REVIEW: NAS - MAGIC

4/5

The Magic Hour. 

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Queensbridge area. Not a rapper was stirring, except Nasty Nas causing mass hysteria. A surprise at midnight from a carriage, all the way under your tree. Pure fire. Smokin' like a chimney. Sweeping everything up and away with its presence. To infinity and beyond with no buzz. After suffering from a 'Kings Disease' for over a year quarantined in the studio, the LeBron James of New York and the rap game, like 'Bron the NBA, is back with some true 'Magic' for the purists. All as he and sole producer Hit Boy on an album with no features (save standout 'Wave Gods' featuring A$AP Rocky and legendary 'Nas Is Like' producer DJ Premier) like J. Cole not wanting to 'Let Nas Down', create rabbit out the hat magic like Orlando. So much so the Yankee big hitter and his new producing partner forming a dynamic duo in Gotham have rocked the 90's black Orlando Magic pin stripes for a photo-op back in the studio. Big Nas rocking the 32 of the notorious B.I.G. Shaquille O'Neal, whilst Hit Boy hits up the number one and only, Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway. This O.G. back for the "trapped in the 90's" crowd (hands up) is not retiring to Florida. Like Jadakiss losing weight said about "getting chubby and (moving) to Miami, defying death". Instead he's taking it back to the 'Illmatic' days like the vibe of the timeless, young don, sepia album artwork photo. Because 'Magic' is 9 tracks like that and instant classic ready for your vintage vinyl. After August's second disease, Nas' third album inside a calendar is less than a half hour like the illest. All killer. No filler. It's time for some magic. 

'Speechless'? You will be after you've heard the first track that goes harder than an express L train. Have you ever heard a mic drop on the opening track? Well, you have now with lyrics from Nas like,"I’m twenty-one years past the 27 Club/It’s like I went back into my past and then I sped it up/Robert Johnson, Winehouse and Morrison found where Heaven was/Heaven on Earth, this s### is magic with no fairy dust/Home of the gully, gangsta, the gruesomе and the scary stuff." Scary hours indeed. Nuanced nostalgia like all he needs is 'One Mic'. That's all he needs. Then Nas gets ready to 'Meet Joe Black' like Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins meeting fellow Academy member, Brad Pitt once upon a time in Hollywood. Fathering the game slaying, "Why would I ever have to cop a chain again/When the QB chain birthed most the chains in the game?/No post office was stampin' time/Took out a slice out of the Big Apple, made apple pies, family sized/Leather bombers and Nike Sacais/Dangerous corners, you better pray that tomorrow arrives/Rap Sugar Ray Robinson, nothin' sweet/Y'all too out of shape to even box with me/Heavyweight, I know my way around the ring/Just like shawty know her way around the store/Makin' hits with Hit-Boy, all he gotta do is hit record." Hitting from all corners like Pitt's pre-angel getting hit hilariously by all those cars (I'm not sick...Google it). Yeah this is 'Ugly' like taking it bloody, but this is gully. And in this beautiful art form of street poetry how else would you even want it? 'Nasir' hasn't had it like this since a Kanye only produced seven track also in black and white. It's a good look. 

Halftime is upon us as Nas tennement takes us to '40-16 Building' for the best track of the stack, chugging like carriages. "I got that feeling, Lionel Richie, Dancing on the Ceiling/Hope it resemble a Van Gogh when you paint me the villain/The hate is real but you should know that the love is way realer/Crafty with a pen way before I could pack 'em in/Nasty with dreads, a slim teen, young, I was passionate/A brand new book cracklin' sound when you open, I'm writin' gems/I make gospel in thе booth it might sound like I'm writin' hymns." Giving us the ghetto gospel this Christmas. He, the God's Son is painting a perfect picture with "these hip-hop scriptures" (word to The Game) from the QB apartment block view of the city that belongs to him. This is what makes the 'Hollywood Gangster' one of the most famous faces alive when it comes to real hip-hop he pronounced dead on that albums arrival. Giving it a revival and that very note an interlude nod before keeping our heads doing the same in time and kind on 'Wu For The Children' that for the Tang-Clan, pays tribute to Shaolin's finest. Nas truly is 'The Truth' like "Beanie's first LP", or like fellow concrete jungle, streets of New Yorker and constant collaborator Alicia with her own 'KEYS' and Pusha T, reopening Sigel doors 'Plentiful'. But it's the warrior song closing cut 'Dedicated' that shows Nas is exactly that with his big-three LP's since 2020."When Carlito was dying/He see the shadow of his girl dancing with the baby/Like, "F### it, it's my time", but if God save me/Maybe I'll erase any vice that could potentially bring harm to me/Before I make a move, I think about it karmically/Everything come back like a boomerang/I'm black as Paul Mooney slang." Giving us more magic after catching lightening in the bottle twice with 'Kings Disease' and its sequel. Sure we loved watching the throne, but there's 'Blueprint 3' Jay-Z and then there's 'Blueprint' Jay-Z. All brawling like a "white tiger out the cage, Mike Tyson in '88". The heavyweight with the tile belt after another bout out the hole like Foxx playing iron. In the same season we get fellow New Yorker Norah Jones 'I Dream Of Christmas' first festive LP and Marvel's 'Hawkeye' coming home for the holidays in the Big Apple, Nas gives us something we've been waiting for like the unauthorised biography of KRS One for his second book after 'Street's Disciple' Rakim, paid in full. And you know the man who "takes Summers off because (he) loves Winter beef" always delivers like the big guy. See the Kingpin's 'Lost Tapes 2'. Only another Jones in Norah puts more down for the record. Radio may be going nowhere in this streaming age that sees albums swiftly Taylor made for surprise releases, from 'Donda' to 'Drake'. But with this album of the year that takes us back, titled the same as a new age Springsteen classic, just as short, but anything but sweet. Everything else gets split in two. Now you see Nas. Now you don't anything else but, 'Magic'. How'd he do it? TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Meet Joe Black', '40-16 Building', 'Wu For The Children'. 

REVIEW: NORAH JONES - I DREAM OF CHRISTMAS

4/5

A Holly Jolly Jones Christmas.

DUMBO, Brooklyn. The world's most famous bridge in the background as a bicycle rolls into frame across the cobbled streets that lead to that classic view of New York's other iconic gateway heading back to Manhattan. Christmas lights wrapped around the spokes like tinsel. Leading a St. Nick bike trip through the B.K. like a Santa Dash with one that looks nostalgically like Richard Attenborough's 'Miracle On 34th Street'. All the way to a rooftop Christmas party full of "friends that feel like family" and good times. Striking a pose in a matrimony of photo booths, beard face pulls and playing with Chris Kringle hats like cheerleader pom poms. As our smokey, smouldering muse winks at us fondly. Coming out of the cold of an atmospheric winter like steam from NYC manhole covers. Open it up like presents in just a few more sleeps, because that time of year has come round again. When Norah Jones gifts us with yet another record for the singer who gets out more albums these days than our older relatives this season. Last years safe as houses at home 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor' was proceeded by her 'Begin Again' new way of making music. Not to mention her second album with her Puss N Boots 'Sisters' that came right after their own Christmas 'Dear Santa' EP. Or her ''Til We Meet Again' live album that began this year to tide us over until the next time. And this full album will pick us up the same. Greetings from the most magical city in yuletide. Coming home for Christmas just in time like Marvel's 'Hawkeye' series, wrapping up its finale tonight in a bow as Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld take one. Like we wish we only could return to our residences, corona quarantined at a distance. "Last year was so hard with all the friends I couldn't see/Christmas without you was not as bright as it could be/I pushed through those winter nights just wishing you'd appear/Please say that you're coming home for Christmas time/It's only Christmas once a year/Do do do do do do", the performer who even gave us homemade concerts during corona last year soothingly sings on 'It's Only Christmas Once A Year', like a warm blanket after another year of discord behind our own doors. Making it count even if we can't fly home (hands up, lost in Japan. I miss you being close my beautiful family). All as she reaches for the star on a classic, dressed up cover that feels like its 'Not Too Late', with iconic New Yorker red shining like Christmas tree neon. On her tippy toes touching the tippy top like the top of the Empire State Building she recently cold, gloved hands played her piano on in concert with her band and the winter 'Boots' of fellow Puss, Sasha Dobson. Snow and good feeling falling all around this fall from the 'Come Away With Me' diamond singer who really takes us away in faraway land nostalgia tonight. 

October gave us this set like Christmas coming early. This month gave us deluxe wrapping. And in an August rush this writer didn't even have the time to tweet if it's too early (not anymore) to watch Sofia Coppola's 'Lost In Translation' reunion like 'On The Rocks', 'A Very Murray Christmas' yet. And in the blink of an eye its here and I may not even get the chance to make it on my list. But the singer who performed with Bill Murray and Puss N Boots as well as her own Christmas covers over the calendars gives us not only one of the greatest Christmas sets of all-time with outstanding, original new classic and a small sprinkling of legendary standards with her iconic vocal take, but one of her best actual albums. From 'Come Away' to 'Day Breaks' and all 'The Fall' of the 'Little Broken Hearts' and Willies in between for the jazz, new age, genre bender songstress. An eighth wonder for the album of the same number, just like fellow New York as they come piano icon Alicia's 'KEYS' (also unlocking one of the greatest hits of her accomplished album career, this month). This is a real album to add to her classic collection. Nuanced and not some nice nostalgic novelty for the holiday sales. This 'Feels Like Home' like Dolly Parton's 'Christmas On The Square'. Or the Gaslight of Brian Fallon's anthemic take on the 'Night Divine' standard. Not to mention Ben Harper's instrumental 'Winter Is For Lovers'. Or John Legend's 'A Legendary Christmas' by the fire like a yule log. Tank's 'A Classic Christmas Night' and 'A Very She & Him Christmas' to name just a fond few. But this one tops them all on the tree and it's thanks to the stunning single and vivid video from this 'Jolly Jones' for the 'Christmas Calling' that calls back to the classic, homaged hums of 'Sunrise' as this year begins to set like this one in our unconscious memory. "I wanna hear the music play/I wanna dance and laugh and sway/I want a happy holiday/For Christmas/I could call you on the phone/Sing a song, it feels like home/Instead of feeling all alone/This Christmas," Jones sings to our jonesin' hearts in kind who are really feelin' it. All we want this Christmas, Mariah, is a Happy Christmas. And maybe a sing-a-long to you too. 

