EXHIBITION REVIEW: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO 'SEEING SOUND, HEARING TIME' @ MOT, Tokyo Japan

4/5

Sound And Vision

@ Museum Of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan.

Magnum, like his 'Opus', the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto was more than music. The classic composer, and Japan's answer to the dearly departed Ennio Morricone, scored all sorts of sounds, sure. From the electronic (his Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) group), to the soundtrack (like the Oscar winning Alejandro G. Iñárritu movie 'The Revenant', starring Leonardo DiCaprio, changing the landscape of cinematic music). Yet his art hit even harder to the heart than all of that. The death of this dearly departed artist subdued a reserved Japan even more. Sure, he was in ill-health, but at 71, it seemed far too soon for a man who was looking his most iconic in later year glasses and shades of grey. Still pioneering new worlds of sound. Holding quarantined meetings in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku (instantly recognizable in its rooms for being made famous by Sofia Coppola's classic 'Lost In Translation' starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson) with Suga Of South Korean pop sensation BTS, as they crafted a classic collaboration. He wasn't done. Real artists and their art never are.

In his passing, Sakamoto left us with so much more. Just like the 'seeing sound, hearing time' exhibition that you can now catch in the MOT of the Museum Of Contemporary Art, here in Tokyo, Japan. Overlooked by the stirring and strong structure of the Tokyo SkyTree. And what a moment of truth this really is, in the amazing architecture of a concrete building I haven't seen since corona. The last time being for an epic exhibit from the Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, matching pop artist Yokoo Tadanori and his wonderful work that has inspired everyone from Yuki Mishima to The Beatles. Here, Sakamoto's showcase shows collaborations with many an amazing artist. Shiro Takatani, Daito Manabe, Carsten Nicolai, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Zakkubalan and Toshio Iwai. Not to mention a special collaboration with Fujiko Nakaya. And, yes, if you've already taken this in fellow Tokyoites, that is the one and only Tilda Swinton sleeping in a motel room, hauntingly like only she can. Mirroring her latest movie of 'The Room Next Door' with Julianne Moore and director Pedro Almodóvar. All marching along in a shadow, like the last TeamLab Borderless digital exhibition projected onto Kanazawa Castle. As timelessly traditional and future forward as this Tokyo home itself.

The actor, composer, record producer and keyboardist hits another note as an artist who transcends space and time, not to mention the hereafter, with what he shows our eyes and ears. Speaking to us from the great beyond with the prose of poetry and jarring and beautiful soundscapes that awake all of our senses and show us life is but a dream. Coming to us just before saying Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, this epic exhibition, which is drawing more crowds than crossing the streets of Shibuya, will march forwards until the end of next month. And you should catch it, whilst you can, because its meaningful message will stay with you for much longer after. This library of sound, drawing from Ryuichi's reservoir, features outside and inside installations. The foggy smoke outside, near the speakers, influencing the black mirrors of the Instagram crowd. But from the iPads and phones of his home and studio life, it's the perfect piano standing on its own that will move you to tears like seeing the John Lennon one at The Beatles Story, from Tokyo, to Liverpool, what a way to go (imagine). Especially when you learn what it survived. All before you see Sakamoto's own one, played perfectly, powerfully and poignantly by the man himself in the silhouette of a haunting hologram. This is the closest you can get to what we lost. And what we will if we don't see sound and hear time in the perfect harmony of what means everything to you and me. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

REVIEW: THE LUMINEERS - AUTOMATIC

4/5

Automatic For The People

Don't adjust your sets. The Lumineers are back. The "I belong with you, you belong with me. You're my sweetheart" folk singers return with their first album since the 'Brightside' of 2022. Live in technicolor as we all tune in. Spurred on by their one-shot video lead single, that is anything but the 'Same Old Song'. But with that being said, and the second single, of the 'You're All I Got/So Long' duality, the luminous Lumineer legacy amongst their Bon Iver and Augustine luminaries is one of a signature sound that hits the sweet spot between spiritual and anthemic. This half-hour Dualtone record, released on New Music on St. Valentine’s Day Friday, is a prism of love, live in living colour. Following their big swing, 'Live At Wrigley Field,' last year, they are carrying on like a Chicago Cub.

