NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE SNobody’sUPERCHUNK Daughter [Universal] Majesty Shredding [Merge Records] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is Superchunkreally doesn’t aspire to be Merge Records’ most innovative frontwoman Courtney Love’s second solo album—co-founder,or best-selling act. Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance—founders songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,of both Superchunk and Merge—leave that to the Arcade Fire, whose nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andSuburbs three album recently became the venerable North Carolina indie ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteimprint’s with first-ever chart-topper. The decidedly less ambitiousMajesty collaborators like Billy Corgan,Shredding Linda ,Perry Superchunk’s and new first full-length in nine years, is a gift to fans guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) who have been following the group since its Clinton-era heyday. Flush Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havewith left punkyalong with guitars her former and grabbyDaniel Jackson pop melodies, the album could have been 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 suchreleased devastating in effectthe mid-’90s,back in the day. just theyas werethe quartetshowcases was for harrowing transitioning displays of from naked theemotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarscrunch roiling atop of 1993’san elastic basslineOn the that Mouth doesn’t to help—the the slightly songs have more an airless, restrained sanded-down sound 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 andof 1997’sattitude on Indoorthe more contemplative Living. As always,history suggests McCaughan that she has sings a compelling high andstory hard,to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”voicing taking stock each as layers inscrutable of acoustic and lyric perhaps with unmistakable she does. It’s just not enthusiasm. the one she’s telling On on “Hot Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton Tubes,” a rare midtempo number reminiscent of Pavement’s “Stereo,” he COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to sings, “Yeah,Dixie we’re Chicks’ back Martie where crafting we something belong”—perhaps truly monumental in bothacknowledging 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] the consistencyRobison, thatCourt Yard is Superchunk’spersonal circumstances greatest than anything strength.related to talent. –KPWainwright 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 she stepped to the mic more often. Court Yard Hounds ably its fi fth album, the L.A.-based band stirs its ‘Flushdemonstrates that, with whether with theirpunky fellow Dixie Chick guitars or without, and 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 For a dozen years, the [Mercer Street/Downtown] Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and grabbyRUFUS poparrangements melodies.’ 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- 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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