Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

ISSUE #25 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE NNobody’sICK CAVE Daughter & THE BAD SEEDS [Universal] Push the Sky Away [Bad Seed] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sThough he’s demonstrated a penchant for sonic mayhem over the years, second solo album—co-founder,Nick Cave is often at his most unsettling when he turns down the volume. songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,In fact, some of the songs are downright menacing on his latest with the nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andBad three Seeds, their first new album since 2008’sDig, Lazarus, Dig!!! These ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotenine with new tunes simmer darkly, as spacious minor-key arrangements flow collaborators like Billy Corgan,around Linda Cave’s Perry smooth, and new foreboding voice. Brittle piano and a deep bassline guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) frame woodwinds on opener “We No Who U R,” and there’s a threatening Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haverumble left along in thewith backgroundher former Daniel Jackson of “We Real Cool,” as Cave bites off lyrics in a 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 suchcaustic devastating murmur. effect Theback tensionin the day. recedesthey were on showcases “Wide Lovelyfor harrowing Eyes,” displays with of glimmers naked emotion, She spits out her vocals ofwith electric vengeful pianodisdain andon “Skinny ticking Little guitar Love framing sounds more understated, dispassionate affectionate these days. The vocals, production Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-down feel that speeds up as the song butraces it’s toward back a climatic in full pile-up force at onthe “Higgsdoesn’t fi Bosont with her visceralBlues,” persona. a nearly Courtney eight-minute Love’s 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,”drone taking stock with as apocalyptic layers of acoustic lyrics and andperhaps hypnotic she does. guitar. It’s just notAlthough the one she’s there’s telling onplenty Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton of room in these songs, Cave and company give them a claustrophobic air COURT YARDthat HOUNDS crowds in Aand side becomes project of impossiblenew offering suggested to resist. that –Ericits creator R. was Danton 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 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 ‘Althoughdemonstrates there’sthat, whether plentywith their fellow of Dixieroom Chick in or without, these songs, Cave 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 and company give themFor a aclaustrophobic dozen years, the [Mercer air Street/Downtown] that 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 crowdsWAINWRIGHT in and becomesbusier impossibleand his sometimes toon theirresist.’ 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 #25 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

Load more