Dialled to eleven, with Dave Baron tapping in on production for this indie act, this amazing, accented album was recorded at the Utopia studios of Woodstock, New York for that beautiful Bohemian feeling in a rhapsody of real records. Actual albums have a home again in the first quarter-century of the new millennium. And it may only be mid-February, like the Kendrick Super Bowl in NOLA or NBA All-Star weekend in a Chef Curry Golden State, but you can already chalk this one up, as one of the better albums of 2025. Get those Grammies ready for this awesome album artwork antenna. Not bad for an album recorded in less than a month, 'A##hole'. Looking at the blurred line absurdities of the modern world, all the way to the 'So Long' closer after some short 'Sunflowers' like Van Gogh. These Lumineers are struggling to tell the difference between what's real and fake. But we know what the former is...them.

Numbing ourselves between boredom and overstimulation, like the fingering treadmills that are our smartphones, The Lumineers turn that same television that the Red Hot Chili Peppers told you to throw away, back on. This 'Automatic' album is for the people, with lyrics to go, like the television card teased words on the same social media they are waging and raging against. Yet, together, Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites write wonders for those songs in your back pocket, leafed for their own independent version of the great middle-American songbook. Stirring 'Strings' from the heart of 'Colorado', dreaming wild, like Casey Affleck and Walton Goggins playing real life brothers with a dream. This album reaches for a 'Better Day' with standouts like 'Plasticine' and 'Ativan', but in a bounty of beautiful break-up ballads to make up, it's 'Keys On The Table' you shouldn't leave, like the one(s) you let get away.

This one restores your faith in modern love gone in ways that would make Bowie ashamed with lines like, "And if you've lost the faith, boy/Leave your keys up on the table/Evеrybody knows, everybody knows/Scared you had a bad hеart/And you're sleeping in the carpark/Everybody knows you're all I got/You're all I got." But just like the album title track repeats the 'Automatic' name', another favourite, 'You're All I Got', harks back to these jangling keys. "Feelin' bored and runnin' from the shame/Livin' for the love of yesterday/Lawyer fees, stretch limousines/Pull the cord and flush it down the drain/Let the light come down on me/Let the light come down on me/You're all I got/You're all that I got." Darkened by divorce at the door, but still taking and talking love like a champ, The Lumineers show us that even in the depths of depression, the heart and soul is near. And they can shed light and remember what really means something to them, when those three little words turn into two and alimony. We need a new way in this day, especially with love, and the lovely Lumineers are trying to help show it. The rest should be automatic. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Same Old Song', 'Keys On The Table', 'Sunflowers'.

Spin This: Augustines - 'Augustines'

REVIEW: THE WEEKND - HURRY UP TOMORROW

4/5

Living For The Weeknd

New Music Friday, Saturday and Sunday sees the return of The Weeknd, tuning in for the first time since 2022's 'Dawn FM' with guest host, smokin' actor Jim Carrey. A 24-carat Kobe number of tracks (if you count the '00XO' bonuses of 'Runaway' and 'Society') for the first major mainstream album of 2025, the year of the snake. All in the same month he once dominated at the Superbowl half-time show, with no half measures like a Prince. Showcasing the same album that began this trilogy ('After Hours'), and single-handedly saved the entertainment industry from COVID-19 a year prior. Right before Kendrick Lamar proves once again he's 'Not Like Us', as he looks to Beyoncé Bowl this year's NFL mid-game entertainment section, finishing his touchdown play on Abel Tesfaye's old friend Drake. 

'Hurry Up Tomorrow'. That's what fans have been hollering for years, waiting for The Weeknd like a viral Daniel Craig SNL introduction meme on that show's 40th anniversary. Well, back with what would have been a double album in the pre-Spotify age, and all eyez on he, Tesfaye is able to keep it going until the sweat drips off of his head like the accented album artwork that everybody thought would primarily be the above photo (until The Internet and eggplant shadows had its fun with it). It still is one of them, mind you. In those eyes that are the soul, like MC Lyte once rapped to us, the 'Can't Feel My Face' singer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AKA The 6 and "We The North", STAND UP!), gets compelling in a Conway, Los Angeles, California studio. Not to mention, cinematic, with uncredited choice cameos from Annita (on the second single 'São Paulo'), Playboy Carti ('Timeless'), Travis Scott ('Reflections Laughing'), Future ('Enjoy The Show', 'Given Up On Me') and frequent flyer by the Hollywood sign Lana Del Rey down in 'The Abyss'. In addition to production from Metro Boomin ('Cry For Me', 'Given Up On Me'), Max Martin ('Open Hearts') and a 'Timeless' Pharrell Williams, this side of Neptune.

