REVIEW: MAVIS STAPLES - SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD

4/5

A Mavis Grace

We live in a beautiful world. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. As Coldplay once sang. Even if, at times (like these), it's a sad one. But don't panic, Mavis Staples is back. Back in 2019 the legendary Staples Singer singer and iconic civil rights activist gave us the instant classic of 'We Get By'. Written entirely by one of our generation's greatest, singer/songwriter Ben Harper. Now, six years and a collaborative album with Levon Helm (2022's 'Carry Me Home') later, it's a 'Sad and Beautiful World', post-COVID and with presidential problems that affect the watching and waking world almost at war. Yet Mavis is back to staple it all this bad weather together, like Jack Johnson, at 86 years of age. All on the same New Music Friday that Willie Nelson, at 91, gives us his 78th album, and second this year, for the 'Workin' Man'. As 'Willie Sings Merle'. All in honour of his late, great friend and frequent, classic collaborator, Merle Haggard.

Hey, young world, listen to these wise words. Whether making music with Maggie (Rogers), or sitting at the doily graced table of her living room, Mavis Staples invites you into her home to hear her heart. The soul singer stirs with singles, covers and new classics across the board. 'Godspeed', Mavis Staples. Like the sign of your new call to embracing arms. Your new 'Chicago' classic, singing for her native Windy City, like the late, great Prince did for 'Baltimore', down to the concrete of the streets. "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in", Staples sings over a Leonard Cohen 'Anthem', channelling Hemingway. Our collective world may seem broken now, but it's healing with helping hands like these. This may just be, not only, one of the best, but also the most important records of the year, yearning that 'We Got To Have Peace'. Mavis doing for her music what country star Johnny Cash did with his Rick Rubin 'American Recordings' in the winter of his life. Staples even covers the great country songbook's 'A Satisfied Mind', like not only Cash did, but Ben Harper once did, too, with the visionary Blind Boys Of Alabama.

Iconic, like the cover, this album is artwork in itself. The purity of songwriting and soulful deliverance of the perfect penmanship. From the 'Human Mind', to these 'Hard Times' we're living in. Especially in the country that used to give us the dream of the world. "If you ever hear that thunder/Put your eye to the sky, boy, and wonder/Maybe there's a kingdom above the weather/Oh, and whether you're gonna get on in/Is up to you", she warns on the familiar brutality of 'Beautiful Strangers'. Apologizing to Freddie Gray, on behalf of those who took his life, for what is now her most influential and incendiary track of the times we are living in, right now, that have needed to be a-changin'. It's why the title track hits even harder with lines like, "Sometimes days go speeding past/Sometimes this one seems like the last." Speaking not only to the impermanence of one's individual life, but also, these dark days and the pain we can't seem to make past. The same racism and hate is as alive as the day Mavis Staples and her sisters sang against it as young stars, but like Ben, she believes in a better way. One that, in closing, tells us, 'Everybody Needs Love'. That we do...and we need to show it, too. Life is a beautiful struggle. Let's work at making it easier...together. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: ''Chicago', 'Beautiful Strangers', 'Anthem'.

Spin This: Mavis Staples - 'We Get By'.

REVIEW: WILLIE NELSON - WORKIN' MAN: WILLIE SINGS MERLE

4/5

Working On The Highway

Friendship is the foundation of everything. Love, marriage and family. At 92 years young, American and country icon Willie Nelson has met many on the long and winding road of his life. But with his 78th album (amazing), he honours one of the best. Nelson has been giving us no half measures over the last couple of calendars. Forget that, over each and every decade he's strummed strings and breathed into microphones across stages and plains. But ever since 'The Border' of 2024, he's been on a tear like a runaway American dream Springsteen sings about from books of Bob. Even though it was far from that, the 'Last Leaf On The Tree', last November, was beautiful. And this year he already showed us 'Oh What A Beautiful World' back in April. Now, this November, in fellow beautiful black and white, he's still a 'Workin' Man', as 'Willie Sings Merle', set off by the strong single of the 'Workin' Man Blues'. Two albums a year from a ninety-something? Now, that's work!

It's not a young man's game, or world any more, as the greats come out the gates this New Music Friday. Not just Willie, but soul Staples Singer, and activist, Mavis Staples with another classic ('Sad And Beautiful World') to follow up her iconic return of 2019's 'We Get By'. Meanwhile, all the kids are trying to use new self-aggrandizing terms on podcasts and social media to tell us how humble they are, when these legends just put the proof in their pudding. Now, that's really letting someone cook. Instead of talking about ourselves, we should acknowledge and honour others, and that's exactly what this 'Workin' Man' does. Dialled to eleven tracks, Willie sings the songs of his late friend and frequent collaborator, Merle Haggard, who passed almost a decade ago. It's a legacy recording, produced in part by Mickey Raphael, recorded in Nashville's East Iris and Blackbird studios, plus the Pedernales Recording of Spicewood, Texas, USA. All for almost forty minutes of fantastic music to take you away in the shotgun of your car.

Haggard was one of the greats, his influence was just that inspirational. With Willie, he recorded four studio duet albums for the record. It all began in 1983, with 'Pancho & Lefty', and ended in 2015, with 'Django and Jimmie', one year before Merle's death. As classic as the pair of men in black sitting on a leather couch for the album cover, this set takes off on 'Silver Wings'. Singing all the little bits of country for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 'Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down' ("Well, each night I leave the barroom when it's over/Not feeling any pain at closing time/But tonight your memory found me much too sober/I couldn’t drink enough to keep you off of my mind") shows you can't even turn to booze when you're bruised. Whereas, 'Today I Started Loving You Again' is a beautiful affirmation to the vows of love renewed. 'Swinging Doors', mind you, is classic 'Hello Walls', Willie with lines like, "I've got swinging doors, a jukebox, and a barstool/And my new home has a flashing neon sign/Stop by and see me anytime you want to/'Cause I'm always here at home 'til closing time/I'm always here at home 'til closing time." The neon glare above the pool table green, illuminating the lonely yearn. Playing the winner, 'Okie From Mskogee' keeps everything rolling like those dice of life. 

'Mama Tried' to make a good man, and she did with this one who tells us, through another, that, "Dear old daddy, rest his soul/Left my mom a heavy load/She tried so very hard to fill his shoes/Working hours without rest/Wanted me to have the best." These records aren't just legacy, they're legend all the way to the 'Ramblin' Fever' closing, with you know what kind of medicinal prescription. This compelling collection could really bookmark the great American songbook, somewhere north of a Nashville skyline. Even some of the darker turned pages, like 'I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink'. 'Somewhere Between' all this, is the hope for better days to come, like the old ones of old glory, sang here, as Willie and Merle fly the flag from here to the great beyond that Staples sings about also, this week. Closing in on a century, this man can dream too, and on the penultimate powerful, 'If We Make It Through December', the sage says, "If we make it through December/Everything's gonna be all right, I know/'Cause it's the coldest time of winter/And I shiver when I see the falling snow/If we make it through December/Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime/Maybe even California." Sadly, this album also marks the last record Nelson shares with both long-serving band members Paul English and his elder sister Bobbie Nelson. Yet the Family Band plays on in the hereafter. For Merle. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Workin' Man Blues', 'Today I Started Loving You Again', 'If We Make It Through December'.

Spin This: Willie Nelson - 'Oh What A Beautiful World'.

REVIEW: FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - EVERYBODY SCREAM

4/5

All Born Screaming

Scream if you want to go faster, machine heads. Florence Welch and one of the best British bands now (like The Last Dinner Party), and for all-time (akin to Fleetwood Mac), are back with their sixth studio album on Polydor. And their first since the contagious 'Dance Fever' of 2022. 'Everybody Scream', from the 'Lungs' of a 'Ceremonial' band as 'High As Hope', might just be the best Florence + The Machine album since 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful'. As the inspired and influential indie outfit gives us the titular single, plus 'One Of The Greats' and 'Sympathy Magic' that speaks, no screams, to the times that we are living in that are a-changin' now. Welch even channels Cate Blanchett playing Dylan ('I'm Not There'), smoking and smouldering behind shades in the back seat of a classic car, singing, "And with each bedraggled breath, I knew I came back from the dead/To show you how it's done, to show you what it takes/To conquer and to crucify, to become one of the greats/One of the greats." Proving that she really is that.

Spellbinding in its creative building, like the deluxe "chamber versions" of four formidable tracks, this LP comes after tragedy and life-altering surgery for Florence. During the 'Dance Fever' tour, Welch suffered a miscarriage. Now three-years later, she is back for everybody with messages amongst her trademark gothic and mystic folk. All for an album inspired by witchcraft and magic, just in time for Halloween with its last day of October release. And this is the Autumn album for your fall, packed with powerhouse records like 'Witch Dance', 'Sympathy Magic' and 'Perfume and Milk'. From a teasing carousel of Instagram images back in mid-summer, to the eight wonders of fisheye-lens amazing album artwork that comes now for a group as classic as these photographs tones. "You can have it all", Welch wrote. Along with "clarity = power' and "swans vs. Adele" for the biggest battle of the calendar. With testaments like 'The Old Religion' and 'Drink Deep', even the amazing 'I Drink Wine' singer wouldn't stand a chance, rolling in the deep, if swans and signets sang these songs.

Digging a hole in the ground and screaming in it for the perfect emotional release, this epic album, and it's lead single's video of the same name, walk proud with everybody behind it. The physical copy buckling down with one of the best breakup records as 'Buckle' tells us, "Oh, baby, I just buckle my resolution in tatters/'Cause I know it won't work, but make it ache, make it hurt/I'm not better than this, show me what I'm worth/Keep me a secret, choose someone else/I'll still be here hanging off, I'm hanging off/The buckle on your belt." It's deep and pulls you in, like the tentacles of the same 'Kraken' Johnny Depp once faced off, like the drink of the same name, in the 'Dead Man's Chest' of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ("hello, Beastie!"). This is not 'Music By Men', or Florence's "second favourite frontman", as Welch takes it to an ignorant industry like Haim's 'Man From The Magazine', c###s! "Breaking my bones, getting four out of five (sorry)/Listening to a song by The 1975/I thought, 'F### it, I might as well give music by men a try'", for her Murakami ballpark moment. 'You Can Have It All', the penultimate track tells us, and she does. But 'And Love' is the perfect closer looking for more to come. "And love was not what I thought it was", she sings, as she breathes out in a meditative release. All before telling us "peace is coming." One and all. This is for everybody. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'One Of The Greats', 'Buckle', 'And Love'.

Spin This: Florence + The Machine - Dance Fever.

REVIEW: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - NEBRASKA '82 (Expanded Edition)

4/5

Deliver Me From Nebraska

Tracks will take you through Bruce Springsteen's definitive, and now, in most CD cases, deluxe discography of his great American songbook. Although this runaway American dream takes you by road, not rail, for the working man who loves cars as much as he does the love of a good woman herself. This summertime, Bruce gave us the long awaited sequel to his 1998 'Tracks' box-set with 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums'. One that specially delivered actual ones, 'Somewhere North Of Nashville', like my new favourite set, the 'Streets Of Philadelphia' sessions. That was the theme song, from the Oscar winning Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington movie 'Philadelphia', that got me into Springsteen in the first place. With 'Jerry Maguire's' 'Secret Garden' actually being my favourite Spring song. And these unreleased 90s gems, from the "lost period" of The Boss, were the sessions that finally made my father a Bruce fan...and I couldn't be prouder. But there's more. 'Tracks III' is already being put together as we cutting room floor speak, and before all that, it's time to celebrate another classic album anniversary...albeit a few weeks late. Can you blame him? The Boss is a little busy.

Delivered on the same day the long-awaited and highly-anticipated Bruce biography, 'Deliver Me From Nowhere', starring Emmy winning actor Jeremy Allen White, of 'The Bear' fame, hits theatres, 'Nebraska '82' gets even more cinematic. The original 'Nebraska', featuring the title-track and strong singles, 'Atlantic City' and 'Open All Night', not to mention cult classics such as, 'Johnny 99', 'Highway Patrolman' and 'My Father's House', was two sides of one of Springsteen's greatest LP's. And after many reissues and bootlegs, this epic expanded edition gives you even more 'Reason To Believe' ("Still, at the end of every hard-earned day/People find some reason to believe"). It's a 'Used Car' full of stories, like the four that pull us to the end of this album on this closing curtain. Now, we're in the new age, where vinyls and crates are replaced with Spotify's and streams, you can see this same car, from the classic cover, with snow on the windshield, in black and white, pull across this long highway of broken American dreams and runaways. Just don't let the 'State Trooper' pull you over. Because he's got another story to tell, too.

This road, from 'The River' singer, was a darker turn in devils and dust. Off E Street, and one man alone, without his band of brothers, much like when he went through a 'Tunnel Of Love', depression and divorce. The sixth studio album from Bruce and Columbia Records was recorded unaccompanied on a four-track in his Colts Neck, New Jersey home's bedroom. Isolated and inspired to reach higher. This sparse and stripped-down set was favoured over the big band approach, but now you can hear what that all sounded like as 'Nebraska '82' goes electric like Dylan. Hearing 'Atlantic City' like this, is like hearing 'Atlantic City' live from New York on many an E Street Band album, in concert. Just like the live acoustic versions of his signature song 'Born In The U.S.A.', that really reveals what that song is truly about. That classic take gets its official album release here too. And aside from the original Green Day, end of September release date, what better day to release this reissue, than on the day 'Deliver Me Nowhere' is released? Springsteen's life and career is too huge for one movie (we could still see Juilliard classmates Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain reunite for a third time ('A Most Violent Year', 'Scenes From A Marriage'), to play Bruce and Patti), and Jeremy's portrayal focuses on these 'Nebraska' sessions.

Following last year's PBS special, 'Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska: A Celebration In Words And Music', these unreleased B-Sides and rarities take you back even further over the horizon. Purists have tracked the likes of a 'Pink Cadillac' and 'Downbound Train' before, as these outstanding outtakes are finally whistle official. Yet there's more darkness on the edge of town with the 'Losin' Kind' and 'Child Bride'. And we all know about 'The Big Payback' from a man who sang about troopers letting their brothers run free and judges sentencing men to more than 99 years to make it even. 'Working On The Highway', Springsteen is 'On The Prowl' ("Night after, night after lonely night my head don't touch the bed/I'm on a two-lane blacktop cruisin' in my rocket sled even more"), but it's the 'Gun In Every Home' that rings out even more to the problems in the boot-cut America, Bruce Springsteen sings for, from the blue jeans to the tied boots like these. "Some nights I put my baby to bed and I shut out all the lights/I sit downstairs in the living room and I listen to the sounds of the night/I stare out my window onto a street so empty and alone/Filled with two cars in each garage and a gun in every home/And I don't know what to do, no, I don't know what to do." By far one of his critical and best records, released only now. Yet what else could you expect, other than a sprung surprise, from a man who is 'Open All Night' in black and white? Just like the 'Live At The Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ' recordings from today that show us the path is still paved the same. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: NEBRASKA: 'Atlantic City', 'Mansion On The Hill', 'My Father's House'.

NEBRASKA '82: 'Gun In Every Home', 'Atlantic City (Electric Nebraska)', 'Open All Night (Live At The Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ)'.

Spin This: Bruce Springsteen - 'Devils & Dust'

REVIEW: CHRISSIE HYNDE & PALS - DUETS SPECIAL

4/5

The Great Pretenders

On the same New Music Friday that Haim give us a deluxe version of one of the best albums of the year ('I Quit') and The Last Dinner Party confirm themselves as the new women in music ('From The Pyre'), an absolute icon also takes to the stage. The great Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders is back for the first time since the groups 'Relentless' album of 2023. All for her first solo set since the 'Stockholm' singer was 'Standing In The Doorway' singing Bob Dylan in the times that were a-changin' in 2021. And this time, performing more classic covers for the great American songbook, and some other hymn sheets, she brings some 'Pals' along for the ride of 'Duets Special'. Just like when Ray Charles knew that 'Genius Loves Company', or Tony Bennett closed out his classic career with his own 'Duets' sets. Some of these faces in Hynde's corner may be familiar to you, too.

Playing pretend with the best in the biz, Chrissie opens up proceedings with a thing going on alongside the great K.D. Lang for the one and only 'Me & Mrs. Jones'. Only Chrissie and K.D. could make this Billy Paul classic so much more sultry, holding on to the "me-eee-eee-ee's". The Parlophone record serves this as a single, alongside the Rufus Wainwright assisted 'Always On My Mind'. Like Presley, on his. As a matter of fact, all these greatest hits could be a single on another great record from Hynde as she plays pretend. But rushing in, from 'Can't Help Falling In Love' with Mark Lanegan and Elvis, to the 'Love Letters' with Shirley Manson that will be left like anything but garbage, this is another classic to add to a definitive discography that is far from a pretender. Country, jazz, rock, pop. All avenues are traversed on this musical journey. Lucinda Williams 'Sway(s)', whilst Debbie Harry of Blondie joins the raven bombshell on 'Try To Sleep'. There's 'Dolphins' with Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan for 'Tron's' Ares, and more power from Cat Power on 'First Of The Gang To Die' for an artist that is getting finer than wine.

"Oh, come back to me/Darling, you'll see/I can give you all the/Things that you wanted before/If you will stay with me", yearns and burns on Brenda Holloway's soulful 'Every Little Bit Hurts' featuring Carleen Anderson. You can really feel it on this version, too. Highlights on this set include making a killing with Brandon Flowers on the 10CC 'I'm Not In Love' that is played as perfectly as Huey, back when he was with the Fun Lovin' Criminals. Although, no pretty picture could hide the nasty stain that the FLC apparently did to Morgan. 'It's Only Love', a Beatles son performing his pop's record, Julian Lennon, replies afterwards. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys closes things up nicely with the devotion of '(You're My) Soul And Inspiration', after his own duet album ('No Rain, No Flowers') with Patrick Carney, this calendar. And Alan Sparhawk also gives us a fine 'Country Line' in honour of Mimi Parker in tribute. Chrissie Hynde has her own jukebox of hits to put more than a dime in, but these classic record spins remind us of the time Scarlett Johansson had 'Brass In Pocket' for some 'Lost In Translation' Tokyo karaoke with Bill Murray. This album is the gold that will make you, make you, make you notice. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Me & Mrs. Jones (Feat. K.D. Lang)', 'I'm Not In Love (Feat. Brandon Flowers)', '(You're My) Soul And Inspiration (Feat Dan Auerbach)'.

Spin This: Chrissie Hynde - 'Stockholm'

REVIEW: THE LAST DINNER PARTY - FROM THE PYRE

4/5

A Midsommar Night's Dream

London's own, The Last Dinner Party fuse Kate Bush, Björk, Phoebe Bridgers (and the rest of her Boygenius supergroup), The Jezabels, Florence and the Machine, and so much more into their own style and 'Midsommar' music. This baroque pop and art rock gives us a late contender for album of the year, 'From The Pyre', just shy of two years since their prior, 'Prelude To Ecstasy' breakout gave us, explicit lyrics in hits like Lana Del Rey, and their signature, 'Nothing Matters'. Now, you can add a few more chart climbers to the women in music's 'Sinner', 'Caesar On A TV Screen' and 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us' jukebox. All in the same week and New Music Friday, Haim give us a deluxe version (featuring more Bon Iver) of their own album of the year ('I Quit') and the great Chrissie Hynde and pals play pretend on some classic covers for a 'Duets Special'. 

Abigail Morris (vocals), Lizzie Mayland (vocals, guitar), Emily Roberts (lead guitar, mandolin, flute), Georgia Davies (bass), Aurora Nishevci (keyboards, vocals) and a revolving roll call of drummers on the skins waste no time in going from your new favourite band, to a fond and familiar one. The artwork in the park is Shakespearean and the singles, set to play the globe, too. This combustible material primed to blow, like Fawkes this fall, is the perfect corpse bride for Halloween. Florence Pugh would be proud. The ceremony begins with the big hit 'This Is The Killer Speaking' and a murderous movie of a music video, playing it up. The third single 'Second Best' is anything but, as it joins the likes of 'On Your Side' and 'My Lady Of Mercy' to show you this Dinner Party has no peace and eats when it comes to a deluxe discography that is already definitive in its compelling and complex catalogue. On these top ten tracks, Last Shadow Puppets member James Ford (producing for the likes of Florence, Haim and Blur) gets a writing credit on tracks like 'Count The Ways'. But it's 'The Scythe' that will really cut you down in black and white. Especially when it comes to the moving music video with shades of LCD Soundsystem's 'Oh Baby' movie starring David Strathairn and Sissy Spacek, or The Jezabel lead Hayley Mary's final call to heed of 'Young & Stupid'. 

From the atmospheric 'Agnus Dei' operatic opening, to the curtains of a blazing 'Inferno' in sacrifice closing, 'From The' is something that will stay with you long after the smoke clears. The Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Hozier, Mumford & Sons) produced Island record makes October it's very own. Soon to be a classic like its cover, or prelude predecessor. Critical acclaim and award nominations came with 'Ecstasy', but this may just be the classic climax that turns LDP into a household name over your dinner table. Thanks to servings like 'Rifle' and second helpings such as one of the best 'I Hold Your Anger' as you pass the salt. On 'Woman Is A Tree' Mayland muses, "Blow, winds, crack your cheeks/I can’t feel a thing anymore/I’m superior mother, I answer the call/There is no other, I capture the fall." And this Autumn album does exactly that before the Last Dinner 'Sail(s) Away', like David Gray. Leaving the party with, "I'm more than a girl, I am a seaside/You carved your name inside of my thigh/Blue eyes, stained glass/You want the world, I'd give it to you/Just don't smoke in your room, buy new running shoes/Out in your garden spring has come." This is one last dance you want to save. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Woman Is A Tree', 'I Hold Your Anger', 'The Scythe'.

Spin This: The Last Dinner Party - 'Prelude To Ecstasy'.

REVIEW: THE COOL KIDS - HI TOP FADE

4/5

Hi Wind

Legend has it, in the same week that a new album from Mobb Deep, featuring a posthumous Prodigy, hits shelves, all to the tune of a Marvel Comic celebration of these hip-hop hero's Mass Appeal, alternative rap legends 'The Cool Kids' will hit us with that 'Hi Top Fade'. The Chicago, Illinois duo, like Havoc and P, of Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish return for the first time since 2022's three chapters of 'Before S### Got Weird', 'Baby Oil Staircase' and 'Chillout'. All as some long fingernails and wrist jewellery puts a burned mixtape into a car's CD changer. These kids have been doing it ever since 'The Bake Sale' of 2008 (what?!) came after their 'Totally Flossed Out' tape. An E.P. that will soon cook up its twenty-year anniversary (WHAT?!). Their debut, 'When Fish Ride Bicycles', hit the stereo spokes hard, like Lupe Fiasco on the skateboard, before the days of Kid Cudi. And they've had 'Special Edition Grand Master Deluxe' and 'Volumes' since then.

Now, there's a whole host of singles for your crates and 'Rockbox'. Like 'Foil Bass', '95 South', featuring A-Trak and Sango, and the Seafood Slim guest spot on 'Banana In The Tailpipe'. But it's when this perfect pair put their 'Cigarello Helmets' on in the outstanding opening that things get really rolling. Back to that 80s 8-bit style from one of the purest in the genre. 'We Got Clips' feels as old school as the appeal of the legends that currently have it this year. Whereas 'Dang' brings you even more hip-hop drums, straight out of Hollywood. "Hotter than a hairdryer, intertwined with some wires." And they're all plugged in into this studio sound. The movie making continues on 'Blade Runner', for the sci-fi cult favourites that feels like 2049, just like 'Tron: Ares' that also comes out this week, laying the grid groundwork for future tech, and love for the Depeche Mode 80s, all at the same time. It's that 'Crunch Rap Supreme' soul singing chorus that tells us, "I stay about the jam and I know when I'm in amber."

Scream for more Rocks and Inglish when they tell you 'Don't Say My Name' on the government issue, like a recent Dallas Mavericks TikTok trend. Smoother than a 'Clean Linen Satin Pillow', or how that track name sounds over xylophone playing keys. On 'Tryin To Get You' they rap "when you get that grill lit, you gotta let them coals burn/Just to heat up, where you put your feet up/Chefs let the smoke settle before they cut the beef up/Carry water, chop wood/Like a mud in the flood/It's gonna fell where it's stuck, like this page in that book." They even give us part two of 'Cinnamon', after their latte sprinkling classic off the 2009 Don Cannon mixtape 'Gone Fishing'. On 'Live Wire', the fuse gets lit even more with lines like, "I could win it all with you/I got tickets in the player's ball for two/Stepping out, had your dress matching my suit/The deeper the root, it's like the sweeter the fruit." All on a beat that Uncle Charlie Wilson would be proud of, because you know what these Chi-towners say about R. Kelly. It's something like 'Back Up Off Me', from these kids stepping in the name of the right way. Now, that's cool. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Cigarello Helmets', '95 South (Feat. A-Trak & Sango)', 'Blade Runner'.

Spin This: The Cool Kids - 'The Bake Sale'

REVIEW: MOBB DEEP - INFINITE

4/5

The Prodigy

Deeper than rap, Mobb Deep remain, in spirit, one of the best brotherhoods in hip-hop. No group was dirtier or grimier. The violence of the genre immortalized in something scarier than 'Shook Ones'. No halfway crooks allowed. You only had to see Eminem lip-sync along to them, rapping in the mirror to begin his legendary battle-rap movie '8 Mile'. Prodigy and Havoc were so renowned, even 50 Cent has to sign them, like fellow legends M.O.P. and Ma$e at the peak of his powers. This was a pair who weren't afraid to go up against the late, great 'Pac. But you can't listen to them diss tracks any more in all good faith. Tragedy struck in 2017, three years after their last album (2014's 'The Infamous Mobb Deep') when Prodigy passed away due to accidental choking. The rapper, real name Albert Johnson, had been battling with sickle cell anaemia his whole life. His legacy lives forever.

And now it's immortalized once more in the 'Infinite' album for infinity. A part posthumous Mobb Deep album and the final LP from the pair as previously unreleased vocals from capital P are mixed with producer and rapping partner Havoc, and longtime collaborator and the legendary producer of this album, The Alchemist (nobody works harder). Part of the year-long 'Legend Has It...' series from Mass Appeal records, it joins Nas and DJ Premier, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, De La Soul, Big L, and Slick Rick as one of the best rap albums of the year. And, like Big L, a life after death one. The amazing artwork, a tribute testament to their style, feels like they're still here together. And Prodigy again is immortalized forever in the accompanying Marvel Comics series that turns these legends into the superheroes that they are. Frequent flyer Nas gets down with Mobb on 'Pour The Henny' (like that, 'Bron, 'Bron?) and the sweet sample of the 'Down For You' single, featuring soul singer Jorja Smith ("If bein' in love is my downfall, then I'll be down for you.") for one of the best rap songs of the billboard year. Not to mention it's 'Love The Way' part two featuring H.E.R. herself. And after their own 'Legend' albums, Wu-Tang members Raekwon and Ghostface appear on 'Clear Black Nights'.

The reformed Clipse also shoot some on 'Look At Me' after their own amazing album reunion in 2025. Joining big hitting singles like the opening 'Against The World' Mobb opera and the grand 'Taj Mahal', built for the fans. Between all the 'Gunfire' and closing 'We The Real Thing', there's even a Big Noyd on 'The M. The O. The B. The B.' with a curious sample. But it's not like we can listen to 'Diddy' any more, anyway. This album clearly 'Score(s) Points', before the penultimate 'Discontinued' that will never happen to this band of brothers. They give it up for 'My Era' and all their classic contemporaries. And they also stick to their violent wordplay for 'Mr Magik', which won't bring you back after sawing you in two. It's like Prodigy says on 'Easy Bruh', "Longevity in hip-hop/The run is endless, our cash don't stop/You the great prеtender, you not this hot/I'll boil over, I'll mеlt the whole pot." Or when Havoc simply puts in "R.I.P.". These two will live on together in infamy. What else could you expect from the Infamous Mobb Deep? Legend has nothing on this. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Down For You (Feat. Nas & Jorja Smith)', 'My Era', 'Clear Black Nights (Feat. Raekwon & Ghostface Killah)' 

Spin This: Mobb Deep - 'Infamy'.

REVIEW: TAYLOR SWIFT - THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL

4/5

The Last Showgirl

Swifties rejoice. The new era is here. Recently, in the multiple Grammy (no need for Kanye) singer/songwriter's life and times, she's rerecorded and re-owned her renowned masters, embarked on an epic 'Eras' live concert circuit, that might just be the greatest and most successful world tour of all-time, and announced that "your English teacher and gym teacher are getting married", with her engagement to NFL, Kansas City Chief tight-end Travis Kelce. And we can't and won't forget how she stood in solidarity with our hometown of Southport, either, after the cruel Hart Space dance class tragedy that took too many innocent lives and showed us real heroes in the face of such evil. The Elvis of our generation, recently on Travis and Jason Kelce's 'New Heights' podcast, also revealed she'd be releasing a new album. Although she didn't show the album artwork until she got on her socials of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and more. But now, here she is, in a bath in a cocktail dress with more than champagne problems, giving us 'The Life Of A Showgirl', from Elizabeth Berkley to Pamela Anderson.

'Elizabeth Taylor' too, for one of this twelfth night's best. Every album of this artist amazes, whatever the version, but since '1989' made her country career go genre bending supersonic, she's been on one, post 'Reputation' critic tasking (and this one reunites her with that LPs producer, Max Martin). Although this one feels closer to that one's standing. This 'Lover' gave us pure pop before the world shut down. Then during lockdown, she quarantined in a studio in the woods to give us both 'Folklore' and 'Evermore' in the same year, that felt like a century, of 2020. Before returning for the magic of 'Midnights' two years later. That felt like the trend, in-between 'Versions' albums that offered richer and deeper takes of her definitive discography that is now well and truly hers. Yet it's only been a year since we signed up for 'The Tortured Poets Department'. Now with 'The Life' and those boys behind her, Taylor moves on swiftly with a classic concept album that speaks now and speaks to more. You only have to hear 'The Fate Of Ophelia', sealed with a kiss that says, "I do" to know. Or the title-track, debuted live, featuring the only star capable of going for her crown, Sabrina Carpenter.

Alas, there is no beef here. No Kendrick Lamar 'Bad Blood'. That would be a real bad way to 'Ruin A Friendship'. And no, don't worry. That infamous track is not about Blake Lively, either, as her and Ryan Reynolds are taking more heat than a 'Deadpool' co-star right now. This is the same superstar who had fellow one, Katy Perry, literally send her an olive branch. And nothing is on the nose here, no "boring Barbie", or cocaine about it. Although Taylor does get into love addiction with the outstanding 'Opalite'. It's just good music here. A dozen to add to the discography that is getting definitive, like a Sinatra or Springsteen set-list. Just let it play. YouTube has even given Swift her own 'TLOAS' icon to drag and drop play along with the album's video visualizers. Taylor Swift's music is like Marvel movies. There's so much of it, maintaining a great quality, and it's always a blockbuster moment. Sure, in this busy life of ours, showgirl or not, some of us may only have the chance to take each one in once or twice, but it always sounds fresh and fond. Especially if we get the chance to watch, listen and learn again.

Like her 'Gasoline' friends, Haim ("he did it") telling us 'I Quit', Tay also samples the late, great George Michael on a 'Father Figure' song of the same name. Yet it's 'Eldest Daughter' that might be my favourite, like my idol sister. Whereas nothing sounds as hook, line and sinker slick as the stylized 'Wi$h Li$t' that will soon be the request of everyone's "playli$t". On 'Actually Romantic', Swift sings, "I heard you call me "Boring Barbie" when the coke's got you brave/High-fived my ex, and then you said you're glad he ghosted me/Wrote me a song sayin' it makes you sick to see my face/Some people might be offended" on a track that flips haters like Mariah Carey's 'Obsessed'. That queen before the queen was 'Here For It All' last week, but nobody dares come in listening distance of Taylor Swift this New Music Friday. Not when the likes of 'Wood' or 'Honey' are playing, bringing out the bears, like the folk and ever 'mores'. This showgirl's muse even takes on a culture with 'CANCELLED' in all-caps. "Good thing I like my friends cancelled/I like 'em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal/Like my whiskey sour/And poison thorny flowers." "Something wicked this way comes", indeed. Can't cancel the syndrome of this album recorded in Stockholm, during the Sweden leg of her 'Eras' tour, though. The show goes on, girl. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Elizabeth Taylor', 'Eldest Daughter', 'Wi$h Li$t'.

Spin This: Taylor Swift - 'Midnights'

REVIEW: MARIAH CAREY - HERE FOR IT ALL

3.5/5

Carey On 

Seven years have sealed since absolute pop superstar Mariah Carey's last album (2018's 'Caution' didn't know what was coming a year later), but now, here she is, 'Here For It All' with her sweet sixteenth affair. The classics kept coming, year after year, in the, and her, golden era of the 90s. The self-titled debut, the open 'Music Box', a 'Daydream', the bold and beautiful 'Butterfly', and of course the 'Merry Christmas' album that is all everybody wants, coming soon. In the new millennium of 'Glitter' the R&B icon hit Usher 'Confessions' figures with 'The Emancipation Of Mimi', also produced by Jermaine Dupri, who brought out his own 'Magic City' (first album in more than a minute) a fortnight ago. And after 'E=MC2' it all multiplied from there. But the 'Emancipation' was an unbelievable twenty years ago, and Mimi has just wrapped up a tour about it, here in Yokohama. Yet she still has time to give us another amazing album.

The beautiful black and white artwork of 'Here' evokes a time when a 'Hero' came along and Mariah is still on fire with the talent and strength to carry on. You can hear it in the big brand dropping flossing of the 'Mi' opener, because after all, when it comes to this diva, all that matters is Mi-mi, and that iconic voice and glass shattering falsetto. Or the cinematic single 'Type Dangerous' with its big budget, blockbuster bluster, and host of rap remixes. Sweet singles come in thick and fast like the best in years 'Sugar Sweet', featuring Shenseea and Kehlani, and the latest 'Play This Song' (which you really should) with the amazing Anderson .Paak (who also gets 'In Your Feelings'), with a music video that's literally just premiered after the album, this New Music Friday. Yet for all this LP gives us, dialled up to eleven tracks, a week after the Spinal Tap sequel, it's when Mariah praises God through her gospel with The Clark Sisters ('Jesus I Do'), that things get the most beautiful.

Eric B. should still be President, and that track with Rakim is dangerously sampled. It's a grand return that leaves the fans that have never left, paid in full, whilst critics that want to complain with their hands in pockets, are just coming up with lint. All the way to the album title curtain, this album has something to give with soul, disco and funk. But when this butterfly takes Wing(s) on a Paul McCartney cover, co-written by Linda McCartney, that's when 'My Love' (hers) does it good. A timeless classic that sounds as good as their first time you heard it, the very moment the first chord comes into play. It may just be Mariah Carey's best take since her and Sisqo of Dru Hill actually honoured Prince properly with 'The Beautiful Ones' (on some Ginuwine 'When Doves Cry' proportions...if you know that story). That would be a tough one to beat if this diva didn't believe that 'Nothing Is Impossible' with her own latest beautiful ballad in a deluxe discography of them. Although the R&B genre blends so many genres on this one, this is her lane, taking her back home to the foundations she built.

'Confetti and Champagne' reigns on this celebration, as all things are popped, proposing a toast to a G.O.A.T. For years she's being giving the likes of Busta Rhymes and Jadakiss hits. Holding her own next to everybody from Whitney Houston to Ol' Dirty Bastard. But to have her back, like she never left, or aged a day, is the sweetest fantasy. The fine wine continues on 'I Won't Allow It', where this MC sings, "Whatcha gonna do when your mind is blown/And your heart explodes and your body's cold/Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do/Whatcha gonna do when we go our separate ways/And you see me outside with my billion dollar bae/Please enjoy your Chick-fil-A". Oof! Now that's a roast for you chickens, like the time a certain rapper was 'Obsessed'. Ending beefs with paltry competition via poultry? That's MC. The best put down since Shakira talked about trading in a Rolex for a CASIO. Yet, I rock a Casio every day, and yes, I am actually talking about the watches. But forget all that. We're here for Mariah. The fire is never going out. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Type Dangerous', 'Sugar Sweet (Feat. Shenseea & Kehlani)', 'My Love'.

Spin This: Mariah Carey - 'Butterfly'.

LIVE REVIEW: NORAH JONES @ Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan (24/09/25)

4/5

Visions Of Norah

Back in the Budokan, exactly one week after the 'Rock Invasion' of alternative rockers, the Smashing Pumpkins, we returned to see Norah Jones in Tokyo for the first time in almost three years, coming out of COVID. The perfect pianist played this beautiful and traditional Tokyo 1964 Olympics gymnasium the last time she was here, and we still have a Jones for Norah, like many of the tour tees from then that popped up amongst the lime green seats under the Japanese flag in the auditorium's rafters. A little different from the 'Mellon Collie' that came last week, Norah came out draped in midori and colour schemes from her last Grammy winning album (the 'Visions' of last March with El Michels Affair). But using light like Japan's own Sakanaction, at Yokohama's K-Arena last month, we really felt the warm glow on stage for her signature 'Sunrise', or the rich red wine drenching the hearts yearning for the epic encore of her classic closer, 'Don't Know Why'.

This weekend, Norah Jones will headline the 2025 Blue Note jazz festival in Tokyo's Ariake Arena. Bringing back memories of ordering her 'Day Breaks' (what an album) mocktail whilst seeing OutKast Andre 3000 play with a flute at Tokyo's beautiful Blue Note jazz club. Ne-Yo, Take6, Tower Of Power, Daichi Miura and many more will take part in this fond festival, but Miss Jones is the main attraction. And this may have been the first leg of her trip, which will afford Jones the opportunity to see many of the sights and sounds of Japan, but this was anything but a warm-up set. In a year of Jack White taking the Toyosu Pit and Haim headlining Fuji Rock with Vampire Weekend, The Hives and more, Norah brought the calm to the stage as we headed to the fall, like her classic album. Or tracks from 'Little Broken Hearts', like a new version of 'Happy Pills', 'Before The Fall'. Opening the show, with all eyes getting butterflies, she performed her 'What Am I To You' single off her sophomore set 'Feels Like Home', Jones was backed by a beautiful band, including her Puss N Boots supergroup member Sasha Dobson. 

This had us wanting sounds off of their 'Sister' set, like we wanted the 'Jolly Jones' "la-la-la-la's" of her 'I Dream Of Christmas' album. Hey, this may be the fall, but September is even earlier than last time's October. Besides, wanting for tracks you may not hear in a deluxe discography is like complaining about not everyone showing up for your birthday party. We should have been more than happy with what we got. Hearing new cuts for the first time in Japan was 'Paradise', like the 'Running' single, or 'I Just Wanna Dance' sweet song that sounds even better live (check the VevoStudio take, like her new 'Summertime Blue(s)' with John Legend). 'Rosie's Lullaby' had me in 'Not Too Late' memories from my 20s of an old love with the same name. And the absolute diamond classic 'Come Away With Me' and one of the most beautiful lyrics of all-time ("come away with me, and I'll never stop loving you") truly moved the crowd with her signature live piano arrangement of this that has become Jones lore. Norah even broke out some compelling covers of Minnie Ripperton's iconic 'Les Fleurs' and Tom Waits' wonderful 'Long Way Home' after the encore turned us back on. The former not even being part of her prepared set list. Now, that's visionary. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Set-List Picks: 'I Just Wanna Dance', 'Rosie's Lullaby', 'Don't Know Why'

REVIEW: LABRINTH - PRELUDE E.P.

4/5

Past Is Prelude

Enter the labyrinth, like Bowie, of Timothy Lee McKenzie's world of sound and vision, and you'll see more than a man who set off an 'Earthquake' up in here on the 'Electronic Earth' of his debut album, after backing the best U.K. rapper at the time, Tinie Tempah's 'Frisky' and 'Pass Out'. Labrinth went on to score more collaborative classics ('Beneath Your Beautiful' with Emeli Sandé). All before his career went nuclear and was sealed seven years after his dynamite debut. In 2019, not only did he release his stunning sophomore set 'Imagination & The Misfit Kid', on his way to being the day and night Cudi of the U.K., he also formed an LSD supergroup with sensational singer Sia and prolific producer Diplo. And if that wasn't enough, he also scored the soundtrack to the epic 'Euphora' series on HBO, starring fellow first-name terms, Zendaya, crashing Coachella last year to perform songs off the second season soundtrack. Labrinth also got back in the lab for that, all before giving us the 'Ends & Begins' of his last album.

Now, fresh out of 'The Kitchen' soundtrack for Netflix, one of the hardest working and most in-demand artists around has even more heat with his new 'Prelude' EP that promises more this New Music Friday. On the same day that Nine-Inch Nails hammer down their new 'Daft Punk' replacing soundtrack for 'Tron: Ares', Labrinth gets cinematic too, even more compellingly so. Eight wonders of sonic tracks that track the mind and all the dark depths and new paths forged ahead. After a distorted 'Sophisticated People' into that doesn't let you in, Tim 'Pull(s) Me In' with exactly that track. This pink Cosmic Opera House record in Roman Numerals then gives us the ultimate 'Pick Me Up', singing "oh no" over operatic grand gestures of sound. It's a 'Joy' to behold, like the next number you'll be singing until the heavens open up with snow this Christmas over stirring stings. That inspired interlude is then followed by 'Can't Cure This' where Labrinth warns us, "stupid motherf#####/money can't solve this/people talking s###/money can't cure this". Repeating what sounds like the halfway house of "bank" and "pain." Like it's one and the same. It is.

It's a 'Wonder' we can go on, until another instrumental is exactly that in lifting us up to a better place. It feels like it's taking you to another dimension in this sonic space. All the way to a 'House On The Hill', like a Springsteen mansion. This dance number feels euphoric, and we intended to say exactly that. You can find this record spinning under the lonely nights of a 'Euphoria' nightclub, neon exposing all the darkness. "Take me where the sun don't grind/ I'm gonna set your night on fire/I'm gonna bring you all to life/Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah". This is the 'Moment Of Peace' you all need in release and closing. "Hey, how you doing? This is Labrinth. I wrote this piece of music to help calm you down. So take a deep breath, close your eyes if you feel too, and allow yourself to drift into the moment. Breathe." What more can we say than that? He's doing it for us. The electronic earth still rotates around his beat. Is he a singer? Is he still a rapper? Nah, he's an artist. Watch him paint the perfect picture, because this is just a prelude, but a powerful one at that. Now go on and enjoy the rest of your day. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'The Joy', 'Can't Cure This', 'Moment Of Peace'

Spin This: Labrinth - 'Euphoria (Original Score From The HBO Series)' 

REVIEW: NINE INCH NAILS - TRON: ARES (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)

4/5

Legacy

Disney really did it in 2010. Feeling before its time, of its time and ahead of it, the Mickey Mouse company released the digital delight of 'Tron: Legacy', the IMAX ready sequel to the 1982 cult hit that looked like a board game in relation to this videographers dream. The massive movie brought Jeff Bridges back (duuuude), de-aged him in classic CG, turned Olivia Wilde into an instant star, and character actor Michael Sheen into Ziggy Stardust. The iconic Lightcycle bikes in baby blue and their neon streams have now even inspired their own Disney World ride in Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. Like Garrett Hedlund, this legend making 'Legacy' looked great, and it sounded the part too. Thanks to an absolutely amazing, award nominated soundtrack from French electronic duo Daft Punk, mixing orchestra with their signature sound.

No matter how much you stay up all night for good fun, you can't get that lucky again, as the iconic Sia identity sparing chrome domes of these punks have been hung up. Now, the much-delayed and long-awaited, 'Legacy' sequel is almost here as October's very own, it seems like the Lightcycles have been knocked off the grid like Peter Griffin. Fifteen years later, 'Tron: Ares' has managed to bring Bridges back again, not to mention, the classic look of the '82 original. But that blue washing dark red hides some devil in their details. Leading man and star of the show Jared Leto ('Blade Runner 2049'), who also moonlights as the lead singer of Thirty Seconds to Mars, is clouded in a controversy and allegations of abuse and even more brutal behaviour. More than the movie, we hope these things aren't true, because no one should have to go through this. Buzz has picked up for this movie ever since the teaser trailer saw cop cars chopped in two and 'Past Lives' breakout star Greta Lee run away from a Tron battleship...on earth. The game has changed, as the music that won't stop has too.