So come on and come one, come all like everyone welcomed at the door of her home here in enthusiastic embrace...even with our elbows. No matter if you're wearing the same ugly sweater. It's a good look and it's all love with a piano by the fire in the snow globe album title track 'I Dream Of Christmas' to stocking fill your advent calendars with more hallmark harmonies. "I dream of Christmas/Snowflakes in the air/I dream of Christmas/Beauty everywhere/Fa la la la la la la la/Fa la la la la la la la/Fa la la la/La la la la la. Sing along at home. It's coming like Coca Cola holiday trucks. Just look out your 'Home Alone' window and give us a wave like Culkin's Kevin. Because red sweater on 'Lost In New York', there is nothing quite like this right now. Like a sleigh riding through Central Park similair to a carriage. All the way to the romantic ice rink and the 'Christmas Glow' for a Norah signature. Or the 'Blue Christmas' classic from many a live show, brought to the studio setting for this Blue Note record. Christmas, what a time to have the blues like Bill somberly staring from the window of another hotel to the city. But it's just been one of those years...again. Still, Miss Jones once more is here to provide a beautiful balm to all that. Dreaming of a 'White Christmas' like that unmistakable track, or Chipmunk creator Ross Bagdasarian's 'Christmas Don't Be Late'. Not knowing again that it actually might be cancelled in the end. But not this time. As like mistletoe and wine, Norah gives us a fine 'Christmastime' ("Can you believe it's Christmastime/Sometimes the joy is hard to find/All around the world/There's still ways to be kind") and a moral message for this greeting card for the seasons. Reassuring us that walking in this 'Winter Wonderland', 'You Are Not Alone'. "If you are tired/And if you are scared/You're not alone/If you were good/If you were bad/You're not alone/Jesus was born/On Christmas Day/Gave us his love/To make our own way', showing us the right Manhattan sidewalk path on Christ's birthday, like a star at night.  And this one shines on 'Run Rudolph Run'. Loading up all the presents for our dear hearts now 'Christmastime Is Here'. Longing for 'A Holiday With You'. Asking, "Would you like to spend Christmas with me?/Would you like to sit under my tree." Uhh, YES! But Christmas shoppers and sales staff alike, we know how annoying these albums become when played on repeat as the needle falls more than the ones on your tree. So even though right now this is the moment (from 'O Holy Night', to 'The Christmas Waltz'), 'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?' Because like a Tank thanksgiving turkey ('Thankful For You'), Jones adds another decoration dedication to her first holiday album in this 'Last Month Of The Year'. "Here's the jackpot question in advance" she builds up to ask. Ringing in the New York, New Year in Times Square like a Dick Clark ball drop, Norah is still rockin' around the tree. "When the bells all ring and the horns all blow/And the couples we know are fondly kissing/Will I be with you or will I be among the missing/Maybe it's just too early in the game/Ah but I thought I'd ask you just the same/What are you doing New Year's/New Year's Eve/Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight/When it's exactly twelve o'clock that night/Welcoming in the New Year/New Year's Eve." Yet again, all you had to do was ask. Get your roasting chestnuts into this. This gets us into the spirit like the 'Christmas Carol' ghosts of past. No matter the Dickens. Even if this Christmas can't be a reality like last, Norah Jones makes it all a dream. Merrily on high. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)', 'Christmas Glow' , 'I Dream Of Christmas'. 

REVIEW: ALICIA KEYS - KEYS

4/5

Songs In The Keys Of Life.

Speak it to the highest power. Alicia Keys is the truth, like T.I. said, "Beanie's first LP". Or like the Sigel sample after the classic piano featuring Pusha T 'Plentiful' to push start this album to a tee, as 'KEYS' opens doors. The sequel to 'Alicia' is here, unlocked...and it's as original as it gets. Through the keyhole like Lloyd Grossman, this decadent double disc of 'Originals' and 'Unlocked' tracks is the eighth wonder from a woman who remixes her own damn songs. Take that Diddy! From the beginnings of 'Songs In A Minor' that's celebrated more anniversaries than grown folks. To the last first name status like Kobe album. Alicia has done it all. From the pages of 'The Diary Of Alicia Keys' that took her superstar status and history book confirmed it as legendary. To all the other legacy making albums and even last years amazing autobiography, 'More Myself: A Journey'. One that saw swear jar stories with Prince and finally had the reveal of someone who understands how much I was moved by Tom Hanks' operatic aria explanation to Denzel in 'Philadelphia' of Maria Callas' compellingly heartbreaking 'La Mamma Morta'. Complete with chapter beginnings from the who's who of the industry with spoken word audiobook accompaniment. From Bono to Jay-Z. Oprah to of course Swizz. And the albums to drop the needle next to this bookshelf addition to the songsheets for the classically trained pianist? The 'As I Am' perfect portrait of a 'Superwoman' (yes she is) that 'No One' can touch in black and white. 'The Element Of Freedom' that heard it for New York, even if it's hard to sleep with a broken heart and things on your mind in the Empire State of made dreams that never does (but, best believe she was ready). A 'Girl On Fire' like Minaj or Marylin. Ignited and still 'Here' like the no make-up, even more perfect portrait in black and white of an album as fresh as a 'Blended Family', or the Winter steam out of the grids of the Manhattan streets she turns into Broadway as electric as Times Square. No one is more concrete jungle than her. From the braids to the crowning Queen earrings she can rock just like Mary J or Beyoncé. After a four year break to make her family the most important thing, Alicia came back last year in a time where we all had to stay home, working harder than ever. From finding out about Kobe Bryant, his daughter GiGi and everyone on that fateful flight's tragic passing and then performing a tribute at the Grammy's with Boyz II Men at STAPLES, a place that will always be that (no Crypto) and Kobe's house. To taking the stage to the streets and all the names of those slain to show the world that Black Lives Matter. Alicia arguably had her biggest and most important year and this is the Grammy winner that went diamond more times than wedding rings. Now, still in matrimony with her muse, 'KEYS' unclocks another album to put under your tree this Christmas. With the gladest tiding for you Pips tonight. 

New York, New York like Sinatra, Hells Kitchen like Ramsay's own is home, cooking up two sides to this story like a Masterchef (second reference, Grossman?). All at the same time her 'Quantum Of Solace' Bond theme partner Jack White going platinum blonde on blonde is mixing his own material anew like there was no time, forget another way to die. She has a license to kill, Beastie Boys ill. 'It's On Again' for this high scoring talent like Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire potentially (practically) joining Tom Holland for a truly amazing Spider-Man in this falls 'No Way Home'. The 'Originals' serves at the "classic side" of this modern icon who Hall of Fame really is a GOAT like a King James basketball version. Whilst the coin flips to 'Unlocked' and a "whole other sonic experience." All for 90 minutes of two halves of 26 tracks that kick it like a movie for the 'Smokin Aces' star who has made her big city and bright lights American dream like something straight out of Hollywood. But flipping the script you can hear and feel it perfectly on the crowning royal blue beginnings of 'Plentiful' with Pusha that showcases the showtime of this albums abundance. It's winning time like the Lakers on HBO as the former Clipse rapper shoots from the hip. "The devil's always preying on the weaker souls/All that we can know, it was all good just a week ago/Prada carry-ons, off to Mikonos/Celebrating life on white sands, but only we can toast/Still got it cheaper though, scales like a Libra, yo/Playing on these keys like Alicia, that's her secret though/Only on the need to know, nah, you don't need to know/Had to tell the truth on this beat like Beanie Sigel though, Push." This kind of track reminds me of the hidden bonus times in 'A Minor' that Keys was rampaging around with Bus-a-Bus and the Flipmode Squad rhymes. Or taking it back to the 'Streets Of NY' with Rakim and Nas' state of mind and rhyme. Setting it off perfect like the two stunning singles in lead for soul, gospel and R&B's leading lady Alicia, like Aretha, blending genres like family. The new 'If I Ain't Got You' in 'Best Of Me' ("You get the side of me/I would hold back and not reveal/You feed the mystery/You are my red and my blue pill/It makes me come alive/Don't be a lie, it feels so real/You get the best of me.") that in this music matrix like a Keanu Neo and Carrie Trinity resurrection reunion this month plays great on both sides of this white dress matrimony. No matter which hand you choose. Laurence Fishburne or Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Time to fly! Or the Swae Lee hand lent 'Lala' that 'Unlocked' like the Khalid and Lucky Days assisted amazing 'Come For Me' does anything but stay mellow, as said once by Common who had Keys in his 'I Want You' video. Someone who is also unbelievably in the couple of calendars of his storied, classic career with his part in the 'Beautiful Revolution'. Televise this! 

