JULY/AUGUST 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE JNobody’sANE KRAKOWSKI Daughter [Universal] The Laziest Gal in Town [DRG Records] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is “Ireally hate to use the C word this early in the evening … but welcome to my frontwoman Courtney Love’s second solo album—co-founder,debut in cabaret,” says Jane Krakowski on the live recording of her 2009 songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,run at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency in New York City. The Broadway nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andand three TV actress knows full well the pitfalls of the format, and sprinkles her ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteshow with with inspired reinventions, like “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” collaborators like Billy Corgan,as a funk Linda jam/rap Perry and andnew 1940’s “Zip” turned ode to Twitter. Elsewhere, guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) she unearths lesser-known gems from Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveand left Jerome along with Kern, her former often astonishingDaniel Jackson in their modernity. As on 30 Rock, 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 suchKrakowski devastating isn’t effect afraid back in tothe put day. characterthey were showcases first here, for harrowingtrusting displays her robust of naked voice emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsto roiling shine atop without an elastic acrobatics bassline that or evendoesn’t a help—the Broadway-belter songs have an airless,ballad. sanded-down That makes feel that 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 end. She shifts tempos andfor attitudean airtight on the comedymore contemplative show, buthistory as asuggests recording, that she it’s has missing a compelling a bit story of razzle- to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”dazzle—just taking stock as enough layers of acoustic to hope and she perhaps soon shemakes does. her It’s just studio not the debut. one she’s —Katie telling on Dodd 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 ‘Aswish sheon stepped 30 to Rock,the mic more often.Krakowski Court Yard Hounds ablyisn’t afraid 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 to put character firstFor a dozenhere, years, thetrusting [Mercer Street/Downtown] herTijuana 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- robust voicenaughty, to occasionally shine.’ percussion-driven blast of salsa-fl avored ska; “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” All Days Are Nights: Songs 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 AS SEEN IN: JUL/AUG 2010 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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