'Duffy's Voice—Supple, Velvety and Soulful Beyond Her Years— Holds It All Together.'

DECEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE DNobody’sUFFY Daughter [Universal] Endlessly [Mercury] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is Twenty-six-year-oldreally Welsh singer Duffy created a stir with her 2008 frontwoman Courtney Love’s second solo album—co-founder,debut Rockferry, eliciting a wave of comparisons to Amy Winehouse. songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,This fine follow-up won’t rid her of that tag entirely, but it does edge nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andDuffy three closer to a stylistic identity of her own. Half the disc embraces ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotethe with retro R&B style that shaped Duffy’s debut, while the other boasts collaborators like Billy Corgan,a Euro-chic Linda Perry pop and sound new more akin to Kylie Minogue. Standout moments guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) among the latter group include “Well Well Well,” a funky dance-pop Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havetune left alongfitted with with her formerpunchy Daniel Jackson brass, and “Lovestruck,” a smooth club track 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 suchlaced devastating with syntheffect back swirls in the andday. athey vaguely were showcases Middle for Eastern harrowing displaysvibe. Theof naked R&B- emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsoriented roiling atop “Too an elastic Hurt bassline to Dance” that doesn’t is a beautifullyhelp—the songs arranged have an airless, torch sanded-down song 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 andwould attitude have on the struck more contemplative slow-dance history gold suggests in the that Brill she Buildinghas a compelling era, whilestory to thetell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”title taking track stock isas alayers candlelit, of acoustic lightly and orchestratedperhaps she does. ballad.It’s just not Duffy’s the one she’s voice—supple, telling on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton velvety and soulful beyond her years—holds it all together. –Russell Hall 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 ‘Duffy’slead vocals (“Gracefully”) voice—supple, is so warmly affecting that listeners may velvety 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 and soulful beyond her years—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 Wainwright’s albums got you get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points holdsWAINWRIGHT it allbusier together.’ 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 DECEMBER 2010 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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