'Alicia' has wrote songs about neo-soul queen Jill Scott though. Called Jill Scott. FEATURING f###### Jill Scott. How's that for layered in this world of multi-verses for her last chapter? But here the truly unforgettable 'Nat King Cole' is like Lenny Kravitz's-who had his own magnificent memoir ('Let Love Rule' taking us back to leading us to his first LP) out last year too-'Johnny Cash'. A delightful dedication as worthy of the weight of the biggest name it's devoted to like the love letter to the dearest it helps write in the same light and regard. This is the best as Keys reads, "So if you wanna leave alone/You gotta put on your finest/If you wanna sing your song/You gotta put the time into timeless/If you wanna take it all, let the chandeliers fall (Fall)/While you standing tall like the Taj Mahal/Be unforgettable/Like Nat King Cole/Like Nat King Cole." If only Nat or Natalie were here in duet. But best believe, they can hear this soul all the way in the heavens it was sent from. Like Prince passing his gently weeping guitar to George. The Carter, Lil' Wayne unlocking even more. His version is unforgettable too. 'Daffodils' on the light of either palettes shade is as beautiful as Van Gogh canvassing in one, single, pure gesture. Whilst the neo Raphael Saadiq 'Skydive' hits all new heights leaving us lost for words like the sickness of high altitude. "Sometimes it's pouring rain/Houselights are out/And I need you to follow my direction/Yeah, follow me, I'm falling out/Like in movie, hold my hand," she sings. We told you as cinematic as they come. Until the hip-hop Hollywood remix. There's no 'Dead End Road' here as she keeps flying with 'Billions' of gold bullion in her budget like Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. 'Is It Insane'? You're damn right! And that signature jazz track as smokey like a Robinson miracle and smouldering as fellow most famous like Madison New Yorker piano woman, Norah (Miss Jones...as if like Alicia you needed a surname), who has her own 'Dream Of Christmas' out now, is such a throwback even Billie Holiday could feel it between the smoke of a packed house of white tableclothed house seats under lamplight. With the lightest, tender touch of the feather drum. This might just be the best of her album and career. As seductive as they come like making fire with Maxwell in New Orleans, turning the mic up. It gets even sexier on 'Love When You Call My Name'. Singing "Even if I go for miles and hours/There's only one thing that I need, only one word you say/Love when you call my name," on another pair of Saadiq's for this triple like Tony, Toni, Tone as 'Only You' comes into dedication play like Ashanti. This one is perfect for the 'Old Memories' like that nostalgic track too, as 'KEYS' is signature Alicia all the way to the title closer. 'Paper Flowers' with country star of the moment Brandi Carlisle also strings and comes together as perfectly as Origami. Whilst Austrailan 'Chandelier' swinging singer Sia brings hidden depths of writing with Keys on 'Like Water', that mono-no-aware flows like a stream through the seasons that brings the old thing back that heart and soul we could only wish returns to sender. "And if the drought hits tonight/Do not fear because you and I/We are like water, like water/Made to survive", Keys sings over Sia. And in our collective one last year, Alicia came out swinging and singing. Not just surviving, but thriving. Like Bruce Lee, she be water. Helping the game grow from the garden of all her works in beautiful bloom on the eve of a new year, as the ball drops in the Big Apple's Times Square, Adam. One of the generations greatest just gave us one of her best albums for the record. The keys to the world of music are back in Alicia's piano playing hands. And she's not closing the lid. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Plentiful (Originals) Feat. Pusha T,' 'Nat King Cole (Originals)', 'Is It Insane (Unlocked)'. 

REVIEW: RICK ROSS - RICHER THAN I EVER BEEN

 

3.5/5

Rich Ross. 

Welcome back to the Port of Miami! Where Rick Ross brings more Heat to South Beach than a LeBron James throne changing decision. Or when the 'Will' of a 'Bad Boy For Life' named Smith called this place where it ain't no surprise to see Sly Stallone in the club, his second home. Raise the glass of Rozay in a city so hot they have nightclubs without roofs (I still can't get over that after my 2006 trip! How can you get thrown out of a club that's actually outside?). Because now in a world of Kings and Fresh Princes, Rick Ross is 'Richer Than I Ever Been' ("I". Me? Well...that's not much of an achievement) with his long awaited eleventh album, coming out of quarantine two years after his 'Port Of Miami' classic sequel. A few months after his Maybach Music artist Wale's (who appears with Future for the better days of 'Warm Words In A Cold World') own 'Folarin II'. A couple more after 'Certified Lover Boy' Drake battled now new friend Kanye and 'Donda' for not only rap, but album of the year. The same Canadian who called Ross the best rapper alive (did Thanos just snap his fingers again?). All on the same day Alicia's new 'Keys' opens doors. Rapping on the title track, "Heard they hear them twenty-times their momma screamin', "Hallelujah"/Rep the same block but where we from that's how they do you (Huh)/If you from the city, boy, you better rep the fullest (Brr)/I came for the money, twenty B's and that'll do it (Ah)/I'm the only to fill the dope boys in them arenas (You see it)." Now the notorious B.I.G. rapper with an infamous introduction to his 'Little Havana' ("Problem was I never was a prodigy/Possibly, my biggest flaw is lack of modesty") intro with Willie Falcon and The-Dream on the hook, working all this out after losing some of that body fat like Joe, still moves real weight like Joey Crack across the Atlantic. 

F### with him, you know he's still got it. The man who once rapped, "if she dies on my d###, she'll live through my rhymes" (how reassuring for her parents) may never win 'The Pulitzer' (God forgives 'Teflon Don', I don't), but on the track of the same name, he's going for the rap one. "Twenty million cash, yes, that's called success/Thousand acres, my own metropolis/And he still hustle with dominance." The "King of all Kings" this Christmas with a brick under the tree like the 'Trilla' rapper says on his 'Imperial High', wanting the crown back like the 'Rather You Than Me' album cover. The 'Hood Billionaire', 'Mastermind' going 'Deeper Than Rap' on the 'Marathon' cut that really outruns not only the game, but those playing the world like they care enough to change it. "Envy won’t be tolerated, so let’s cut this conversation/And true love what I got for mine, otherwise it’s complicated/Fake s###, just a fantasy, things you may have contemplated/Judas was a politician, made up like a Ronald Reagan/This is just a war on drugs, tell me how you feel about it/Black lives really matter now, tell Emmett Till about it/George Floyd was face down as you n####s stood around it/Did your little FaceTimes, left the neighborhood astounded." Now that's worth the Pulitzer in this swipe away world of stories that last 24 hours. These lines will last forever in rap legend for the man who made his own legacy, despite 50. Adding the outstanding 'Outlawz' ("I got a line of cars wrappin’ ’round the block/And livin’ better than these rappers rappin’ ’round the clock/I built a golf course and a car porch/Since everybody askin’ “Where your cars goin’?”/Mozzarella, now its only tall cheddar/Most dope boys been a Paul Bearer/Package the product then you pick it up back in Bahamas/Talkin’ them dollars, how I touch it, come off as a profit.") like Tupac featuring 21 Savage and a classic Jazmine Sullivan chorus to the 'Aston Martin Music' of his most successful singles 'Speedin'' down Ocean Drive. 

Boss like Springsteen, Ross ravishes the game like it was already slain with Benny The Butcher, making meat out of the 'Rapper Estates'. And a meal too for his own ticket to ride. Taxing the rich with lines like "backs against ropes, win a case/Then it's back to bein' broke, I know the place/Where the rats and the roaches would race", that will never see the Maybach of his music impounded. Acting like raps Ali with references to blood brother Malcolm, by any means necessary. On the 'Wiggle' with Dream Doll for that Derulo and Dogg chart-topping money. Sales figures will be a luxury tax for Ross once the boss of all bosses unleashes 'Can't Be Broke' like the dog (word to the late, great DMX. Rest peacefully) in his voice, as Yungeen Ace and Major Nine help with the down payment. It seems like after years of collaborating in blockbusters, trading rhymes like NBA deadlines with the Young Money likes of Lil' Wayne and Drake that Rick is now rolling with the young future like 'Big Rings', now he's 'Made It Out Alive' like Blxst. "War stories, my mama made it through the Holocaust/Candle burnin', the people came, they cut the power off/Full of hatred, then come the questions, is the family Satan?/Everybody gotta show they hands, trust me, be patient/Negativity grow like weeds in the flowerbed/Seen Gs turn into fiends, get a thousand years." Again the man that once bragged about not giving 100 grand to Haiti because "that's a decent watch" has grown and stepped his rap game up. Bringing that Young Jeezy, epic energy power bar rap back. And this is like protein powder to your speakers. No snowman, even if 'tis the season and the city of vice like Grand Theft Auto, or rolled up Crocket and Tubbs sleeves before Farrell and Foxx. But taking it back like Shaft or 'The Look Of Love' Isaac Hayes (frequent collaborator John Legend once compared Ross to the Chef) sample that's been an urban staple from everyone from Damian Marley to Jay-Z, can he live? All as he leaves the competition from the exhaust of his Maybach in 'Hella Smoke' like Wiz Khalifa. What colour is it this week? Black or yellow? On the greenback album cover of 'Ever', a white party suited Rozay is on the almighty dollar like the last name of his logo for this baked dozen. But he's got more than money on his mind as he cashes in on his lines. When it comes to the stakes and stacks of rap royalty, Rick Ross is a rich man. Uhh! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Outlawz (Feat. Jazmine Sullivan & 21 Savage)', 'The Pulitzer', 'Warm Words In A Cold World (Feat. Wale & Future)'. 

SONG FOR THE MOMENT: JOHN MAYER - LAST TRAIN HOME (BALLAD VERSION)

5/5

Sob Core.

Laugh now, sob later. Catching the 'Last Train Home' conducted by John Mayer and its locked down video quarantined in Union Station (similar to this year's Regina King hosted Oscar's like 'One Night In Miami') was always going to be my song of the Summer and therefore year. Because even this Christmas, 'tis the season. Just like the 'Continuum' classic album man's latest LP 'Sob Rock' was going to be for the record because of it's 80's porn. Cry me a river like Timberlake or Bublé. I'm sorry Tyler! But this is my favourite creation. What else can you expect for an 80's baby like me taken back to the future with a haircut still stuck in that past (what's left of it anyway)? A man so obsessed with the videotape nostalgia of 'Stranger Things' like he was the time he went to New York in the pre-COVID Summer of 2019 for the fourth of July fireworks to coincide with the independence day themed (no, not just welcoming aliens to earth) third season of 'Things'. Set not only in the year, but the month I was born in 1985. I was excited as the New Yorker watching the premiere of the then new 'Spider-Man' sequel ('Far From Home') next to me (again pre-corona) when in the movie Spidey actually landed in front of the cinema adjacent to Madison Square Garden that we were actually watching the movie in ("HA! He's outside!"). Mayer's times gone by mesmerizing 'Sob Rock' guaranteed not a dry eye in the mothers basements of those still living in their second childhood. Missing the good ole days like they do their hairlines. Now realising they're as old as Doc Brown. Great Scott! This was something you kids might not have got, but your parents for sure were always going to love it.

Synths scintillating you like a Springsteen 'Human Touch', the on fire 'Battle Studies' of this young pretender heading through a tunnel of love to lucky town had everything you could want from the hair spray days of perms and mullets. From 'Shot In The Dark' videos that rotary phone dialled up references to that revered time and staring through windows of rain clichés. Or glass imitations like our 'Friend' Joey Tribbiani when he broke up with Chandler. Even the sports car riding commercial campaigns drove this motion home like a cassette into the tape deck. You just had to pop in this pop art throwback. But for all the sobs, nothing beat running for that 'Last Train' like chasing after the carriage your lover departs on (bye, Chandler). That was until the 'I Don't Need No Doctor' live legend prescribed a whole new take of this heartbreak warfare form of transportation. The 'Ballad Version' of 'Last Train Home' and its accompanying studio session video even instrumentally has an intro like something straight out of an era genre sitcom (word to 'WandaVision'...check your TV guide, but I'm sure you tuned in). But when this song gets going in live from the studio form, it really is on. You don't need another alternative like 'Good Love Is On The Way'. As Mayer brings back more solos in vogue than Destiny Child break-ups. Strike a pose, axeman. Even if you are a bassist like that 'Seinfeld' intro. Sideline, true story; I've been watching that show so much on the FIRST train to work that I'm having nightmares of Jerry axe-murdering me with that bloody bass whilst screaming, "THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY!" I know that's the 90's, but have you seen those fashions? "Is this still CNN?" Clearly it took us a minute to leave like visiting our family for the holidays (if only. Miss you, my closest). 

That old thing comes right back as Mayer sings the lyrics, "If you wanna roll me/Then you gotta roll me all night long/And if you wanna use me/Then you gotta use me till I'm gone/I'm not a fallen angel, I just fell behind/I'm out of luck and I'm out of time/If you don't wanna love me, let me go/I'm runnin' for the last train/I'm runnin' for the last train home." Words that carry you home with so much more meaning drawn out like long drives. And boy are they drawn out. Its like how Jamie Foxx 'Straight Out The Foxxhole' described it in church. The difference between black and white singers when it's time to devote, 'Today Is Our Wedding Day'. Your average white version takes a standard three minute, minus the half hour of bowing. The black version? "Tooooodaaaaay is our wedding daaaaaay. Oh yes, it is." About 45 minutes according to Foxx. But act like you've got some sense like  Jamie and see that John has soul too like a Pixar picture. He could even stretch that out like calisthenics to the next evening. Even if he was told to "shut the f### up" in a barbershop on 'Chappelle's Show' when his guitar was used as a litmus test, social experiment for the effect of music on people from stripping in the office, to fighting in restaurants. Just wait until Dave breaks out Questlove and some Spanish piano. But the 'Bittersweet' with Kanye singer who also told Common to 'Go' repeatedly just be's over the rails of one of his most revelatory. The music is having such an effect on him, he's playing possessed. There's a bit in his break were the solo is so good he starts talking to himself and looking at his guitar like it was a cute dog and he was patting it like, "there's a good boy". Add his piano man like Billy Joel shaking his head in unison to John like a puppy too and this is all love like heart and soul across these electrified strings. All before the climax of what looks like he's going John Lennon 'Cold Turkey'. What better way to put the stamp on an 80's album than to bring the most epic, excellent instrument back to today like Bill and Ted for all you wild stallions? Even if you did miss the previous 'Last Train Home', like waiting all day and then two come at once, it seems like there was another, just right behind. Roll that! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

REVIEW: HAYLEY MARY - FALL IN LOVE EP

4/5

Loving A Jezabel.

Surprise! Christmas has come even earlier this year as holidays are coming faster than pine needles falling off the tree you still haven't had time to put up yet. Hayley Mary has given us another extended play after last years 'The Piss, The Perfume' and 'The Drip' of this years one better release that will never break 'The Chain' of her incredible run, pissing excellence. Right after her fellow band member Heather Shannon released the 'Midnight Sun' of a piano perfect album in quarantine and recovery. All as the band themselves, The Jezabels have announced on the ten year anniversary of their 'Prisoner' they will be unlocking that album and touring it next year in reunion. We'd hope for more from the band itself as we're sure a new album is in the works too, but we've already been so spoilt with such good music from the members of our favourite band and best Aussie one since Michael Hutchence and INXS. Why have expectations, when everything is already so great, Dickens? Now out of nowhere we're told to 'Fall In Love' with Hayley Mary. Way ahead of you. She can't be stopped. Turning the festive sparkle of this album artwork into the actual video visual. Hayley Mary right now is releasing more EP's than record store day. You've got to love it this fall. 

Dripping with songs, the last EP gave us one hell of a catchy song released off 'The Chain' and a 4K video of decadence. And the rest of the cuts never let up like asking 'Would You Throw Away A Diamond' in this 'Unholy Winter'. But it was the 'Young and Stupid' lesson over perfect piano that played us a moving message. Pick up that phone, before it's left ringing all alone. "When you’re young and stupid/When you’re young and you think/You got time, you got time to spare/You know that’s just a lie that they tell/Telephone line never gonna ring again/You wouldn’t think it was the last time", the singer who sang, "don't tell me to smile, when for all you know I just buried my mother" warns. Heed that cell and make it. Now, falling in love on this EP's title track with more than an album worth in the bank she sings, "your highs and lows/trials and blows/do we even like the same old songs/do we even really get along", all "window panes", "chillblains" and finger guns in the seventies sparkle of this cuts video. But it's 'The Young' that really hits, stupid. "It's time to go while you still can/it's time to take another chance/when patterns turn to rocks inside your brain/and it saddens me to say/I think it only goes one way/if you stay in town/it'll burn you down/if you stand your ground/you'll go." Wise words from a legend who previously told the young to dial in, now engaging them with message not to hold the line on their own time. Pick it all up. 

M.A.R.Y. furthers her signature sound full stop with 'T.E.A.R.' and she really is on a tear. Living and learning with "every teary eye". "If I was you I'd listen/instead of pissing away the years/this is a lesson learned, my dear," she continues on her lyrical vision and mission for people experiencing it to learn from their mistakes and not make the same one like a record on repeat. But we'll keep spinning this one until we waltz like Christoph around that notion like the beautiful old couple in the Jezabels 'Look Of Love' video from 'The Brink' like it was time to dance. Don't waste your time in heartbreak until its too late. Besides this is the time to 'Fall In Love', even if it does come out of nowhere like this EP. Now if that doesn't strike you down, 'Bullet' will like a Steve McQueen car chase in San Francisco for the Sydney singer by way of Byron Bay. The butterfly wings of this new romantic seventies sound floating with lyrics like, "I love that bullet/but I touch and as I see you shooting by/tears well in my eyes/I loved you more." Six shooting us and triggering any nostalgia over the one we used to hold by our waist, who now swipes past with someone else riding shotgun as quick as the dismissing fickle hands of fate going left and leaving us in the dust. It all comes to a close with '27' like that year was just yesterday away and not the age of a decade. "We watched the lives of stars and vagabonds/What future lies your house gets carried on/It's shining in the eyes of whores who'll open doors can have it all at the age of 27." These are the kind of her storytelling legacy making lyrics that Patti Smith or PJ Harvey would be proud of. But this is Hayley Mary's time to love now. And under our trees there's no better surprise this fall. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Fall In Love', 'The Young', 'Bullet'. 

REVIEW: ADELE - 30

4/5

30 For 30.

Hello again, from the other side. Adele is back and this is the only time any of us born around the 1980's have looked forward to '30'. Here's to the biggest album of the year...and maybe her career history, rolling in the deep. Performed on the worlds biggest stage like London's Royal Albert Hall and the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory overlooking the Hollywood sign in La La land for the city of stars in the same damn week. All whilst someone pops the question with an Adele assisted proposal for a couple getting together like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling characters.  Not to mention the biggest Oprah interview since Meghan and Harry ("you get an exclusive, you get an exclusive!"). She's come a long way since those Tottenham salad days, spurred on the hottest pop career not giving Swift 'Red' notice like Taylor's version. From telling you never mind, she'll find someone like you. To giving us the 'Skyfall' of Daniel Craig, James Bond themes like 'Happier Than Ever' Billie Eilish for 'No Time To Die' for 007. What more could the incredible voice give us in the same weekend we take in the Aretha movie 'Respect'? Give Adele her A.L.L. D.U.E. too, because we are in the presence of a GOAT, going through an album worth of darkness, divorce and drink. All before she comes out the other side, sporting a new look courtside at a Laker game with Rich Paul, the agent to the stars like King James. But this queen has the throne now. And as she's stacking up the ages with classic albums ('19', '21', '25'). Can you imagine just how even more legendary her legacy will be decades from now when she's an old soul with albums like '42', '54' and more? Still dancing at '60'. Multiplying like Ed Sheeran mathematics. Adele has even changed the game by having Spotify remove their shuffle button as the default option when playing albums, because after all in this ever-changing industry, "we don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended." Amen. So 30 for 30 like ESPN she can now be seen on courtside, let's go track-for-track like we always do it this time. 

Loneliness is about to be consoled...even if everyone does start crying after the first few seconds of the first track. And that's guaranteed after saying goodbye to the opening 'Strangers By Nature' with the eulogy, "I'll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart/For all of my lovers in the present and in the dark/Every anniversary, I'll pay respects and say I'm sorry/For they never stood a chance as if they could/When no one knows what it's like to be us." As assured as her having another arm load of gramophones at the next Grammy's as she rock-a-by's the competition like a baby. Then she all makes it 'Easy On Me' like a Commodore Sunday morning for this soul session of a stunning, soaring new single like the storm of colour that comes in during the leaving home, drive to freedom of the video. Sheets of music swirling around all the happy couples she drives past to her own changed lane destiny. All for someone who has gone from black and white to living colour on her perfect portrait album portraits that she did and does like the numbers. Putting this new classic next to 'Somebody Like You' and 'Hello' like Lionel Richie as one of her greatest hits. "There ain't no gold in this river/That I've been washing my hands in forever," she sings on the first sing she wrote after her divorce, in 2018. Easy money. And how about the country soul of Chris Stapleton on the Target and Japanese bonus edition of this LP that also features the heart-breaking 'Can't Be Together' and 'Wild Wild West' (no, not that one)? Because this album affords more. It could even save a few lives. She says so herself. "Let time be patient. Let pain be gracious." This album is full of more poetic affirmations than 'Milk and Honey', Rupi. 

Powerful. Emotional. Atmospheric. Heart-breaking. Beautiful. Unconditional devotion. What more can we say about 'My Little Love', the dedication to her child? Except that it's the biggest piece of her heart and maybe the best song on the album. Six minutes of every emotion and vocal introduction as she talks to hers and us as such. "My little love/I see your eyes widen like an ocean/When you look at me so full of my emotions." "My little love/Tell me, do you feel the way my past aches/When you lay on me, can you hear the way my heart breaks." There's just so much lasting lyrics here to hear that will leave an indelible imprint and your heart and a stranger in solidarity of you've ever gone through this type of aggravating anxiety in separation. And the chorus." "I'm holdin' on (Barely)/Mama's got a lot to learn (It's heavy)/I'm holdin' on (Catch me)/Mama's got a lot to learn (Teach me)." It's more than a hook. It's that sinking feeling in need of a line. It's the type to make you 'Cry Your Heart Out' ("I created this storm/It's only fair that I have to sit in its rain") like the next track or the type of rivers Timberlake and Bublé sang about, drowning in desperation. 'Oh My God'. This smoky, smouldering soul for the jazz clubs and now the pop hip-hop heads is heaven sent like the spirits from cigarette ash and vinyl dust. Singing "because my heart can pound like thunder" on the acoustic foot stomper 'Can I Get It', Adele gives us "the good, the bad, the ugly and divine" on a song that has the spurs for a wild west hoedown. "We're in love with the world but the world just wants to bring us down/By putting ideas in our head that corrupt our hearts somehow", she laments for this age of angst on 'I Drink Wine' which you should accompany with a glass of red. Even staying at home with a bottle in the fridge, it's the anthem to take your night off ice. Inviting all the Lady Gaga 'Pinot Grigio Girls'. Singing along, "why am I obsessing over things I can't control" (daily), "why am I seeking approval from people I don't even know" (triggered). All as we yearn for the one we long for that will be as true as, "everyone wants something, you just want me." Now that's the ultimate "find somebody who" meme. And look at her and 'All Night Parking' with Erroll Garner for the inspired pit-stop of an interlude. There's no woman like Adele Adkins on 'Woman Like Me' over the soul stirring strings of Lianne La Havas like guitars for another great Brit. Now 'Hold On' ("you are still strong"), we're not going home yet Hall and Oates or Drake 'Certified Lover Boy' is Adele's album of the year. And most of the industry not on 'Donda' like Kanye. But not anymore. Its '30' and everything else below now. 'To Be Loved' is to be one with the heart of this album and a Donny homage. Even for those who think 'Love Is (Still Just) A Game' in closing, channelling Amy. Don't ghost. The spirit of this one soars. Even after three decades and more than ten years since she released her first at '19', Adele is still the one. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Strangers By Nature', 'Easy On Me', 'My Little Love'.

BOOK REVIEW: JAMIE FOXX - ACT. LIKE YOU GOT SOME SENSE (AND OTHER THINGS MY DAUGHTERS TAUGHT ME)

 

4/5

Dad Keeps Embarrassing Me.

When 'Will' came out this month, movie megastar, the original Agent Smith who is even big enough to pass on 'The Matrix', showed us the way yet again. Just watch that Tik Tok that's gone about as viral as Smith's sensational second career as a YouTuber before he serves for the Oscar throne as 'King Richard' with the Williams sisters. The way that took the West Philadelphia born and raised (where's did he spend most of his days? Do you even have to ask) Fresh Prince who moved in with his Uncle and Auntie in Bel-Air to Hollywood and beyond infinity as his buzz welcomed aliens to earth. But during the age of 'Big Willie Style' and that very album for the new man in black, one of Will Smith's good friends was waiting in the wings. Or the interludes. The hilarious Keith B. Real. Do you remember? Don't act like that, you know you got it! That album sold more than Taylor Swift...or maybe even 'Independence Day' for the King of the fourth of July movie-going weekend. Still, not with me? OK. You've got Spotify. I'll wait like Will with those two guns (word to Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington) in 'Bad Boys II' when another classic Def Comedy Jam stand-up talent was trying to tell people that were shooting at them that they weren't immigration. Hilarious right!? But does that voice that's constantly getting thrown out by Smith's legendary bouncer Charlie Mack (first out the limo) and slapped by Jada sound familiar. Yep, that's right! Beat Shazam. That's Jamie Foxx. Before the Oscar for 'Ray'. 'Any Given Sunday'. Even 'Ali' with Smith, when Foxx was in Will's corner again for his 'Collateral' and 'Miami Vice' director Michael Man's boxing biopic as Bundini Brown. This compared to Smith's star stratosphere was almost a before they were famous moment, even though Jamie had his own show named after him like 'Martin'. Now as 'Will' lines everyone's bookstores and shelves Jamie has his own good book to go next to the Hollywood God. 'Act Like You've Got Some Sense' and read it too. 

Spidey senses right now are tingling at a buzz which is scrolling and sawing through the timelines and fan theories as the second trailer for this Christmases 'Spider-Man' trilogy conclusion 'No Way Home' dropped this week like bird s### made of cement. Whilst the big question and mocked up leaked photos is on whether Jamie Foxx's 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' co-star Andrew Garfield and the original Tobey Maguire will suit-up as Peter Parker alongside Tom Holland. The latters post credits cameo in Tom Hardy's connected 'Venom' movie and all those universe web weaving Easter Eggs in Jared Leto's 'Morbius' trailer has us hoping they'll go into the spider-verse like the classic animation. Besides all the villains are there like the return of Foxx's electric Electo character that gave us the most epic showdown amongst the bright lights of Times Square in 'TASM2'. Putting the big city of New York in another blackout. And you have to love the new duds and the classic comic crown call-back for Foxx. Even if we did like the Blue Man Group look in Manhattan. Let's just hope Jamie keeps the electricity in his voice. Speaking as such as he talks about the pleasure of "getting to kick Spider-Man's ass" here you have to get the audiobook version of this autobiography that will join you in company when you get ready for work in the morning and take the train home. Not only is it easier on the hands, you lazy readers that love to just scroll through stuff, it's chocked full of Foxx's sly, charismatic charm and the art form of his impressions. Everyone gets it. Sidney Poitier in regal introduction (that's Mr. Poitier to you...and me). Snoop Dogg in a meet the family moment similar to welcoming your daughters first date round in again, hilarious 'Bad Boys II' fashion (you've all done it, just not with The Doggfather). And the best and funniest impression you'll ever hear of Jay-Z. It's crazy! It sounds so much like your boy. 

Names are dropped, sure. This is Hollywood and the man who also moves in music circles and comedy circuits. This is the man that played Ray Charles and in the same year provided that voice for Kanye West's 'Gold Digger'. He took your mooooney. He hosted better parties than Diddy. Introduced Ed Sheeran to the industry. You only have to watch many a Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to see he is a master of storytelling like he is of ceremonies. Just check the one about Bobby and Whitney and whilst we're here that Denzel impersonation too that he even impressed on Washington himself. OK, alright! 'Django' has had out attention since his Mr. Cab Driver sold us and Jada Pinkett in Real reunion on his "cool groove experience" Island Limo's idea before all the 'Collateral' damage happened with Tom Cruise. But the most important name is Foxx...and not his. His daughters. Corinne and Annalise Bishop. Corinne who provides the foreword even narrates the chapter names...which are as creative as the careers of these Foxx's themselves. Earlier this year Corrine Foxx even produced her father in his return to the small-screen sitcom world for the family comedy 'Dad Stop Embarrassing Me' based on their lives. Sure, the show tanked like Jamie and our R&B friend (what's up Babbs?), and Netflix have couched and cancelled 'Dad Stop' after it barely got out the gates. But that's Netflix for you and they still have 'Project Power' with Foxx. But there was nothing embarrassing about that delightful, charming, inoffensive show that took us back to both the golden, good old days of television sitcoms before streamers and Foxx's salad days of having an Eddie Murphy family of his raw characters he created and played himself to delirious effects. It was just in and the wrong time. But how about this book? It serves as more than a sequel or a companion to the show. Instead more like a behind the scenes documentary to the family and home life of a Hollywood legend and his real, lasting legacy. Besides for all the inspired impressions and charming character, what's better than the real thing? 'Act Like You Got Some Sense', Eric Bishop's grandmother Esther Marie Talley, the woman who raised him and the tribute subject of his beautiful piano, 'Unpredictable' song 'Heaven' told him, to which he named his book. And check the dust jacket of Jamie Foxx's memoir like running a cloth over it and straight out the foxxhole you can see the words 'I Taught My Daughters' crossed out for the common sense of this books sub-heading, "And Other Things My Daughters Taught Me". Sure this book my be a parenting guide, but it's no Dad of the year hubris pitch. Even though this man is that type of father like Vader is Luke's. Instead this awesome autobiography were Dad doesn't embarrass is a celebration of love and life. The man may not be married and that's his choice and his right like it is everyone and anyone's to do what they wish with their heart, so long as it doesn't hurt another. But it's clear all he's learnt in this life and everything he continues to be educated on comes from the work and worth of the women in his life. Act like you've got some sense and listen to those teachings too. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

REVIEW: TAYLOR SWIFT - RED (TAYLOR'S VERSION)

4/5

Red Notice. 

Starbucks lovers! That STILL may not be the lyric, but Taylor has taken over your local store...swiftly. Just as she has record breaking Spotify streams for you folks this fall like countless Autumn leaves and grabs for the gram. Between passing from a pumpkin spice latte to a festive treat of your choosing you can hear Taylor Swift constantly on the green mermaids radio for your 'Bucks. But this isn't like the time that entitled U2 album started automatically appearing on your iTunes. Why? Because becoming the biggest streaming female artist in a day with a new album in the same record breaking stratosphere, everyone want to Taylor make their playists with her new version of 'Red'. All on the same day the monster Hollywood big-three of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot made Rawson Marshall Thurber's (version) 'Red Notice' the biggest opening day stream for a movie on Netflix going for that 'Squid Game' cryptocurrency. This is why 'Miss Americana' can break Saturday Night Live conventions by performing a lengthier version of classic songs that we know 'All Too Well' for ten minutes on SNL. Ladies and gentlemen, this weekend, that's star power. These 'Versions' are too much of albums in their own light and right not to be reviewed. All as this country star like a 'Nashville Skyline' going electric and then eclectic again with the acoustic is looking for her own great American songbook in this Springsteen land with a Dylan twang.

'1989' to infinity. Gaining quite a 'Reputation' amongst the industry as more than just a megastar, but one of the most instrumentally influential when it comes to inspiring the depth of this songwriting craft and how many moods and molds a song can take, Swift is back again. Even if Jake Gyllenhaal is tired of always being painted as 'The Guilty' party in her songs. Mark our words, that scarf will have its own Twitter account by the end of the week of it doesn't already. Just one year after her 'Lover' took it back to the bubblegum chart popping hits, Swift came out of quarantine with some new forest 'Folklore' for her urban legend. All before surprising us again in the fall with the 'Evermore' follow-up and it's hallowed Haim ('No Body, No Crime'), Este murder mystery (not a true story, don't worry) storytelling in the vain of the greats like she already is. Taylor returning the favour igniting a remix of the Haim sisters 'Gasoline' from the fire of last years best album in age of her, 'Women In Music Pt. III' for you wimps. And locked down in the studio when most are taking off their quarantine protocols like they are their masks (let's just wait a little longer) don't write off her releasing a brand new album by surprise again to close out the calendar. Although this new shade of 'Red' for the artist whose making that lipstick as iconic as Dylan shades needn't with these 'Fearless' new versions that in a fall that sees releases from the likes of Adele and Coldplay will still be one of the biggest albums and best ones to find under your tree in its presence this Christmas.

I remember hearing the original 'Red' for the first time a year and change after its release (no man wants to hear 'We Are Never Ever Gettting Back Together' whilst in the midst of a bad break-up, but what an iconic, empowering track and new take) leaving a new home and walking with no place to go but following the sun on one Summers day off back home in Britain. The drums and guitars of the epic 'State Of Grace' opener kicked into play, kickstarting my day and mood on this tailor made record for the scorching season. My mood was instantly on a high of self solidarity in that moment. This is what all those classic Taylor refrains from letting a bad boyfriend kill her vibe no matter how famous he is must feel like. Now the mood is much calmer, wistful in this empheral 'Mono-no-aware season of impermanence and all its pathos. But the 'State Of Grace' is still the same. Even if it communicates the message in a more gentler way. Grace is still beautiful. Grace is still kind. Grace is still her. And of course like the mother of all pop icon legends for this modern era Britney Spears emancipation herself from her conservatorship (BRITNEY IS FREE!), all these vivid versions of far from cash-ins. Taylor Swift doesn't need the money, she wants the masters. And these countermeasures against the changed ownership of her first six studio albums is a master move. And they even sound all the better for it. But don't pay any respect to the man, real victories belong to those who turn life's lemonade into 'Lemonade' gold...no I'm sorry platinum, forgive me, diamond records like Beyoncé. And now the biggest queen in music we know not called Knowles is about to get it like the Carter, no Kanye. Come on over to this 30-track, movie like album that even comes with it's own one ('All Too Well: The Short Film') for the country great who can even outsell Shania. Man, what it must feel like to be this woman. Take that as read. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 30 for 30, everything and all versions of all albums that are without a doubt...hers.

REVIEW: SILK SONIC - AN EVENING WITH SILK SONIC

4/5

Silk Game. 

Good evening. No. Make that a great one. The best night of your life like a Jamie Foxx album. Now act like you've got some sense. Smoother than Showtime Jamaal Wilkes silk, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak have gone Supersonic like Seattle in Motown for some uptown funk. Giving it to you like the 70's funk of soul train at the next stop. This is 'An Evening With Silk Sonic' with special guest host Funkadelic Bootsy Collins himself for the best half hour you've had all weekend (c'mon now...you know that only took two minutes). All for the most eagerly awaited, long anticipated album for not only the release of the year, but one we've been waiting for since these two got together in 2017 like you and that special someone, for the record. Back when the California rapper .Paak opened for Honolulu's very one Mars' 24K Magic World Tour when Bruno was colder (until now) than a polar bears toenails (as OutKast Big Boi once said) for your Speakerboxx. Now taking it three-stacks below the love like Andre, the 'Versace On The Floor' and 'Finesse' singer and the 'Ventura' and 'Malibu' rapper collaborate for the supergroup of supergroups and the one-two punch checking these mics with these nine wonders. And to think this was all just "a joke two friends hatched on the road" between crossing Abbey Road like The Beatles and working in London with Nile Rodgers and Guy Lawrence for the Chic album 'It's About Time'. And now it's about time for this evening too. 

Good Golly, Miss Molly. After their Grammy introduction (you can expect them to be back for the 64th annual award event) paying tribute to Little Richard like 'Long Tall Sally', the 'Leave The Door' open singers named by Bootsy himself and kicking the door in like B.I.G. were about to be that huge and notorious like "he is, he is" already was. Now blowing it out at the Shampoo Press and Curl Studio, it's time to floss like the studio or stage musical videos that make that one with Mark Ronson in the permed salon look like a pink rinse. Because 'Silk Sonic' are giving it you now...HAAA! Influenced by James Brown, Miles Davis, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin ('Respect' like Jennifer Hudson) this is the vibe as the "blaster of the universe" Collins says in introduction for this mix of 8 tracks, "fellas, I hope you've got something in your cup and ladies, don't be afraid, to make your way to the stage." Well, alright. Because 'Leave The Door Open' is more than just a breath of fresh air, it also may just be the biggest song of either stars illustrious careers. Already sounding like a Tinsletown fall favourite this Christmas like Marvel's 'Hawkeye' in New York and one of the most soaring singles of this calendar. Interchangeably sounding seamlessly unmistakable as they pass the baton like Tokyo 2020 a year later this Summer. "What you doin'? (What you doin'?)/Where you at? (Where you at?)/Oh, you got plans? (You got plans)/Don't say that (Shut your trap)/I'm sippin' wine (Sip, sip) in a robe (Drip, drip)/I look too good (Look too good)/To be alone (Woo, woo)/My house clean (House clean), my pool warm (Pool warm)/Just shaved, smooth like a newborn/We should be dancin', romancin'/In the east wing and the west wing/Of this mansion, what's happenin'?", they both sing in silk unison. Smooth to the touch. 

Skating on the second single, they really rock and roll like a stone across vinyl. On 'Skate' the pair shut it down on an outside party of drums and bongos singing, "in a room full of dimes, you would be a hundred dollars/if being fine was a crime, girl, they'd lock your lil'fine ass up in a tower." Romantic? Shut your mouth! Fresher than John Shaft on the first day of his job? You're damn right! But we're talking about .Paak and Mars too, full-stop. And like cigarette butts treating the sidewalk like an ashtray, it's the latest single 'Smokin' Out The Window' that is the greatest. Showing that even funky break-up ballads are too fly to be depressed like Ne-Yo. But this is the one like, "how could she do this to me". Luck might be more than a lady though as this perfect pair try to roll '777' at the tables. This rolls with the best of them like the cinematic masterpiece of Marvin Gaye's 'Trouble Man' soundtrack. From a top score, to the green felt of a whole new path. Nothing is 'Fly As Me' though in this funk break that feels Jay-Z 'Sweet' when he was cutting records for an 'American Gangster' like Denzel in a fedora. But it's 'After Last Night' with Bootsy and the soulful sax of Thundercat rising from the water an its euphoric, erotic desire that really stir more than the souls. Classic choruses that burn with yearn and lyrics like, "After last night/After last night, I think I'm in love with you/(I think I'm in love with you)/Woke up and I can't get you out of my head/(I've tried, I've tried, come on)/After last night, I don't know what to do/(Baby, you've got to tell me)/When I'm gon' see you again." This album really will 'Put On A Smile' on like The Joker for that matter. Especially in a time quarantined and lonely from each other socially, we dance in the living room (that becomes the 'loving room'), or on the limo, cutting a rug on the kitchen floor. All before we 'Blast Off' like a Diddy astronaut "motherf####r" classic closer that takes us to Planet Funkotron like a Mothership Connection for Bootsy's Parliament. "Clouds are blowin', don't know where we're goin'/But we're levitatin' up in this room (Ah-ah-ah)/All these colors just like rainbows in summer/Got us smilin' like our dreams just came true", Anderson gives us from his pack as Mars takes us out this world. "As we're flyin', stars are multiplyin'/Wе're up so high, we'd be fools to look down (Don't look down)/Shapеs turn paisley, this is so amazin'/Destination, pure sensation startin' right now." Now how about that? You ready?! Silk times leather. This sonic boom will have everyone clapping for another round. Hold your applause. Let's hope these two leave the door open for more. How about some other evening? TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Leave The Door Open', 'Smokin Out The Window', 'Blast Off'. 

REVIEW: BRIAN FALLON - NIGHT DIVINE

4/5

Silent Night With Brian Fallon.

Divine is the night, as it is tender. This was supposed to be the roaring 20's like Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Old Sport. But Corona locked all that down in quarantine to begin this decade, a century later. Still, we rise from Halloween with our masks still on. Into a fall were vaccinated we hope we lose no more. Trying to bring it all back on home for the holidays. The time we roar back...is now. But sometimes strength is as subtle as a whisper and sometimes the song in your back pocket that you sing is an old Sinatra standard for the great American songbook like Dylan. Or better yet a timeless hymn that takes us to the heavens and holds us close like the warm embrace of grand generations passed. By gaslight I could tell you about one who sang anthems like Springsteen. His voice alone a love letter to the Meadowlands of New Jersey. Ever since that '59 Sound', 'Handwritten' in 'American Slang' for those who 'Get Hurt'. Brian Fallon, the lead singer of The Gaslight Anthem whose solo streak has been a formidable feat of hiding in plain sight with all his hidden gems to treasure in a mainstream that couldn't measure. From all those 'Painkillers' for those 'Sleepwalkers'. Not to mention the 'Local Honey' of last year. But now with Christmas coming like mailed gifts and Zoomed present openings by the smartphone makeshift fire, our second December 25th in the planets pandemic gets an early present with the hymn book of special songs of the season from Fallon. 'A Night Divine'. "In some ways, I've been working on this record in my head since I was a kid" he tweets. For not only one of the albums of the year, but the best of its kind when it comes to the good tidings this season brings. 

