JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE RNobody’sAVI COLTRANE Daughter [Universal] Spirit Fiction [Blue Note] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sRavi Coltrane wasn’t quite 2 when his legendary father, John Coltrane, died second solo album—co-founder,in 1967. From the start of his career as a saxophonist and composer in the songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,’80s, the younger Coltrane sought to discover his own voice. He began nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andrecording three as a leader in the late ’90s, and each successive recording has ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotefurther with established him as a significant artist—but Spirit Fiction is his tour de collaborators like Billy Corgan,force. ProducedLinda Perry andby Coltranenew and equally excellent saxophonist Joe Lovano, guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) the album teams Coltrane with two different bands, both staffed with A-list Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveplayers. left along There with herare formerno compromises—from Daniel Jackson the first notes of “Roads Cross,” 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 suchone devastating of six tracks effect back written in the day.by Coltrane,they were showcasesthe quartet for harrowing is probing, displays unhurriedly of naked emotion, She spits out her vocals andwith vengefulfreely improvising.disdain on “Skinny Two Little cover Love tunes sounds are more among dispassionate the highlights: these days. TheOrnette 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 Coleman’sraces toward a “Check climatic pile-up Out Time” at the isdoesn’t all geometric, fi t with her visceral odd-time persona. interplay, Courtney whileLove’s tumultuous Paul 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,”Motian’s taking stock “Fantasm” as layers of acoustic hovers and languorously perhaps she in does. the It’s air, just as not much the one about she’s tellingsuggestion on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton as definition. Spirit Fiction wears the Coltrane name proudly. –JT

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 ‘Therelead vocals (“Gracefully”)are no is compromises—theso warmly affecting that listeners may quartet is 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 probing,these ladies’ talent unhurriedly runs deep. –Katie Dodd and freely improvising. in 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 RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and Spirit Fiction is Ravi’sWainwright’s tour albums de got forceyou get some and 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,” wearsfor Lulu the Coltraneangry declarations name of gayproudly.’ 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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