Atoms for Peace, “Amok”

ISSUE #24 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE ANobody’sTOMS FOR Daughter PEACE Amok[Universal] [XL] The first album released under the Hole moniker since When1998’s Thom Celebrity Yorke Skinneeded is really musicians to back himfrontwoman on a 2009 solo Courtney tour, the Love’s Radiohead frontman laidsecond the foundation solo album—co-founder, for one of the more puzzling songwriter and lead guitarist supergroups in recent memory. Among those he Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, enlisted was Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, nor is any other previous Hole a perpetuallymember. So it’sshirtless Love and three slap-and-popringers on 11funkateer new songs—10 whoseof which people-pleasing Love wrote with maincollaborators band couldn’t like differ Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new moreguitarist from MickoYorke’s. Larkin. The (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) other members—producer Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Daniel Jackson heyday appears to have left along with her former Paul McCartney), drummer bandmates, but there are fl ashes here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once Joeyfury Waronker Love deployed (Beck, to such devastating effect back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, R.E.M.,She spitsElliott out Smith) her vocals and with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production percussionistBitch,” overdriven Mauro Refosco—made guitars roiling atop more an sense, elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-down feel that but speedsfans were up left as to the wonder song whatraces the toward quintet a wouldclimatic pile-up at the doesn’t fi t with her visceral persona. Courtney Love’s tumultuous comeend. up She with. shifts Perhaps tempos not andsurprisingly, attitude Amokon the, morethe contemplative history suggests that she has a compelling story to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,” taking stock as layers of acoustic and perhaps she does. It’s just not the one she’s tellingAtoms on for Nobody’s Peace product of a three-day jam session, shares much electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton in common with The Eraser, the Yorke disc that brought the gang On “Stuck Together Pieces”—perhaps a meta-comment on the together. The sound is antsy, airy electronic art-rock—a blend of band itself—Flea shucks off his lab coat and lays down the disc’s A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to brittleC drumbeats,OURT YARD rattling percussion, HOUNDS restrained bass, creeping slinkiest bass line. “Go back to what you came from / Go back Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. synths and Yorke’sCourt yawning Yard Houndsvocals. The singer hasMaguire said he andwanted Emily to toThis what cold you and know,”private setYorke isn’t sings. it, although In time, that’s he probablyand the dueothers more will to do [Columbia] make a dance record, and if those water-drop noisesRobison, on Court“Ingenue” Yard justpersonal that, circumstancesand when they than do, anythingthey’ll be related able to to looktalent. back Wainwright with pride. Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was aren’t exactly sexy, the song has a cyborg sensualitymuch-anticipated that suggests Betterdying of than cancer, mere and curio, there Amokis a quiet, is acomplex grower sadness with grooves even in worthits rock’sinsight—both ultimate intellectualmusical and grump personal—into is fixing the to sistersget his who freak have on. revisiting.less autobiographical –Kenneth Partridge 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 ‘Theseamless harmoniessound are welcome is antsy,as always, and her airy one turn onelectronic 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 demonstratesart-rock—a that, whether with their fellow blend Dixie Chick orof without, brittle 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 drumbeats, rattlingFor a dozen percussion,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 restrainedWAINWRIGHT bass, creepingbusier and his sometimes synths on their latest, and 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 Yorke’s[Decca] yawningpride got louder. vocals.’ Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when 70 MAY 2010 ISSUE #24 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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