Brendan Benson

MARCH/APRIL 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE BNobody’sRENDAN DaughterBENSON [Universal] What Kind of World [Readymade] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sOn What Kind of World, Jack White’s Raconteurs partner Brendan Benson second solo album—co-founder,puts on his solo-artist hat and taps suitably homemade ’70s vibes ranging songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,from rock-star riffing to AM-gold smoothness. For every electric guitar solo, nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andthere’s three a piano ballad to counter. There is a little genre-shifting in the songs’ ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteaccents; with the horns on “No One Else but You” sound as if they might segue collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perryinto gets a chorusfull credit onof one the tune, Beatles’ “Carry That Weight” at any moment, while “Letter to God.”) Benson rolls out a little country twang on album closer “On the Fence.” While Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveBenson left along has with mellowed her former a littleDaniel Jackson as a lyricist, his themes remain consistent. His 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 suchmusic devastating continues effect toback be in filled the day. withthey existential were showcases crises—musings for harrowing displays about of the naked nature emotion, She spits out her vocals ofwith happiness, vengeful disdain the on lure “Skinny of familyLittle Love(versus sounds the more more dispassionate facile conceits these days. of loveThe production and 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 attractionraces toward that a climatic are usually pile-up at the the stuffdoesn’t of pop fi t with music) her visceral and persona. just what Courtney kind Love’s of world 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,”we taking live stock in. as–Amanda layers of acoustic Farah and perhaps she does. It’s just not the one she’s telling on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides 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 ‘Bensonlead vocals (“Gracefully”) taps is so warmly suitably affecting that listene rshomemade 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 these ladies’ talent runs deep. –Katie Dodd in ways few groups could conceive. Imagine ’70s vibes that range from rock-starFire 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 Wainwright’s albums got you get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points riffingWAINWRIGHT to AM-goldbusier and his sometimessmoothness.’ 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 MARCH/APRIL 2012 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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