REVIEW: TANK-WHILE YOU WAIT E.P.

4/5

Wait Inside. 

Staying at home behind the piano he was born to play like his R&B name was Yamaha and not Tank, Durrell Babbs gets real personal on his latest project so ama do the same. Hey, you! Yes you! The one reading this right now. Do me a favour. Do us all a favour, please. Stay the f### indoors! I'm begging you. We all know what that can do, but what can you do, you ask? Well from Netflix to Disney + if you're sick of streaming, even though in entertainment we are so spoilt for choice these days, we don't even know or appreciate how lucky we are, why not look up from your phone? Yes, the one you're reading right now...I don't mind ("put your phone down and let's be real"). And take a look at the person next to you and you know, "talk" with a real person. And if that real person turns out to be the one. The one you love like R.E.M. The one you used to dream about and lose sleep over then why don't you bring that old thing back? And who knows one thing could lead to another and you'll remember why you loved staying in so much in the first place. And hey, if that doesn't work then we have the perfect music to set the mood. Because the King of R&B is back. And don't you worry I ain't talking about f##### R. Kelly. No one has got time(s up) for that s### anymore. But how about this show of solidarity from the peoples knockout champ? Tank reliably releasing new music at this time is about as surprising as the President being as unreliable as ever. Someone make this Tank commander and chief. Arm up as you build your home into a fort of creativity, not toilet rolls.

Tank with his album artillery of yet another classic every other year in ammunition-if not every calendar turn-has just dropped one of his best, yet outside the 'Sex, Love and Pain' series with the real 'Elevation' like 'Champion', 'You Mean More' and 'Somebody Else' with pop icon Jojo. A Star who has been doing her own at home live stream concerts from her bedroom, which really does look like the best place you can be right now. Now following his Novemeber reign last fall, Tank has another release on our steaming hands like two Norah Jones records in the space of six months to go along with her new supergroup Puss N Boots 'Sister' album coming mere months after their 'Dear Santa' Christmas E.P. under our tree. FOUR?! And now like his own 'A Classic Christmas Night' extended play, or Valentines special 'If You Were Mine' E.P., the 'Be My Holiday', TGT with Tyrese and Ginuwine singer releases another 6 track for your quarantine playlist, 'While You Wait'. Hot off the fresh streams from fellow R&B leading man The Weeknd ('After Hours') and two urban legend classics finally from Jay Electronica ('A Written Testimony') and Childish Gambino ('3.15.20'). Listen to this. What a time to be fighting for our lives from the comfort of our own homes. Lounge singer looking like he's available for party bookings from the look of his album artwork, 'While You Wait' is the perfect elixir for all this corona, with all this music in mind, written by the prolific producer of such. Especially for this situation from the epic singer. At 44 like my president, Tank is about to become the logo of R&B like the NBA's of Los Angeles Laker Jerry West. He's the King like James and his songbook is his version of the Bible.

Despite the 'Stronger' sound of Motown, lately this 'Savage' has been getting straight nasty and the culmination created his latest classic. But in taking it back to the keys like Alicia, or his class rendition rework of Bonnie Raitt's 'I Can't Make You Love Me' (this man really knows music) for one of his biggest hits, the 'Please Don't Go' singer/songwriter is getting in tune with his February 14th extended play that was for lovers that actually loved each other only. F### it! Even cooped up in the house without someone to love like Jefferson Airplane, you can still get it done. All you need is the inspiration and ivory and a couple of good notes for a song in your back pocket. 'You Never Knew' he could do it like this (where have you been?) with this absolute classic, there's one. Whilst Zena Foster's husband gets real personal for the one with 'You', harmonising, "you're the reason for the sun/cloudy days will never come/you're the joy and all the fun". This is first dance music here from the dum, dum, da dum, 'Wedding Song' singer. If only we could have the ceremony. We'll it's about to be in matrimony with your 'Self Esteem' on a song that Tank helps raise as he says, "beautiful/sexy and you know it/cuticle/didn't think I would notice/job, baby, crib, check/you gon' be my rib, yeah, yeah/you gon'have my kids, yeah yeah/that's just how it is", for this "poetry in motion". 'Perfect' beautiful ballads fill this half album like your heart in a time were the world is striving for more soul and strength from the strain as he tells us "hard times build character/pressure makes diamonds" for lyrical symbolism for a sing of or times. All before providing us with some iPhone Spotify streaming 'Facetime' for our "six feet apart or six feet under" social distancing. This extended play and gift from the R&B God is grace 'For Lovers' that want "that old thing back". "Where did all the love songs go" Tank lyrically laments like the good times gone, missing radio, parties in the basement, drive in movies and, "I just wanna feel the kind of things the 90's make me feel/I just wanna hear the kind of things, let me know it's real" one time. Longing for the past with what we're left with now. How fitting is this today? Who else is making quarantine music right now in the hardest time to get creative even with nothing but? In its purest form Tank is back with the purest sound and soul. Others roll over, but Tank keeps rolling. Now after last falls 'Elevation' at our lowest point, Tank takes us higher. Every little bit helps as each day gets better. So how's that for a soundtrack to while away your hours? Do you need more? Just wait! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'You', 'Self Esteem', 'Facetime'. 