Even the late, great David Lynch gets sampled in on the title-track, curtain closer, just a week after his death. And this epic album really is an event like 'Twin Peaks' (I promise, I'll watch it, Chris) from the 'Wake Me Up' introduction like a splash of nightclub bathroom water on the face to the damn good coffee music 'Baptized In Fear', 'Until We're Skin & Bones'. Even the track titles sound like albums ('Enjoy The Show', 'Opening Night'), or best pictures ('Drive', 'Red Terror' (copyright it now). But it's the singles ('Timeless' and 'São Paulo') that really show you this Idol is back from the critical panning brink and ready to return to the arena he best fits in, with this 80 minute plus theatre of his mind. "Oh, city on fire when I'm comin' home/Fill up the sky (yeah), I fill up the Dome/They'll play it one day (yeah), it's a hell of a show/But it's gonna hurt 'cause we did it first." Gothic and operatic, this could be the "last hurrah' for Abel as The Weeknd. But 'Give Me Mercy', if this really is the 'Big Sleep'. Because, like he says on 'Without A Warning', "hope you'll love me 'til my final day/Even if it was in vain/Leave my guts all on the stage."

Declaring like Dylan, 'I Can't F#####g Sing', from a complete unknown to pop's Prince, with a 'Purple Rain' harking closer, The Weeknd is still one of the biggest star boys on the planet with his name in La La Land lights that blind. Out of the darkness and beauty's madness he weaves even more tales and odes to the city ('Take Me Back To LA' too), and landmarks and loves of his life, wetter than 'Niagara Falls'. Sampling Nina Simone's 'Wild Is The Wind' and throwing anything but caution to it, the man in the red suit and bloody Band-Aid's still rides through the night, right through to the dawn. From the first, eleven-track pressing, to the movie to come (May 16th), it's clear this Weeknd will last all year, no weak day. Let alone a morning after hangover. A psychological thriller from XO and Republic Records, 'I Can't Wait To Get There' like the song says, "Dear summer, we've been runnin' the numbers/We just shy off a billi’, sold my crib to Madonna." A terrific Holy Trinity of a 'Trilogy' like the remasters of the massive mixtapes 'House of Balloons', 'Thursday', and 'Echoes of Silence'. All before the real name, no gimmicks, like Obie Trice comes into play for an artist who has fictionally shot himself on stage, like Eminem. The Weeknd show is over, but no need to hurry up. We're living in tomorrow now. TIM DAVID HARVEY.  

Playlist Picks: 'São Paulo', 'Niagara Falls', 'Take Me Back To LA'.

REVIEW: DAVID GRAY - DEAR LIFE

4/5

The Life Of David Gray

It's a grey, January day, this weekend, as British singer/songwriter David Gray releases his first album since 2021's 'Skellig'. Standing in the middle of a bleak beach in a trench coat and turtleneck, the 'Sail Away' singer holds up a circular disk as reflective as the ocean for his thirteenth album, 'Dear Life'. All before, he reflects on his career with his forthcoming 'Past & Present' tour from the United Kingdom to the United States, and all the stops along on the way. The 56-year-old best of British artist began his career back in 1993 with 'A Century Age'. Really sticking it to us with the bifocal labels of 'Sell, Sell, Sell' three years later. But it was the diamond, three-year charting album 'White Ladder' that climbed from number 69, all the way to number one thanks to singles like 'Babylon', 'This Year's Love' and the cover of Soft Cell's 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye'.

