Elvis Costello & the Roots

ISSUE #28 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS ELVISHOLE COSTELLO &Nobody’s THE ROOTS Daughter [Universal] Wise Up Ghost [BlueThe Note first] album released under the Hole moniker since If he1998’s weren’t Celebrity such a Skin great is andreally versatile singer— irritablefrontwoman punk oneCourtney album, Love’s tender balladeer second solo album—co-founder, the next, something entirely different the one songwriter and lead guitarist after that—Elvis Costello might have made a Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, fantasticnor is rapper.any other Thankfully, previous Holehe doesn’t prove it on member.this surprise So it’scollaboration Love and three with eclectic Philly hip-hopringers collective on 11 new the songs—10Roots, but he does rely moreof onwhich words Love (always wrote his with best friends) and groovescollaborators than he likedoes Billy on Corgan, melodies Linda and Perry song and new guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, structures. There’s plenty of soulful singing—on “Letter to God.”) “Tripwire,” he’s practically whispering in your Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s ear—butheyday the appears best cuts to have(“Refuse left toalong Be withSaved,” her former Daniel Jackson “Wakebandmates, Me Up,” “Viceroy’sbut there Row”)are fl ashes find hereElvis spittingof the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once vitriolicfury witLove over deployed spare and to menacingsuch devastating funk backings. effect back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, Dan Hallman/Invision/AP TheShe album spits is out a surpriseher vocals only with in vengefulthe sense disdain that it on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production wasn’tBitch,” announced overdriven until guitars nearly completed.roiling atop Costello an elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-down feel that metspeeds the Roots up as when the songhe appeared races toward in 2009 a climatic on pile-up at the doesn’t fi t with her visceral persona. Courtney Love’s tumultuous end. She shifts tempos and attitude on the more contemplative history suggests that she has a compelling story to tell, and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where they “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 serve as house band, and it’s no wonder electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton Elvis Costello and Questlove they became fast friends. The Roots’ TV gig means nightly team-ups with everyone from Carly Rae Originally, the plan was to rerecord a bunch of Costello’s early COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to Jepsen to Bruce Springsteen, and CostelloDixie has Chicks’ spent Martie his classics,crafting something and trulywhile monumental they wisely in both musicalscrapped and social that terms. idea, career workingCourt with Yard seemingly Hounds anyone whoMaguire will andsay Emilyyes. “StickThis cold Out and privateYour setTongue” isn’t it, although updates that’s “Pills probably and due moreSoap,” to a [Columbia] Wise Up Ghost is a coming-together of chameleons—aRobison, Court chance Yard rap-inspiredpersonal circumstances gem Elvis thancut anythingback in ’83.related It’s to historical talent. Wainwright justification Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was for Costello to jam out with fellow music geeksmuch-anticipated and, in some fordying a ofproject cancer, that,and there in theoryis a quiet, and complex practice, sadness already even inmakes its trulyinsight—both inspired moments, musical sling and acidicpersonal—into rhymes likethe asisters freestyling who MC.have perfectless autobiographical sense. –Kenneth material. Partridge 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 ‘There’swish she stepped plenty to the mic of more soulful often. Court Yardsinging—but Hounds ably the best 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 cuts find Elvis spitting vitriolic witFire over Away sparetossing 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 and menacingWainwright’s funk backings.’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- 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 ISSUE #28 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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