REVIEW: MISSY ELLIOTT-ICONOLOGY

4/5

Queen M.E.

Get UR freak back on. Because Misdemeanor is back and she said so. Now get your back off the wall, get your back off the wall like losing control with Ciara and Fatman Scoop. Because it's been almost 15 years since Missy Elliott's last album as she stirred the pot like the hairs on the chinny chin, chin of James Harden for 'The Cookbook'. But yet she still runs this as her music still makes you lose control. And after soundtrack bites ('Ching-a-Ling', 'Shake Ya Pom Pom') and other tiding us over tracks ('Best, Best', 'Triple Threat'). Not to mention starting a Superbowl 'Pep Rally' being brought out for Katy Perry's halftime show with some Baby Sharks. The hiatus is over like featuring on woman of the moment Lizzo tracks. Check the DNA test. And sure it's only an E.P. of five songs, one an acapella version (but best believe no one comes close to Missy who rides beats this good with her raps, when it underrated as such comes to singing over nothing so beautifully for her twin skill set), but when it comes to a legend who used to be expected to release an amazing event album each fall like Jay-Z we'll take what we can. This is not a test! Wake up! Elliott is home. The late, great Aaliyah (we miss you Baby Girl...this game would be...is nothing without you), titanic powerhouse producer Timbaland and R&B legend who dances before Usher and Ne*Yo, Ginuwine Superfriend has more classics then your favourite rappers favourite rapper. 'Supa Dupa Fly', 'Da Real World', 'Miss E...So Addictive', 'Under Construction' and 'This Is Not A Test'. And that's just the albums. What do you know about, 'Get Ur Freak On', '4 My People' (and the banging Basement Jaxx remix), 'Work It', 'Gossip Folks', both the Ludacris and Hova versions of 'One Minute Man', 'Pass That Dutch', or 'Lose Control'. Or how about 'Beep Me 911', 'The Rain', 'All N My Grill' and 'Sock It 2 Me'. Who's setting off all those fireworks. Because forget who's the D.J. Missy 'Misdemeanour' Elliott has more bangers than Guy Fawkes. 'She's A Bitch' you say? Yeah, don't get so 'Teary Eyed'. And dry them because when it comes to Nicki or Cardi B. With all due respect we say Missy. And now the icon is here to stay with 'Iconology'.

"Walk up in this thing (Thing), I be on my game (Game)/If it's competition ('Tition), I put them to shame (Shame)/Different kind of chick (Chick), we are not the same (The same)/I raised all these babies, call me Katherine Jackson ('Son)/Please don't steal my style (Style), I might cuss you out (Wow)/What you doin' now (Doin'), I did for a while (While)/Missy, Missy, Missy, go 'head, let it slap (Slap)/I'ma snatch they wigs 'til I see that scalp (Scalp)/Booty, booty clap (Clap), flyin' across the map (Map)/Lambo on the block (Block), lookin' like a snack/I'll show you how I do it (Do it), show you how it's done (Done)/Don't look for another Missy 'cause there'll be no 'nother one." BOOM! Now watch her 'Throw It Back' in highlighting pink for a Harajuku neon video that's right there with the iconography of her classic 'Get Ur Freak On', 'Work It', 'Lose Control' and all the countless classic clips for an artist who redefined the music video like MTV. Or like bringing all grown up child star Alyson Stoner out to the stage of the VMA's as she becomes the iconic flag planting astronaut for Music Television. Sofa popcorn making it a must to tune into Bass before YouTube and this Spotify just for the sound social generation. All as dynamite dancers to her trademark type skip on her jump rope hair as she pops gum, making noise in the same week as Taylor Swift talks about another 'Lover' for pure pop and fellow genius giants of her genre Raphael Saadiq and Jeezy release new albums to acclaim. And throwing it back like Fabolous in an Elden Campbell Lakers jersey way before white American and the watching world thought it was about sharing pictures on Instagram from last week by Thursday, if Missy hasn't already bodied your favourite rapper again-let alone his-with this old school, beat down beat displaying just how heavy she is with this hip hop s### then, "Missy make up her own rules/Not many can do what I do/So many VMA's that I could live on the moon/Man, I jump and you leap/Better wake up if you sleep/I did records for Tweet before y'all could even tweet" (BOOM X2). Then the Misdemeanor just finished you off like misogynistic rappers who thought they were going to get a happy ending. Nope! The script and song sheet has been flipped by the one whose back to change the game again. Now what did we tell you about those VMA's?