REVIEW: CHILDISH GAMBINO-03.15.20

4/5

This Is Quarantine.

Coachella, California, classic cipher, crowd circling like the crazy 'Crawl', or what Corona wouldn't have us doing now as if our lives depended (they do) on it...apart from stupid spring breakers to be Franco like James. Last year a distorted Twitter video emerged for as many minutes as it lasted before it was taken down of Childish Gambino, AKA, Donald Glover, Aka, everything you've heard about him is true, this generations Lando Calrissian for you Billy Dee's, AKA the adolescent 'Lion King' (the 'Young Simba' is J. Cole), AKA, the 'Atlanta' man behind the best show on television not called 'Fleabag'...or 'Community', AKA, "but it was the wife of Dr. Reginald Saunders". AKA, 'This Is America', AKA the man who has less ('Because The') internet presence than he has shirts (which believe me today is a good thing...in which way you ask? Both!), rocking the crowd like the bells. The 'Redbone' singer afro and beard blown out like the humidity of the land of palm trees, sweat soaking through the shirt he wasn't wearing for that iconic look, looked more amped than when you're favourite rapper stayed hungry. As the man with the name you used to confuse with a 'Lethal Weapon' star (no not you Mel) and a first one you wouldn't want to say on its own (like my last) showed all the hip-hop competition was too old for this s###. As the kid who references both King James and Ben Folds and came up with his rap name by a random Wu Tang Clan moniker generator on the web proved he was as hip-hop legendary as chambers that come in numbers like 36. Putting it down "like the family dog" the only people more amped than him was the crowd throwing hands like they didn't care or this was the last festival they would be able to attend before all concerts were shutdown like cinemas and courts for sports (turns out it was). In the palm of his hand like the microphone, this bass booming boomer generation were his tribe for this tribal jam that the 'Black Panther', T'Challa wishes he could walk out too for his warrior music. But before all that had chance to truly finish off my Marley heaphones the viral video was gone.

Sound familiar? Last week finally after years of waiting for the actor/sometimes comedian triple threat like Jamie Foxx's new album, Childish Glover released a stream of it exclusively on a dot com simply titled 'Donald Glover Presents' with some sketched artwork of people looking up to a burning building, whilst other took selfies for self-congratulation like a bunch of celebrities butchering John Lennon's 'Imagine' for likes...how fitting? The album featured Ariane Grande (possibly the only bigger idol on the planet right now), SZA (making good on her teasing 'America' hood cameo) and all the 21 Savage like stars for two terrific tracks and was released on the same day Jay Electronica finally dropped his album, the 5 mic hip-hop classic 'A Written Testimony' featuring Jay-Z on every track like the Wu of Ghostface Killah did to Raekwon when he was 'Only Built For Cuban Linx' and vice versa. Possibly one of the G.O.A.T. albums and best of the decade, let alone year. And yes I know it's only March and only 2020...boy do we all know it. But after 12 hours of me running round and telling everyone like Martin Lawrence (word to Jay-Z for the reference) it was gone and like the Japan I'm living in right now not reacting the same way to this current global pandemic with the self isolation we all need like geniuses like Gambino, sleeping through it, I didn't hear a thing. With this gambit, Gambino put his album into quarantine like we all should also be doing right now. But we needed it like we do now more than ever and just when we thought there was no hope (there almost really isn't...but trust, this too shall pass) left. Finally a week and change and a few days after The Weeknd released his best yet with the cinematic, classic Sin City neon 'After Hours' on the weekend, Gambino got Childish again and finally released the follow up to his landmark, iconic, classic like Coltrane or 'A Kind Of Blue' genre redefining jazz infused 'Awaken My Love' that really woke up the millennial gen that were Z...Z, Z'ing. But this time not just on 'Presents', but on Spotify and a tidal wave of all streaming services and platforms, being back for good. But this time with the pure white background of no artwork and tracks that like dates shared their strands of name with the albums '3.5.20'. A date that now lives in infamy for what we wish was just this, but instead the day we were rudely awoken too in the planetary pandemic panic we finally came to terms with when Tom Hanks and the NBA both woke up with COVID-19 (that's one album I don't want to hear from). Lando came back at the right time in the Falcon this millennium and not just for studio music to stream survive, but to save us all.

