This Latest Repackaging of an Early REM Landmark Offers Plenty for Fans

JUNE 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS REISSUEHOLE RNobody’s.E.M. Daughter [Universal] Lifes Rich Pageant (25th Anniversary Edition) [I.R.S./Capitol] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’s While the following year’s Document would be the group’s true second solo album—co-founder, commercial breakthrough, the stage for that momentous event had songwriter and lead guitarist been set by its predecessor, 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant. The indie-rock Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, nor is any other previous Hole heroes signaled a willingness to meet the mainstream halfway—OK, member. So it’s Love and three at least a little bit of the way—by tapping John Mellencamp producer ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrote with Don Gehman. Singer Michael Stipe’s lyrics were here heard for the collaborators like Billy Corgan,first time Linda without Perry and a layernew of obfuscatory sonic murk, allowing listeners to pick guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, out an environmentalist theme on songs like “Fall on Me” and “Cuyahoga.” The “Letter to God.”) Much of the riveting intensitygroup evenof the flashedgroup’s 1990s its sense of humor with a cover of the Clique’s “Superman,” Daniel Jackson heyday appears to havebass left playeralong with Mike her Mills former stepping up to sing lead with tongue-in-cheek bravado. 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 such devastating effect back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, She spits out her vocals withIn addition vengeful todisdain a punchy on “Skinny remastering Little Love job, sounds this reissue more dispassionate adds a disc these of demos days. Therecorded production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsin roilingR.E.M.’s atop nativean elastic Athens, bassline Ga., that beforedoesn’t the help—the band songs uprooted have an itself airless, and sanded-down headed feelfor that speeds up as the song Mellencamp’sraces toward a climatic Indiana pile-up studio. at the Among doesn’t the fi tmost with her intriguing visceral persona. items Courtneyare early Love’s iterations 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,”of taking songs stock that as layerswould of turnacoustic up andon laterperhaps R.E.M. she releases,does. It’s just including not the one “Bad she’s Day,”telling “Allon Nobody’s the electric guitars chug alongRight behind Friends” her. and “King of Birds” (renderedDaughter. –Eric here R. as Danton an instrumental dubbed “March Song”). Of the songs that did make Pageant’s final cut, the inchoate “Fall on Me” in COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to particular demonstratesDixie Chicks’ how Martie far thecrafting tune something had to gotruly before monumental reaching in both musical studio and fruition. social terms. Court Yard HoundsOne wishes thatMaguire the B-sides and Emily and Thisother cold ephemera and private set recorded isn’t it, although during that’s the probably sessions due more to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright and included onHounds previous delivers compilations wrote All were Days presentAre Nights here while hisas mother,well, but Kate this McGarrigle, latest was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical andrepackaging personal—into of the an sisters early R.E.M.who have landmark less autobiographical offers plenty material.for fans There’s to dig nothing into. –Chris here except Neal 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“This she stepped latestto the mic more often.repackaging Court Yard Hounds ably of an 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 early R.E.M. landmarkFor a dozen years, the offers[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 WAINWRIGHT busier and his sometimes on their latest, Fire Away, include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- plentyAll Days Are Nights:for Songs fans naughty, to occasionally dig into.”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 JUNE 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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