By Michael Goldberg

BURBANK, Calif.

Courtney Love bursts into the room like the Roadrunner on speed. She is at once handing out gifts -- large candles made by her "witches" -- to Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson and Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, acknowledging a journalist -- me -- and going on enthusiastically to Geffen Records publicist Jim Merlis about a controversial item of some sort that recently appeared in a New York paper. "I'm in rock mode so I can cuss now," she says of a choice four-letter word that just appeared in print.

Indeed, Courtney Love, movie star and Versace model, is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Courtney Love, punk-rock grrrl, is back, ready to kick ass.

More than four years after the 1994 release of Hole's breakthrough masterpiece, Live Through This, the group's third full-length album, Celebrity Skin (out Sept. 8), is complete. It will surprise, confound and ultimately seduce those who give it half a chance. It is simply one of the best albums that will be released this year, a brilliant work that sets brutally honest lyrics to breathtakingly gorgeous melodies and arrangements.

The new "L.A." album, out September 8.

Celebrity Skin is, Love agrees, Hole's Hotel California (referring to the 1976 hit album by the Eagles), a classic Southern California rock album that references everything from X's Los Angeles (the cover art is a black and white photo of the group in front of a burning palm tree) to the Byrds' "So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star" and the Doors' "L.A. Woman."

Here, now, Love is in full effect. It feels as though she's bouncing off the walls, as if the energy is dripping off her like the water from her still-wet hair (she was up all night at a video shoot for the album's title track) as she takes over the room, a small studio used to record radio interviews. Within moments of her arrival she has someone fetching an ashtray while someone else finds her a Diet Coke.

Her bandmates seem comfortable with Love dominating the proceedings. (Present are guitarist Melissa Auf Der Maur and bassist Eric Erlandson. Absent are drummer Patty Schemel, who's taking a leave to work on "some personal issues," according to Merlis, and Samantha Maloney, who's temporarily filling in for Schemel.)

Love: Can I just say something? On the record, I'd just like to say something before we start.

Love: Last night I witnessed the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen. We're shooting our video ... I saw Melissa's close-up. [looks over at Auf Der Maur] You've transcended the video genre! That was amazing. I just wanted to say that on the fucking record.

Post-punk chic?

Melissa Auf Der Maur: Thanks.

Eric Erlandson: Which one?

Love: You weren't there. She's been waiting four years for this goddamned close-up. It was amazing! It was so evil and wicked and weird and sexy and genius. I don't know where you get your instinct. I wish you had done it first because you were throwing down on me so hard. You're such a Beatle! You just knew right where the light was. And we were doing syncopated dancing. And I went [quoting from the song "Celebrity Skin"] "hooker, waitress, model, actress." I decided I wanted to be the 'model, actress' since I wrote the fucking words. Anyway, it really was amazing, Melissa. I was screaming. OK, that's all. I just wanted to say that on the record.

ATN: Anyway, what I was going to say was I listened to the album. It was played for me. I listened to it a number of times. I think it's one of the most powerful albums I've heard this year. And I wanted to see how the three of you feel about it. If I were you, I would be very proud.