Need to 'Cool Off'? Here's a towel. Because Missy isn't stopping on the second track. Mic in hand even your best hype man couldn't keep up like a one minute man. Because THIS is another Missy Elliott exclusive. "Play this again, I'm finna win/Finna go off, finna go in/Me and my friends, yeah, we on ten/And the song never ends, no, the song never ends/Body shaped like a fisheye lens/I'll make it drop, yeah, I'll make it bend/Cool off 'til I feel the wind/Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten/Way too high to get over me/Way too low to get under my skin/All the DJ's gon' hit that spin/I'ma play this again and again and again (Stop)" as she goes for four fours like Jay-Z round and round like a ceiling fan over another big beat. Still need that towel? "Do it, do it, do it do it" like Ben Stiller going 'Starsky and Hutch' undercover. The Timbaland reunion produced 'DripDemeanour' featuring Sum1 sounds as fresh and nostalgic as something the Queen M.E. would have done with the Queen Aaliyah back in the day. Whilst Timbo the King comes back on the relationship woes of 'Why I Still Love You' and it's awesome acapella version in the vein of 'It's Real', or 'Take Away' featuring Ginuwine The Bachelor. Featuring amen lyrics like, "Just don't waste up my time/Mm, I go way out my way/Making you satisfied/But it don't matter, boy, how hard I try/You don't care how I be feelin' inside/You gon' make me tell you, "Kiss my ass goodbye"". Whilst showing that Mister Mosley on the beats, riding the snare like a 'Pony' classic can produce just as beautiful ballad as Missy can make it, hitting all the high, right notes. And if this is just a taste test of things to come then we can't wait to order her first full course since 'The Cookbook'. Eat up, because it's going to go down a treat. Now haven't you missed Missy? Let's see what's next from the icons chronology. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Throw It Back', 'Cool Off', 'DripDemeanour'.

REVIEW: TAYLOR SWIFT-LOVER

4/5

Hey Lover.

Swiftly moving on from the beef all about it, 90's hip-hop like cover of her last war declaring album that hit that tabloids, Tay, Tay, Taylor Swift gets her '1989' fresh reputation back as the king princess of pure pop for the Summer bubblegum popping crowd this season. Now look what you made her do. Her last album was an underrated sleeper and grower. That like it's subject matter needs to be addressed. 'Reputation' was as brave and bold as they come. But save her 'Red' country strong roots, Taylor's latest, brand new album just in time for the last 500 days of Summer is the 'Lover' of the light Swift we know best. Haters would have said it was like a photoshopped copy if this new album came after one that inspired an alt-rocker who shall not be named to cover it in its entirety with his own independent album like 1990. And still look what they did to her 'Reputation'. But this new breath of fresh air like a new Summer love is the perfect romance to keep die hard fans happy and maybe even silence a few critics who need to calm down (they're being too loud). Powered by the pride of this LGBT anthem that rocks like Beyoncé in 'The Lion King', the candy coloured cameo filled video brings everyone from the talk show of Ellen to the drag race of RuPaul, as Ryan Reynolds paints all this every colour canvas food fight that even reunites the former beef burger drama of Taylor and Katy Perry by the patty party. The two pop queen's are like peas and carrots...or burgers and fries again. With Swift's first album in a pair of years I guess they are no longer in the 'Endgame' anymore like collaborating with Ed Sheeran. After a war that seemed to last like infinity it's over in a SNAP...dust!

"Sunshine on the street at the parade/But you would rather be in the dark age/Just makin' that sign must've taken all night/You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace/And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate/'Cause shade never made anybody less gay." 'Calm Down' isn't just a Swift classic, song of the summer, or year. It's also subtley so-until you see the beautiful video-one of the most important songs of her whole career and our generations time right about now. And if you thought that was hot like Will Smith looking through a telescope, then wait until you hear the title track and peer into the snow globe of this festive feeling and game changing video. In your 'Wildest Dreams', 'Lover' sounds somewhere between the love of her new beautiful ballads and the old country strings from her early Nashville days that will never go out of style for the biggest country to pop star since Shania Twain felt like a woman and impressed us all. 'Lover' this album is full of big numbers like the millions of albums she'll sell with this before the platinum plaques turn into a billion served for someone as American as the golden arches of McDonald's. But this sugars too sweet to rock your teeth. From the highly anticipated 'Soon You'll Get Better' duet with country legends The Dixie Chicks (well worth the wait), to a scooter assist from London's 'Luther' himself Idris Elba (like the time he challenged rapper Macklemore to a 'Dance Off'). As Taylor sees the Big Smoke of Estelle's 'American Boy' with another who shall not be named and raises her a 'London Boy' and an itinerary that has been having Brits scratching their heads on Twitter. I hope she's reloaded her Oyster Card for this Underground route and does it pass through Bond Street hey 'Dris? And how about the instantly recognisable when it's dropped at the party banger 'ME!' (sorry for shouting) with Brendon Urie from Panic! At The Disco!? But for all the big guns from the 'Bad Blood' singer who brought them all out like Kendrick Lamar for the remix, it's the smouldering season feeling 'Cruel Summer' that is is so good Ellen Degeneres got it tattooed on her arm. Swifties may just do so too.

