Soft-Lit Ballads and Outdoorsy Acoustic Pop Abound
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE INDIGONobody’s GIRLS Daughter [Universal] Beauty Queen Sister [Vanguard] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sThe Indigo Girls’ music has always been marked by two distinct songwriting second solo album—co-founder, songwriter and lead guitaristsensibilities: Amy Ray’s post-punk brashness and Emily Saliers’ more folk- Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,inspired, laid-back vibe. That split-brain approach remains intact on the nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andduo’s three 14th studio album, but the tug of Saliers’ quieter style dominates. ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteSoft-lit with ballads and outdoorsy acoustic pop abound, nestled in rootsy collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perryinstrumentation gets full credit on oneand tune, a production approach (courtesy of Peter Collins, “Letter to God.”) Much of the riveting intensityon hand of the for group’s the first 1990s time since 1994’s Swamp Ophelia) that often brings heyday appears to have left along with her former Daniel Jackson to mind the soundscapes of Daniel Lanois. Finest moments include 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 such“Share devastating the effectMoon,” back ain theRay day. tune they driven were showcases by swooping for harrowing violin displays and of naked muted, emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsrumbling roiling atop percussion, an elastic bassline and that “Gone,” doesn’t a help—the Saliers-penned songs have an piano-pop airless, sanded-down ditty that feel that 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 end. She shifts tempos andevokes attitude mid-’70s on the more Elton contemplative John. Evenhistory when suggests the that album she has rocks, a compelling as on story the tofuzz- tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,” taking stock as layers of acoustic and perhaps she does. It’s just not the one she’s telling on Nobody’s electric guitars chug alongguitar-fueled behind her. “Making Promises,”Daughter the effect. –Eric R. is Danton more Paul Simon than Paul Westerberg. After a quarter century together, the Indigo Girls’ chemistry COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to now seems safelyDixie Chicks’ nestled Martie in craftinga place something of subdued truly monumental grace. in both –Russell musical and social Hall 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 ‘Soft-litwish she stepped to the ballads mic more often. Court and Yard Hounds outdoorsy 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 acoustic pop abound,For a dozen years, nestledthe [Mercer Street/Downtown] in 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- rootsyAll Days Are Nights: instrumentation.’ 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 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.