'Night of Hunters Is Complex

JULY/AUGUST 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE TNobody’sORI AMOS Daughter [Universal] Night of Hunters [Deutsche Grammophon] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sAfter a couple of missteps, Tori Amos gets back on track with Night second solo album—co-founder, songwriter and lead guitaristof Hunters , a 14-song cycle that finds her adapting the music of Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,classical composers to her own symbolism-packed mythical tale of nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love anda three relationship gone sour. Throughout the course of her 11th studio ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteeffort—set with to variations of works from Erik Satie, Frédéric Chopin and collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new guitarist Micko Larkin. (PerryClaude gets full Debussy, credit on one among tune, others—Amos examines relationship recovery “Letter to God.”) Much of the riveting intensityby meeting of the group’s … well, 1990s yes, a shape-shifter named Anabelle (voiced by her heyday appears to have left along with her former Daniel Jackson bandmates, but there aredaughter, fl ashes here Natashya) of the snarling and a FireToo Muse. often, though, OK, maybethe slower the songs lyrics trip her are up. a While little once fury Love deployed to suchconfusing devastating and effect precious, back in the day.but nothey one were canshowcases coax for the harrowing dark displaysamber of hues naked emotion,out She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsof roiling a grand atop an piano elastic betterbassline thatthan doesn’tAmos, help—the whose songs classical, have an airless, colorful sanded-down touch feel is that speeds up as the song races toward a climatic pile-up at the doesn’t fi t with her visceral persona. Courtney Love’s tumultuous end. She shifts tempos andbeautifully attitude on theenhanced more contemplative by strings history and suggests reeds. that “Edge she has of athe compelling Moon,” story built to tell,on and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,” taking stock as layers of acoustic and perhaps she does. It’s just not the one she’s telling on Nobody’s electric guitars chug alongBach’s behind “Siciliano,”her. is the most Daughtermemorable. –Eric R.melodic Danton adaptation, with “The Chase” also stacking up hauntingly well against Mussorgsky’s “The Old COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to Castle.” NightDixie of HuntersChicks’ Martie is complex, crafting something bold andtruly monumental rewarding. in both –Nick musical andKrewen 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 lead vocals (“Gracefully”) is so warmly affecting that listeners may joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On ‘Nightwish she stepped of to the micHunters more often. Court Yard Hounds is ably complex, 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 Fire Away tossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the bold and Forrewarding.’ 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 Wainwright’s albums got you 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 JULY/AUGUST 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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