic definition, documenting the Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Kristen Pfaff and Patty Schemel lineup. Celebrity Skin moves again, toward a larger and more polished rock production with Melissa Auf der Maur in the lineup and Michael Beinhorn behind the console. The 2026 campaign does not attempt to make those records look or feel identical.
Instead, the physical formats reflect different parts of their history: archival photographs and the “Teenage Whore” single for Pretty on the Inside, unseen video material for Live Through This, and recognizable “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” imagery for Celebrity Skin.
That is a much more interesting archival strategy than simply pressing all three albums on different colors of vinyl.
Collectors who are more interested in the albums than the visual novelty of a zoetrope are not being forced into the limited editions.
Both Live Through This and Celebrity Skin are also returning as standard 180-gram black vinyl LPs.
The standard Live Through This edition includes the complete original booklet on vinyl for the first time, with the original artwork and restored packaging.
Celebrity Skin likewise receives restored original packaging alongside its newly remastered audio.
Pretty on the Inside also comes as a standard 180-gram black LP in addition to its expanded anniversary set.
At publication time, the official U.S. stores list the standard LP editions at $29.99 USD.
The limited Live Through This Zoetrope LP and Celebrity Skin Zoetrope LP are each listed at $35.98 USD, while the expanded Pretty on the Inside 35th Anniversary Limited Edition 2LP is listed at $39.98 USD.
The stores currently impose a limit of four copies per customer on the editions.
That purchasing restriction, however, should not be confused with a published pressing quantity.
UMe and the official stores describe the zoetrope editions as limited editions, but no specific production number has been announced. There is currently no basis for claiming that only 500, 1,000 or any other particular number of copies exist. For collectors, that distinction matters.
The September 18 editions are not the end of the campaign.
A second wave is scheduled for October 23, 2026, when Pretty on the Inside, Live Through This and Celebrity Skin are expected to receive additional colored-vinyl editions through the Record Store Day Essentials program. That gives collectors several approaches to the same catalog within a short period: standard archival pressings, the two visual zoetropes, the expanded Pretty on the Inside anniversary package and later indie-retail color variants. It also means buyers should distinguish between the editions rather than assuming every 2026 copy contains the same mastering, packaging or visual features.
Zoetrope records are inherently eye-catching, but the strongest argument for these Hole editions is not simply that the pictures move.
The Live Through This edition reaches into original music-video material and adds previously unseen footage from those shoots.
The Celebrity Skin edition specifically reconnects the album with the “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” videos that helped define Hole’s late-1990s visual identity.
Both albums have been newly remastered and their packaging restored under a catalog campaign overseen by Eric Erlandson. At the same time, UMe has not attached an unverified story of extreme scarcity to the records. That makes their collector value easier to describe accurately.
They are special physical editions combining newly prepared audio, restored packaging and archival visual material. Whether they eventually become scarce or rise in value on the secondary market is something only future demand and availability can determine. Their historical interest exists regardless of what happens to their resale price.
There is an important difference between preserving a catalog and simply manufacturing another version of it. Hole’s 2026 vinyl campaign appears particularly conscious of that distinction.
Live Through This and Celebrity Skin are unquestionably being turned into visually striking objects, but their zoetrope designs are rooted in the actual visual history of the albums rather than artwork created only to give collectors another variant to buy.
One brings previously unseen footage from the Live Through This video era into the physical record. The other turns “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” into moving images again, this time on the surface of the LP itself.
Meanwhile, Pretty on the Inside reaches back to an entirely different Hole: the noisy original lineup of 1991, the “Teenage Whore” 12-inch, early photographs and imagery that existed before Live Through This transformed the band’s reach. Together, the three releases preserve three different stages of Hole rather than smoothing them into a single nostalgic package. That is ultimately what makes this campaign interesting for collectors.
The records are physical objects, but the real material being collected is history: the music, photographs, videos, artwork, lineups and changing identity of a band whose first three albums documented nearly an entire decade of alternative rock.
Written by Gino Alache – Music Journalist
IMAGE CREDIT: Courtesy of UMe / Hole
Watch Hole’s official “Violet” music video below:
