MAY 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE PNobody’sAUL WELLER Daughter [Universal] Wake Up the Nation [Yep Roc] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is Eachreally new Paul Weller album is cause for cautious optimism. He’s never frontwoman Courtney Love’s second solo album—co-founder,really made a bad record, but over the last three decades, he’s failed songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,to recapture the energy of his seminal mod-punk trio the Jam. On his nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love and10th three solo effort, Weller comes as close as he likely ever will to a Jam ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotereunion. with That’s true in terms of personnel—Jam bassist Bruce Foxton collaborators like Billy Corgan, Linda Perry and new guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perryjoins gets him full crediton two on one tracks—and tune, performance. Despite moments of drowsy “Letter to God.”) Much of the riveting intensityexperimentation, of the group’s the1990s album is half full of hard-edged soul and psychedelic heyday appears to have left along with her former Daniel Jackson bandmates, but there arerock, fl ashes executed here of the with snarling purpose. TheToo often,better though, of the the Foxtonslower songs tunes, trip her “Fast up. While Car/ once fury Love deployed to such devastating effect back in the day. they were showcases for harrowing displays of naked emotion, She spits out her vocals Slowwith vengeful Traffic,” disdain plays on “Skinny like Littlea sequel Love to sounds the moreJam dispassionatetirade “London these days.Traffic”—only The 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 thisraces time,toward Weller a climatic is pile-up behind at the the doesn’t wheel fi t withand her heading visceral persona. for the Courtney beach Love’s instead tumultuous end. She shifts tempos andof attitudepouting on thefrom more the contemplative curb. His historyis a uniquelysuggests that middle-age she has a compelling rage, asstory further 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 guitars chug alongevidenced behind her. by the anti-FacebookDaughter title. –Eric track. R. Danton This is not the cocksure

COURT YARDkid HOUNDS of yore, butA side Weller project still of cranksnew offering his suggested guitar that and its creator speaks was a few his strides mind. 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–Kenneth related to Partridgetalent. 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 AS SEENprettiness IN: perfectly MAY suits2010 Robison’s M MUSIC more-than-capable & MUSICIANS voice and MAGAZINE 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 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 these‘Hard-edged ladies’ talent runs deep. soul–Katie Dodd and psychedelic rock, 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 executed with purpose.Wainwright’s Weller albums still got youcranks get some sense his 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,” forguitar Lulu and speaksangry declarations his of mind.’ 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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