NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE JOHN LENNON Nobody’s Daughter Gimme Some Truth [Universal] [Capitol]

The first album released under the Hole moniker since BOX SET 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’s “Look at me,” sang John Lennon in 1970, with the Beatles’ second solo album—co-founder, songwriter and lead guitarist bitter breakup just behind him and an uncertain new Eric Erlandson isn’t involved, decade ahead. “What am I supposed to be?” Every great nor is any other previous Hole songwriter asks that question in one way or another, but few do so with the ruthless member. So it’s Love and three ringers onhonesty 11 new songs—10with which Lennon pursued it through a solo career rich with contradictory of whichimpulses, Love wrote wild with course corrections and—of course—an abundance of terrific songs. collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new guitarist Micko This Larkin. four-disc (Perry gets box full setcredit charts on one tune,Lennon’s course through his final decade by reshuffling “Letter tohis God.”) body of work thematically—one disc each is devoted to songs keyed off social issues Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s (“Working Class Hero”), women (“Woman,”Daniel Jackson natch), self-examination (“Borrowed Time”) and heyday appears to have left along with her former bandmates,his butearly there influences are fl ashes (“Roots,” here of the essentially snarling an expansionToo often, of though,the 1975 the slowercovers songs album tripRock her up. ’n’ While Roll ).once fury LoveThe deployed juxtapositions to such devastating are occasionally effect back in theintriguing, day. they and were lesser-known showcases for harrowing tracks like displays “Oh of My naked Love” emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdrivenand “Steel guitars and roiling Glass” atop sound an elastic surprisingly bassline that strong doesn’t interspersed help—the songs with have Lennon’s an airless, acknowledgedsanded-down feel that speeds upclassics, as the song but races anyone toward looking a climatic for pile-uprare or at previously the doesn’t unreleased fi t with her visceral material persona. will Courtney be disappointed. Love’s tumultuous end. SheNever shifts tempos mind and that—the attitude onreal the drawmore contemplative here is the jaw-droppinglyhistory suggests thatlustrous she has sound a compelling quality. story Gimme 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 guitarsSome chug Truth along sounds behind her.immensely richer and fullerDaughter than. –Ericany R.previous Danton release of these songs. The reissue campaign that brings us this set also includes a 12-CD box, a one- or two-disc COURThits compilationYARD HOUNDS and individualA side rereleases project of of neweach offering solo suggested album, thatall itsblessedly creator was unaffected a few strides closerby to Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. the Courtexcessive Yard Hounds loudness, needlessMaguire andremixing Emily andThis coldartwork and private and set track-list isn’t it, although fiddling that’s probably that marreddue more to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright the most recent round of HoundsLennon reissues delivers wrotein the All earlyDays Are 2000s. Nights whileIn any his mother,configuration, Kate McGarrigle, the was music made during John Lennon’smuch-anticipated tragically briefdying soloof cancer, career and theresounds is a quiet, better complex than sadness ever. –CN 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 ‘Thelead vocals real (“Gracefully”) draw is so here warmly affecting is the that listene jaw-droppinglyrs 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 demonstrates that, whether with their fellow Dixie Chick or without, blend of salsa, ska, samba, funk, and hip-hop lustrousthese ladies’ talentsound runs deep. quality. –Katie Dodd Gimme Some Peacein 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 soundsR immenselyUFUS richerarrangements andon Rufus fuller than 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- any previousAll Days Are Nights: release Songs naughty, of occasionally these percussion-drivensongs.’ 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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