Ink this Idris! This is one of Taylor's best made albums yet. Just like from Jake to Tom, Taylor's trademark brutal breakup records. The indifferent opening 'I Forgot That You Existed' and it's "Lived in the shade you were throwing/'Til all of my sunshine was gone, gone, gone/And I couldn't get away from ya
In my feelings more than Drake, so yeah/Your name on my lips, tongue-tied/Free rent, living in my mind" before she gets to a peace over something she thought initially would kill her (we've all been there) are actually inspired. It's not love. It's not hate. It's something in-between. Whilst the 'If I Was A Boy' idea of 'The Man' lets her get her concept on like the Cupid bullseye of 'The Archer' gets her Hawkeye on. More killer than the 'Wonderful, Wonderful' Brandon Flowers song of the same name she scathes, I"would be complex, I would be cool/They'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to/Amen that would be okay for me to do/Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you." Boom...feel the burn man. Amen! The aware 'I Think He Knows', the cranes run around like a Daisy chain of 'Paper Rings' and the regret laced destination no longer known of 'Cornelia Street' are far from filler, more formidable. But it's the standout should be single, 'Miss American And The Heartbreak Prince' that you'll really love. It even sounds like the perfect U.S. band name Tom Petty. Yet free fallin' through the rest of this set nothing goes quite as deeper as the 'Death By A Thousand Cuts' as Swift strains over the strings as she sings for a broken heart inspired by Netflix's 'Someone Great', "I see you everywhere, the only thing we share/Is this small town/You said it was a great love, one for the ages/But if the story’s over, why am I still writing pages"? Scorned lovers will love this albums 'False God', whilst those in need to get by will be glad to know 'Its Nice To Have A Friend' and it's steel drum Jamaican meets Japanese sound. Still it's the atmospheric 'Afterglow' and the dawn of 'Daylight' closing this 18 track of teenage love in an adulting world that take 'Lover' to the heart and electric soul of matters. For this neon sonic scoring summertime gladness music that's going to rock no doubt from Orange County, California to those Harajuku lovers in Tokyo, Japan. This is Taylor's time now bitches! And what a throne in this game to take the crown back. Queen Beyoncé running the world like the rest of the girls. The identity of Sia's sound. The 'Mothers Daughter' of the unstoppable Ashley O, Miley Cyrus no matter your black mirror. A star reborn in the Oscar winning Lady Gaga and of course Ariana Grande. And lets not forget new queen's like Maggie Rogers and King Princess. Or 'Norman F###### Rockwell', Lana Del Rey. And now Taylor remade. Thank you, next. What a time to be alive when it comes to the power of women in pop. Let alone the rest of the entertainment and wide world. Haters you've got to love this, like you'll love 'Lover'. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Calm Down', 'Lover', 'Miss Americana And The Heartbreak Prince'.

REVIEW: RAPHAEL SAADIQ-JIMMY LEE

4/5

Still Ray, Ray.

London calling. From supergroups Tony! Toni! Toné! to Lucy Pearl, 'The Way I See It' listening to neo soul icon in this modern mainstream, Raphael Saadiq sparks nostalgia of catching a coach down to the Big Smoke in my twenties and just letting his playlist play on my shuffling iPod. As miles of motorway ended up joining big red double decker buses and black Hackney taxi cabs and Big Ben chimed in time. And best believe on what might be the last time visiting in London town for awhile this week as I say goodbye to some friends before teaching in Tokyo, I'll be playing it one more time, for old times sake. It may be because seemingly from about 2008 to 2011 he was almost all I listened to. Or because many of my gigging trips down to England's capital saw me seeing the guy himself in concert during this prolific primetime. Where I ended up meeting some of my dearest friends at his solo concerts and one supporting Lenny Kravitz on his 'Black and White America' tour (hey Olisa and Jazarah!). To even the man himself as Ray Ray told me "I saw you getting down in the front." Which if you had seen it (there's actually a YouTube video for the record...it's not pretty...trust me. I ain't showing you) roughly translates to something akin to someone nodding along in partially embarrassed hidden acknowledgement as the dad dancing is broken out at a family wedding. Hey, what can I say? With music like Ray's how can you not move your feet? From 2008's absolute game changing (actually...not in the clichéd way) classic, 'iTunes Album Of The Year' (remember iTunes? When it was the "new" thing?) 'The Way I See It' that took it back to the magic of Motown, all original, no cover. To the 'Stone Rollin'' 2011 release that went back even further to 50's rock and roll for your milkshake and drive-in movies. And after that unstoppable run of new classics based on a timeless time that let the good times roll, Raphael is back almost a decade later. Eight years removed with his most personal project yet that takes him back to the 'Instant Vintage' days of 'Ray Ray', showing us he's 'Still Ray' like over Dre piano, "coming home to you".