2020 has been hell from the moment we lost Kobe and GiGi and I thought it would be the year of Tokyo, 2020. But as much as it could bring the whole world together right now, that's physically, literally the last thing we need now. The games can wait. You're health can't...it isn't one. So stay at home and bump the one thing that can't be cancelled or hurt anyone no matter what a Parental Advisory sticker says in amazing albums. I can't be more explicit when it comes to this content. This is the thing we really need now, music for the soul and you know this is why he really re-released it. Any other way he would be happy never having it see the day again...but we need that light. Especially in the worst year since the last time the Olympics were held in 2016. A calender that saw us lose Prince, Ali and Bowie and gain nothing but Trump, Brexit and the haunting horrors of what Weinstein did (at least the virus got him too for what's coming to him, rotting in jail). With The Artist gone like the former champion of the world and forever greatest, I used to think that apart from an ageing American songbook of Springsteen and Dylan in this Sheeran age (with all due respect) we didn't have any young icons left to lead the way with the hope of Barack change for when America was actually land of the free, great. But how wrong I was when I heard Gambino for the first time properly like really listening to John, Paul, George and Ringo for the first real time at 25. Like hauntingly hearing the testimony of 'Terrified' in Tokyo between the lonely neons on a night on a solitary walk when I was afraid to say my relationship was over (and how about that Grammy performance with the kid JD McCrary?). Or hearing 'Sober' play in the background of a bar sitting with another girl a few years later that I really should have asked for one more drink before the road. Music memories like muscle. Because we do have those inspiring icons of influence. With Gambino, the modern day Joni in Maggie Rogers and the sister supergroup of Haim who a four track in may have the next California classic, next month in April. Now after really changing the game and world with the protest record and cultural gun clap commentary of 'This Is America', becoming the biggest star in the world the same time this solo artist was in a 'Star Wars' movie, making the coolest character even canary cooler, Glover is back with the album we've been waiting for since that iconic, shocking video and the double Summer pack which we thought two year ago had the making of a legendary album, but turned out to be the soundtrack and incorporated, incredible performances of  the Amazon 'Guava Island' film with fellow forever prime time icon Rihanna for a classic story like the ones from 'Atlanta'. The 'Summertime Magic' is not here to hear, but hidden as '42.26' is the social commentary warning (oh how we need it now more than ever) disguised in a cool summertime jam like a Stevie Wonder 'Happy Birthday' MLK protest of 'Feels Like Sunmer' and the fabled prophecy lyrics to go, "Every day gets hotter than the one before/Running out of water, it's about to go down/Go down/Air that kill the bees that we depend upon/Birds were made for singing, wakin' up to no sound/No sound." And the most groundbreaking music video since 'Thriller', 'This Is America' always sledgehammer effect worked better at a steel to the temple visual anyway, as an intro that sounds like the 'Get Out' sunken place of his run leads to the '32.22' of that pockets of Coachella trible track that sounds just as animalistic. Besides in this Spotify age of playlists instead of actual albums, classic tracks are classic tracks, no matter how they reach you like his 'Camp' and 'Kauai' projects. Now if you wonder why to this date we haven't talked about any tracks in this actual album review then it's because this whole project is an experience like Hendrix or the Jimi thing about the last album with so many track for track classics you keep discovering and rediscovering as you keep this album on repeat like the Donald Glover presents stream. Like the red bones of '35.31' or the 'Time' and 'Algorhythm' of the only tracks with actual titles for a man who moves in 2 the Prince or MusiqSoulchilorBonIver way of confusing hard to cherry pick in this song over album age tracks...and that's the point. This thing plays like a whole album...a whole classic Electronica album for the weekend. But how about the outro to the outstanding '47.48', that is really what life-especially now at home-is truly all about. Just listen. Or the "there is love in every moment under the sun" message of '53.49', possibly the most uplifting track for our times right now that needs that push like we pusher need this. Our quarantine playlist never sounded so good. At least you have a soundtrack for the apocalypse. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: '32.22', 'Algorhythm', '35.31'.

REVIEW: THE WEEKND-AFTER HOURS

4/5

Something For The Weeknd.

Cinemas closed. Concerts cancelled. Time called on sporting events. Self isolating and stockpiling of toilet rolls and hand sanitizer. 2020. Stranger things have happened, but this 'Contagion' feels like the apocalypse of 'World War Z' in this real world survival guide right now. But after the horrors of corona the hours are here now. Studio music to Spotify feels and streams like it's going to be the only escapism entertainment that survives right about now. And how about this dark neon design of bright lights to zone out to as the big city one's from our window wink and then go out like human nature? The weekend is here and so is the new 'After Hours' album from The Weeknd that is going to take your quarantine clubbing to your headphones like a silent disco. Old television set, bifocal frames. A red suit straight out of the vice city stories of Miami. Afro blown out looking like the neo soul of fellow R&B king Maxwell for your tape deck shuffle. Nelly band-aid on the bridge of this verse and hook man's nose. Blood all in his mouth like 'Vampires' in this night of the living dead. Album artwork thriller to the fourth wall scary eyes looking like something out of a John Carpenter movie as he escapes from L.A. like the Snake of Kurt Russell. Inspired by the fear and loathing of 'Casino', 'The Joker' and the jewels run of 'Uncut Gems' (a movie this man cameoed in as himself...no not me, The Weeknd) and its vivid like visual. The 'Blinding Lights' of a sonic scoring, cinematic sound and Vegas video, shining light. Like the 24 carat magic of a Bruno Mars or Ma$e dollar bill y'all on the strip of the city of sin that's "cold and lonely". Sounding like something out the 80's homage of a haunting 'Stranger Things' theme. This feels so good even if you can't feel your face. This game like Atari 'Blade Runner 2049' neon plays like the perfect futuristic/throwback hybrid. Almost a half decade back, no one haunts like the 'Starboy' things of The Weeknd.

Motherf###### following the Daft Punk 'Tron' light stream dance party of his last classic, The Weeknd drops yet another, well worth the wait like Saturday and Sunday. The 6 of Toronto, Canada's very own like the October of discoverer Drake, The Weeknd has been doing it for longer than a couple of days now. Following his anonymous YouTube uploads the big-three, 'House Of Balloons', 'Thursday' and 'Echoes Of Silence' 2011 mixtapes were a marvel like Captain Canada. And just look at him carrying the shield almost a decade later into a new one which should have been the new Gatsby roaring 20's, back again like Fitzgerald. But F. Scott what the f### happened? Its only March and we've already lost Kobe and got Corona. This feels like the 2016 theat knocked us out as we lost Ali, Prince and Bowie amongst others. And gained nothing but the brutal Brexit and terrible Trump. Coincidentally the last time The Weeknd dropped an album on Friday. Well at least the 'Legend Of The Fall' Like Brad Pitt is starting the year off right like that 'Once Upon A Time In...Hollywood' Academy Award winning actor did with that Oscar last Summer and the space odyssey of 'Ad Astra'. Saving us with music when we really need some inspiration for this isolation right about now and not the ignorant, self congratulatory possession rich celebrity cover of a Lennon classic for likes on Twitter. Imagine. I'm sorry Gal Gadot. You're still a hero. But I wonder, what was this woman thinking? Hitting 30 like his 'Trilogy' and the bigger three studio albums, The Weeknd drops his deepest and darkest, best ever yet from his back pocket. Like the 'Lust For Life' in his Lana Del Rey duets atop the Hollywood sign. Following the 'Kiss Land' opening mouth music, to the dark 'Beauty Behind The Madness' commercial, Grammy crowning breakthrough in your grill with 'Can't Feel My Face' and the 'Fifty Shades' of 'Earned It' between the grey areas. All before the sonic 'Starboy' and the supernova, self-titled single of four years back with the 'My Dear Melancholy' EP in between to tide us over like someone to hold in the middle of the night. On the beat bass bumping intro 'Alone Again', the Hollywood 'Hills' of the man who used to only call you "when it's half past five" has the same eyes singing, "Call me up and I'll send for you/Take me down to your altitude/I don't know if I can be alone again/I don't know if I can sleep alone again", again.