A Christmas album this is not merely though. More like a complete set of hymns to praise like the Lord. But it's the perfect thing for this time of year like Ben Harper's instrumental 'Winter Is For Lovers' the last one. Starting the fire with the vivid beauty of 'Virgin Mary Had One Son', Christ his name. "Glory be to the new born King", Brian bears with a voice a little different from his trademark register. All before we finally hear it's him on his version of 'Amazing Grace', talking about how he was saved for all the wretches and Kings like a Linkin Park classic (we still love and miss you, Chester brother). "I hear 'Amazing Grace' sung a lot as a triumphant song, and it is," Fallon told press in promotion for this product. "But I always found grace to be a thing we need when we’re in defeat. When I was little, the people I heard singing this song weren’t triumphant, they were broken, in need of mercy and grace. That’s how I tried to perform this song and that’s the image I had in my mind while recording it." And you can really hear the broken pieces coming back together on this amazing version that shows grace is still good, even if it is dug from the grit of mercy before the grave. The spiritual soul of Fallon forming an album from the music that forged his earliest memories has us rising in turn for a time were we could all do with a pick me up before we really feel in the holiday mood. All as they're starting to put up the Christmas trees and play the songs in Starbucks for what seems a little early as it all comes around again so fast. But 'O Holy Night', singing about this 'Night Divine' you know Fallon's going to take us there in the late night like Jimmy before we close the curtains. 

'Nearer, My God, To Thee', Brian gets even closer to the creator. Harmonising the hymn to his sound and showing us that even when we can't see Him or hear Him, the Lord is always by our side. Just like 'Leaning On The Everlasting Arms' of this forever embrace. "What a fellowship, what a joy divine." All as he sings one of my favourites, 'The First Noel', bringing even more power to those "born is the King of Israel" glorious lines. Sing, "Noel, Noel" in this 'Sweet Hour Of Prayer' like two hands together for you or the one you love like holy matrimony. Glory to him, God and Gloria too for the 'Angels We Have Heard On High' as Fallon holds on to that name in vocal praise so beautifully. But it's the searing strings of 'Silent Night' and his version of this vision that will help you "sleep in heavenly peace" like "all is calm, all is bright". This is the kind of accessible but ascending version that could take up a stool at the edge of the local bar and bring real light out the jukebox like the fairy ones draped around the Budweiser logos and neon 'Come On In, We're Open' signs. This invite of inspiration can call a toast as you raise a glass and let the good times last in another year of hurt, because it's the least you deserve. For all you've been through and all you will too before this "dawn of redeeming grace". It's truly a 'Blessing' like that in closing as our man wishes us well and peace before the final amen. "May his favour be upon you. For a thousand generations. And your family, and your children, and their children, and their children," he sings after some outstanding organ playing for this collection, "all around you and within you". Keeping it close and leaving a little room for the Holy Ghost. Because 'Have Mercy', mercy me and remember, no matter what you go through, He is with you. Always. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Virgin Mary Had One Son', 'Amazing Grace', 'Silent Night'. 

REVIEW: LANA DEL REY - BLUE BANISTERS

4/5

Blue Velvet.

Billy 'On The Street' Eichner, who right now is stealing the show on 'Impeachment', the latest Ryan Murphy 90's era of 'American Crime Story' entertainment history amongst all that Clinton and Lewinsky pizza and sax, tweeted it best for her last album. "I honestly forgot-am I allowed to like Lana Del Rey? Anyway the new album is gorgeous." Now following those 'Chemtrails Over The Country Club' that finally flew over after all that controversy in March, the "gangster Nancy Sinatra' is getting her Neil Young and Springsteen on releasing two albums in the same quarantined calendar like the flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood of the late, great DMX used to do one when it was dark and hell was hot. And we can't forget just how much we like her with all these 'Blue Banisters' and her iconic vocals that with velvet smoothness glide down the stairs like a silk slip as her delicate hands like fingers on piano keys caress the banisters in kind. It's 'Text Book' ("I guess you could call it") like the cinematic opening to this summer dress boardwalk extension surrounded by two dogs like when she sat on a throne 'Born To Die' before all that 'Ultraviolence', 'Lust For Life' after the 'Honeymoon' and 'Norman F#####g Rockwell'. And this storybook opening love letter to her father is on a St. Vincent 'Daddy's Home' throwback level. "You've got a Thunderbird, my daddy had one, too/Let's rewrite history, I'll do this dance with you/You know I'm not that girl, you know I'll never be/Maybe just the way we're different could set me free/There we were, screamin' "Black Lives Matter" in the crowd/By the Old Man River, and I saw you saw who I am/God, I wish I was with my father/He could see us in all our splendor/All the things I couldn't want for him."

Painting her banisters blue (*don't make the "I'd paint your bannisters" joke*) with the albums title track she sings, "In Arcadia, Arcadia/All roads that lead to you as integral to me as arteries/That pump the blood that flows straight to the heart of me/America, America/I can't sleep at home tonight, send me a Hilton Hotel/Or a cross on the hill, I'm a lost little girl/Findin' my way to you, Arcadia." Subtly showing that this delicate but definitive album of classics may just be her most highway expansive and best to date in their stories that twist and turn like those flat circles McConaughy used to talk about when he was a 'True Detective' smashing beer tins. The rio Western trip of 'The Trio' interlude that breaks into some hip-hop like a big-three furthers this for the movie making music star who has worked with A$AP Rocky twice on one album like 'The Harder They Fall'. "Grenadine quarantine, I like you a lot/It's LA, "Hey" on Zoom, Target parking lot/And if this is the end, I want a boyfriend/Someone to eat ice cream with and watch television/Or walk home from the mall with/'Cause what I really meant is when I'm being honest/I'm tired of this s###" she sings in her 'Black Bathing Suit'. Before she tells you what happens 'If You Lie Down With Me' and it's brass band soundtrack scoring outro as the 'Beautiful' ("I can turn blue into something beautiful" she tells these 'Banisters') piano plays again, Sam. 

"There's something in the air/The girls are runnin' 'round in summer dresses/With their masks off and it makes me so happy/Larchmont Village smells like lilies of the valley/And the bookstore doors are opening/And it's finally happening," the 'Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass' book writer sings in this hopeful for a post quarantine age with the vaccine, trading 'Violets For Roses'. Getting her ultraviolet on. Before shaking her hands with a 'Dealer' and coming away with a whole new sound and an uncredited Miles Kane all for the reflections of the lost album that she almost put her hand to with The Last Shadow Puppets. On 'Thunder' she kills it with flowers like Brandon singing, "You act like f#####g Mr. Brightside when you're with all your friends/But I know what you're like when the party ends." Before the burning out in California of 'Wildfire Wildflower'. "Not to turn into a wildfire/To light up your night/With only my smile and nothing that burns/Baby, I’ll be like a wildflower/I live on sheer willpower/I’ll do my best never to turn into something/That burns, burns, burns/Like the others, baby, burns, burns, burns," the chorus that promises "like a million tomorrows" rings off the hook. But it's the acoustic 'Nectar Of The Gods' that going down smoothly over tangy acoustics sounds like the twang of classic Lizzy Grant. All as this 'Living Legend' extends hers like "blackbirds will sing in the same key". And boy, that guitar. Now, sakura season seems like yesterday and the 'Cherry Blossom' "on your sycamore" (steady) brings it all back like fallen petals down the river of the European like Naka-Meguro in Tokyo. "Little ghost, tall, tan like milk and honestly" getting her Rupi Kaur poetry on songwriting prose. Closing with the last letter of 'Sweet Carolina' not to be confused with Neil Diamond's "ba, ba, ba, ba" of 'Sweet Caroline'. Instead it's this Rey of light touching you with the most beautiful chorus she's ever crafted on a song that also says "f### you Kevin" like forgetting about Macaulay Culkin. All as these 'Blue Banisters' take you home in lockdown, to the place you belong. Where it's safe, your close to heart and where Lana can be herself again. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Text Book', 'Arcadia', 'Sweet Carolina'. 

REVIEW: ELTON JOHN - THE LOCKDOWN SESSIONS

4/5

Love Lockdown.

Dua Lipa. Young Thug. Nicki Minaj. Surfaces (make sure they are clean and sanitised). Charlie Puth (it's been a long time). Rina Sawayama. Gorillaz. 6Lack. Years & Years (it's felt like that, huh?). Miley Cyrus featuring WATT (I said WATT). Yo-Yo Ma. Robert Trujillo. Chad Smith of those Chili Peppers (they're Red Hot). SG Lewis. Brandi Carlile. Jimmie Allen. Lil Nas X. Eddie Vedder. Stevie Wonder. Stevie motherf#####g Nicks people. And the late great, Glen Campbell for the record. Whatever happened to social distancing? Relax, fun police! All of this is zoomed for your team-ups. This is 'The Lockdown Sessions', like the 'Genius Loves Company' of fellow piano man Ray Charles, or those Lady Gaga like duets with Tony Bennett. All finally unlocked, by who you ask? C'mon, you can tell who it is behind that mask! Thanks to those iconic bespectacled frames, a guess whose coming to dinner jacket and a bedazzled mask that this face cover collector now wants to add to his closet. The kind that Liberace would have been jealous of behind the piano if he was here with us today. A mask that also happens to not so subtly read, ELTON! Yeah, you guessed it...the bitch is back. Didn't he retire? Well from the live circuit like Tony Bennett that everyone seems to be taking a corona induced break from in quarantine. Not to name drop like the red rope guest-list of this album, but once I was working with R&B singer Tyrese (another "retirement" we hope doesn't take) in his temporary London apartment during the filming of the sixth 'Fast and Furious' when he went out with Vin Diesel and Diddy (not a name drop, I didn't meet them unfortunately). Leaving me to it (can I come?) he asked me if I wanted to listen to some music whilst I write. Pulling up his iTunes he asked me what I was into. Trying to sound like a mix of cool and not trying to be cool I came up with the first thing that came to mind. "Oh, you know all sorts. Elton John...you." You could literally see him double-take. I don't know what was more embarrassing, telling him that 'Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting' when you've got your 'Tiny Dancer's' on (for the record, there's nothing shameful about liking Sir Elton), or the fan boy fluff that followed. "Well my collection is quite extensive", he replied without missing a beat. The only thing more embarrassing was two years ago in a Tokyo Air B&B whilst making a living here I listened to his autobiography 'Me' narrated after his prologue and epilogue bookends by biopic 'Rocketman' himself, Taron Egerton. Suddenly all that could be heard from my room was, "and I told the guy, you can shove it right up your f#####g arse!"