'Jimmy Lee' named after Saadiq's late brother is the singers darkest, but most profound album yet, marking yet another new chapter in his classic catalogue. Jimmy Lee died of a heroin overdose after contracting HIV and Raphael Saadiq confronts this trauma of losing his elder by writing about it and making the music we hear today. But looking back at his own past he doesn't just stop there as he also takes on Trump's America and the incarcerating problems that are scarring the face of his country aswell as his own troubles. On the anthemic 'Rikers Island' and the redux reprise, inspired interlude featuring the poetic wisdom words to the truth of Daniel J. Watts that follows, the soul man whose always had heart for real issues (see the 'Big Easy' New Orleans number that came out right after Katrina and subtlety behind the sweet sound plays profound) warns we could even be living in "Rikers Island" in our own mind as he sings, "the boy is shaking inside, he says it's something he didn't do/he's afraid to take that low ride, down Rikers Island avenue." And if you haven't seen this type of profiling pain in Netflix's groundbreaking 'When They See Us' serial, then "some of them are there for no reason/some will be there 'till they die" you'll see it now. On the sobering standout 'The World Is Drunk', over a fresh best and pure piano ivory, Raphael takes it to the gutter like a broken bottle as he vividly emotes, "eyes are black, black and cold" and "everyone around him sees the clown and they're laughing at him." All punch drunk for a hungover planet of aggravated anxiety that needs some soulful medication from this headache or at least a helping hand on the shoulder that says, "I feel your burden brother." But as he sings "I wake up a quarter man" on the Japanese flute beat of 'Kings Fall' (something we all learn from LeBron and the Lakers), there's still a sense of hope that runs through these songs struggles right through the 'Glory Of The Veins' featuring Ernest Turner that strains through the life of a dope fiend. The battle of addiction and even the temptation Saadiq faced, "I lost a brother to AIDS/But still he laughed everyday", Raphael mourns but with beauty for a life celebrated, even through the pain. Because through all the depths of darkness and spirals of substance abuse and addiction, Saadiq shows real soulful substance. Believing in a higher power than a narcotic. And that belief and power 'Belongs to God' on the Church recital with Reverend E. Baker's sermon service, that as a brief inspired interlude like 'Dottie's' before the glory goes back to 'Veins' serves as something that sounds somewhere between the Motown soul of 'The Way I See It' and the 'Stone Rollin'' rock of this rolling stone who deserves the magazine cover for this.

"GOD can I make it? GOD can we make it? GOD help me make it!" he pleads on the atmospheric opening of 'Sinners Prayer' which two hands together starts the proceedings this evening as we kneel by our bed before we lay down to sleep. There's no voice in this industry as distinct or definitive than Charlie Ray's and here as he prays through the pain we can still see the light for a man and his belief that refuses to be shadowed by shame or the sickness of the world. This unwavering essence keeps going over the foot tapping 'So Ready' like "I never come home at night/But still you stay by my side." Or the Rob Bacon assisted 'Something Keeps Calling' over guitars and the zoned out 'I'm Feeling Love'. Sizzling over speakers as he harmonises, "I've been feeling more than blessed/even though the hardest times" on this personal war on drugs and what they've took with God still on his side, two pairs of footprints in the sand. You can feel it on 'My Walk' if you take it with him too as he tells it like it is, "I've been moving keys and singing all day." Ying and Yang traversing through the good and bad like "if she takes me back I probably wouldn't stay," or "I've been taking backstreets just to feed my soul". And staring through the 'Rearview' like 'to pimp a caterpiller', or butterfly on the formidable finale, Pulitzer prize winning rapper Kendrick Lamar asks, "how can I change the world, but not change myself," as Saadiq fades out singing in a different Tony, Toni tone, "your life is in the rearview". The modern times legend with the black circle around his left eye let's us see with TLC like 'Different Times' a warning we really should heed as he and this musical journey disappears over the horizon as the sun falls on his latest set. But on 'Lee', Raphael doesn't leave his past behind, more moves on with it as he keeps marching on to a neo sound of an old soul he helped coin like a new stereo currency. Showing he can still afford more after giving us so much already. This is the type of raw but revelatory record all hearts can relate to. Looking up to the heavens as we feel it in our souls. For Jimmy. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Sinners Prayer', 'The World Is Drunk', 'Kings Fall'.

REVIEW: BON IVER-i, i

5/5

From Justin, Forever More.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, legendary actor of our generation Brad Pitt was dumped...wait! What? And what did he do to get over this divorce from actress Angelina Jolie? Well he did what we all do...no not sculpting, I don't have the Swayze hands in 'Ghost' for that Demi. He threw on a classic break-up record. The groundbreaking 'Skinny Love' classic from Bon Iver, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' to be playlist matching exact. And upon hearing the 'Fight Club' and 'Se7en' thesp did this like a 'Tree Of Life' what was Wisconsin's own Justin Vernon's response from his log cabin the middle of a wilderness nowhere? "Cool!" Cool. Once upon a time in Paris Justin kidnapped (well not exactly...don't alert the authorities) a young woman for the French L'Blogtheque take away show. A classic Parisian syndicate that make inventive live show music video alternatives for stars like Maggie Rogers, Lianne La Havas and so much more of our best and brightest. Bon Iver being the most "bon" of all. From walking around the romantic streets singing 'For Emma', to performing in the middle of an abandoned building (just think of the acoustics) to a woman who looked like she was wearing a bowl on her head as a blindfold. But this time with a whole choir behind him singing the haunting 'Heavenly Father" off a hym sheet to someone I sure no longer felt kidnapped when she realized who it was (the anti-celebrity always introduces himself so politely, "I'm Justin" like they didn't already know), the notes he hit taking him higher sounded like Justin was possessed by the Holy Ghost...again those acoustics. Once upon a time in the Beatle town of Liverpool this writer even lost his virginity to some Bon Iver (the last song (yeah that's how long it took me) 'Beth/Rest' off the self titled second sophomore album from Bon Iver if you want the gory details), so what more do you need to know?

