ISSUE #26 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE MNobody’sUDHONEY Daughter [Universal] Vanishing Point

[] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman ’sAs a revival quakes among younger bands, is still second solo album—co-founder,rumbling on with the abrasive sound that has served them since songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,was the center of the alt-rock world. They’ve consistently turned out nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andcorrosive three guitar records, and their ninth studio effort reflects a keenly ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotefocused with ferocity. They’ve reined in their trademark overdriven guitars, and collaborators like Billy Corgan,yet on Lindathese Perry tight, and targeted new songs, singer ’s vocals remain every guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) bit as biting. The album also demonstrates that angst ages well if allowed Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveto leftdevelop along with into her all-out former bitterness.Daniel Jackson “In This Rubber Tomb” and “I Don’t 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 suchRemember devastating effectYou” back course in the day.with theya palpable were showcases contempt for harrowing for hometownsdisplays of naked and emotion, She spits out her vocals formerwith vengeful acquaintances, disdain on “Skinny while Little “I LikeLove Itsounds Small” more is adispassionate contrarian these anthem days. honoringThe 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 musicraces toward released a climatic with pile-up limited at the means doesn’t and fi t with appreciated her visceral persona. by limited Courtney audiences. Love’s 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,”Despite taking stock sounding as layers of less acoustic ramshackle, and perhaps Mudhoney she does. It’shasn’t just not taken the one any she’s steps telling outside on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton of their comfort zone. But major change might be too much to expect from

COURT YARDa HOUNDS band still chuggingA side project away ofafter new more offering than suggested two thatdecades. its creator –Amanda was a few strides Farah 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 ‘Theirwish she stepped ninth to the mic morestudio often. Court Yardeffort Hounds ably reflects a 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 keenly focusedFor a dozen ferocity.’ 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 ISSUE #26 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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