Green and Bold.
Prince before he took the elevator to heaven and the world went crazy, bringing us down, "oh no, let's go" announced his guerrilla 'Hit N Run' tour live from Lianne La Havas' living room. Now what else do you need to know? Even without the crowning of the purple one, the best British singer since Adele, Amy Winehouse or Corinne Bailey Rae is in a queen, world class of her own reserved for the soulful likes of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu or Maxwell...she's just that good. Pardon me, great and one of the greats too. Just check her cover saying 'A Little Prayer' like Aretha for you. After asking 'Is Your Love Big Enough' with classics like 'No Room For Doubt', 'Forget', 'Lost and Found' (you want a love show? Grind through her ramping up a local Liverpool skate park. Or walking around the romantic evening streets of Paris, restaurant to restaurant. With a guitar pack strapped to her back), 'Au Cinema', 'Elusive' and 'Age' on her dynamic debut, her sophomore set was stunning, no slump. 'Blood' was a flesh and bone classic. Running like a Lionel Richie night through the arteries of our British Summer like Wimbledon or London's Kew Gardens with the Jamaican root (and how about the flag she flew for the countries colours in her live streamed concert, wardrobe change last night?) 'Green and Gold' classics like 'Tokyo', 'What You Don't Do', 'Midnight', 'Grow' and 'Good Goodbye'. We could, 'Never Get Enough'. La Havas is simply 'Unstoppable' like that unanimous, outstanding opener. And now photoshopped over the iron of Mike Tyson for her 'Can't Fight' music video in Haim 'I Know Alone' like creative quarantine (or her NPR Tiny Desk at home concert series) following her beautiful 'Bittersweet' blues and the red COLORS of its extended cut (as she sings, "Please stop asking, "Do you still love me?/Don't have much to say, let's speak in the morning/Please don't do this, I'm too far away/Don't know what to tell you, babe.") and the, "Paper thin/God only knows the pain you're in/But the future's bright/You've got God on your side/He's listening/Love yourself/Or else you can't love no one else/I know your pain is real", 'Paper Thin' strong second single, this is fine like a burning down kitchen dog meme. We may be corona locked down in end of the world social isolation, but at least we have Lianne with us through the speakers. Singing, "It seems that I won't be warned/And certainly, I saw a sign/I raged like a woman scorned."
"Mum's hooked." That's what my Dad said as Far East to back home we were exchanging live Lianne videos via YouTube with me alone in 'Tokyo' like one of her best songs for the record, lost in translation. Bringing us all together, Lianne is back like that. Just like the studio sessions music video of her Radiohead cover 'Weird Fishes' that weave through the flow of water like the natural healing that comes after heartbreak for this break-up album that makes up some of La Havas' best work for arguably her most personal project yet. "Yeah I hit the bottom/the bottom and then I escape," she sings from the rock to out the hard place. "Turn me into phantoms/I follow to the edge of the earth/And I fall off/Oh yeah, everybody leaves/if they get the chance," she adds mixing the real and the raw. "And this is my chance." Still the take on one of the best British bands classic records for a great Brit singer making her award of a career mark shows she is more than just us reviewers dropping the big name like the aforementioned, article beginning, Prince crowing (but you know he's listening...and smiling that smile). She is her own big name in her own right and shining star, bright light. Like Bailey Rae's beautiful slow take on classic rock act Led Zeppellin's 'Since I've Been Loving You', she's more than just one track...even if she does reinvent it with her signature sound and style. She's a definitive discography in her own wonderful work. On the killer track, 'Read My Mind', the sweet soul could bring life back to any broken heart as she sings, "I'm so into you/Oh I hope God is listening/The pure joy/When a girl meets a boy," singing about that "natural chemistry" and that excitement of the first few steps of love as we dance around the living room, cutting a rug, like her with a celebratory beer in the studio the moment 'Bittersweet' dropped like tears. Toast! On the refreshing guitar licks of 'Green Papaya', she laments "this river of doubt/help me to swim my way out." Talking about, "I'm greedy with love/But my hunger to give is strong enough," as we all relate to that love we can't get enough of...even if we don't think we're enough for. At least like a vow we, "promise to be pure in true", when we meet that one "partner in crime" were we "find heaven in you," making real love. Coming home in this album age sometimes you can get Spotify stuck on tracks for days...these are the two. If her debut was her 'Big Enough' coming of age and 'Blood' her best, her latest named after her name is the greatest when it comes to songwriting in its simplest and uncut, formidable form. The third time out still the charm.
Now with a trinity of albums big-three enough to fill a CD changer (if anyone still rocks those in 2020) or the perfect playlist to lay back in blues to groove to as your soul stirs at home, no need to be climbing the walls anymore like Radio head. The last two minutes of her 'Weird Fishes' cover is as classic and soulful as her guitars signature style. This one will soothe you, feeling it in your tapping fingertips to feet, laid back on your couch in quarantine waiting for a new day in the worst year. Soul music was always sung through the hard times, like everything was all good. Because after all life is a beautiful struggle. And sometime you have to find art in the scars. Just let the beautiful ad-lib harmonies of the 'Out Of Your Mind' interlude that feels like it's own terrific track that you could listen to on repeat for hours take you away into the hot night like an Isley Brothers gust of wind this season of bittersweet Summer rain, hoping to be born again. Her vivid vocals seem so unmistakably familiar and warm in this time were we all need a friend as much as it's unbelievable that she has been around in the mainstream now for closing in on a decade. We still remember that first Later With Jools Holland performance like it was yesterday...not an 'Age'. Now 'Please Don't Make Me Cry' (oh the memories) like said tack with that guitar that the moment you hear it, know that it's in tune with Lianne, but oh how it haunts in closing. Following Maggie Rogers and King Princess' dynamic debuts and best of 2019 albums it has been another incredible year for women in music. From Haim's 'Part III' best and greatest of the calendar, to best in the world artists like Lady Gaga ('Chromatica') and Norah Jones ('Pick Me Up Off The Floor') taking it back to their respective dance floor and smoky jazz roots for some of their best work yet. But next to Phoebe Bridgers 'Punisher' this amazing artist who (don't call it a comeback) has been here for years with her first album in a half decade gives us one of the best this week, month, year and probably decade in a 20's that should have roared like Gatsby, but has given us much more than a quiet storm blowing in. Still as we rise and get up 8 (for Kobe) like 'Seven Times' as "all night and day/I cry and pray." As Lianne says, "that's a good intro" and a way to get started again. Time to turn the calender over and give the second half another shot. All it takes is a closing 'Courage' and maybe this 'Sour Flower' can grow like the tone of this artists most beautiful brush stroke, with notes hit taking us as high as Aretha. "As hard as it may be." Like flying 100,000 miles, "just to get back to Brixton". Lianne is back home if you need her, "waiting for the fog to drift away/Letting the light in". "Getting stronger everyday/Keeping my heart clean/Working out/Just have to find my way," as the iconic instrumental end drum rolls us away. That's it...it's done. Let the black and white, personal, perfect portrait, amazing album artwork tell it with no grey areas. Just pure, stripped down soul power of these beautiful, bare, essential tracks. Even without the title adorned on it because what more do you need to say? This is Lianne La Havas. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Bittersweet', 'Paper Thin', 'Read My Mind.'
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