Lost in the 'Woods' of his 'Blood Bank' EP like the best 'Atlanta' episode from Brian Tyree Henry, Bon Iver or Justin Vernon blew up out of nowhere. So much so he was even sampled and then started working with Kanye West for 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy', bringing the best out of Mr. West. But these days due to some Trumped up affiliations, Justin just can't kick it with Yeezus anymore even though he's still likes him as a friend (we feel you). But we'd love to hear them make great music again one day. Vernon has even made knockout music for 'Creed' soundtracks too. But seconds out nothing quite hits like his own personal projects. 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is more than a hipster classic for this generation from Urban Outfitters to Coachella shows. It's quite simply one of the most beautiful albums of all-time. Like it's soaring self-titled successor and 2016's last release until now '22 Million', which really pushed the musical envelope with what you can do with production and how you even name songs Prince or Maxwell "eye" amlookingatyou. And now with Justin saying he's "winding down" I, I just can't believe it with the release of Iver's 'i, i', which furthers his art gallery like discography of definitive sounds for his musical masterpieces. 'We' can't even with his outstanding opener that soundtrack sounds like something out of a Western folklore for the folk hero. "The ordinary something neither of us holds/No folding gold for protecting from the lords/Who's that really we leave out in the cold?/But they're depending, so you just keep giving pause," he sings on an album analysing his anxiety as he stresses through some stanzas. Healing the harm in only a way music can.

'Hey Ma' isn't a Cam'ron cover for the man who has worked with more rappers than Dame Dash. Instead it's the inspired standout single from Iver following the beautiful 'Holyfields'. This atmospheric cut breathes new life into his overcoming struggles as Justin sings, "I waited outside/I was tokin' on dope/I hoped it all won't go in a minute/With the past that you know/I wanted all that mind, sugar/I want it all mine/I had a heavy mind, sugar/It took it, it was right." If you can't feel how he is then it's time to get your mind in this music. Because with a mainstream starving for more art in the artist (save breakthrough releases from the likes of Maggie Rogers, King Princess and the 'Summer Girl' sax of Haim) this is the closest down to earth hero of headphones this side of the 'Western Stars' of Springsteen. The opening piano of 'U (Man Like)' sounds like something from the closing credits of a Japanese anime (don't act like that's a bad thing), whilst the song itself opens up to so much more. But the real heavy hitter on 'i, i' is 'Naeem'. Nothing is more epic or right there with his 're:Stacks', 'Creature Fear', '22 Million' by the numbers, or Perth, Minnesota, Hinnom, Calgary, Lisbon place of interest best for the Wisconsin native than this. "All along me I can hear you/I'd occupy that/Can't sit back long while you're forming that/Oh, my mind, our kids got bigger/But I'm climbing down the bastion now/You take me out to pasture now" he sings for the heavens before the distorted, dynamic 'Jelmore', beautiful 'Faith' you will all believe in,  moving acoustic ode to 'Marion' (sorry Emma), stunning 'Salem' (simply sensational) and the strings of 'Sh'Diah' are your lot. All making and packing this set up as a classic right before the complete closer 'RABi' stuns the senses even more so. As Vernon teaches with lasting lyrics "Well it's all just scared of dying/But isn't this a beach?/And if I know one thing at all/Is I cannot just be a peach/Oh, you come in all woke now/So, please enjoy the feast/We are weightless like a wayless beast/So what is it we don't teach?" Bon Iver albums like something you love so beautiful are always here for a moment as we absorb all it surrounds us with, before it leaves us just as quickly with just a beautiful memory of just how good it can be. And if this really is it for Justin Vernon can we have just one more moment to savour? Because nothing sounds like this. And nothing will come quite as close. I, I believe that this is it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'We', 'Hey Ma', 'Naeem'.

REVIEW: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN-WESTERN STARS

4/5

Wild Boss.

Off Broadway. The Boss is back. And 'Born To Run' again this road takes the American dream of Bruce Springsteen off E Street like a 'Tunnel Of Love'. All for a songwriter album of solo standards with the spirit of Roy Orbison riding shotgun for 'Western Stars'. Beyond beautiful, the Boss Bruce's first album since his 2014 'High Hopes' reworking (and his first actual album of original material since twenty twelve's 'Wrecking Ball' like Miley swing) sees him chase wild horses from Tucson to Nashville. All the way from Sleepy Joe's cafe to a Moonlight Motel. Driving fast it's been a busy half decade for the boss of all bosses (sorry Rick Ross, but how dare you call yourself "The Boss"). In the last five years this wayfarer has released an amazing autobiography named after his seminal album and hit and even taken that book on the road of a theatrical tour for 'Springsteen On Broadway'. Not to mention companion collections to go with them and tide you over to his first full release of new material. We made enough to retire his whole family and children's children off that one show. But you know the blue jeans and collar of the working man's hero was always meant to give more like his all. So Bruce once again laces up those workman boots and goes to work, pedal to metal. But this time instead of burning rubber, this runaway American dream cruises down the coast with us riding passenger. Tuning into our new favourite records below these Western stars for a welcome return to this grit and gravel from the highwayman.

