REVIEW: LANA DEL REY - CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB

 

4/5

Lana Del F#####g Rey.

I still like Lana Del Rey...is that OK? How can one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of 2020 become part of NPR's secondary segment on their 'New Music Friday' release schedule today...in...erm, 2021? Well, for one Jon Batiste's 'We Are' and a new album from classic country legend Loretta Lynn ('Still Woman Enough') come out today. And for two, did you hear about 2020? It was a year were people even got s### for wearing masks. But still with 'Chemtrails Over The Country Club', is Lizzie Grant AKA Lana Del Rey still woman enough for you with another black and white classic like the 'Brooklyn Baby' to the 'West Coast' of 'Ultraviolence' follow up to 2019's expletively epic 'Norman F#####g Rockwell'? They're coming at her when she's still young and beautiful. No wonder the world is an aching soul. She's being 'Doin' Time' for long enough like her 'Attack Of The 200 Foot Woman' old Hollywood homage video for your billboards. Ever since this self-dubbed "gangster Nancy Sinatra", bang, bang doing it her way with her own boots made for walking all over the charts was 'Born To Die' like running off a Springsteen "suicide machine". Remember SNL? Harry Potter does. These Moaning Myrtles gave one of the best singer/songwriter storytellers s### for a live performance when they were just at home playing their video games. They said the cinematic singer was wrong for saying, "he hit me and it felt like a kiss", but this isn't a portrait of domestic bliss. It's a story of domestic 'Ultraviolence' that takes in to account all the black and white, black and blue and grey areas of abuse and the stuck at home, Stockholm like syndrome that comes with it. If you can read between Dylan's lines for musics message, or the true 'hood tales real hip-hop artists are telling, then why not this? Why disenfranchise an artists strokes? Is it because she's a woman? Well...admittedly that may be a middle of the night reach and a man playing the sexism card at that, but still. She doesn't get the respect her peers that do don't deserve. Sure she didn't do much for her fellow female artists with that Instagram post that wasn't as harmful as Mr. West bum rushing the Grammy's swiftly every time Taylor won (and they still used to celebrate that), but didn't exactly stay in its place after years of making her own lane. Women in music like Haim and the album of last year (sorry Tay, Tay I don't mean to sound like Kanye, but hey, you won the Grammy) should support each other just like a woman and it was sad to see the fallout with pop icon Ariana Grande. Especially after their mega 'Don't Call Me Angel' big-three hit 'Don't Call Me Angel' anthem for Elizabeth Banks' 'Charlie's Angels' reboot shot with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska playing Cam Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore. They said the 'Country Club' cover was like a Trump supporter dinner, but they're wrong and this cover of friends feels so right, not white like the Oscars. Look closer to the monochrome of this meditative, mesmerizing minimalist music. They even give her grief for dating a cop, but not all those who vow to protect and serve are bad. My Mum used to be a member of the police and a by the book, just and right one at that. You want to give her s###? I'd like to see you try. With so many turning against her this year, maybe it's time to turn a page. Now I may get flack for this, but just to let you know I'm reviewing the Snyder cut of 'Justice League' tomorrow, so why not wait for that? Everyone makes mistakes and hers weren't malicious like some they support. You don't listen to R. Kelly anymore, but how about Miles Davis? Cancel culture keeps people in check, but some have paid their dues already. We can seperate the art from the artist here, or better yet give her a break. We've all been through it last year. I know I'm missing something, but maybe everyone else is too. I thought we were meant to start fresh this year? Now the real toxicity belongs to the trolls. Talk about 'Chemtrails'. 

So let's do that now, because it's all about the music and her signature sound is set for the stone of history, not a social media crowd that looks for the one for their heart by soullessly swiping. The 'Honeymoon' California cool period with her 'Love' smiling 'Lust For Life' may be over, but track for track, these 'Chemtrails' follow the 'Violence' that was 'Born To Die' from her best work. Something to kiss...no "f###" you hard in the pouring rain of a dark paradise every time you close your eyes. This seventh seal is the real deal from Lana Del Rey's self-titled moniker beginnings...and to think she hasn't recorded her magnum opus yet (but she's probably already at work at her next album like she was this 'White Hot' one after 'Rockwell'. Even if her American songbook standards of Christmas classics were missing under the tree...she did record a version of the iconic and symbolic 'You'll Never Walk Alone' for Liverpool football club though). From the album title single 'COTCC' and its controversy addressing video, Hollywoodland (like her and The Weekend running across the sign) signature sealed and delivered, mask and all to keep her at a social (media) distance. To the lead one from this leading lady that says 'Let Me Love You Like A Woman' (when all the IG fallout dropped) live in a Late Night like Jimmy, with a music video for Fallon that makes bar backgrounds on tap as movie making as the greatest musical director, The Boss. But its the first song we try on, 'White Dress' that is the holy best like Sunday for the singer who used to listen to the White Stripes of Jack and Meg when "they were white hot" (us too). Now a Seven Nation Army couldn't hold her back. Staying close to the almighty on 'Tulsa Jesus Freak' like a Rey of dark light classic or, "candle in the wind" flicker she sings like an old flame, "You should stay real close to Jesus/Keep that bottle at your hand, my man/Find your way back to my bed again/Sing me like a Bible hymn/We should go back to Arkansas/Trade this body for the can of Gin/Like a little piece of heaven" "white hot forever." Again thematically singing about getting closer to the Lord by f#####g, all in. Body and soul. Amen. All for the one who, "left Calabasas, escaped all the ashes, ran into the dark" as she adds, "What would you do if I told you/You made me crazy/To see your pretty pics on Sunset Boulevard?/And it makes me lazy/So I smoke cigarettes/Just to understand the smog", 'Wild At Heart'. Born to be. 

Undeniable like the bass line of the new perfect paradise, 'Dark But Just A Game', she ain't playing now. Instrumental in the inspiration of her iconic influence on sonic sound styling like the way we used to dress, this fits perfectly. And after a turbulent twenty, twenty, with new vision, its a new year and day for Del Rey. The 'Country Club' is open to all...even the 'Chemtrails' of the haters. By way of 'Yosemite' were she hits it out the national park. Referencing white hot candles in the wind again like Elton John for Lady Diana, but this time singing, "the only thing we'll turn is the pages of all of the poems we burned" like the 'Norman' who blames the news on his bad prose. But Lana isn't playing victim to the headlines here, making her own one on the billboards. Because like 'Not All Who Wander Are Lost', this one sounds all familiar. But not all things that are familiar are not fond and we love to have the feeling of this old thing back. Her sounds isn't just timeless. Like 'Ultraviolence', her actual albums are too for the Hall of Fame record of this stellar songwriter. With the country star Nikki Lane, 'Breaking Up Slowly' like making love beautifully the same way (she broke up with me and it felt like forever), Lana laments with Lane on the same road, "Breakin' up slowly is a hard thing to do/I love you only, but it's makin' me blue/So don't send me flowers like you always do/It's hard to be lonely, but it's the right thing." All before we 'Dance 'Till We Die'. Hand-in-hand entwined with lyrics like, "I'm coverin' Joni and I'm dancin' with Joan/Stevie is callin' on the telephone/Court almost burned down my home/But God, it feels good not to be alone". And she really isn't like when she sang for the Liver birds, or the time she sang with John's son on the ("isn't it crazy now I'm singing with") Sean Ono Lennon 'Lust' assisted 'Tomorrow Never Came'. Never alone. No matter how many are ganging up on her online. Because after these epic name drops, her famous friends join her for a swan song, place set like the mats of the album artwork in classic Americana cherry red (we presume...it is monochrome). 'For Free' sets it off perfectly for the curtain close with Zella Day and Weyes Blood for a big-three Grande like a friend we hope is made once again and Miley. Just don't call her done. 45 minutes for your new 45...in no way supporting 45. Melancholia hasn't looked or sounded this good since Kirsten Dunst in a white dress of the 'Infinite Sadness' of the Smashing Pumpkins tonight, tonight. Now if you're still in your feelings call her any name under the sun as we call it like it is, but "whose doper than this b####"? One of my favourite artists...but maybe I'm biased. Or maybe like no one right now in the industries generation, she's all-time. I still LOVE Lana Del Rey...is that...ahh you know what. I don't give a f###! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'White Dress', 'Dark But Just A Game', 'Breaking Up Slowly'. 