But I digress. Rushing right out of the gates like he did on Taron Egerton's "other" film 'Kingsman-The Golden Circle', before high-kicking that guy hilariously like Saturday night really was all right. All whilst breaking the fourth-wall and looking at us on the big screen, Elton storms in with Dua Lipa and a 'Cold Heart' on the Pnau remix. All for this John's 32nd album and a classic, animated, stop-motion video as he refuses to shut the piano lid like John Legend given the 'Green Light' from Andre 3000. The groove is cool on this "human sign" reworking of one of Elton's greatest. This soaring single take us higher and back as the pair sing 'Rocketman' references, sacrificing to the stratosphere. Reimagined to new visions. Exactly what we need right now in lockdown even if "it's going to be a long, long time 'till touchdown brings me 'round again to find"...ourselves, or the rest of the wide reaching world. "I will always love you/Even when I say I don't/I will always see you/Even when my eyes are closed," John sings over more animation with Young Thug and Nicki Minaj for the snare like a Grammy Eminem 'Stan' on 'Always Love You'. The singer, songwriter, pianist and composer then really cleans up with Surfaces on 'Learn To Fly' like a Foo Fighter. Whilst 'After All' with Charlie Puth coming out of quarantine really sees you again. But it's Rina Sawayama's album of her same last name track 'Chosen Family' that really relates to more inspiration for your choosing. What the world needs now is lyrics like, "We don't need to be related to relate/We don't need to share genes or a surname/You are, you are My chosen, chosen family/So what if we don't look the same?/We been going through the same thing/Yeah, you are, you are/My chosen, chosen family." Elton also curates for this collection the Gorillaz song 'The Pink Panther' with John playing Jacques Clouseau from 'Season One' of their 'Song Machine'  for these 'Strange Timez' that like Damon Alban all feel like a Blur.

Years and Years keep the clocks and the calendar ticking and turning over for the remodel of 'It's A Sin', Dressed up for the stage of theatre, darling, like fur and peacock feathers. Or the time John stepped on top of his piano in Dodger stadium, rocking a star spangled Los Angeles uniform only made for Hollywood and knocked it out the park with a Louisville slugger. The 'Plastic Hearts' of Miley Cyrus like a wrecking ball also swing into the desert with WATT (don't make me say it again), Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo and Will Ferr...I mean Chad Smith because right now, 'Nothing Else Matters' on this classic compilation. It's just the 'Simple Things' like the country classic with rising star Brandi Carlile. Or country superstar Lil Nas X for the rapper's long awaited 'One For Me'. All before Jimmie Allen helps to show there's 'Beauty In The Bones' like "Every root turns into branches/Every question leads to answers/Even if the seed ain’t fully grown/There’s beauty in the bones/Just a drop can start a riptide/Just a word can change a whole life/Even if this story ain’t been wrote/There’s beauty in the bones". And then John and Peal Jam's Eddie Vedder keep rocking and rolling on an 'E-Ticket, even if the only way we can really travel now is digitally  or through the imagination as music's escape takes us there. "You, oh you, are still a beauty to behold/You been my muse every story that I told," Elton evokes with the loving of his lasting lyrics next to another man no stranger to the piano. You may know him, his name is Stevie Wonder. And 'Finish Line' is a marvel like Cap of 'Just Good Friends' with MJ proportions, as this collection almost reaches it's closure conclusion. Oh, that harmonica. 'Stolen Car' with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks with another classic tango in the night sounds "a little bit funny" as it hands us the keys and takes us on home. 'I'm Not Gonna Miss You' he sings with the late legend Glen Campbell ("I'm still here, but yet I'm gone" *sniffs*) for another country classic in closing. But we really will this one and this legend if roses really get thrown (along with my underpants) to Elton John's piano soon. Now John may have had to say so long (for now) to his 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' swan song tour in 2020 due to COVID-19, but with 'The Lockdown Sessions', Elton is far from waving goodbye to the end of his rainbow. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) Feat. Dua Lipa', 'Chosen Family (Rina Sawayama Feat. Elton John), 'Finish Line (Feat. Stevie Wonder).'

REVIEW: CL - ALPHA

4/5

Hello Again Bitches.

Before BTS took over the world and then 'My Universe' with Coldplay. Before BLACKPINK shouted their name in capital exclamation. Before even 'Parasite' won the Academy Award for 'Best Picture', changing the game and the name of Oscar's 'Foreign Film' category. Before the streaming 'Squid Game' even beat Netflix records for a creator who back in the day couldn't even sell the script. Before all that, the South Korean juggernaut like a 'John Wick' like assassin 'The Villainess' on a rampage, was 2NE1. Don't look twice...they're legends in this industry and pioneers like speakers to the bass power of this world takeover potential of a K Pop genre that matches catchy hooks with hip-hop stars that can actually rap and flow famously. Now a decade later the former teen idol, rapper/singer CL makes her own mark as a solo star in the world of idols that love themselves and encourage you to too, all in the name of an empowering positivity. CL is fearless, but as NPR tell us on their New Music Friday page (our weekly source of what to review, thank you public radio) this is the album were the warrior reveals her "anxieties and insecurities." This is 'Alpha' all for the beta on the 'Hello Bitches' (it's not Britney. But another emancipating icon) singers own popping label, Very Cherry. Let it floss like gloss on the lips. Kiss, kiss. Bang, bang! 

Being John Malkovich, how about the Academy actor being her biggest fan and appearing as a gold statue in her landmark video that even features a Pikachu Lambo? You've got to catch it all! "Excuse me. Do you have that sauce that is spicy? Made in Korea," Malkovich asks to begin this album with 'Spicy' that's hot like Raptor Pascal Siakam in the cold heart of The 6, Toronto like Drake. Lee Chae-rin raps with cocksure swagger in a parade of red wigs and GOAT sneers and snarls. "She got the sauce and it's spicy/You looking at the most fly Asians/You got the sauce and it's spicy/You rocking with the most fly Asians", she hooks us with, "energy, power and chemistry." All before putting on for her whole country. "Where we from/Them Koreans getting up higher/Making everything spice, now put the fliers/We can never be stopped, you getting tired." This is the anthem. Whilst the stellar second song and single 'Lover Like Me' is the sing-along ballad that 2NE1 would have been proud to catch. The new "to the left, to the left" empowering anthem of its own that like queen Beyoncé is 'Irreplaceable' with lyrics like, "Caught you out there, honey/You so, so funny/You come back running, running/Yeah, you miss my love/And you miss my money/I'll tell you something, something", sang in chorus unison. With no time to hate you so much now like Kelis when living well, legendary and rich is the best revenge as the coldest in this game. No men need apply or climb up the Rapunzel rope hair in her video to save her. This queen is in her own castle now.  Lacing up lyrics on 'Chuck' and 'Xai' keep this music xcstasy popping before CL 'Let It' ride like, "오늘도 계속해서 걷긴 걷는데/제자리인 것 같을까 매일 또 나는 왜/이제 누가 또 뭐랬는지, 누가 또 뭐래는지/쓸때없는 걱정들만 하는게/지치는 날들 속에 깊은 밤에 잠긴/환히 떠오르는 아침 나를 다시 반길/기분 좋은 소식들과 내 자신을 찾길/바라며, I'm rising, 바라며, I'm shining."

'Tie A Cherry' is the perfect bow to wrap up this new label and release, stuck everywhere like adhesive fliers on the digital, video game Akihabara streets of Tokyo, Japan. Set to seduce a whole range of artists like pulling said fruit of the stem with her same tongue. The same tongue that lashes lyrics, "Hand on my chest I'm flying/No one can see what I can see/이 세상 어딜가든 there only one and me/I can tie a cherry/Look, I got a gold tongue/몸 안에 케미." Silver draped and designed in some Cleopatra like headdresses on this album artwork that makes her look as powerful as Charlize Theron in 'Snow White and The Huntsmen', this is her moment to shine through all the linings. Just another day in 'Paradise' like channelling Phil Collins like cousins Brandy and Ray-J for the coldest play like Chris Martin with those Bangtan boys speaking at the United Nations. No longer lost in translation or worrying about two-inch characters (hello, Donald. How was your rally?) this is world unifying like a 'Siren' call to arms. But like Sinatra to be Frank, this is the 'My Way' of the former 2NE1 singer after the groups grand goodbye like Japan's Arashi, all night long like Lionel on New Year's Eve. 'Hwa' with a 'Mwah' to kiss the game goodbye. In closing this is '5 Star' like said single that should top the charts. That certified in English translation sings along, "What more do you need?/Boy I got you in my arms/I only need you/This night without a star/Shining/That ceiling above my head/Spinning around." Riding her own wave on a first solo album full of greatest hits. A decadent debut of dynamic defiance. All for the Seoul of this YG star who has been around the world-from Japan to France like konichiwa and ooh la, la-before signing with that very label at just 15. Now an OG in this game, CL is still smooth like a cherry. Very much so. The 'Baddest Female' of this Korean wave. The 'ALPHA' is here. The Alpha is her. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Spicy', 'Lover Like Me', 'Tie A Cherry'.