Sounding familiar, but not Daft, right at the end of the trailer for this film that also stars Quicksilver Evan Peters and 'The X-Files' legend Gillian Anderson, we see a familiar logo in 'Ares' red. NIN. Yeah, those 'Fragile' industrial rockers are back in the new industry they've broken into. Nine-Inch Nails are heavy metal legends, but Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross got even more iconic when they started making music for movies. Breaking through with a clear and crisp sound that scored soundtracks for the likes of David Fincher and his 'Gone Girl' and 'The Social Network'. Now, the pair are everywhere and in everything in a formidable filmography that even rivals their definitive discography. And fresh off of the 'Ghosts' of 2020, the Nails are back to hammer down more legacy making music that honours both Daft Punk and the movie's signature style, all whilst finding their own lane. The 'Init' introduction gives way to a 'Forked Reality' fork in the road where this Nine-Inch takes its own instrumental direction. You can hear it in the 'Echoes' of what's to come. 'This Changes Everything'. Literally and figurately in song.

The atmospheric 'In The Image Of' takes you higher in Tron tones to a world above our reality. Whereas 'I Know You Can Feel It' could equally find itself on a regular NIN studio album. Singing, "Just like that, it began, appetite emotion/All alone, all in time, appetite emotion". Besides, this is a band whose, 'We're In This Together', hits made 'Avengers: Age Of Ulton' trailers. 'Permanence' feels exactly like that, before it's interrupted by the next infiltrating track. You can imagine '100% Expendable' playing as Ares shatters into pixels again and again. The 'Still Remains' lifting you up above the piano notes that strike a chord. They're 'Building Better Worlds' here and nothing sounds better, like nothing looks better than the amazing 'Ares' on screen, continuing 'Tron's' legacy. 'Target Identified' sounds like Nine-Inch Punk, just like 'What Have You Done?' sounds like Tron Inch Nails. There's more to come for this 'Ghost In The Machine', 'Out In The World'. Yet the real headliners come in the form of the hits. There's a big single ('As Alive As You Need Me To Be') and a beautiful collaboration with Judeline ('Who Wants To Live Forever'), but it's the influential instrumentals that are the most inspired. Even if the 'Shadows Over Me' fading this 24-track album to black tell us more. "(God) I've got a shadow over me/I am not what I appear to be/And I know that you believe in me/And it feels so real, and it feels so re-." This one fights for the users. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'As Alive As You Need Me To Be', 'Who Wants To Live Forever (Feat. Judeline)', 'Building Better Worlds'.

Spin This: Daft Punk - 'Tron: Legacy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)'. 

LIVE REVIEW: SMASHING PUMPKINS @ Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan (17/09/25)

4/5

Smashing Invasion

Halloween has come early, as the Rock Invasion of Smashing Pumpkins comes to Japan, like Godzilla's roaring blue flame, this week. All for the American, alternative heavy rock God's first tour of the land of the rising sun in a dozen years. Tonight, tonight, they'll play my new home of Yokohama's KT Zepp, all before concluding their run of concerts in Hiroshima next week. But last night, the big-three of Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin (we still miss D'arcy) took Tokyo by storm. Playing in the formidable former Tokyo 1964 judo arena of the Nippon Budokan. One week before Norah Jones will be back there for her first time since 2022. A little different, I know, but we will be there too, just like we were three years ago.

It's been a great year of rock in Japan. From the summer circuit of the Fuji Rock festival (headlined by the likes of Vampire Weekend, Haim and The Hives), to Japan's very own rock leaders Sakanaction giving us their 'SAKANAQUARIUM'. And today (yesterday) was one of the greatest days we've ever known, too. Tomorrow could wait, as the 'Machina' machines of God came out to their amp shattering theme of glass, all before breaking into classics from their twin towering albums of 'Siamese Dream' and the magnum opus, double disc of 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'. The latter, celebrating its 30th anniversary, this year. That's why an onslaught of outstanding numbers peppered the sensational set-list of power. As soon as the Japanese faithful sang "despite of my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage" in unominous unison of "we've been there", you knew it was on. Billy, telling the crowd how much he loved them, and how it hurt for it to have been so long, wished he could express just how much in Japanese. Classics like 'Muzzle', '1979', 'Bodies', 'Jellybaby', and of course 'Zero', more than painted a picture to prove that point.

'Tonight, Tonight' was the epic evening to pay tribute to one of the greatest albums of all-time, and especially my youth. And the only one to come close to it (with the 'Dream' of 'Disarm', 'Cherub Rock' and 'Mayonnaise'). Nuanced in nostalgia, the Pumpkins mean so much to my teenage years (and I wasn't even that angsty...honest), this gig had me tearing up as the tore up the stage. Ditto to the Japanese crowd of all ages, all around me, some rocking 'Rock Invasion' tees from the 90s. This 'Heavy Metal Machine' used to be all I listened to before the days of Spotify streams, or a decent wage. I used to have 'Mellon Collie' on a cassette (yep, that's how old I am) back in high-school, recorded by a friend (thanks, Mike). It all coming to an abrupt end when the magnificent 'Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans' started skipping more than a boxer in training, just as it was about to build. No chance of that tonight, as we got to hear the nine-minute wonder in all its extended glory. Billy and the boys gave the fans exactly what they wanted. Even more in the form of a beautiful version of the 'Top Gun' famous 'Take My Breath Away' by Berlin. He even kept playing with James and the fans as he broke into licks from Lenny Kravitz's 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' and Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' (rest peacefully, Ozzy). All before 'Ava Adore' gave us everything we love, and the notion that we shall never be apart. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Set-List Picks: 'Today', 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings', 'Take My Breath Away (Berlin Cover)'.

REVIEW: JERMAINE DUPRI - MAGIC CITY

3.5/5

The Magic Hour

Y'all know what it is. Super producer and hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri may have given us the 'Young, Fly & Flashy Vol. 1' (still waiting on that next one), So So Def label compilation, back in 2005, featuring his hit single 'Gotta Getcha' and the mega 'I Think They Like Me' remix. But it's actually been a Kobe (24 years) since he released an actual album, with the incredible 'Instructions' to his game. A stone-cold, 'Welcome To Atlanta' classic for the south, featuring the likes of Ludacris, Usher, Jagged Edge and them, of course. Even his "little homie" Bow Wow, as the man who discovered more music in the ATL than Club 112 showed you how to rock with him. It's not like he's been lazy since then. 'The Emancipation Of Mimi' and Mariah, still on fire, will tell you. Letting the studio 'Burn' like the 'Confessions' of Usher that did a million and change in its first week of release. A producer's paradise.

Now, Jermaine gives us the 'Magic City' soundtrack, dedicated to the strip clubs in the A, dropping more than ones. And the Dame Dash of the South offers up so many leading men and women on the all-star studded affair of a showcase. Harking back to his definitive debut 'Life In 1472' that felt like a movie all in itself, as he and Jay-Z told us 'Money Ain't A Thang', racing horses and horsepower. This city is so magic, scored by the skyline in the background of some alluring artwork on the pole, that it even looks like those new CD jewel cases that came in during the new millennium before Spotify and streaming abruptly took adolescents away from the stores. Still towering for the record, Dupri brings them out, like T.I. That King of the South is here too (with Akeem Ali and Young Dro on 'P###y Got Me' and Dro and 2 Chainz on 'Turn Around'). From the 'Tryna Beat The Thrill' opening act (with Skooly), to the 'We Da S###' outro with Pastor Troy, Princess and the "YEAAAHS" of Lil Jon, these are the ad-lib tricks of JD's trade.

'Atlanaa' is the new anthem for the city, starring the great CeeLo Green and those vivid vocals  ("There isn't anywhere else that makes me feel the way you do/I promise I'll always be true/It's not a secret we're in love/That goes for every one of us/I will love you for life"). Whereas 'Magic City Money' (featuring Bankroll Ni, BunnaB, J-Money and Sean Paul (of YoungBloodZ, not 'Gimmie The Light') banks on another single for your Billboards from Atlanta to New York and Hollywood, like a coast-to-coast remix. 'Rich Homie Quan' lights up 'This Or That', Travis Porter and a full-grown Bow Wow tells us 'She's A Freak'. Yet, it's the 'A## Shake' of Quavo and Ludacris (not actually them...that would be weird) that will truly get you on the dance floor. The clubs and bottles that are all on Jermaine Dupri, who not only owns the city, but now the rap game as others previously in position have fallen from grace. DJ X-Rated and Rocko 'Get It' over a beat that Timbaland would be proud of. All before K CAMP and YFN Lucci tell us 'I Wanna' on a track that's as glitzy as Gucci decked out on the street.

Conversations with Big Meech (the real Big Meech). Belly Gang Kushington and SWAVAY showing 'More Than Me'. The whole album feels like real rap, thrown on the floor and working the pole. Yet, just like when CeeLo gets his Gnarles Barkley on, the Dungeons of the South have something to say when they sing. That's when the legendary gutter R&B kings Jagged Edge and the great Killer Mike run the jewels on 'Married To The Game' ("Now the first time I see her I fell in love/She was bad as f###, ambitious and coming up/She was married to the game, and I was too/I just knew, she was perfect for me."). Let's get married again like a ReMarqable remix. So meet me in the altar in your white dress. Peachy, like the city of Trae Young, the Atlanta Hawks and Dream, and the one of MLK. It's enough to show 'The Kids From The Neighborhood' like a posse track, cut by a sweet sample and the likes of Hollywood YC, Lil Scrappy and Skooly. Just how many rap stars for the city can Jermaine Dupri pull out of the hat, at it like rabbits in the club? True magic, like Earvin Johnson. These Atlanta braves are knocking it out of the park and off the dance floor. Magic for the city. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Atlanaa (Feat. CeeLo Green)', 'A## Shake (Feat Quavo & Ludacris)', 'Married To The Game (Feat. Killer Mike & Jagged Edge)'.

Spin This: Jermaine Dupri - 'Life In 1472'

REVIEW: KING PRINCESS - GIRL VIOLENCE

4/5

Ultraviolence

Love lies bleeding, this New Music Friday, as the striking single 'RIP KP' spearheads the 'Girl Violence' of the third album from Mikaela Mullaney Straus, AKA, King Princess, one of the best pop stars and artists in the game right now. Recent controversial comments aside and an album title that couldn't have come at a worse time this week, we should all still hail the King and the Princess. Besides, 'Girl Violence', like it's outstanding, opening title-track, is no play on words. "I'm tired of crying and tired of trying/Why does nobody mention that girls can be violent?" It's a problem we should all pay attention too. Straus follows her expensive, dominant debut ('Cheap Queen') and sensational sophomore set ('Hold On Baby') that came out three years ago (WHAT?!), with a more straight-forward and personal project that makes her Holy Trinity a big-three.

Acting in 'Nine Perfect Strangers'. Stirring up dating rumours with the forever young Christine Baranski, almost 50 years her senior (hey, nothing wrong with that, I would). King Princess is ready for her throne of stardom, even if the single plays up on those in cancel culture who want to say rest in peace to the career of KP. Nuts. Not when you have a lucky for us, thirteen new tracks. Ones that share title names with Cyndi Lauper ('Girls'), Johnny Cash ('Cry Cry Cry'), and even 'West Side Story' ('I Feel Pretty'), but are their own individual gems from the Brooklyn, New Yorker, who is still only 26 years old. Although that's the sweet spot, prime of one's young life. 'Say What You Will' about a great duet with Joe Talbot, this album is stacked with big names, even though it only has one more guest feature than a J.Cole LP. The great 'Thalia', the moment we made our bed and fell in love with this Princess, even has some competition in the standout 'Jaime' and the sweet serve of 'Serena' as this album meets its match point.

"It's really nice to meet you, it’s been a little rough for a minute/I've had to face fire, fight fear, and spend a lot of time in the mirror/And I'm cool, I'm weirder, yeah, I'm hot, I'm deeper/I'm starting to feel myself again/Now I'm a f###### sleeper", the King sings on her 'Origin' story. But it's 'Get Your Heart Broken' that will really take yours ("Oh, so baby let the shame rub off/Death by a thousand cuts, ah-ah/Scared that you're one of us/That would be the best of luck, ah-ah") in the blurred ruby red of the album artwork. Pulling back the 'Covers' on a brief, but beautiful track, the singer-songwriter with a career catalogue of inspired interludes sings "I suppose that I'm only a ghost/And you never want to see me in your room/I'll see you in your room/And at the most, you'll hear scratching at your post/And you'll wonder if it's me who's haunting you" before the dawn. Meanwhile, 'Slow Down and Shut Up' may be life advice I need to heed right now (it's saved on my Spotify, every time I see the app on my drop-down menu, but 'Alone Again' strikes the deepest chord. "Crying on the floor, begging through the door/Now I'm alone again/Screaming through the phone, I should have probably known/Now I'm alone again." And together in another crowning year of women in music (see, Haim), we know she won't quit. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Jaime', 'Get Your Heart Broke', 'RIP KP'.

Spin This: Haim - 'I Quit'

REVIEW: THE HIVES - THE HIVES FOREVER FOREVER THE HIVES

4/5

Long Live The Hives

Japan's fantastic Fuji Rock festival welcomed The Hives alongside Haim, Vampire Weekend and many more to the ski mountains of the Land of the Rising Sun this Summer. And even almost fifteen years after we saw them playfully and cockily take over London's Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park, the Swedish rabble rousers have not lost a single step. Fabulous frontman Pelle Almqvist still acts like his act is the best thing since sliced furniture...because it is. Remarking to the Naeba Ski Resort faithful how returning to this Japanese festival the Swedes have moved down a stage, but up a time slot (that's progress). All as their signature style and sound like, no other, stops in the middle of a song, before they break into their absolute classic. And Nicholaus Arson, Vigilante Carlstroem, Chris Dangerous and The Johan and Only never hate to tell you so...alright?!

At that July gig, The Hives announced their new album coming in August...and here it is. So say it with me, 'The Hives Forever Forever The Hives' in trademark and time-honoured humility. Their first album for the 'Veni Vidi Vicious' rockers since 'The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons' two years back. And this might be one of their best, like 'Tyrannosaurus Hives' (try curing that with cream) and 'The Black And White Album' for an act who are still your favourite band in logo all caps. Sporting royal regalia, in atrociously amazing album artwork and expressions only they could make (the guitarist looking like a Dalek), The Hives take these crowns and royal robes to the palace of their single and album title-track to close this bawdy affair. Almqvist won't stop dressing like the king he is on the actual lead single, but 'Enough Is Enough' as he screams into the trademark boxing microphone he swings around on stage. "Everyone's a little f####n' b####/And I'm getting sick and tired of this/Went to the doctor 'turns out I'm sick/Sick of everybody's bull####/And I ain't listenin', not hearing anything/Can't take no more." Actually entering the ring as a boxer, punching down on everyone...even the referee.

Don't blow the whistle, it's all fun and games for the fondly friendly group that have always sung with a tongue in their (and your) cheek. They just want to 'Legalize Living' in black and white, like "Rules on top of rules, all of this I do despise/Layers upon layers upon layers upon lies/They are putting the doubt in you/They tell you what they want you to do." Continuing to 'Paint A Picture' with more strong singles matched by amazing music videos. This one, a caricature of their best, looking like the halfway house of an a-ha- music video, or something Jack and Meg of The White Stripes used to take on. After the brackets of an introduction and some interludes, you'll be saying 'Hooray Hooray Hooray' for The Hives again and their big-three singles. All for their classic, quick-draw tracks for some of the best two minutes you'll have without your significant other complaining. Sure, Sabrina Carpenter is dancing with Colman Domingo in drag this New Music Friday. But apart from that, it's just a 'Stans' soundtrack of old Eminem records and The Fun Lovin' Criminals without Huey (no, thanks).

Yet The Hives are the same beautiful Nordic bastards who stole the show from my favourite Springsteen in London and beloved Haim in Japan. Every album of the year could have come out this weekend and 'Forever The Hives' would have still been one of the classics of the calendar. Recorded in Stockholm's studio syndromes of the bold YEAR0001 and the alphabet soup of Riksmixningsverket (owned by ABBA's very own Benny Andersson), this record like the label will really make you Play It Again Sam. A half-hour of all garage rock power, it's time to 'Roll Out The Red Carpet' again for a royal appointment with these Berry's that could make Beethoven roll over once more. Produced by longtime collaborator of the band (est. 1993) Pelle Gunnerfeldt and the Beastie Boy Mike D, this seventh seal of an album even has the Queens Of The Stone Age's very own Josh Homme rocking all over tracks like the good 'Bad Call' and the overdose of  'O.C.D.O.D.'. Mike D's presence actually made everyone so nervous, producer Pelle was tripping over wires. Murder for anyone with O.C.D.

Obsessive compulsive Hives fans will come out in exactly that though when they hear the "Crawling out from under nothing/Ears are bleeding, head is hurting/Raise a glass to every fuse I blew/Look back and see the bridges burning/Behind you, see the closing curtain/Every single friend deserting you" of 'They Can't Hear The Music'. The guys that were all 'Born A Rebel', as they are right now taking the world by a storm of a tour, told Emily Garner of Kerrang that this album is "a new record so full of energy, joy, anger and life that you will be questioning reality as you have known it... Every single song a single, every single single a hit, every hit a direct hit in the face of the man." And man, what a rollout of hits, but maybe the one that hits the hardest is the anthem of the 'Path Of Most Resistance'. "You soak in lukewarm water and you flatten the graphs/All the good feelings and none of the bad/Swimming upstreams 'cause I don't wanna be/A little bit trapped and a little free/A little bit trapped and a little free/Always something for them but there is nothing for me," Pelle urges with power that fights those who want to take yours. Now, if that isn't rock and roll in the face of the modern day, I don't know what is, or what to tell you. A forever feeling like The Hives that will stay with you as you itch for more. The Hives aren't dead, and you shouldn't be, either. Long live. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Enough Is Enough', 'Legalize Living', 'Path Of Most Resistance'

Spin This: The Hives - 'The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons'.

LIVE REVIEW: SAKANACTION - SAKANAQUARIUM @ K-Arena, Yokohama, Japan (26/08/25)

5/5

Sakanaction Days

One of the biggest bands in Japan, Sakanaction, are concluding a six-month tour in their native Land of the Rising Sun with two shows in Yokohama's K-Arena. One of the biggest venues in the world, built solely for making music. Oh, and the portmanteau for "fish" ("sakana" in Japanese) and "action" have sold out both shows of this 20,000 seater stadium. And it's easy to see why, as Ichirō Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera (Mocchi), Ami Kusakari (Neesan), Emi Okazaki (Zakki) and Keiichi Ejima (Ejii) brought out their big guns. Like their latest monster hit 'Kaiju', with the Godzilla green coloured corridors and 'Exit 8' yellow adorning many of the fans t-shirts descending on the awesome arena in a city that neighbours Tokyo. Or their signature 'Shintakarajima', as cheerleaders came out with pompoms like geishas with traditional fans for 'サカナクション - 夜の踊り子 '.  And the fans loved it as they stamped their SAKANAQUARIUM cards. All the way to the closing 'Night Fishing Is Good' from the band's sophomore set 'Night Fishing'. Ensuring emotion for everyone in attendance who grew up with the Sapporo supergroup.

Eight wonderful albums adorn Sakanaction's career, eighteen years after their major label debut. Their last album being the awesome 'Adapt', coming out of corona in 2022. Their latest killer 'Kaiju' song serves as the soundtrack to the amazing anime 'Orb: On The Movements Of The Earth'. And the band that are soaring as they are touring have never stopped casting their lines out into open water. Even brilliant bassist Ami Kusakari released her own acclaimed album of ambient beauty in her inspired instrumental 'Garden Studies' at the beginning of this calendar. These studies were on sonic display as fans took their seats enveloped in a mesmerizing and meditating mist that even the 'Seeing Sound, Hearing Time' epic exhibition of the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto would be proud of. Honestly, you could have sat there in a perfect peaceful state all night, but once Sakanaction came on stage to rapturous applause, it was time to go fish. And what better way to 'GO TO THE FUTURE', in opening, than with an act that's been doing exactly that ever since they pushed music's envelope with their dynamic debut album of the same name? Perfect penmanship graffiti greeting us with on-screen videos that met live streams seamlessly.

An amazing aquarium (this is the SAKANAQUARIUM after all), that actually looked like one as a video screen displaying an amazing actor and dancer (the revelatory Runa Miura) played out like a movie (directed by the great Yusuke Tanaka) after this show's opening credits introduced the band, separated the stage into a rectangular tank. And when it all operatically opened up, it was like that inspired IMAX scene in the best movie of this year, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan's 'Sinners', when the cinematic widescreen turns full for the final showdown. Words can't put into justice just how good this show was. How inspired it was. Yokohama is known for fireworks in the Japanese Hanabi Summer, called 'Night Flowers'. But even J Dilla would have been proud of these light works. Lasers pointed all across the arena and at one point framed an inspired Ichirō in a holy light that his incredible voice matched. Iwadera's influential, great guitar. Kusakari's beautiful bass. Okazaki's outstanding piano play. Ejima's definitive drumming. The famous five of Sakanaction work best together like bait, hook and line. And when they came back for an epic encore to DJ 'Music', behind their 'Shintakarajima' laptops and Elton John worthy glasses, you could see there was another level to these alternative rockers who know how to make a crowd move with electronic pop. The new wave is here to stay. The final show is set to turn Yokohama's K-Arena into "SaKArenaction" tonight. Time for some action. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Set-list Picks: 'Kaiju', 'Shintakarajima', 'Night Fishing Is Good'.

REVIEW: JON BATISTE - BIG MONEY

4/5

Money Talks 

Money sings. And in a time when we should all be speaking up for Colbert's show being cancelled by the powers that be (evil), Stephen's former bandleader continues fighting the good fight. It's not even been a year (November) since Jon Batiste gave us his twinkling take on his 'Beethoven Blues', the 'Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1', that came a calendar after the Oscar winning 'Soul' singer's 'World Music Radio', yet here we are. And we didn't forget his 'Saturday Night' live soundtrack, either. This week, Batiste is banking on 'Big Money' with his ninth wonder of an album, featuring nine wonderful songs that will surely track the top ten for the record. One that is reminiscent of the great Raphael Saadiq's (surely a muse) former iTunes album of the year, 'The Way I See It'. Not to mention it's fellow throwback follow-up, 'Stone Rollin''. All the way down to the guitar grabbing black and white album artwork. Singing to the heavens with the purple reign of big, bold type. 

Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, Lana Del Rey, and Mavis Staples. Jon has recorded with them, and many more. But on this set he brings three big and diverse artists to the boil of this genre trip across the generations, closing with the No ID and Billy Bob Bo Bob assisted 'ANGELS' taking wing. Opening with the outstanding Andra Day track to 'LEAN ON MY LOVE', like when the great Bill Withers wasn't strong. But it's the friend Jon Batiste has in Randy Newman that really takes us back from a 'LONELY AVENUE'. You may know, 'Toy Story', but do you know the sheer greatness of the legend with the iconic voice behind the song that showed even a cowboy and spaceman could get along? "Now my room has got two windows/But the sun never comes shinin’ through/You know it’s always dark/It’s dreary since I broke it off with you/I live on a lonely avenue." Leaning over the piano of an instant vintage, absolute classic.

The Bible-belt thumping title-track and its throwback music video, nuanced in nostalgia, will leave you stepping. 'PETRICHOR' is a call to nature, and to nurture such ("swim in the ocean/What's left of her"). Whilst 'DO IT ALL AGAIN' circles back to "Coming and going/We reap what we're sewing/On time like a tambourine/Older and younger/You don't have to wonder what you mean to me, yeah." The 'PINNACLE' of this album is exactly that. Or maybe it's 'MAYBE'. Either way, 'AT ALL' costs, Batiste's biggest record since the one he sang for Jamie Foxx is money. Harmonizing with lyrics like, "I ain't gonna take this flight to London/Tomorrow/This is not a negotiation/I made the call/She understands me/But she's not all of y'all/If she understands me/Then you don't have to, at all." Years after his 'American Symphony' documentary movie on Netflix and all that he and his brave author partner Suleika Jaouad have fought through, there's another battle waging. One for America's heart, and who better than this man with soul to bring the big, good times back? Put your money down on it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'LONELY AVENUE (Feat. Randy Newman)', 'PINNACLE', 'MAYBE'

Spin This: Raphael Saadiq - 'The Way I See It'

REVIEW: KID CUDI - FREE

3.5/5

Scott Free

One of the craziest things that came out of the Diddy case, aside from the sheer weight of all the evil wrongdoings, was the testimony that the disgraceful hip-hop mogul planted a bomb in Scott Mescudi, AKA Kid Cudi's car. All because the rapper was seeing Sean Combs ex-girlfriend Cassie. Truly terrible. It's enough to drive a sane man crazy, there the great Scott was, showing up for his day in court to testify against the man he said looked like a "Marvel super villain" after said event. It's safe to say, after this, and the social media firestorm, Cudi could do with a breather. And he finds it 'Free' of all this, on his first album since last year's 'Insano' release. An incredible follow-up (especially with the 'Nitro Mega' version like Lupe Fiasco's 'Samurai DX', also released this New Music Friday, like Ghostface and Jon Batiste) to his 'Entergalactic' soundtrack to the man on the moon's Netflix animated movie.

This Wicked Awesome/Republic pop rock album finds itself on the green of Scott's back nine following his appearance in Adam Sandler's 'Happy Gilmore 2' (doesn't beat his one in the 'Bill & Ted' sequel though, for Keanu's classic line). Finding 'Neverland' and a 'Grave' new single to go along with the latest, 'Mr. Miracle', that should keep you up to speed on just how this Kid made it through all of this. After this epic, eleventh (WHAT?!) album's instrumental intro, 'Echoes Of The Present', Cudi starts off strong with two singles for the boards. All before this album, with no guest features a la J. Cole, gets into Scott Mescudi's 'Opiate' love addiction. "Tenderness entering/Just a kiss, damn it, it's the beginning/To mean something/Caught the flame." From there he goes 'Deep Diving' with Jean, not Jon, Baptiste. Right out the blue sky cloudy doorway of a 'Truman Show', Jim Carrey like leap of faith. And in case he doesn't see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night.

All the way down to 'Submarine', Cudi submerges, serving "Way too deep to ever reach the summer breeze/God save me/I'm too deep, a psychedelic dream, I'm too deep" lyrics before the dust of 'Ashes' proceeds the 'Grave'. If you've heard it in a 'Past Life', like Maggie Rogers, then you know you don't even have to say it. Sometimes life is just that hard, but when you leave the past where it belongs, you can begin anew. The poet's prose gets profound from the Sia like jump of, "A chandelier on a thin string, hangin' onto reality/I'm losin' faith more than time bleeds, at least I still got some air to breathe/Grain of sand in the hourglass, havin' fun while I still can/I wanna know what the end say, but I can't rush the story." 'Picnic In Paris' is a perfect getaway, as is the 'Stargazing' that comes before the closing 'Salt Water' for the man who has no more salty tears. "Is this thing real or placebo?/Walk through the clouds out a blue door/Can't lose the dreams that I reach for." It's real Kid. Cudi is free. Like Diddy should never be. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Neverland', 'Truman Show', 'Picnic In Paris'

Spin This: Kid Cudi - 'Entergalactic'