Saying hello again, a week after fellow Brit and Beatle Ringo Starr did, looking up with his new country album, another man who deserves to be in the rock and roll hall of fame is back. Gray became a superstar after 'Ladder' with the formidable follow-up 'A New Day At Midnight', seeing you on the other side. Not to mention mainstream albums like 'Life In Slow Motion' (what a title track) and deeper ones like the cuts found on 'Foundling'. David's work found itself on soundtracks like 'Serendipity' (the guitar of 'November Rain' on an instrumental moment in the ice rinks of New York's Central Park between John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale), and coffee shops across the country. Even this year in London on a trip back home I heard 'Babylon' in a shop, sounding as fresh as it did the day it was released back in 1998, as well as a timeless classic that feels as British as a brew after a trip to the shops.

It's hard to top the tenth-highest selling album of the 21's century, yet the man from Sale, Cheshire still knows how to sell, sell, sell on the way to sixty. Always opening albums strong like he did with tracks like the smash single 'Please Forgive Me' running like lightening through your veins, or the 'Draw The Line' exuberance of the 'Fugitive' that ran like Harrison Ford from Tommy Lee Jones through one Jools Holland showcase like it was his annual New Year's 'Hootenanny'...although that came 'Later'. Here, he gives us something 'After The Harvest' on these fifteen fantastic tracks that take a songwriter's hour all the way until 'The First Stone' is thrown for the closing cut. Yet it's his lead single, 'Plus & Minus', featuring breakthrough British artist Talia Rae, its red room music video, and its own Jools debut, that's a real addition. Singing, "You know the way desire is/Always wanting something that it just can't have/Turning love's picture to the wall/Next moment there's no turning back/The following report may contain scenes/That some might find upsetting/Look at me, read what's written here/This whole routine is getting old."

Rae replies, "You know the way the light is/Always painting someone else's windows gold/Fate sends a bottle spinning 'round/Eyes steal a glance that stops you cold" in chorus. Beautiful, brooding lyrics in a set full of them, like the terrific titles of 'Eyes Made Rain' like drops on the window's pane. Or the standout 'Sunlight On Water' that is a matrimony of the season's like the 'Future Bride' ode to the aisle of the life to come, or the next love to be sold, that won't last this year, for better or worse. 'Fighting Talk', sure, but Gray knows how to walk that walk and talk that talk with songs like 'Leave Taking' which takes all of him. On 'I Saw Love', the visionary artist paints a perfect picture of scripture with lines like, "My fate is in the hands of a total stranger/Whose only map is a blank sheet of paper." From 'Singing For The Pharaoh', to 'The Messenger', Gray still has something to say with this deep and decadent album. It's a love letter to life in all its twists ('The Day Must Surely Come') and turns ('Acceptance (It's Alright'). Bringing beats to his trademark acoustic and ivory. On the only one's he says, "At the edge of what is not/Turn the camera ’round and take a final shot/Of home, sweet home." The dearest life as we know it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Plus & Minus (Feat. Talia Rae)', 'Sunlight On Water', 'The First Stone'.

Spin This: David Gray - 'White Ladder'

REVIEW: RINGO STARR - LOOK UP

3.5/5

Country Starr 

A little bit of country from the rock and roll star. The Beatles' legendary drummer Ringo Starr asks you to take a 'Look Up' with his new LP. Just a calendar and change after his 'Rewind Forward' extended play that saw him reunite with Paul McCartney, like the new 'Now and Then' song from the entire Fab Four. This is Sir Richard Starkey's twenty-first solo album, and first full length since 2019's 'What's My Name', on the long and winding road of the eighty-four years young singer/songwriter and skin man for the three other lads from Liverpool.

Yet, going well across The Mersey, Ringo (which here in Japan means, "Apple", like that iconic green logo one, mister) gets by with a little bit of help from his friends in Nashville, Tennessee. Because, forget his 21st for a second, this is Starr's very first country album. Moving swiftly with a tip of the cowboy hat across genres as he truly becomes a country star, with 'Look Up' and the titular lead single to titillate all of those whose Lennon and McCartney is Waylon and Willie. Dear John once joked, that Ringo Starr wasn't even the best drummer in The Beatles, when asked if he was the best roller in the world, but now, he's definitely the best country and western singer of the fabulous four. All the way down to the rhinestone black and white album artwork that is instantly iconic like 'Photograph'. Choosing love and peace again, who cares if he sings out of tune? All you need is what he chooses. What else would you do?

