JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE BNobody’sOBBY WOMACK Daughter [Universal] The Bravest Man in the Universe [XL] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sSoul legend Bobby Womack has always tried to adapt with the times. On his second solo album—co-founder,first mainstream effort since the mid-1990s Womack takes another bold step songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,forward, embracing programmed beats and electronic vibes as a new setting nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andfor three his ageless voice. Co-produced by Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, much ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteof with the album is rooted in that act’s sonic territory. But the electronic bent not collaborators like Billy Corgan,only spares Linda Perry Womack and new the indignity of nostalgia, it makes him sound more guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) innovative than most of R&B’s current crop of young guns. Womack invites Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveguest left alongvocalists with herlike formerFatoumata Daniel Jackson Diawara, the late Gil-Scott Heron and polarizing 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 suchsongstress devastating Lanaeffect backDel inRey, the day.whose they vocals were showcases on “Dayglo for harrowing Reflection” displays ofhave naked all emotion, the She spits out her vocals feelingwith vengeful that disdainher own on “Skinnyrecent Little debut Love conspicuously sounds more dispassionate lacked. Yet these for all days. of the The pomp 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 inraces the toward production, a climatic it’s pile-up the stripped-downat the doesn’t fi t withtrack her “Deep visceral persona.River,” Courtneyin which Love’s Womack 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,”is taking accompanied stock as layers only of acoustic by an andacoustic perhaps guitar, she does. that It’s best just illustratesnot the one she’s his power.telling on –AFNobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton

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 lead vocals (“Gracefully”) is so warmly affecting that listeners may joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On ‘Soulwish she legendstepped to the micBobby more often. Womack Court Yard Hounds takes ably another 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 bold step forward, embracing programmedFire 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 beats and electronic Wainwright’svibes albumsas a got newyou get setting 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 for his agelessangry declarations voice.’ 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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