'A Welcome, If Not Triumphant, Return.'

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE ANobody’sEROSMITH Daughter [Universal] Music From Another Dimension [Columbia] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sHaving weathered interpersonal issues, health problems and frontman second solo album—co-founder,Steven Tyler’s American Idol stint, Aerosmith return with their first album of songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,all-original material since 2001. Working with Jack Douglas, who produced nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andGet three Your Wings, Toys in the Attic and other records from their prime, the ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteband with delivers a slick album, trying hard to meet high expectations. On the collaborators like Billy Corgan,Diane Warren-pennedLinda Perry and new “We All Fall Down,” they attempt to recapture the guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) success of the late-’90s smash “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” but wind up Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havefalling left along short. with They her fareformer better Daniel Jackson on “What Could Have Been Love”—reminiscent 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 suchof anotherdevastating ’90s effect hit, back “Crazy”—and in the day. they “Can’t were Stopshowcases Loving for harrowing You,” a duetdisplays with of naked country emotion, She spits out her vocals starwith vengefulCarrie disdainUnderwood. on “Skinny While Little thereLove sounds are a morefair numberdispassionate of ballads, these days. Aerosmith The 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 canraces still toward rock. a climatic “Legendary pile-up at Child” the doesn’t is a foot-stomper fi t with her visceral anchored persona. Courtney by Tyler’s Love’s rapid- 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,”fire taking vocals, stock as layerswhile of “Streetacoustic andJesus” perhaps descends she does. into It’s just a not wild the onefree-for-all. she’s telling onSeveral Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton tunes could have been trimmed down, but this remains a welcome, if not COURT YARDtriumphant, HOUNDS return.A side –Juli project Thanki of new offering 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 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, 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 ‘A welcome, if not Fortriumphant, a dozen years, the [Mercer return.’ 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 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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