Epic, like another record label. Especially with the somebodies like the head of the pack Molly Tuttle (the lead 'Look Up Single', standout statement 'I Live For Your Love', yearning ode 'Can't You Hear Me Call' and 'String Theory' with Larkin Poe), Billy Strings himself (on the 'Breathless' opening, beautiful ballad 'Never Let Me Go' and the stone-cold 'Rosetta' (also with Poe)), Lucius (pleading 'Come Back') and the legendary Alison Krauss, planting the 'Thankful' dedicated closer. Dialled to eleven tracks like Spinal Tap, even when the legend goes it alone with 'Time On My Hands' ("I turned my collar up/Kept my eyes turned down/I walked the empty streets/The blue side of town") and 'You Want Some' in this lavish landscape you really do, as Ringo shows and proves he has another note to him. Just like the time he stepped from the skin to lead the ship with the biggest song pumping out of the 'Yellow Submarine' not named after the oceanic vehicle itself.

Original tracks like the outstanding artist himself is, you'll find no records from the great American country songbook here...even though Starr adds a couple of his own himself. You won't find Ringo taking 'Jolene' from Dolly Parton, like that "b####" that Beyoncé threatened did the '9 to 5' singer's man. As a matter of fact, with a nod to 'Cowboy Carter', this first big name release of the New Year is the best country step since the 'Beyoncé Bowl' of Netflix and the NFL's Christmas Day gridiron games. Lassoing a cymbal crash of a cinematic campfire legend, co-written by the iconic T Bone Burnett, Starr puts the pedal to the metal, as he gazes up above at the stories told by the two sticks he rubs together. Alas, peace, love and understanding are never far from his mind, and what's wrong with that like fellow Liverpudlian Elvis Costello? We can all sing along to the lasting lyrics of, "Look up/In the midnight hour/Look up/Love is the higher power/Keep your eyes on the skies/Don't look down on the shadow town/Look up." Something we can all look up to and towards in 2025. Happy New Year! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Look Up (Feat. Molly Tuttle)', 'I Live For Your Love (Feat. Molly Tuttle)', 'Thankful (Feat. Alison Krauss)'.

Spin This: Ringo Starr - 'Rewind Forward (EP)'

REVIEW: REDMAN - MUDDY WATERS TOO

4/5

Still Muddy Waters Run Deep 

Dumb and dumber, too? Nah! Never that. "I flip modes and rampage your zip codes", Redman raps on 'Da F### Goin' On' after his 'MW2 Welcome'. Referencing Busta Rhymes' Flipmode Squad and its Rampage member, as the Funk Doc' goes on his own one to begin the sequel to his 1996 classic named after a blues legend. 'Muddy Waters Too' is Reggie Noble's first album since 2015's 'Mudface' a decade ago. And it really is a noble effort. The best classic sequel, slash comeback album since Busta's (his 'Dragon Season' is upon us) 'ELE 2', AKA 'Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God', in 2020 of all years. Now, sitting at the classic cover's desk again, Redman is not caked in muddy overalls. Instead, that iconic scowl in the room, under the beanie and same sunglasses, is joined by a much better television set and bags of money and papers on the floor. Kicking it under his Timbs, as he leans on that desk with the flower in a pot, like the wallpaper that surrounds him.

Christmas may have come late, this New Year, with this review of an album that came out on the night before Christmas, when everyone else was worrying about Eve's festive photo (I was killing it, watching 'Squid Game 2'), but the sequel to 'Muddy Waters' has plenty to unwrap like your Spotify playlist and dig up. Even feeling like the diirty 'Malpractice' that really smashed something, with the way these intros and short tracks give way to skits (a hilarious Barack Obama impression by Affion Crockett ("FACTS!") replacing his 'Jerry Swinger Stickup') and the best superhero alive. The dualling parts to 'Soopaman Lover 7' featuring Mélanie Rutherford and a fictional Michelle Obama becoming his Lois Lane. This 32-track affair also features some of the biggest names in the business. Putting the heart paddles to hip-hop when the genre sorely needs it. Reuniting with 'How High' partner Method Man, after their own 'Blackout! 2' sequel, for one of the best tracks and samples on the album, 'Lalala'. Not to mention the best posse cut you've heard in years, and MC Lyte's own return had a monster one, last year, on 'Lite It Up'.

