REVIEW: DAVID GRAY - SKELLIG

 

4/5

This Years Life. 

Babylon, 20 years later. David Gray plans to go ahead with his rescheduled tour to mark the two decade anniversary of his magnum-opus 'White Ladder'. The diamond, ten times platinum, fifth and tenth best selling record of the 2000's and 21st century respectively in the UK. A classic record album from the opening "feels like lightning running through my veins" electric drums of 'Please Forgive Me', that no apologies still feels like that every time we listen to that. The big 'Babylon' hit making empire. The perfect, unmistakable piano of the sung in unity unanimous, 'This Years Love' (had better last). The vision of 'Nightblindness' looking for a brighter day like we all are now ("how are we going to find the eyes to see?"). The adrift on memory bliss 'Sail Away' and the going even harder cover of Soft Cell and Marc Almond's 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye'. Failing that the great Brit who like Kate Bush before him or Adele after him deserves his national treasure place in the singer/songwriter Hall of Fame has the quarantined isolation of 'Skellig' off the coast of home studio recordings to tide us over like the scored Skellig fish and broad brushstrokes of mountain peaks and ocean deep album artwork that belongs in a golden frame even of this one doesn't receive a diamond plaque. Following his last release just under two years ago giving more 'Gold In A Brass Age' to his definitive discography, everyone's favourite Dave (save the TV channel that still gives us Stephen Fry and QI) is back when the skies are as grey as his last name this season. Like the 'Ain't No Love', 'The One I Love', 'Slow Motion', 'Alibi' of 2005's 'Life In Slow Motion' in the Winter mountains. This feels like 'A New Day At Midnight', 'Dead In The Water', 'Real Love' 'Be Mine', 'Kangaroo', 'Last Boat To America', 'Other Side' of his follow up climb to 'White Ladder'. For a man whose been writing real records, since the days were instead of streams, we bought CD's. Like the Costello music spectacle of the Sale, Cheshire cats 'Sell, Sell, Sell' cult favourite that came after his sought after 'A Century Ends' 1993 debut and the sophomore 'Flesh'. Gray has still been doing it, giving everything despite all they say in a critical world that is quick to forget but should also remember the anniversary this '21 of when the fellow best of British Corinne Bailey-Rae told us to 'Put Our Records On' and everyone around the world dropped the needle in call and response. You only have to see him running and performing his lead song 'Fugitive' off his 2009 release on Jools Holland to 'Draw The Line' to see how much drive he harbors in those strings. Somber classics like the fierce restrained passion of 'Foundling' followed like the 'Mutineers'. Now with an album named after Ireland's Skelling Islands in County Kerry, but recorded in the Highlands of Scotland, folktronic is back folks. Like it was meant to be like the acoustic, instrumental Central Park 'January Rain' of a John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale 'Serendipity'. 

Dawn in all its majesty will steal you away with this one again. On the opening title track of this serene classic of a song as good as the album it was named after, David Gray with atmospheric beautiful backing sings, "Oh, that the song I'm singing/Was an ocean wide/And that the word I'm bringing/Reaches over to the other side (cue the DiCaprio 'Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood' TV pointing meme, or 'Family Guy'," eh, he said it.")/Each heart a burning vessel/Out on a pitch black wave/Chewing the bone and gristle/When it's the flesh of love we crave." Now take a look at that last couplet, couples. That's why this man has been making music from since before you were born and I was probably three (I was 7...yep, I'm old). It only gets more beautiful and as pretty as the postcard picture of the coastal town of the same name on 'Dún Laoghaire', even though the first Google search for this place asks if its rough (it's not, but life and times and the coastal reflections in this album are). All that 'Accumulates' are stellar songs from a stirring songwriter like the lyrics, "Well, it grips and it grins/It cavorts and it gyrates/And it whispers from the wing." This man is the 'Heart and Soul' like the best and pulse of said song. All before the ivory hypnotic 'Laughing Gas' will leave you in a transfixed trance of emotions, even if they aren't funny. "Nothing in the world was ever seen/Write it on the wind/This living dream/Nothing in the world was ever known/Throwing off the weight/Of skin and bone/Ripple on the water, leaves of grass/Fire into the crowd/With laughing gas." There the lyrics. That's it. But the man who has wrote more songs than the industry in need of inspiration cares to remembers needs say no more. Pure poetry in the songwriting pro's prose. There's 'No False Gods' here, but this musical giant is a real one. Changing his pitch to Springsteen 'Lift Me Up' perfection of dedication. All the way to the wrote depths of 'Deep Water Swim', alive in the water now as Gray sings to the blue, "With the weight of the skies/Like a word to the wise/And the thought that preyed/With the road rising up/And the fog in my cup/As we cut to fade." This United Kingdom legends legacy will never fade to black.