Electric eclectic like the pulse of Jay Electronica's new 'Written Testimony', saving hip-hop with Jay-Z just a week ago. What a time for urban music to be alive with Gambino about to get Childish again this weekend with the re-release of last week's surprise and then quarantined 'Donald Glover Presents' album stream. 'Heartless' is as hallowed as the 'Jesus Is King', Kanye West 808 Sunday service of the same name. Whilst 'Blinding Light' may just be the most illuminating hit of this Mercedes man's 'Drive' nightcall, commercial career. And the classic 'Can't Feel My Face' and Punk punctuated 'Starboy' are more than bangers too. Whose letting off all these fireworks? Add this one to the big-three like LeBron James and paying Dwyane Wade. Just like the third single, 'In Your Eyes' to be released as Abel Makkonen Tesfaye devotes on his most personal project yet, "I tried to find love/In someone else too many times/But I hope you know I mean it (Mean it)/When I tell you you're the one that was on my mind, oh." 'Too Late' is already too much on repeat your new, "if you like it then you should have put a ring on it" classic breakup jam too. All for the man who on Colbert late night drew rave Prince and Michael Jackson live reviews is a star of our generations time boy. The album title track, produced by Bad Boys, 'Don't Wanna Know' legend Mario Winans who sampled the strings of Madonna's 'Papa Don't Preach' for his other classic 'Never Really Was' is just as good as the last albums title track as the beat goes on like never better before. This album (which others haven't sounded as fresh as since Timbaland and Ginuwine's middle of the night atmospheric, R&B gem of a classic 'The Bachelor' of almost a quarter of a century (WHAT!?) ago) is all in, all the way in until the 'Repeat After Me (Interlude)'...("as this album is all the way in un...") and 'Until I Bleed Out' through the veins and capillaries of this X and O. The whole soundtrack sound like it was 'Stranger' scored all the way to Eleven by The Duffer Brothers. From the future single worthy 'Hardest To Love', to the frighteningly euphoric and atmospheric, 'Scared To Live', as The Weeknd sings, "you always miss the chance to fall for someone else/'Cause your heart only knows me". On something lyrically and lavishly like another surefire single on that, "I'm not the same man I used to be" love comeback classic stuff. On the piano keys snuff of 'Snowchild' the 'Marvin's Room' scene stealer going dizzy like Gillespie as he vows to make his "wrists bleed" of he doesn't "make it by 16". "Futuristic spaceships" sound effects space invade the dreams of a kid who wanted to be in the "Tribeca like Jay-Z", who now has the the type of Mercedes-Benz Janis Joplin dreamt and sang about with "diamonds dancing like Swayze" or Drake and Future. It's crazy. The big, beautiful beats keep the 'Faith' on that and 'Save Your Tears' with its maybe "I saw you dancing", 'Crowded Room' Selena Gomez Easter Egg for something that with those movie moments really is cinematic. We only have to hear his trademark 'Melancholy' like an extended play to see tears were spared at his exes expense, but that's his business. Not ours. We just know that this Weeknd warrior lives to fight another day with something we've been waiting more than all week for. But as long as those last seven days have seemed in quarantine. Still after all that in the middle of a nuanced neon night of nocturnal loneliness, these 'Hours' belong to us. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Alone Again', 'Escape From LA', 'Blinding Lights'. 

REVIEW: JAY ELECTRONICA-A WRITTEN TESTIMONY

5/5

Electronica Relaxation. 

Exhibit A. It was written. Finally it is here. An album we've been waiting for almost as long as we did for D'Angelo and Maxwell's vanguard classics in a BlackSummersNIGHT(?). 'A Written Testimony' by neo soul rapper Jay Electronica (I'm calling it. This is the Musiq or Saadiq of hip-hop. Erykah Badu really does have an effect like lighting those Gwyneth Paltrow like candles) finally comes around a lucky for us 13 unexpected years after he dropped his B.I.G. mixtape 'Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)' like bird s### (released on MySpace...THAT'S how long we've been waiting), on this Friday the 13th gone like he always pledged. Recorded in 40 days and 40 nights, now the sun shines again with this spotless mind for the forever foresight in a 2020 that has lacked vision. We lost Kobe. We gained a seemingly uncontrollable world panic pandemic virus that is keeping everyone barricaded in their homes with forts made out of toilet paper. Bringing the very worst out of us with no sanitation. We need this album now more than ever. Especially with fellow top hip-hop envelope pusher and signed, sealed and delivered game redefining, modern icon, Childish Gambino's latest that really bird s### dropped on the same day, 'Donald Glover Presents' being self-quarantined by Lando himself, pulled back just under 12 hours (we've been busy out in Japan and missed the boat. We'll get to a review when we get to it. If it ever comes back). We need some hope, some positivity, some soul. Albeit with raw realism...and that's exactly what Electronica's electric, eclectic 'Testimony' is, written as such. After years of Reflection Eternal, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek features and blazing Just Blaze produced 'Exhibit A' and 'Exhibit C' tracks sampling Billy Stewart's 'Cross My Heart' and "hope to die" as electric as the Nikola Tesla Colorado Springs experimental station 'Magnifying Transmitter' tinted artwork, call this debut album like a Travelling Wilbury, Exhibit B.

