Celebrity Skin's self-titled EP of 1990 wasn't bad, but it was with the full-length album
Good Clean Fun that the band really started to excel. The title says it all --
Celebrity Skin's main goal was to have fun, and the rockers have lots of it on this consistently engaging release. A variety of direct or indirect power-pop influences can be cited -- everyone from
Cheap Trick to
the Beatles, in fact. And at times,
Skin brings to mind the underrated and very quirky
Sparks. But while such comparisons are valid, "Sweet Fisted Nanny," "Visible Man," "Evicted" and other songs are the work of a band that had found its own collective voice and was using it advantageously. The writing is much stronger than before, and
Skin sounds a lot more confident.
Good Clean Fun is power-pop heaven. ~ Alex Henderson