Smoking with fellow rap legends Naughty By Nature and sweet sixteen's from Artifacts, Channel Live, Heather B., Lady Luck, Lords of the Underground, Nikki D and Flipmode's own Rah Digga. Not to mention the return of the queen and great 'Equalizer', Queen Latifah, and NBA, Los Angeles Lakers legend, who can actually rap (and that wasn't a slight at the late, great Kobe Bryant), Shaquille O'Neal, still carrying on his own beef with fellow Superman, Dwight Howard, tugging his cape on what was Twitter. Legendary DJ Kid Capri and the one and only Faith Evans help Red become a 'Hoodstar'. Whilst the Boogie Down Productions of the iconic KRS-One say 'Looka Here'. Elsewhere, a 'Dynomite', like J.J. (word to Chappelle, and a cool Rhymefest shout out), Sheek Louch locks it down. And Snoop Dogg, on his own classic comeback this Christmas with the Dr. Dre 'Missionary' (no, not like that) condom wrapper (seriously), rolls up 'Kush' with the Diggy Doc, like the Doggfather and Dre's own single with Akon.

Oran "Juice" Jones II lights up both 'Whuts Hot', 'Gheddo Motivation' and more need for Grammarly than my reviews demselves. And Ke Turner gets just as 'Goofy' until '1 O'Clock'. Mr. Cream and Runt Dawg also show up on 'Why U Mad'. For an album from an outcast that is so fresh and so clean, going hard all the way to the epic end of 'Smoke With Me', with no tail-off as it clears. All for the man defying age at 54. Coming out of the gates for Brick City, with straight smash singles like 'Jersey', 'Don't Wanna C Me Rich', in bathtubs of moolah, and the new anthem 'I'm On Dat Bullsh!t' in all its exclamation. New Jersey's best boss since Springsteen, is in the hood house like his classic episode of MTV Cribs (which he references), has a vendetta, like his classic video game character, with all these def jams. 'Ignant', 'Uncle Quilly' and 'Pop Da Trunk'. 'Don't You Miss' him? 'Aye!'. The old 'Wave' is back as new rappers mumble on stranger things like the Diddy case. And all of those punks are now 'Stung' like Redman's classic hidden camera prank show with Method Man (we still can't forget how they frog marched Ludacris). Lick a 'Booyaka Shot' for the man who raps "Sawed off shotgun, now you see 'em havin' a blast" over Rockwilder beats, like his hands were still on the pump, puffing on a blunt. 'Wudeytauknbout', Willis? A sequel to a classic that feels like one itself. Get back in the mud. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Da F### Goin' On', 'Lalala (Feat. Method Man),' 'I'm On Dat Bullsh!t'.

Spin This: Redman - 'Muddy Waters'

REVIEW: SZA - LANA ('SOS' Deluxe Reissue)

4/5

Sza Sister

Last Christmas, I gave Boston my heart. Spending time in a deserted Beantown, the only Laker fan in the city rocking an ugly purple and gold sweater...but that's another story. Walking down a frozen Newbury Street, the same time the Celtics cracked the whip on all the King's men, the only thing frostier would have been the icy reception I would have received if there was actually anybody about. I was there before meeting my parents in New York for New Year. The only other person rocking basketball garb was, wait for it...in a Los Angeles Laker tracksuit. My man. The biggest draw of the street was billboards for R&B renaissance woman SZA's Grammy winning (best prog R&B) album 'SOS'. It's iconic album artwork above the sea. Not to mention the same football uniform on the next project for your consideration, the deluxe edition of this classic tilted 'Lana'. Already long-delayed and eagerly-awaited to drop at this point last year, the writing on the wall was already starting to fade, as the poster began to peel.