19 albums strong and the tank is far from empty for Springsteen this Spring to Summertime Bruce. From the title tracks tribute and classic Americana barroom performance, album artwork (this year's annual calender will bring life to your bedroom walls) video under those whisky gleaming neon lights for his 'Long Way Home' best video in years with a 'Human Touch', here's to him like the cowboys. "I wake up in the morning/Just glad my boots are on" Springsteen somberly sings as he gets as honest and vulnerable as he did revealing his mental health problems for the first time in his sixty plus life in the pages of his prose and then the stage of his show. Getting his Johnny Cash 'American Recordings' on in this El Camino Wild West ranch ride and telling us "Once I was shot by John Wayne" this ranger displays great poise and true grit. Singing, "some lost sheep from Oklahoma/Sips her Mojito down at the Whiskey Bar/Smiles and says she thinks she remembers me from that/Commercial with the credit card" like he was the Geico lizard out in this desert. 'Western Stars' is a soaring, self-titled single like the trails of 'Tucson Train', or the 'Hello Sunshine' welcome that shares the same hood of the car warmth as the 'American Beauty' Record Store Day '14 EP. But holding his thumb up and out on the 'Hitch Hikin'' opening he looks to ride with the character driven, seventies Southern California pop rock songs of country star Glen Campbell and the classic compositions of Burt Bacharach. And he achieves just that on his first solo work since the soul of 2005's 'Devils And Dust' album with 'Drive Fast (The Stuntman)' feeling like 'The Wrestler' that it could be some soundtrack song off the 'Streets Of Philadelphia' worthy of another Academy Award Oscar.

Between alone and home, sorrow and solitude, Springsteen sings, "Same sad story, love and glory goin' 'round and 'round/Same old cliché, a wanderer on his way, slippin' from town to town/Some find peace here on the sweet streets, the sweet streets of home/Where kindness falls and your heart calls for a permanent place of your own" on 'The Wayfarer' over somber strings in this at times cold, heartland desert. It may be lonely, but Springsteen finds some roadside solidarity over the end of a different type of bar and chaser in the cup of Joe from 'Sleepy Joe's Café'. All it takes is a couple of shots for Springsteen to romanticise something as ordinary as coffee. "I drive on down from the big town Friday when the clock strikes five/As the red sun sets in the ocean, I start to come alive/Summer girls in the parking lot slap on their makeup and they flirt the night away," Bruce over another round beautifies this blend of modern social interaction. You can almost watch the waitress walking around refilling everyone's coffee from her filter. But back on the open road and 'Chasin' Wild Horses', the ones Mick Jagger sang about couldn't drag this Rolling Stone away from this life "up on the Montana line" for a man who "never said goodbye" and probably never will. Things get real atmospheric and beautiful when he stares at 'Sundown' from his windshield of contemplation. Musing, "Sundown ain't the kind of place you want to be on your own/It's all long, hot, endless days and cold nights all alone/I drift from bar to bar, here in lonely town/Just wishing you were here with me, come sundown/In Sundown the cafés are filled with lovers passing time/In Sundown all I've got's trouble on my mind". But it's 'North Of Nashille' where this rock God like a wrecking ball in reverse gone country may truly find a new home. Souped up on Campbell like Andy Warhol this Jersey boy goes beyond the Meadowlands to look for Asbury Park greetings from a whole new postcard. But on the cinematic orchestration of 'Stones', Bruce broods bravely over a break up ballad, "I woke up this morning with stones in my mouth/You said those were only the lies you've told me/Those are only the lies you've told me." Longing for the Autumn of love like 'There Goes My Miracle' for a song that is signature Springsteen. But the testament to the traditional texture of this timeless testimonial is the sweet swan song 'Moonlight Motel' as the neon flickers off like our truck stopped's engine and up the stairs we go to our room. "Now the pool's filled with empty, eight-foot deep/Got dandelions growin' up through the cracks in the concrete/Chain-link fence half-rusted away/Got a sign says 'Children be careful how you play'". Closing the blinds on the 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town', Springsteen pays respectful tribute, checking in to a family business and community that is America as the American open road itself. And as the trail stops here, Bruce after getting so personal won't tour this album like his Broadway debut. Instead he'll return to E Street this fall to make more music and memories with some old friends. Because at the end of the day, no matter how far you go, there's nothing as close as home. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Tuscon Train', 'Somewhere North Of Nashville', 'Moonlight Motel'.

REVIEW: MILEY CYRUS-SHE IS COMING EP

4/5

Come Again.

1-833-SHE-ISMC. Call the hotline and come together over this. Miley Cyrus is back. She really is. In a big way. People are going Gaga over this former 'Hannah Montana' bubblegum pop star reborn into the second act of her amazing, acclaimed career. You can even get your own AI doll version of her for your teenage daughters dream. Or at least the robot of her other alter-ego Ashley O in the fifth and latest series of 'Black Mirror' she scene steals in her epic episode as a pop idol and icon turned into the futuristic, changing times hologram of her former self and manipulated manufacture of those behind the scenes looking to take artists for the profit of all they're worth. Leaving their individuality, identity and humanity on the cutting room floor. But after pop covering Nine Inch Nails as amazing as her 'Murray Christmas' take on 'Silent Night'. Or John Lennon 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' cover with son Sean. Not to forget her lyrical reworking of the Christmas classic 'Baby It's Cold Outside'. Taking away it's harassing misogyny. Singing "don't f### with my freedom" though on her new single, the 'Nothing Breaks Like A Heart' with Mark Robson singer and her 'Mother's Daughter' shows no one's going to make her do or be anything she doesn't want to do or be. On the straight banger that comes from the new EP and follow up to her classic 'Younger Now' country roots album, 'She Is Coming'. Tongue in cheek teasing this extended play for weeks and Never Minding The Bollocks like the punk cut-off t-shirt she wears on the black and white artwork, this sex pistol comes back with the biggest hit of her career in her year like a wrecking ball. So, "back up, back up, back up, back up, boy, ooh. Back up, back up, back up, back up, boy, ooh!"

