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NOVEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS

BOOKHOLE MNobody’sARK YARM Daughter [Universal] Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of [Crown Archetype] The first released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sNever have the people responsible for starting a musical movement second solo album—co-founder,been so quick to tear down their own myth. From the moment the sound songwriter and lead guitaristknown as “grunge” emerged from the , the sobriquet was Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, nor is any other previousuniversally Hole rejected by the artists to whom it was applied. From well before member. So it’s Love andthe three moment major record labels began making their way up to , ringers on 11 new songs—10smelling money amid the trees and flannel, these folks knew better than to of which Love wrote with collaborators like ,get their Linda hopes Perry upand like new members of the punk or psychedelic scenes before guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perrythem—they gets full credit knew on one their tune, moment would be fleeting, and that eventually the “Letter to God.”) music business would move on to the next big thing. Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s heyday appears to haveThat left alongaura withof almost her former painful Daniel Jackson self-awareness hangs over Mark Yarm’s oral bandmates, but there arehistory fl ashes Everybody here of the snarling Loves Our TownToo often, (the though, title, borrowedthe slower songs from trip a her up. While once fury Love deployed to suchlyric, devastating is itself effecta sneer back at in grunge’sthe day. they popularity). were showcases The for author harrowing builds displays a compelling of naked emotion, She spits out her vocals narrativewith vengeful by disdain looking on “Skinny well Little beyond Love usual sounds suspects more dispassionate like Nirvana, these days. Pearl The productionJam, 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 Soundgardenraces toward a climatic and pile-up Alice at in the Chains doesn’t to fi findt with her less visceral ballyhooed persona. Courtney Seattle Love’s acts tumultuous like end. She shifts tempos andthe attitude Melvins, on the TAD more andcontemplative 7 Year Bitch.history Manysuggests were that sheleft haspermanently a compelling damagedstory to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”by taking their stock various as layers ofand acoustic fleeting and perhapsbrushes she does.with It’s success, just not the onealthough she’s telling perhaps on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton none as much as those who actually found what they were looking for. Nirvana’s and Alice’s Layne Staley each numbed themselves COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to with , theDixie drug Chicks’ that Martie became crafting a something scourge truly of monumental their home in both city,musical until and social they terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] succumbed toRobison, suicide Court or Yardslow personaldecay. circumstances Everybody than steadily anything related picks to uptalent. speed Wainwright as those tragediesHounds unfold delivers and grungewrote All Days itself Are hurtles Nights while toward his mother, an Kateearly McGarrigle, grave, was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical andmaking personal—into for an the engrossing—if sisters who have depressing—read.less autobiographical material. –CN 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 ‘Theseamless author harmonies arebuilds welcome as always, a compelling and her one turn on narrativepileup 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 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, , and hip-hop bythese looking ladies’ talent runs well deep. –Katie beyond Dodd usual suspectsin ways few groups could conceive. Imagine Fire Away tossing 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 like Nirvana, ,Wainwright’s got you get some sense and 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 Alice inangry Chains.’ 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 NOVEMBER 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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