Propelling us through the pandemic with soft subtly, Gray's gentle grace is all we need like the twisting and turning strings of 'Spiral Arms' that hold us, shielding all from the cold. Evoking the acoustics of a rain in 'January'. On 'The White Owl', the 'White Ladder' singer says, "For to quench my thirst/Into the breakers till my lungs burst/For to still my mind/ Down through the echoing blue in a swallow dive/So damn alive/The tightrope, the green lasso/And soft hands to bear me through." Verses haven't been this versatile or novel since this storyteller last served us songs. On the lullaby like 'Dares My Heart To Be Free' he challenges the broken and lost in love with healing. "Try to keep it sweet/Baby, make ends meet/Heading in the right direction/Just maybe down the wrong street" as we walk with him on this cracked, but straight path to what lasts. Humming a 'House With No Walls' he channels heartbreak into a Vandross 'House Is Not A Home' like Willie Nelson saying 'Hello Walls' to his lonely is the only company. "With face turned away/From what you must say/So each to his reckless reward/We've torn up the track/There's no turning back/Each day now a journey toward". But this time our loneliness is quarantined with a different type of social isolation. We think it 'Can't Hurt More Than This', but just wait until you hear the somber, lower chord tears of that track. On the classic closer, David Gray gives us 'All That We Asked For' on the end of his return. With another pitch for the red devil, Manchester United die hard, glory, glory fan. "We're setting our clocks for the summer/We're spilled out like foam on the sand/And it's all that we asked for and more/Well, it's all that we asked for and more". Hoping we can save these days like daylight, vaccinating our lonely nights as like an old friend coming back into play he adds, "The first light, it came like a warning/This moment is all that you own/It's all that we asked for and more/Well, it's all that we asked for and more," bringing us into this New Year from the worst one and advising us to live in the moment before it's gone. Because even stuck at home, wherever we are in the world, we can find solace in 'Skellig' for these grey days lost at sea. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Skellig', 'No False Gods', 'House With No Walls'. 

REVIEW: HAIM - WOMEN IN MUSIC PT. III (EXPANDED EDITION)

5/5

All Hail Haim.

'Summer Girl' your 'Women In Music' are back for Part III (or the awesomely abbreviated 'WIMPIII') like a child of destiny. A calendar after that iconic saxophone stalked the Hollywood Boulevard streets of Los Angeles to the "do, da, do, do, do's" that 'Walk On The Wild Side' with Lou Reed as hauntingly as the heartbreaking fact that Lana Del Rey (she has a new, last year, 'Norman F###### Rockwell' following album coming out this Summer too girl. Like this following the roots return of both Norah Jones' 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor' last week and Lady Gaga's pure pop art of 'Chromatica' last month) too late flew on a red eye to record 'Brooklyn Baby' with Lou Reed the night the late legend passed away. Which makes the almost identical, impersonating backing vocals of the said Black Keys produced track even more haunting now. Now if you thought that and the change clothes, hot in here video directed by family friend and 'Punch Drunk Love's' Paul Thomas Anderson was iconic than check this phantom thread out my magnolia's.  Just like the studio stripped down 'Valentine' special of 'Right Now', 'Nothing's Wrong' and 'Something To Tell You' off the album of the same name from 'The Master' director that shows the power of these women who can all chop and change (like their live show equal stage holding. Or even the in sync NPR 'Tiny Desk (Home) Concert', perfectly in time, quarantined in other houses...let alone living rooms like 'Forever') and play even more instruments than the men that got paid ten times as much as them on what should have been an equal billing festival bill, right now, right now. Just wait until you hear the rest or this anticipated album of the year a year and change after Maggie Rogers', 'Heard It In A Past Life' classic became 2019's right in January, despite King Princess and her 'Cheap Queen' fall challenge for a generation of girl power. One for these Spice Girls Stans that was already a California classic like every leaf brown when we first heard that horn for your grey skies my mamas and papas. The sax hasn't sounded this sexy since Michael Hutchence told us they could 'Never Tear Us Apart' with INXS in Prague. Six pre-release diverse and definitive tracks (on an album so good half of them now are as a bonus) have sealed this fate and P.T.A. has directed a fantastic four of these videos as Haim and the 'There Will Be Blood' director drink your milkshake (now look out for that Easter Egg movie buffs). Complete with that confident and knowing look from Danielle breaking all kinds of walls. At the car wash there was the waitress to black dress costume change, shades, pink telephone and stretcher faint recovery of the lonely club hopping and bed generations, 'Now I'm In It'. A clever camera trick 'Hallelujah' rope pulled you in, sitting in the air sans chair as hauntingly beautiful as Buckley. One that pointed to putting these Valley girls names in bright lights for this cinematic curtain call. But the sisterhood of Haim weren't done like, "three hearts, one mind" and returned with Mr. Anderson for this music matrix with 'The Steps' of an angsty blood and lipstick drum roll that pre-COVID spat toothpaste and the bitter taste of a toxic ex at the bathroom mirror. But then like crawling all over their bathroom sink, after throwing everything at this record including the kitchen one, COVID-19 happened to a heartbreaking 2020 that should have been roaring again like Gatsby, but instead was tragic like Kobe and GiGi and what's happening right now as we tweet and take to the street about how Black Lives Matter. But still even quarantined in concert and lockdown dance lessons, corona couldn't even stop these sisters as they offer Zoom classes in learning the steps of their greatest hits. Which even has this writer in the Far East of Japan dancing in his loving room at 4 in the morning in unison and wondering why he's still single. The first being their social isolation anthem 'I Know Alone' (actually wrote before the pandemic but perfectly placed now like Norah Jones' 'Pick Me Up' Target bonus bullseye, 'Tryin' To Keep It Together') and its brilliant and creative 'Don't Save Me' like Basketball court video in the backyard backed at a ballplayer six feet apart distance. Head in hands, almost homaging P.T.A's 'Anima' underground musical film with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Bored scrolling through phones like a zombified treadmill, before the pace picks up perfectly. And how about the bass for your face latest of the pure pop of 'Don't Wanna' from a big three as versatile and therefore criminally underrated as multiple bandsman across town, Ben Harper? Danielle believes if they didn't dance they would maybe get more respect from their male peers. I say f### all that. Their instrumental and iconic whilst those hating instead of BTS STANdoming are has beens already anyway. And whilst we're at it you can save it and face with those Este (like the Brits, call me?) memes and jokes. Anyone that puts that much muscular devotion into their instrument and sound because they love it so feels music much more than anyone taking it lightly does. Besides those people could probably never make anyone make that kind of face anyway if they really want to get that crass (does that answer your question misogynistic 'Man From The Magazine' for a track as making a point good as Lenny Kravitz's 'Mr. Cab Driver'?). Not that it's about that. Besides it actually looks as cool as f###. Forever in love with the faces she makes. "We've both woke up in strangers beds", Danielle Haim sings on the relationship on a rocks with a twist song as all sorts of loneliness is delved into on this album for the summertime sadness record. From quarantining, to finally coming back out at night like a once 'Mellon Collie' with the 'Infinite Sadness' Smashing Pumpkin for another shot. We're in it now. 