Anthemic pop hasn't been this powerful in ages. As the entertaining celebrity and amazing artist spotlight of the moment owns it. "Hallelujah I'm a witch/I'm a witch, hallelujah/Swish swish, I'm a three-point shooter/I blow through ya/Like a hot wind out in the bayou, ya" she Steph Curry with the shot swag sings over a banging beat as the daughter whose mother told her she'd make it, makes it. Like Prince once said and she does, "there must be something in the water." I'll have what she's sipping on. Because, well the fountain of her famous success looks to never run dry even out in California. Somewhere in America...Miley is still working. On the first of many EP's and releases to stream from your Spotify's to the Apple of your favourite playlists. "Swish, swish mother####!" On 'Unholy' the rolling stoner gets high off the feeling as her music does the same to us. "I'm sick of the faking, the using, the taking/The people calling me obscene/You hate me, you love me/You just wanna touch me/I'm only trying to get some peace/So let me do me," she sings to the hypocrites on another heater oath of an anthem for the hot boxed car as she talks about getting drunk and high and loving on the kitchen table after take out. Reminding those who judge her giving in to her indulgences, "so what, so is everyone else." But it's all a 'D.R.E.A.M' with "all he girls in my room look like Dolly" and the supreme clientele collaboration with Shaolin's finest Ghostface Killah as they flip the concept on the 'C.R.E.A.M.' of the Wu Tang Clan's classic cuts with the clever twist of even more hardcore than these hip hop heads switching cash for drugs like a back alley deal. "Always last to leave the party/Drugs rule everything around me/Wake up with new tattoos on my body/Drugs rule everything around me," she sings as rap God Ghostface kills it's on the outro in kind, rhyming, "Got the white that's sure to light the floor like in 'Billie Jean'/Scarface nights (Nights)/500 thousand on the pinkie, Broadway ice/We throw bangers at weddings and y'all throw rice/Lollapalooza, Coachella custies, that's my type/Party all night." This is what wildest D.R.E.A.M.S. are made of.

Drag racing through the second half of this extended play, RuPaul is on hand to dress up the absolute sass of its own 'Cattitude'. Introducing this project with a runway of attitude saying, "Miley Cyrus/Bitch, you look like you done already did had yours/You better go take your country ass indoors and put some damn clothes on/'Cause nobody need to be seeing all of that/The library is officially open". And book and street smart the girl from Nashville, Tennessee gets a little more than country, trapping with her tongue out, "Turn up your gratitude, turn down your attitude/I love my pussy, that means I got cattitude/If you don't feel what I'm saying, I don't f### with you." Before sparking even more shocks to the system to both rockers like the Kings Of Leon ("my pussys on fire") and even the Axl Rose/Slash of poppa's pals Guns N Roses ("sweet pussy of mine"). And you hope she's talking about her cat. It's out the bag now. Then on an EP of banger(z) on a 'Party Up The Street' with Swae Lee and Mike Will Made It invited she puts the hammer down like her Hemsworth husbands avenging brother. Before truly baring all on the beautiful closer in tribute to him and absolute, initiate, vulnerable honesty with 'The Most', which might just be the best of the majority of the music Miley has made. Cyrus gets serious singing, "How many times have I left you in the deep?/I don't know why you still believe in me/Oh, oh, and even in my darkest days/Even in my lowest place, you love me the most/And even when I can't stay, even when I run away/You love me the most/So why do I hurt you so? Is it 'cause I know?/Why do I hurt you so?/Is it 'cause you love me the most?" Lana and Lady take note, Ashley O's real reflection has just held up a mirror to your most meaningful music moments as she fades to black. But only for the next few as a trilogy of EP's are set to conclude before Miley is coming for a full length ('She Is Miley Cyrus') this fall. 'She Is Here' like she's never left and with the next chapters of her career Miley Cyrus is about to show you that 'She Is Everything'. Come what may. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Mothers Daughter', 'D.R.E.A.M. (feat Ghostface Killah)', 'The Most'.

BOOK REVIEW: COMMON-LET LOVE HAVE THE LAST WORD

4/5

Common People.

