MAY 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE SNobody’sHAWN COLVIN Daughter [Universal] All Fall Down [Nonesuch] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sProcuring master guitarist and Nashville alt-country staple Buddy Miller second solo album—co-founder,as producer ensures authenticity in the Americana world—just ask Robert songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,Plant, who tapped him for 2010’s Band of Joy—but Shawn Colvin needs no nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andsuch three thing for her first new album in six years. Her history with Miller is very ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotedifferent. with She sang in his band early on and later toured with him, Emmylou collaborators like Billy Corgan,Harris andLinda Patty Perry andGriffin new as Three Girls and Their Buddy. Like her other seven guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) studio albums, All Fall Down skillfully documents Colvin’s emotional ups Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveand left downs along with with her honesty former andDaniel Jackson humility. Producer Miller recruits numerous 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 suchguest devastating stars, effect including back in theHarris, day. Alisonthey were Krauss, showcases Jakob for harrowing Dylan, displays Bill Frisellof naked and emotion, She spits out her vocals Marywith vengeful Chapin disdain Carpenter—yet on “Skinny Little theLove songs, sounds especially more dispassionate supple these ballads days. Thelike production “On 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 Myraces Own,” toward “Change a climatic pile-up Is on atthe the Way” doesn’t and fi t “Fallwith her of visceral Rome,” persona. never Courtney sound Love’s forced tumultuous or 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,”overplayed. taking stock as Likewise,layers of acoustic “I Don’t and Knowperhaps You” she does. and It’s the just title not the track one she’sbuild telling gracefully on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton before culminating in compelling refrains. It’s those nuances that keep All

COURT YARDFall HOUNDS Down standingA side tall. project –Lee of Zimmermannew 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 ‘Likewish she her stepped other to the mic moreseven often. Court studio Yard Hounds albums, ably All Fall 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 Down skillfully documentsFor a dozen Colvin’s years, the [Mercer emotional 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 ups andWAINWRIGHT downs withbusier honesty and his sometimes and on humility.’ 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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