REVIEWS REISSUEHOLE Tnobody’She DOORS Daughter [Universal] L.A
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DECEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS REISSUEHOLE TNobody’sHE DOORS Daughter [Universal] L.A. Woman: 40th Anniversary Edition [Elektra/Rhino] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sDoors keyboardist Ray Manzarek idly runs through the chords of his band’s second solo album—co-founder,evocative new number, “Riders on the Storm,” a brooding meditation on the songwriter and lead guitaristinherent madness of humanity, as drummer John Densmore quietly gets a Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, nor is any other previousfeel Hole for the groove. As Jim Morrison steps up to the mic to prepare for a member. So it’s Love andtake, three Manzarek’s pattern triggers an unexpected synapse in the young singer ringers on 11 new songs—10and poet’s mind. “Riding down the trail to Albuquerque, saddlebags all of which Love wrote with collaborators like Billy Corgan,filled Lindawith beansPerry and and new jerky,” Morrison jauntily croons. “Headed for K-circle-B, guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perrythe gets TV full ranch credit onfor one you tune, and me! K-circle-B in Albuquerque!” Clearly local “Letter to God.”) New Mexico TV personality Dick Bills’ KOB theme song was drilled into Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveMorrison’s left along with head her as former a boy, Daniel Jackson and the joyful way it comes springing out of him bandmates, but there areindicates fl ashes here the of easythe snarling rapport the DoorsToo often, shared though, theby slowerthe time songs of trip the her sessionsup. While once fury Love deployed to suchfor devastatingtheir sixth effect studio back album.in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, She spits out her vocals withThis vengeful exchange disdain onis “Skinnyjust one Little of theLove freewheelingsounds more dispassionate insights these into days. the Thegroup’s 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 recordingraces toward processa climatic pile-up featured at the ondoesn’t the secondfi t with her visceraldisc of persona. this 40th-anniversaryCourtney Love’s tumultuous end. She shifts tempos andreissue attitude of on L.A.the more Woman contemplative. The firsthistory disc suggests is the that album she has as a compellingwe know storyit, familiar to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”from taking stockthe alreadyas layers of numerousacoustic and repackagingsperhaps she does. It’s of just the not theDoors’ one she’s slim telling catalog on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton through the decades. But the previously unreleased alternate takes that make up the bonus material here shows us the Doors at play, free of the COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to self-serious façadeDixie Chicks’ they Martie willingly crafting showed something thetruly monumentalworld. The in both only musical unfamiliar 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] songs here areRobison, an Courtagreeably Yard personal hazy circumstancesstroll through than anything the relatedblues to standardtalent. Wainwright “Rock Me” andHounds the unheard delivers originalwrote All “SheDays Are Smells Nights while So hisNice,” mother, a Kate charming McGarrigle, if was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical andunremarkable personal—into the number sisters who marred have lessby autobiographicalsubpar sound. material. –Chris There’s Neal 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 previously harmonies are welcome unreleased as always, and heralternate one turn on takes that 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 makethese ladies’ up talent the runs bonus deep. –Katie material Dodd here shows us the in 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 Doors at play, free of theWainwright’s self-serious albums got youfaçade get some sensethey 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 showed angrythe declarations world.’ 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 DECEMBER 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.