Call off the SOS! Because, like a Rey of light, 'Lana' is finally here. And this revelation of a reissue that is actually an album in itself has come just in time for Christmas, and hopefully the New Year's Grammy consideration. No need to press CTRL-ALT-DELETE, even if it was delayed this New Music Friday and the last one before the shopping spree of December 25th. Driven by the second single and R.E.M. like opening of 'Drive', automatic for the people. Featuring 'Meet The Parents' and Knickerbocker number one fan (after Spike), Ben Stiller taking the wheel and the lip-syncing of a new music video, the same time he's driving to a new home in rural Ohio for his Hulu and Disney Plus Christmas movie, 'Nutcracker'. At the end of this road, however, he finds the formidable figure of SZA in a mask that won't be alien to you through the trees of something sensationally haunting in album art.

SZA is to modern R&B what RZA and the Wu-Tang are the children, and legendary hip-hop. And after all the stars including Boygenius Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott and the late, great Ol' Dirty Bastard saved our souls, frequent collaborator Kendrick Lamar (with the own surprise drive of his 'GNX' album) hits '30 For 30', in a highlight for an album whose own making is worthy of its own ESPN documentary. Or movie, like the standout 'Scorsese Baby Daddy'. Absolute cinema. Right from the coming out party of the opening offset, 'No More Hiding', to the closing circle of lead single 'Saturn', SZA is here and out of this world, all at the same time. Damn! This is all so fine. After the 'SOS' follow-up was dangling precariously over that diving board for some time, we no longer want to be saved. We're jumping all the way in.

The best 'Lana' since Lizzy Grant is not just a bounty of beautiful bonus tracks. It's a real record in its own right. Call it a fantastic follow-up. The third charm of an album after the 'Ctrl' singer's sensational sophomore set and act. The arch of St Louis' best talent since Nelly is right heere and terrific. Forget the fifteen-hour delay, mixes like this live on for eternity...or at least 'Another Life' for our generation still grateful for actual albums in the age of streaming. Sure, I'm gushing, and I need to 'Chill baby', but so is the 'Crybaby'. Giving it you raw on 'What Do I Do' ("Last night, you called on accident/Heard you f####n' on the other end/It's too late, it'll never be the same again/Too late, never be the same."), save your tears, cheaters. We've all been there on that kind of receiving end, even if we don't know it. So what are you gonna do?

A newly minted and engaged Benny Blanco produced that track. And when the 'DTM' of 'Diamond Boy' shines bright too, you'll see that there are only murderers in the studio, killing it and building like Selena Gomez as the marauder to midnight like a Tribe. On this quest for infamy, the iconic SZA also drops 'BMF' (and it's 'The Girl From Ipanema' stunning sample) like it hot (it is). Before demanding, like everybody in their right mind should, to 'Love Me 4 Me'. "I remember wanting a diamond ring/Wanted you to define me, I let you pay for everything/Why not?/Treated me like a slave/Promise you I’ll behave if you let me try again/For you, I'd change my name/For you, I'd kill my fame/For you, I'd be so different, won't recognize my face/Can't wait to go to my grave for you/All I'd care for you, you never saw me for me/Saw me for me, loved me for me." The rhythm and blues songbook just got great. The only thing missing from this BTS Hyde Park Summer hyped album is 'Joni', like Mitchell.

It's '(Her) Turn' now as we get behind here like an inspired interlude that feels as much like a real track as this feels like a legit LP. Solána Imani Rowe keeps the party going like those in the 'Kitchen' singing, "Dancing and kissing, the kitchen/Makes me forget, I forgive him/Mama told me I don't listen, back again/Crashing out on shrooms, I guard them/Cursing you solves all my problems/Vacationing in rock bottom, back again." When 'Lana' is cut together with the soul saving sensation 'SOS', you have a definitive double album with all eyez on it. Not to mention lent ears. Doing her peers proud, the Instagram postscript that was written becomes gospel. We are no longer teased, but patience has become a virtue. What else can we expect from somebody who wrote a century worth of songs over the last half decade to well and truly get this right? A yoga like mediation that shaped itself sporadically into the right frequency like Kenneth. Coming out of hiding, camouflaged in cargo and nature. Now 'Lana' is finally here like a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, the calendar is complete. Time for SZA to swim in that success. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Drive', 'Scorsese Baby Daddy', '30 For 30 (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)'.

Spin This: SZA - 'SOS'.