Order up like the "now serving 69", tongue in all sorts of cheeks, iconic Anderson delicatessen album artwork that almost turned into a tour of delis like Katz before COVID that's now going to go virtual. We haven't seen this many pre-album single hits like this for years. 'Falling', 'Forever', 'The Wire', 'Don't Save Me', 'My Song 5', 'Go Slow', 'Let Me Go', 'Running If You Call My Name' and the album-titled, 'Days Are Gone'. 'Want You Back', 'Nothing's Wrong', 'Little Of Your Love', 'Found It In Silence', 'Walking Away', 'Right Now', 'Night So Long' and the album-titled 'Something To Tell You' (look let's be real. We wanted to name all tracks off both albums. Whose setting off these fireworks with all these bangers?). 'Pray To God' like Calvin Harris for a Shania Twain cover that does impress us much, Haim's albums bring a powerhouse of perfect playlist picks longer than Paul Thomas Anderson's straw. But nothing drinks quite like this that will bring everyone to the yard or the Hollywood bowl and California desert once that and Cochella opens back up like don't dance so close to me. With L.A. on her mind and an LGBT cinema cap on Danielle sings, "Peer around the corner at you/From over my shoulder I need you/I need you to understand/These are the earthquake drills that we ran/Under the freeway overpasses/The tears behind your dark sunglasses/The fears inside your heart as deep as gashes/You walk beside me, not behind me/Feel my unconditional love," on the scorching 'Summer Girl'. Before going through the car wash of Saturday night to Sunday morning cleansing and singing, "Locking all the doors to my house/I'm alone in my head/But I wish you were in my bed/Can't get a read on myself/Gotta change this situation/Something in the way that I felt when I woke up/Told me that I shouldn't give in, give up hope/Told me that I shouldn't fight what I felt/Told me I should not let go," the depression recovery solidarity that will help you find your way even if it's been a minute. Just like 'The Steps' of telling someone, "everytime I think I've been taking the steps/you get mad at me for a mess/I can't understand/why you don't understand me." The hurt meets healing on 'Hallelujah' as Alana Haim laments the loss of, "a best friend but she has come to pass/One I wish I could see now/You always remind me that memories will last/These arms reach out/You were there to protect me like a shield/Long hair running with me through the field/Everywhere you've been with me all along", as these sisters keepers harmonize about meeting an "angel but in disguise," since '95. "Why me?" But for these 'Days Are Gone' siblings, "days get slow like counting cell towers on the road" as they are no stranger to solitude like the rest of us too, as Danielle Haim from her car and full glove compartment sings, "'Cause nights turn to days/They turn to grey/Keep turning over/Some things never grow/I know alone like no one else does." That's why sometimes you end up in the "strangers bed" of the last single, 'Don't Wanna' that talks about the all too familiar feeling of, "don't know what I mean to you/dont know what to say to you". You may not get the feelings of those that left you riding solo, but this holy trinity of a heaven sent big-three will help you understand the hurt as they too like shouting all the words to the Canyon girl Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' know alone. 

HAIMsters what more could you expect from the threes most personal and prolific project yet? How can this not be a Californian classic like Best Coast and their latest greatest this year ('Always Tomorrow') when this album hip-hop drum snaring opener is called 'Los Angeles' like the Lakers, as Henry Solomon's signature 'Summer' sax returns like a reverse reprise? But caught in the smog of La La Land like a city of coughing stars it's not all Randy Newman in the City of Angels for these sisters are searching for a "miracle" like being stuck in the towns notorious gridlock as "sometimes I speed down Crescent Heights/I can hardly feel it runnin' every light". But still for these Valley sisters, "New York is cold/I tried the Winter there once (nope)". These L.A. women open the doors to even more 'Gasoline', igniting fender to bumper like the cinematic opening to Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling's said movie. And this is worthy of a great American soundtrack with bold as love, beautiful lyrics like,"we're watching the sunrise from the kitchen counter/when you lie in between my legs, it doesn't matter" (man I miss being in love). After the drill siren of an alarm wakes them 'Up From A Dream' for two back-to-back like Magic California chill tracks for your Venice boardwalk from these Queens that are still Chili Pepper hot by the way. Dreaming of Californication has never sounded so good, even zoning at '3AM'. Picking up the phone for you know what. But 'Another Try' answers the call for an album that is soaked in as much lamenting loneliness like the Hollywood city of angels when the wings turn in for night as it is sunshine amongst the stars. "You take care of us/When I make this tough/Because it takes all I got/Not to f### this up", Danielle sings on the beautifully honest 'Leaning On You'. Because records like the raw and beat served hard, 'I've Been Down' take depression head on and headstrong for these incredible young artists who have found their true selves and sound over years of compelling maturation in both style and substance for an act who have always sounded as real as it gets, yet nothing right now comes quite as close to this. 'All That Ever Mattered' is screamingly scary good, breaking into the best riff of the set. Whilst on the f##### up but true, 'FUBT' and its beautiful bass Danielle sings this lyric, "I spend my mornings overthinking all my old mistakes/But I would never judge your problems in the same way." Now have you ever heard a line that describes the anxiety of our modern day relationship with others and ourselves more plainly in an album that tells this generation of their audience that there is nothing wrong with vulnerability? No overthinking required on this one...even from a man like me. Even if the debate for the albums best riff just got amp reinvigorated. Just like the steps of what's your favourite track from these summer girls now we're in it again walking to that beat on Instagram like knowing alone. But right now at this very moment one thing has no contest. Best band alive. This is women in music wimps! After a dynamic debut and surviving and striving the sophomore slump, the third times the charm for these three. And judging from their discography catalogue it's only going to be more of a grower over time. California classic after California classic. Album of the Summer. Album of the year. Album of their career. "Now that's how you f###### do it!" Now how about an expanded edition? 

Footracing through the Forum of the parking lot that the Magic 80's Showtime Lakers used to call home like LBJ running the break, these sisters doing it for themselves filming a quarantined music video as best outside as you can get right now, 'Don't Wanna' stop. Just like the incredible drum intro to the dynamic live cut of 'Gasoline' for Jimmy Kimmel's late night as day gives way to that and Danielle's heavy hitting of the skins like 'The Steps'. "YOU TOOK ME BAAAAACK" she screams like the fans used to here with the coliseum like Forum white pillars behind her. Adding more fuel to the fire like Alana on the guitar pedal. But if that wasn't enough gas for your ass like Este winning the Forum foot race from the 'Don't Wanna' video in a classic car, then how about a remix that moves Swiftly? Taylor's version of anything always makes everything better and after Haim teamed up with the hardest working individual in music right now (even re-recording versions of her classic albums starting with 'Lover') for the 'No Body, No Crime' Este murder mystery storytelling genius off the 'Folklore' follow-up, 'Evermore' (two albums in one locked down year, but Haim still had the best of 2020 with 'WIMPIII'), the Instagram mooooood board pizza and animal onesie official fourth Haim sister returns the favor igniting the 'Gasoline' remix. Pouring petroleum all over it like the gas station, 50's bob-cut wigged and black dress sisters have in promotion, as she lights up her version of the second verse of her favourite track off the album (mine too...where's my verse?). Now "cancel that DNA test". And if the biggest star in music not named Beyoncé or Ariana wasn't enough than how about another remix to keep you up 'till' 3AM'? Expanding this deluxe edition of 'Women In Music Pt. III', the terrific Thundercat emerges from the water 'Drunk' like the 'Apocalypse Now' like iconic cover of his classic album we're still hungover from. After giving some sax to Haim's Christmas Waitresses cover 'Christmas Wrapping 2020 (All I Want For Christmas Is A Vaccine)' which should be under this tree, you don't want to miss this one this year. Following the Seth Meyers '3AM' live Halloween performance that rocked for the vote and carved it into a pumpkin as these corpse brides were facetime booty called by Batman himself, Robert Pattinson, Thundercat offers and even more smoother and soulful version of the cut which bests the original and even makes it one of the best for the record as the celery stalk in tomato juice beat comes back. THUNDERCAT! HO! All of this makes part two of the album of the year, 'Women In Music Pt. III' even more of a classic than it already was as they are set to tour this world like hopefully they and we still can (fingers crossed for a flight home from Tokyo to London where my bestie like Este kindly has tickets). But like another alive, live California cinematic classic music video from Paul Thomas Anderson you don't need a c### like this 'Man From The Magazine' to tell you. F### reading all about it. Just listen to 'Women'. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Summer Girl', 'Now I'm In It', 'Gasoline (Remix) Feat. Taylor Swift'. 

REVIEW: FOO FIGHTERS - MEDICINE AT MIDNIGHT

3.5/5

A Spoonful Of Foos Makes The Medicine Go Down. 

Check your medicine cabinet for this one. The Foo Fighters new home-recorded album 'Medicine At Midnight' is the perfect late night elixir for another year staying at home in quarantine, when locked down we don't even know what time it is anymore. Let alone what day. Well it's Friday the 12th February 2021, we're a week late when it comes to reviewing this album (you should have seen how much we missed our alarm on Weezer's new Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds' inspired amazing analogue 'OK Human' (a fortnight. Our take came in just a couple of hours ago...our bad) and the Foos have just made the shortlist for this years Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame alongside Iron Maiden, Jay-Z (feel old yet? And you thought you had just 99 Problems. Turns out father time is one, even if it isn't for his friend LeBron), Tina Turner, Kate "Mother####### saved my life" Bush and Carole King on the 50th anniversary of 'Tapestry' (about time). The Foo's have been "Dad rock" long enough than my hairline cares to remember. Putting a 'Monkey Wrench' that I don't want to be into my college glory days like that tequila and motorbike DUI put one into Springsteen's Superbowl spot for Jeep (keep it on...the message is more important, even the Boss sometimes doesn't work as well) like a spanner in the works, but they still make great music for your hard rock Nirvana like the return of Pat Smear. Even if the early 2000's days when we couldn't tell if them or the Chilli's were our heroes seems like a parallel universe away. Not two decades of cracked CD jewel cases and festival wristbands we still refuse to take off...bet you're glad you kept them on now.

Cancelled by incels trying to play punisher, the powerhouse Phoebe Bridgers (who had the best record of last year not sung by the sisterhood of Haim) has been receiving flak for whacking her guitar on the stage of SNL until it smashed. We have no idea why this is an issue when a incensed, incendiary Hendrix told us we sacrifice the things we love. A growling Grohl fully supports it, like I'm sure he does all (most) music and tedious links of segue (sorry). OK, maybe he's not K-Pop's biggest fan, but when Suga of South Korean mega group, pop juggernaut BTS dropped his mic (contrary to popular belief they're no use after that. No wonder Dave Chappelle sort of places them down these days) after the performance of the song of the same name no one said s###. Now you may say that's because everyone loves BTS. Not true. Sure ARMY members me and McConaughey do, but two "alright, alright, alright" dudes aren't everyone so don't be dazed and confused. Hip-Hop heads don't, even if these Korean popstars can rap like RM. Just check the Rap Monster's lyrics on their 'Dynamite' explosive, English language single that's had everyone singing along from the kids I teach, to my reluctant manager at work. "Ladies and gentlemen, I got the medicine. So you should keep ya eyes on the ball, huh." DAMN! What's this got to do with anything you ask? Well it has the word 'Medicine' in it doesn't it (eye roll)? Yeah it took me awhile to get here, but the same people who write off the lyrical talent and depth of BTS are also the type to write off these Fighters as has-Foos. Not true. One review writer who will remain nameless and shameless even said 'Medicine At Midnight' is music to go to the toilet to during Grohl gigs. Not cool. What kind of s### is that? I guess they really are taking the piss. Because the Foos may be reaching rocking chair status, but that same place Dave once nursed a broken leg whilst still playing (sorry...still slaying) still looks like a throne. The 9 track, Prodigy pink album with eyes on what almost looks like a Chilli Pepper logo or Red Hot 80's punk release rocks. A lot more than the pedestrian 'Concrete and Gold' of their last epic effort that fell a little short of classic status like the same colors of a 'Wasting Light'. Sure this 'Medicine' is got nothing on a woman's 'Tapestry', but neither has a 'Map Of The Soul'.

There really is nothing left to lose when 'The Colour and the Shape', 'One By One' and the LOUD and the not so loud sides 'In Your Honor', really are the best of them. Despite the 'Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace' of their best work and the 'Sonic Highways' of their musical tour across America. This tenth album may reside at the bottom half of their retrospective top ten, but when you've got a hard rock catalogue this classic, it's hardly a bad thing. It's a 'Shame, Shame' some can't see like hearing one of their best singles since 'DOA' for a band some have written off as dead in the water. "If you want to/I'll make you feel something real just to bother you/Now I got you/Under my thumb like a drug, I will smother you I'll be the one, be the moon, be the sun/Be the rain in your song, go and put that record on/If you want to I'll be the one, be the tongue that will swallow you," no one should refrain when they hear this one. Just like 'No Son Of Mine' rocking with anti-make America gre(h)at(e) again, anthemic lyrics like, "No son of mine will ever do/The work of villains, the will of fools/If you believe it, it must be true/No son of mine, no son of mine/No son of mine will ever need/To beg forgiveness, no wicked deed/Head full of evil, heart full of greed/No son of mine, no son of mine," for a stellar second single, no sophomore slump. And how about a big-three as you need all the soldiers and bandsmen for this growing one in this apocalypse? As 'Waiting On A War' to start the new year Grohl glows, "I've been waiting on a war since I was young/Since I was a little boy with a toy gun/Never really wanted to be number one/Just wanted to love everyone", with this rally cry for the power of the people, guitar and shoe string booted up as we all wait for the sky to fall. Trying to remake Bowie's 'Let's Dance' and non-disclosure recording in a location were stranger things happened as they dialled it up to 11 for an album that as Dave says sounds, "f###### weird," the result is a great mix, straight shot with no time for a chaser or tenth track on their tenth album. From the outstanding opener that sets the tone 'Making A Fire' to the last ode that tells us 'Love Dies Young', even if hopefully these guys do not. Fingers crossed like rocking bullhorns like they'll be able to roll up for their corona shut and locked down Van Tour. Whether 'Holding Poison', 'Chasing Birds', or 'Cloudspotting', this album rocks through it all. Even riffs from way back in the grungy basements of the Seattle salad days. Now that sounds like heaven, all praises to Kurt. You can even Ziggy dance to this one and the end of the world in stardust. Here's to it. Raise your glass of medicine, whatever's your poison. Like the albums title track we could all use some 'Medicine At Night', whether literal, sexual ('All My Life'), or musical. Or just peaceful. We need this now. This year too. Even when like the Foos, we still fighting. TIM DAVID HARVEY

Playlist Picks: 'Shame, Shame', 'No Son Of Mine', 'Love Dies Young'.

REVIEW: WEEZER - OK HUMAN

 

4/5

Pet Shop Beach Boys. 

OK, Computer...or is that Alexa? What year is it? I'm serious! 2021? Thank God! The last one was one for the dark ages. I feel like I've just woken up from the world's longest quarantined coma. And dare I ask, who's the President? REALLY?! Thank goodness! It really is a brand new day. As fresh as the colour of a classic Weezer album. Now don't tell me Rivers and the boys are 50 years old? I remember being a college kid geeked out over the 'Hash Pipe' of 'The Green Album' singing 'O Girlfriend' to the one I loved like R.E.M. (remember them too?). How are we living in a time were the Foo Fighters are considered "Dad rock" and half the members probably actually need 'Medicine At Midnight' like their new album released last week. I can't even keep up. Which sort of serves as my apology for the lateness of this and their new release review. I need to check a calendar. You know last year was bad when you're still all shook up like Presley and it's already February. You know last year was bad when the 'Buddy Holly' bandsmen didn't even release an album last year after releasing the teal and black spectrum adding two in 2019 (and I didn't even have time to get to them and there was no corona then, so what's my excuse?). But following that same path keeping busy during lockdown in the studio, they're set to release two before 2022 too. Expect 'Van Weezer' to pull up this Summer like the festivals we won't get to see their iconic W stage crashing logo at this year. But still expect it to rock like Van Halen or an AC/DC thunderbolt when the time comes.

Before all that however in a schedule reshuffle to start a year were we are licking our wounds, Weezer start off with something a little lighter to pet. The California crew head to the beach once again with their dogs and cats for 'OK Human' an album that takes so much inspiration from the 'Pet Sounds' of Brain Wilson's Beach Boys (and Harry Nilsson's Randy Newman covers LP 'Nilsson Sings Newman') that Rivers Cuomo and the dudes recorded this entirely with analogue equipment like they were Jack and Meg, with strings recorded at the same studios that The Beatles walked across a zebra crossing for...oh and a 38 piece orchestra too. The result is their most beautiful sounding album to date for their 14th and a band who are already working more overtime than their Los Angeles Lakers last three games, or this writer when he used to hustle the coffee shop gig between articles. It's wholly original too, despite the inspiration. It's influence is it's own for a classic collective who we really should be calling as iconic as Cuomo's Holly glasses. That's just the way I see it buddy and you will too when you listen. This is just what you'll get for the band that was about to embark on the Hella Mega Tour with luminaries like Green Day and Fall Out Boy (which 'Van Weezer' was meant to roll out) before COVID-19 hit 2020 and all our vision became blindsided. Now 'All Our Favorite Songs' will also become one of yours all-time. Weezer or all bands. From the amazing artwork that Dave Matthews Band's 'Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King' and 'Away From The World' would be proud of. All the way to LA's 'La Brea Tar Pits' that will cement their legend with this amazing album. Instantly Cali' timeless like 'Aloo Gobi' that couldn't sound more classic Weezer if it "What's playin' at The Aero?/Some French noir flick/Don't wanna sit next to humans (don't we all not want to right now?), I'm agoraphobic/Order up a decaf latte, spin Gainsbourg tunes Gosh darn this cast iron lounger, my butt will bruise." Even sitting at home with your fanny (not that one fellow Brits) packed with purple, this one will actually make you happy to stay tied up at home with those Abbey Road strings. John and Paul would love this one. Just like the 'Grapes Of Wrath' that pick at Steinbeck like something made for both mice and men. Rivers rocking his audible as he "drift(s) off to oblivion" with Moby Dick and George Orwell's '1984'. "Growing heavy for the vintage" '66.

Playing the 'Numbers' give Weezer one of it's deepest cuts too as Cuomo shows us how compellingly haunting his vocals can get, as in this world of less love and more likes Rivers tells us through the streams that "numbers are out to get you" like social media and FOMO. 'Playing My Piano' continues this ivory inspiration as Rivers hasn't run water through his hair and "hasn't washed it in three weeks". It must be all those Zoom interviews he has to get back to. Hey...at least he has hair my fellow 'Half (Hair) Pipe' alumni. But, how about the vivid reflections on 'Mirror Image'? "She is my mirror image / Showing me who I am / Until the day that we shatter / She helps me understand" he sings on an outstanding ode. Scrolling through 'Screens' like a quarantined Haim video that knows alone whilst "the real world is dying", Rivers asks where we will be 21 years from now like the average age of their fans when they first started out now "everybody stares at a screen". South Korean mega K Pop group BLACKPINK get a nice shout out like their call sign. But in this world of memes people who once dreamed with their head in the clouds are now moving into different clouds in these strange skies (as Sly Stallone's Rocky says to Michael B. Jordan on 'Creed', "what cloud?"). We're not playing "Solitaire on our desktop" anymore. Life feels like a 'Bird With A Broken Wing', thank God for that beautiful song to sing. Because these 'Dead Roses' are for you and like then band plays on the instrumental 'Everything Happens For A Reason', like one of their classic albums 'Everything Will Be Alright' in the end. Even if it feels like the Schwarzenegger end of days right now, this band is with you even if it's more 'Here Comes The Rain' than 'Abbey Road's' 'Here Comes The Sun'. Because after all you can't deny the Beach Boy brightness of that piano. Wouldn't it be nice if the world was like it used to be? Thank God it's 1966 again as I just wasn't made for these times. Well, we're a little bit closer when bands we love just like 'Beverly Hills' are back and sounding exactly the same as what we grew up with and fell for, in love with the soundtrack of an easier time when we were kids. Let this rain and LeBron like purple reign for a band who need to release an album of that color, "wash all your troubles away". The 'Pinkerton' green and blue garage band turned stadium superstars who once had 'Hurley' on their album cover (save a surf shop suing) and have recorded covers of Toto's 'Africa' and songs for 'Jackass' released six stellar albums in the last decade and have already started this one off with two after a years break that we all took...and needed, for the good of ourselves and the good of the world. It seems like 'The Sweater Song' outfit won't run out of thread to pull, no matter if you walk away (we won't). 'OK Human' will stop you climbing the walls like an 'OK Computer' song for your radio and head. In a time were we are all left so exasperated to the point of breathlessness (and that has nothing to do with what we wear on our face (mask up)), trust Weezer like Springsteen to give us that human touch. TIM DAVID HARVEY

Playlist Picks: 'All Our Favorite Songs', 'Aloo Gobi', 'Numbers'.