ISSUE #29 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE BNobody’sLOC PARTY Daughter [Universal] The Nextwave Sessions [French Kiss] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sBloc Party has never been afraid to drastically change gears from song second solo album—co-founder,to song, and on their latest EP they continue in that tradition. Were this songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,five-song collection a moving car, it’d be peeling out and drag racing one nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andmoment three and slamming on the brakes for a cruise down a country lane ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotethe with next. Opener “Ratchet,” a raucous and hard dance track, finds singer collaborators like Billy Corgan,Kele Okereke Linda Perry rapping—albeit and new slowly, with a heavy British accent—over guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) walking, discordant guitar riffs. That leads into the sleepy, almost booty- Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haverock left feel along of, with “Obscene,” her former makingDaniel Jackson Nextwave feel like a bizarrely constructed bandmates, but there are fl ashes here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once fury Love deployed to suchmix devastating tape. “French effect back Exit” in the sees day. thethey U.K.were showcases foursome for harrowingreturn to displays biting of nakedrock, emotion, as She spits out her vocals drummerwith vengeful Matt disdain Tong on “Skinny supplies Little Loveclassic sounds Bloc more Party dispassionate fast and these steady days. The beats. production Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-down feel that speeds up as the song Butraces thentoward it’s a climatic back pile-upto dreamy at the easydoesn’t listening, fi t with her visceralthis time persona. in the Courtney form Love’s of heavy tumultuous end. She shifts tempos and attitude on the more contemplative history suggests that she has a compelling story to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”synthesizers taking stock as layerson “Montreal.” of acoustic and The perhaps band she finds does. It’sa happyjust not themiddle one she’s ground telling on for Nobody’s its electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton schizophrenic energies on the somewhat cheesily named but still catchy closer

COURT YARD“Children HOUNDS of theA Future.” side project –Shauna of new Farnelloffering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical and personal—into the sisters who have less autobiographical material. There’s nothing here except piano for so long ceded center stage to Chicks singer Natalie Maines. and vocal, and Wainwright doesn’t project his words in the way Though steeped in familiar instrumentation, the album offers little we’ve come to expect from him. Instead of serenading the person of the barn-burning brashness that made the Chicks famous (save in the farthest corner of a packed theater, he’s singing to himself in perhaps the gutsy “Ain’t No Son”). Instead, its delicate folk-pop an otherwise empty room. –David Styburski prettiness perfectly suits Robison’s more-than-capable voice and the jumble of emotions, sunny and melancholy, that emerge in a song Ozomatli’s music has been called a collision cycle inspired by her 2008 divorce. Maguire’s weeping fi ddle and OZOMATLI of styles, a cultural mash-up, and a 20-car seamless harmonies are welcome as always, and her one turn on pileup of genres. It’s also some of the most ‘Werelead vocals this (“Gracefully”) five-song is so warmlycollection affecting athat moving listeners maycar, it’d be peeling joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On wish she stepped to the mic more often. Court Yard Hounds ably its fi fth album, the L.A.-based band stirs its demonstrates that, whether with their fellow Dixie Chick or without, blend of salsa, ska, samba, funk, and hip-hop these ladies’ talent runs deep. –Katie Dodd in ways few groups could conceive. Imagine out and drag racing one moment and slammingFire on Away the brakestossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the For a dozen years, the [Mercer Street/Downtown] Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and for a cruise down aWainwright’s country albumslane gotthe younext.’ get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points WAINWRIGHT busier and his sometimes on their latest, Fire Away, include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- All Days Are Nights: Songs naughty, occasionally percussion-driven blast of salsa-fl avored ska; “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” for Lulu angry declarations of gay an exultant Latin pop anthem fi tted with shrieking sax; and “Gay Vatos [Decca] pride got louder. Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when

70 MAY 2010 ISSUE #29 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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