BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Wrecking Ball

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE BNobody’sRUCE Daughter SPRINGSTEEN[Universal] The first album released Wreckingunder the Hole moniker Ball since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really [Columbia] frontwoman Courtney Love’s Although Bruce Springsteen’s latest unmistakably second solo album—co-founder, featuressongwriter a couple and of lead blistering guitarist sax solos from the lateEric E Street Erlandson Band mainstayisn’t involved, Clarence Clemons—a soundnor isnow any othercharged previous with Hole emotionmember. for So fans it’s Lovemissing and three theringers Big onMan— 11 Wreckingnew songs—10 of which Love wrote with Ball is mostly a Springsteen collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new solo album. Working with guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, producer“Letter to God.”)Ron Aniello (Lifehouse,Much ofGuster) the riveting the Boss intensity of the group’s 1990s employsheyday moreappears outsiders to have left along with her former Daniel Jackson thanbandmates, E Streeters but on there songs are fl ashes here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once triangulatingfury Love the deployed sparse, todusty such devastating effect back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, feelShe of 1982’sspits out Nebraska her vocals and with the vengeful rambunctious disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-downBruce Springsteen feel that folk of 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger 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 Sessions. Springsteen’s first set of new material since 2009’s Drawn” and “Jack of All Trades.” The album is a mix of up-tempo end. She shifts tempos and attitude on the more contemplative history suggests that she has a compelling story to tell, and Working“Pacifi onc Coast a Dream Highway,” is a protest taking album stock asin thelayers classic of acoustic folk style— and folkperhaps stompers she does. like It’sthe just Celtic-flavored not the one she’s “Death telling to onMy Nobody’s Hometown,” albeitelectric updated guitars for modernchug along times behind with her.some of his most scathing quieterDaughter songs. –Eric of R.resignation Danton and, as the album veers in a spiritual and defiant songs. direction, powerful revival-meeting songs like the redemptive Starting with the opener “We Take Care of Our Own,” a “Land of Hope and Dreams” (a live staple for more than a decade COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to song pointedly questioning why Americans Dixiedon’t Chicks’ do just Martie that, now).crafting Not something everything truly monumentalworks—a rap in both interlude musical by and Michelle social terms. Moore Court Yard Hounds Springsteen’s lyrics are bracingly direct as heMaguire sets referencesand Emily onThis “Rocky cold and Ground” private set feels isn’t it,forced—but although that’s Wrecking probably dueBall more is, at to its [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright to robber barons, greedy bankers and fatHounds cats alongside delivers a core,wrote aAll bracing Days Are call Nights to action while that his mother, finds KateSpringsteen McGarrigle, as wasfired up working man’s pleas for a fair shake on songsmuch-anticipated like “Shackled and asdying he’s of evercancer, been. and –Ericthere isR. a Danton 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 ‘Wreckingwish she stepped to the micBall more often. is Court a Yard bracing Hounds ably call to 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 action that findsFor a dozenSpringsteen years, the [Mercer Street/Downtown] as 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 WAINWRIGHT busier and his sometimes on their latest, Fire Away, include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- firedAll Days Are upNights: Songsas naughty,he’s occasionallyever been.’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 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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