468. That's how many times the word "love" is used in rapper slash actor Common's new memoir and second scribe, 'Let Love Have The Last Word'. Believe me I counted. Why? Because this language truly is a labour of love. Almost 500. Half of a thousand. Even though love doesn't appear at first until the seal of the seventh page. That's more than twice as many times than there is pages to this books body of text. But never overused. Always heaven sent meant. "I never knew a love, love, love like this". You truly are seeing the light here. Love is all around and all you need. It's something we all have in common, hurt or heartfelt. It has the power to lift you up...and put you right back down. It can break your heart. And it can heal all world war wounds. It can come from mother, daughter, father's and sons. Lovers and friends. And everyone all around us. To what could become of strangers on the street street to those we will never meet. There's love for the physical. The spiritual. Animals. The earth we live on and the wildest dreams we fall asleep with every night, looking towards the future. It can even happen as the author of this book tells us in simply holding the door open for another person. "Love is a verb" as Common says. A doing word. A call to action. "The first emotion I ever experienced was love", Lonnie Lynn wrote in his autobiography almost a decade back. His first New York Times bestselling book, 'One Day It'll All Make Sense', named after one of his hallmark hip-hop classics like 'Can I Borrow A Dollar', 'Resurrection' and the double-header of definitive healing in 'Be' and 'Finding Forever'. Not to forget the beautiful and experimental 'Electric Circus'. And this four letter word runs through his follow up and most personal and profound prose yet like blood through your veins and hope to your heart. The 'Glory' Oscar winning singer who has also appeared in 'Selma', 'The Hate U Give', 'Terminator' and 'John Wick' movie chapters, fighting with Batman, Christian Bale and kicking Keanu Reeves ass like their was a bounty on the boogeyman and used to love H.E.R. fist to desk, taps in and lets us feel how his heart really beats with the click, clack of his typewriter. Like we all will in unison time.

Love is...this. The corner of your bookshelf really is about to give you this feeling. The dreamer and the believer will give you the desire and faith of this with his vision that is more than just the words you see on the page. The genre icon who once sang with John Legend that he's "from the land where money talks and love stutters," gives it it's voice here for all those who can't find the words. "God is Love. Forgiveness is Love. Self-Care is Love. Art is Love. Compassion is Love". The Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder soul of hip-hop and the greatest and most inspirational conscious rapper of all-time gives us the perfect Spring read for the park or early evenings as the light from the sun comes in. Giving us a memoir manual as inspirational as the king Muhammed Ali's 'Soul Of A Butterfly' or the late sportscaster Stuart Scott's 'Every Day I Fight' cancer battle, the man who fell in love with her, Erykah Badu and tennis ace legend Serena Williams as well as his beautiful mother and daughter details his loves life and times, whilst relating to ours and offering a mirror through his words of wisdom for us to reflect. Like his chapter bookmark beginnings with love quotes from the legendary likes of Martin Luther King Jnr, Maya Angelou and Socrates, all with intention not pretention. Like the closing quote of 'If Beale Street Could Talk' author James Baldwin tells us, "Great art can only be created out of love". And you can see where the 'Come Close' and 'Retrospect For Love' artist got his inspiration from like Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill. Preaching gospel, compelling and eloquent, Common shows us what love means to him in relation to God, family, his passion projects like this one and his desires and dreams for another partner and to one day be a husband as well as a father. Vulnerable in his commitment he reveals his flaws when it comes to wanting to make this house a home and his mistakes as a man. All so we can pay attention and heed. All so we like he can learn from his mistakes in our own love for self and what in turn that can do for us opening our hearts to others. Love in action over love addiction sure sounds like a plan...straight from the heart.

Honest and genuine, the philanthropist, Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn gets real and raw when he gets to the real heart of matters like watching his pops pass or his stepfather never leaving his mother's side when she was sick. Yet for all the times it's used-even in its unaccounted for past tenses-the word "love" is missing from many pages detailing prison visits from the rapper in concert like country late legend Johnny Cash performing at San Quentin. All until the end of these passages. This could be because Common's love in action with this reaching out to the bonds of the incarcerated speaks for itself without puffing it's chest out. Or it may be symbolism to show what is truly missing from our prison system today. Common also opens up the conversation further on mental health matters, especially in relation to the immeasurable amount of men not speaking up, out, or being spoken for. Especially those hiding behind the shame of abuse. And Lonnie Lynn too after decades in the spotlight and even more in coming to terms with this all in this moving memoir reveals he was molested. And in making this stand against toxic masculinity and sexual violence towards people in more ways than one, he bravely gives more than himself a voice. Showing he, we, you, I, him and her are never alone in this. His story like his life is really something. Prologue to the closing chapter. And in an epic epilogue of powerful portraits and personal playlists Rashid gives us something for our Spotify to show us what he was jamming to whilst putting all this lasting 'Love' down. Classics like 'A Love Supreme' by John Coltrane, 'The Makings Of You' ("children laughing all around you"...truly) by Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye's 'God Is Love', the Commodores 'Zoom' and 'The Way Young Lovers Do' by Van Morrison. Get in sync now to this headphone rhythm. But if that isn't enough for your lent ears, like it all making sense one day, it seems like love just won't have the last word in these here pages. Like naming his first book after one of his albums, Common will names his next album after this book. A summer album set to smash feature J Dilla, Kendrick Lamar and soul man Leon Bridges. And songs like the tear inducing, Marvin Gaye inspired 'God Is Love' with the aforementioned, the bicep curl strong 'Hercules' and 'Her Love', a spiritual sequel to his signature classic 'I Used To Love H.E.R.' like this album is to this book. Showing that when it comes to rappers writing with a pad and pen, their true love will have the last word on wax. Because after all like Rashid Lynn's Common Sense tells us 'Let Love Have The Last Word' "is not just a declaration. It's a statement of purpose." And what a one to make with so much of that. Love to some may just be a word. But it's one to the rest that will last forever. TIM DAVID HARVEY.