Exhibit B. Jay vs Jay. The Carter Administration of S. Dot didn't just sign Jay Electronica to Roc Nation (like we only wish we could see this Jay in a Rocafella chain. Going to the top of the Kanye, Cam'ron, Beans and Bleek legendary rock like having a view of both Central Park and the Empire State in New York's Big Apple), or executive produce his album in a Hokusai like Tidal wave of hype. Jay-Z is all over this album like Corona, or like he just realized that Beyoncé's raps bodied him on their double album that made art like their video in Paris' Louvre, posing infront of the Mona Lisa like it was quarantine time with not a single selfie soul in the usual scrum crowd sight. Going apes###, Jay is on every one of Jay's tracks like he hasn't had his own album in years. But there's nothing limelight hogging about it. Even if some of Jay-Z's legendary lines steal the show. Like on the f###### classic 'Flux Capacitor' were he timeline travels, leaving DeLorean fire tracks like "great Scott" or that 'Robot Chicken' 'Jigga'-Watt' skit of him in 'Back To The Future' ("IT'S YOUR BOY!"). Sacking any NFL notion he's sold out. Rapping,"When I die please don't tweet about my death/Tryna get mentions, bringin’ attention to yourself/Please don’t post some pic from in the club/With some quote you stole like we was tighter than what we was." Like the man who "doesn't do too much blogging" was literally taking subliminal shots on all the socials like "is this about me?" And how about his O'Jay entendre for all you 'Backstabbers'. But it's his chorus on the closer and compelling classic 'A.P.I.D.T.A.' that is truly something else, recorded the night Kobe Bryant passed as Electronica crafts his most poetic prose, "My eyelids is like levees but my tear ducts is like glaciers/As I contemplate creation, the salt that heals my wounds pour out my eyes just like libations". No spotlight jacking on these beats, just one/two punch sharing. Instead it sort of feels like one of those classic old Wu-Tang records like Raekwon's 'Only Built For Cuban Linx' that Ghostface Killah would jump on and haunt track for track, bar for bar. Only for the Chef out the pot cooked kitchen to return the favour with no Adidas shell toes being stepped on, as they just stepped each others games up, passing and rocking the mic like Run-DMC. And that's exactly what happens here beautifully. Right from the haunting big beat of the 'Slow Motion' tribute of the 'Ghost Of Soulja Slim', as the pair go No Limit, N.O. with Jay (of the electric variety) stating, "if it comes from me and Hov, consider it Qu'ran". Even if Shawn Carter back in the game and on his paying LeBron form deserves an album feature credit...but really is the man for not having one (other classic collaborations for the record include the illuminating 'The Blinding' with Travis Scott (talking about "the dove Prince sang about in Purple Rain" and writing his best introspective, middle of the night raps, "When I lay down in my bed it's like my head in the vice/When I look inside the mirror all I see is flaws/When I look inside the mural all I see is walls/And the wee hours of night, tryna squeeze out bars/Bismillah, just so y'all could pick me apart?") and the infamous 'Shiny Suit Theory' and emotional 'Ezikiel's Wheel', both with The-Dream). But Mark these words. If this is a classic Jay Electronica album (which it really is), it's really a classic Jay-Z record too (add these collaborations to the greatest hits of his classic catalogue). As a matter of fact with his new muse sounding a little notorious the rapper who is a little Jay-Z and a little Pharoahe Monch mixed together makes this all sound a little like the finest of Brookyn beyond a reasonable doubt, back in the coming of age day. Better get ready to "s### your draws". Because you can't knock this hustle.

Exhibit C. Here it is. The first great album of the year before The Weeknd in these blinding electric lights like the neon of downtown Tokyo. And the first great rap album of the decade, which in ten years time will still make all the top ten lists. Making fellow Timothy's proud, Thedford is as real as it gets. Dedicating himself to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakan (whose 'Overwhelming Event' opens this photo album) , Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam and showing this faith in the testimony of his amazing album artwork (actually created by Beyoncé in her private pool), written in مكتوبة   شهادة  Arabic and the legacy of his legendary lyrics. And how about the prolific production in between some classic beats from Swizz Beatz, The Alchemist and No I.D. for a man who like Mr. West is just as good behind the boards as he is on bars? From 'The Neverending Story' sang even better than Dusty Bun on Netflix's 80's baby 'Stranger Things' to a 'Universal Soldier' that goes Van Damme hard (DAMN!) as Hov plays Dolph. And just wait until that nostalgic rap moment were you recognise the sample of 'Fruits Of The Spirit' as Jay "snaps like the finger of Thanos" for rap infinity in this modern day, memory short fuse (shorter than this track) Endgame, that like Jay-Z said in his 'Life and Times' will have you ripping the plastic off your C.D. (if they still exist) and reading the credits. Cop this disc. Spinning like Mardi Gras around the Crescent City calendar. From the swamp of Louisiana, the French Quarters of New Orleans can rejoice this first quarter like the return and road to Zion with this Big Easy classic record as important to the city as Louis Armstrong or jazz itself. A modern day classic like the city of wind, Chicago's own Common's 'Be' finding forever that clocking in at around 39 minutes is just as long, short and sweet classic. This will make you still love H.E.R. again. As a matter of fact, barring Kendrick's bars it's the best rap classic since 'Be' (that is if you count Gambino's 'Awaken My Love' for the genre defying gem that it is). Sorry Drake. This is more than an album. It's a piece of art. Taking us back to the good ole bygone times were rap releases would be an event you couldn't wait to start the week with Monday morning, this Friday gone. This is the kind of album that has me texting my friends with its name and the words, "just listen", that is all. Trust me. Even if they don't know the genre or artist like that. This is real rap. This is bigger than making dead f###### presidents to represent me. This is hip-hop. And in its purest, uncooked form, there's nothing bigger than that. Hip-hop, hip-hop. Wave your hands in the air. Because this one cares. Forget just Jay. Or just both of them. Rap is back. And it's all thanks to the man inspired by LL Cool J who eventually rocked the bells, like Todd Smith's mama told him to knock them out. Finally Electronica has gone epic. And it's electric. Testimony. Now if only we could get Childish. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Ghost Of Souljah Slim', 'Universal Soldier', 'A.P.I.D.T.A'. 

REVIEW: HAYLEY MARY-THE PISS, THE PERFUME E.P.

4/5

Hail Mary.

Sometimes what smells like perfume...is really just piss. But not Jezabel, Hayley Mary. The iconic lead singer of arguably the most underrated, best band in the world right now (they always come from Down Under. See; Michael Hutchence, INXS) has released a classic big-three with her four piece over the last decade. Ever since the organs unlocked on their 'Prisoner' debut, shamelessly without restraint these Aussies have ruled like Oi, Oi, Oi. 'The Brink' of their sophomore set was no slump, but a soaring success despite the cruel criticism which made Hayley with hell to pay answer back. Standing up for an album that like this solo extended play is a classic grower by the play. As a matter of fact no newspaper or magazine could turn away the 'Time To Dance' club rock of their second effort. The only thing that bested 'The Brink' was the third times the charm of the sonic synth 'Synthia', which might just be one of the best album of the teening last decade as we enter the roaring twenties like Gatsby or F. Scott. Still 2016 was a long time ago and we need a new album from The Jezabels like we need a full length release. But to start the New Year we'll take an E.P. from lead singer Hayley Mary as she goes it alone with five new tracks that will soon become famous this 2020. In a Maggie Rogers and King Princess time to be alive with Best Coast, Lianne La Havas and Haim coming back for the future that is female. The Queen Mary still reigns supreme. As 'The Perfume' leaves the 'Rosebud' singer coming up in January smelling like roses.

'The Piss, The Perfume' starts off with the self-titled track for a record that feels like jukebox hit one's from decades of times  gone by. The Sydney singers trademark vocals are a tribute to traditional, timeless numbers. "I heard you're coming back to Sydney, oh/I have prepared reaction for this one/I'm sure you expect that I will break down and cry/Or I'll slither away and/Stumble out my window as you skip by singing/Don't it come around/The wind and the sound/The slant in the room/The piss, the perfume", she sings. The retro feel of this song extends to the albums artwork which in an old hat looks like the perfect picture photo from the European cool blue, 'Never Tear Us Apart' Days in excess. But caps off this release is anything but, just like the fact that this side project is anything but The Jezabels at the brink of splitting up, no matter what tabloid rumor would have it. The sideways looks says it all, Hayley still won't heed the hate from critics, but with 'Piss' Mary mother's them all. And on 'Like A Woman Should' and its classic American roadside diner, parked up in some classic muscle that birthed Springsteen's run, she really guns for the 80's like the fire tire tracks of the car that Michael J. Fox took his date to the prom in (wait a minute wasn't that his...you know?). 'Like A Woman Should' is a big number just like this woman always gives us with the vocals that can take it as she sings, "Caught in the crossfire, caught in the fishing wire/Uoh-uoh-uoh-uoh-uoh-uoh-uoh/Your love is a sweet thing/The anger in me chooses to ignore." Singing about wishing being born in another time like the music she let's rhyme as she longs for a day she could have a daughter that could walk the street at night safe. Just like a woman should. Just like you should listen...and really take the message in. Can you smell the perfume?

