MARCH/APRIL 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE JACKNobody’s WHITE Daughter [Universal] Blunderbuss The first album released [Third Man/XL/Columbia] under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’s Yousecond knew solo someone album—co-founder, as restlessly prolific as Jack Whitesongwriter would andget leadaround guitarist to it eventually. After six Ericalbums Erlandson with isn’tthe Whiteinvolved, Stripes, two each withnor the is anyRaconteurs other previous and Holethe Deadmember. Weather, So it’s collaborations Love and three withringers everyone on 11 newfrom songs—10 Loretta of which Love wrote with Lynn to Conan O’Brien collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new andguitarist innumerable Micko Larkin. moves (Perry as gets full credit on one tune, producer“Letter to andGod.”) record-label

entrepreneur,Much of the theriveting pride intensity of of the group’s 1990s Jo McCaughey Detroitheyday (and appears more torecently have leftof along with her former Daniel Jackson Nashville)bandmates, has finallybut there released are fl ashes a here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once solofury album. Love deployedWhite wrote, to such recorded devastating and effectproduced back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, BlunderbussShe spits out, which her vocals fleshes with vengefulout a sound disdain that on the “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic basslineJack that Whitedoesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-downBruce Springsteen feel that later White Stripes albums only hinted at. These speeds up as the song races toward a climatic pile-up at the doesn’t fi t with her visceral persona. Courtney Love’s tumultuous areend. fuller She arrangements shifts tempos that and move attitude well on beyond the more the contemplative gut-punch playing,history suggests dialing in that his shetrademark has a compelling shrieking power-drillstory to tell, tone and for garage-blues“Pacifi c Coast the Highway,” Stripes firsttaking staked stock as out layers 15 ofyears acoustic ago. and aperhaps seething she solo does. on It’s the just gospel-flavored not the one she’s tellingstomper on Nobody’s“I’m Shakin’,” In electricfact, Blunderbuss guitars chug isalong an eclecticbehind her. album, with elements of andDaughter ripping. –Eric through R. Danton “Sixteen Saltines” with a massive, snarling hazy country, vintage-style Tin Pan Alley pop, weird jazz riffs riff he punctuates with a “Woo!” With its mixture of sounds and,C ofOURT course, scorching YARD rockHOUNDS ’n’ roll. WhiteA gives side keyboards project of andnew styles,offering Blunderbuss suggested that is its the creator first wasWhite a few project strides that closer collects to a prominent role, alternating between jauntyDixie organ Chicks’ riffs Martie like thecrafting varied something facets truly of monumental his career in intoboth musicalone all-encompassing and social terms. Court Yard Hounds the one on opener “Missing Pieces” andMaguire the bright and piano Emily portraitThis cold of and the private artist. set It’s isn’t an it, epicalthough work—one that’s probably that reinforces due more to his [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright parts that twinkle on “Hip (Eponymous) PoorHounds Boy” and delivers swell reputationwrote All Days for Arewide-ranging Nights while musical his mother, explorations, Kate McGarrigle, backed was by through “Hypocritical Kiss.” And he doesn’tmuch-anticipated neglect his guitar andying abundance of cancer, andof talent. there is –Eric a quiet, R. complex Danton 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 ‘Anlead vocals epic (“Gracefully”) work—one is so warmly affecting thatthat listeners mayreinforces 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 thesehis ladies’ reputation talent runs deep. –Katie Dodd for wide-ranging 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 musical explorations,Wainwright’s albumsbacked got you get by some sensean 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]abundancepride of got louder.talent.’ Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when

70 MAY 2010 MARCH/APRIL 2012 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM