SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS

BOXHOLE SET VNobody’sARIOUS ARTISTS Daughter [Universal] Phil Spector Presents the Philles Album Collection [Phil Spector Records/Legacy] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’s Phil Spector was never about albums. Monaural 7-inch 45s ruled second solo album—co-founder, his world, and with them he elevated the pop single to an art form. songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, Give Spector three minutes and he—with the help of his handpicked, nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love and three world-class songwriters, engineers, vocalists and musicians—could ringers on 11 new songs—10tell a story for the ages. Nonetheless, Spector did release albums on his of which Love wrote with collaborators like Billy Corgan,own Philles Linda Perrylabel, and and new Phil Spector Presents the Philles Album Collection guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) aims to showcase those more extended visions for reconsideration. The Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s

first six albums released Daniel Jackson by Philles between 1962 and ’64—three by the heyday appears to have left along with her former bandmates, but there areCrystals, fl ashes here one of bythe Bobsnarling B. Soxx andToo the often, Blue though, Jeans, the slower one bysongs the trip Ronettes her up. While and 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 awith collection vengeful disdain of hits on featuring“Skinny Little all ofLove the sounds above more and dispassionate more—were these in days. record-store The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsracks roiling for atop the an taking,elastic bassline although that fewdoesn’t wanted help—the them songs at havethe time.an airless, Their sanded-down loss. While 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 andit’s attitude apparent on the Spector more contemplative didn’t alwayshistory utilizesuggests his that full she “Wall has a compellingof Sound” story arsenal to tell, and “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 electric guitars chug alongon behind tracks her. he knew he would neverDaughter release. –Eric as R. Dantona single, several tucked-away gems can be found on each album. But the real reason for Phil-o-philes to COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to get excited aboutDixie Chicks’this new Martie box craftingset—available something truly for monumental the first in timeboth musical on andCD—is social its terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] seventh disc, Robison,“Phil’s CourtFlipsides.” Yard personal Spector circumstances delighted than anythingin crafting related oddlyto talent. titledWainwright Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was B-sides for hismuch-anticipated singles (many nameddying of after cancer, friends and there and is a cohorts).quiet, complex –J. sadness Tamarkin 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 “Phildemonstrates that,Spector whether with their fellow elevated Dixie Chick or without, the pop 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 singleRUFUS to anarrangements art on form.”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

70 MAY 2010 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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