JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE RNobody’sOBERT GLASPER Daughter EXPERIMENT [Universal] Black Radio [Blue Note] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sTo Robert Glasper, there’s no reason for traditional jazz, contemporary hip- second solo album—co-founder,hop and R&B not to be best friends. Glasper fuses those elements expertly songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,on Black Radio; the keyboards include synths, Rhodes and piano, and nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andan three array of guests adds to the mix, from Meshell Ndegeocello and Musiq ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteSoulchild with to rapper Lupe Fiasco. Glasper and collaborators offer a continually collaborators like Billy Corgan,shifting Linda sonic Perry landscape, and new from the smooth soul of “Afro Blue,” the Mongo guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) Santamaria-penned jazz classic sung here by Erykah Badu, to the harder, Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havebeat-centric left along with pastiche her former that comprisesDaniel Jackson Mos Def’s title track. But the final two 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 suchtracks devastating are arguably effect back Black in the day.Radio they’s mostwere showcases intriguing: for harrowingcovers ofdisplays David of nakedBowie’s emotion, She spits out her vocals semi-obscurewith vengeful disdain “Letter on “Skinny to Hermione,” Little Love drivensounds bymore Bilal’s dispassionate sensual these vocal days. and The Casey 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 Benjamin’sraces toward a flute,climatic pile-upand atNirvana’s the doesn’t “Smells fi t with herLike visceral Teen persona. Spirit,” Courtney deconstructed Love’s 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,”beyond taking stock recognition. as layers of acoustic Black and Radio perhaps is like she does.no station It’s just not you’ve the one ever she’s tellingheard, on Nobody’sand electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton that’s precisely its point. –JT

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 lead vocals (“Gracefully”) is so warmly affecting that listeners may joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On wish‘Black she stepped to theRadio mic more often. is Court like Yard Hounds no ably station 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 you’ve ever heard,For a dozen years,and the [Mercerthat’s 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 WAINWRIGHTpreciselybusier its and his point.’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] pride got louder. Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when

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