Ordinary people like John Legend will love the stellar, standout from this set 'Ordinary Me' and its black and white to camera, personal touch of a video that even compares to the tear of Sinead O'connor on this Celtic classic for the singer that has moved to Edinburgh, Scotland and built a castle. It's a singer/songwriter song as stirring as The Jezabels beautiful ballad 'Flowers In The Attic'. And up their amongst the big bass beats of 'City Girl' and 'No Country' this singer shows she's at her best when she goes the deepest and darkest for her cuts. Subtly singing with beautiful, brooding symbolism, "I see it in rewind/I know you're going home/But since we've said goodbye/Well, I don't wanna know/How time can waste away". If this doesn't strike a chord, then you're just not in tune. On the deep, Norah Jones Puss N Boots bass of 'Holly' Mary sings to me like 'Let It Be', "Holly, Holly, Holly, where did you go after '97?" like Oi, Oi, Oi again and "I can't think of anyone who had a better hold on me/A better hold on me/She's a storm, but she tries to live in the norm/In the heart of America/As you bear the children of yawn/I hope that you're better now girl" for her smartest song of the set. But it's on the 'Brat' closer that this EP gets epic like 'My Love Is My Disease' and its Tokyo crossing video or 'All You Need' and its all around the world tour one on the road. Holding the best songbook of these legal pad declarations with lyrics like, "I bet you never let the weather get the better of you/Your house on fire, your sky still blue/And if I ever get together I’ll be getting out too/I’ll skip the cracks, I won’t look back, I won’t fall through". Five tracks, half an album in this EP is all Hayley and her hallmark sound needs to nostalgically show you she could go it alone for albums. Even if missing a Jezabel like the King of Israel we don't want her to without a little help from her friends Hannah, Samuel and Nik. But if this isn't enough for you right now...piss off! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Pick: 'Like A Woman Should', 'Ordinary Me', 'Holly'. 

SONG FOR THE MOMENT: HAIM-THE STEPS

4/5

III-step.

Saxophone stalking the Hollywood streets of Los Angeles to 'Punch, Drunk Love' director Paul Thomas Anderson's classic music video like moviemaking. Ever since they became your 'Summer Girl' all those seasons ago last year in the constant state of Cali. The sunset life of the 'WIMP3' new Haim record, 'Woman In Music Pt. III' has seemed like a California classic in the eagerly awaited, most anticipated album of 2020 making for you Mama's and Papa's like the sixties. And now like something straight out of Woodstock for the Compton crowd, we're all taking our shirts off and walking beside and not behind the best band in the world right now (yeah I said it. Sorry to my personal favourite Jezabels. Still can't wait for Hayley Mary to come back after her smashing solo E.P. this Jan). Right in the first quarter like LeBron or Kawhi that saw Best Coast return like 'Always Tomorrow' with a Hotel California like stay. A calendar after Brookyn baby Lana Del Rey made this state a permanent retreat, all the way to her sound like 'Norman F###### Rockwell' in the Maggie Rogers and King Princess throne future that is female right now.

Now if you thought 'Summer' was your girl like Joseph Gordon-Levitt over 500 days, the sisters of Alana, Danielle and my dream girl (I'm just saying...sorry) Este have given you three more big records that deserved to be songs for the moment off what's already an amazing album, even if it doesn't even come out 'till April. From changing room, change clothes switching your coffee shop uniform to a black dress, sunglasses, pink phone dial and stretcher plank dive. To walking through a car wash to restore your Saturday night sins to Sunday morning confessions. 'Now I'm In It' took us further inside that above that angst ridden anthem for the next generation icons of indie pop. But after getting our attention the 'Want You Back' family (no not the Jackson 5) gave us another classic video on these L.A. streets with P.T.A. like a rock Goddess P.S.A. As they stole our heart with 'Hallelujah' (no not that one) and its smoke and mirrors haunting and hallmark, theatrical trickery video that saw the amazing Alana take centre stage spotlight as she paid testifying tribute to her dearly departed best friend. And now of that wasn't everything, these guitar heroes are back for one more single and video release before the album from the group that really will be 'The Steps' that will take us there like the Hollywood Hills.

Lights, camera, action. Like the previous envelope pushing three classics, 'Steps' has that angst knack of sounding signature, albeit also sounding like nothing this band of sisters has done before...I guess that's just there trademark, one-of-a-kind style. And far from a stereotypical break-up song in an industry and town that wants to put individuals in the same box they try to tick, this is more than smeared lipstick like blood and cropped locks bob, starring at the mirrors reflection wishing it would tell you something. Although these Paul Thomas clips are making for a classic collaboration and what could be one theatre neon ready visual album straight out of Hollywood's La La Land for the indie act. As Anderson knows how to bring that star is born, fourth wall look out of Dani California. There's classic guitar riffs like 'Summer's' sax breaks, hallmark Haim sounds like 'Hallelujah' and a Danielle drum solo as iconic as her being at the car wash. Showing more vulnerability of emotion, letting rip as she engines the skins. What more could I want from a group that Stan's K-Pop 7 BTS and 'Like A Version' performs indie covers of Shania Twain that do impress me much? What more could you from the San Fernando three as California as purple and gold, grains of blonde on boardwalks, or that bear? And with lyrics like, "every time I think that I've been takin' the steps/you end up mad at me for makin' a mess", there's the hook for the catchy chorus for your next anthem. You'll have these steps on repeat all the way 'till they make fools out of every other album this April. On the Spring cusp of becoming your Summer girl again. Punch drunk and oh so in love. Hallelujah for Haim. We're all the way in for these women in music. TIM DAVID HARVEY.