Soul Punk Is Ample Evidence That Stump Is Full
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NOVEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE PNobody’sATRICK STUMP Daughter [Universal] Soul Punk [Island] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sIf ever you needed proof that Fall Out Boy was primarily a vehicle for bass second solo album—co-founder,player Pete Wentz, one listen to the solo debut from lead singer Patrick Stump songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,should convince you. Largely eschewing FOB’s driving power-pop, Stump nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andlets three his funk flag fly right away on the opening “Explode,” its propulsive electro- ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotepop with resembling some of his outside work with Cobra Starship or the Roots. collaborators like Billy Corgan,Likewise, Linda “This Perry City” and new shows more of a creamy R&B sound than FOB fans guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) might be prepared for—although Stump loads the tune with instant earworms Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to havelike left the along staccato with her “ah-ah”former inDaniel Jackson the chorus. “Dance Miserable” is a highlight of 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 suchthe devastating album, with effect an back instantly in the day. infectious they were funk showcases groove for andharrowing wry displaysobservations of naked emotion,like She spits out her vocals “Thewith vengeful hippies disdain sold on out, “Skinny traded Little potLove for soundscoke/Moved more dispassionate to the suburbs, these days. found The productionGod 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 a vote.” toward Soul a climatic Punk pile-up is ample at the evidencedoesn’t fi t with that her Stump visceral persona. is full of Courtney ideas Love’s that needtumultuous 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,”a taking loud, stock varied as layers outlet of acoustic outside and a hit-makingperhaps she does.machine It’s just like not the Fall one Out she’s Boy. telling –BC on Nobody’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 stepped Punk to the mic ismore often.ample Court Yard Houndsevidence ably that 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 Stump is full of ideas that needFire Away a loud,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 Wainwright’s albums got you get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points variedWAINWRIGHT outlet outsidebusier and his sometimesFall Outon their latest,Boy.’ 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 70 MAY 2010 NOVEMBER 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.