REVIEW: ROSÉ - -R-

4/5

Rosé In Your Area.

Fireworks lighting up the sky like the Blackpink Netflix documentary that promised some solo music from this New Zealand Rosé, as she swings through the lights they make. Seeing her name in that same type of bright like the big city of Seoul that is the heart of this K-Pop group that's putting South Korea on the map like 'Parasite', as her girls hotter than Spice take the world by storm like BTS. Cinematic echoes to the music videos of fellow Korean pop icon KATIE whose 'Time Is Blue' as limousines explode in balls of flames, this one really drives Rosé's star power home like give her a Hollywood script, or at least one for a K-Drama. A star is born like the reason she came into this world. But this songwriting genius has something else on the cards as she deals with anti-Asian racists with a fireball that's going to break America and the Internet. Coming down to earth, the meteorite is about to off the scale hit like the top of the charts. 

Right 'On The Ground' and a first single that shakes the foundations like if this solo act was leaving her group. Yet fear not, still in your area the only break-up here are the ballads from the Blackpink hit hook maker. Besides like the D-2 Suga of brother band BTS, Lisa's got next. Whatever the idols can do, the girls can do better. And as this singer stands on the throne of a coliseum that reads, "Roses are dead. Love is fake", we see the symbolism for all it's worth. The explosive lead single off '-R-' features lyrics like, "My life's been magic, seems fantastic/I used to have a hole in the wall with a mattress/Funny when you want it, suddenly you have it /You find out that your gold's just plastic." Moving us in metaphors that shows that all that glitters and all that (isn't all that). This is all you need for a "work hectic" that "seems electric". Now heed the warning in her hauntingly evocative lyrics for love lost. "I'm tryna send a message and let you know/That every single minute/I'm without you, I regret it." Trust me. Everything in terms of competition is now on the ground. 

But the B-Side to this Blink and you'll miss it, two-track '-R-' album shorter than those one-inch tall barriers of subtitles you need to get over like Trump (although this NZ K-Pop singer delivers it all in the Queens), is where the truth remains like a N-Sync group their as popular as...no solo strings attached. 'Gone' is just right there like the backing guitar of the acoustics it started out as. "I thought that you'd remember, but it seems that you forgot/It’s hard for me to blame you when you were already lost/Oh, yeah I'm tired of always waiting/Oh, yeah, yeah/I see you changed your number, that's why you don’t get my calls/I gave you all of me, now you don't wanna be involved/Oh, yeah, yeah I really gotta face it/Oh, yeah, yeah." If you thought 'Ground' was haunting then wait until you hear the ghosts of the ghosting of modern love 'Gone' on this compelling cut that's the deepest like the first. On reflection the writing is on the wall like the full name in the mirror, shining. Roséanne Park is here to stay no matter who in her personal life has left. She puts it all into the healing of music that will revive you the minute you drink it's epic elixir from the ears of your headphones. This hit and run that leaves us numb and reeling with feeling ugly crying. As those who break hearts for fun have no idea what they've done. Numb for the "eight in the morning/hate in the morning". It's a new time Gen-Z...and it's all because of her. Holding her stage in front of a stretch in flames. Rocking a black and pink dress, looking and sounding like straight fire. This ex is EXplosive. Like Pink blossom this season, Rosé is in bloom. Now how you like that? TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

REVIEW: KINGS OF LEON - WHEN YOU SEE YOURSELF

4/5

All The Kings Men.

What's going to put you together again after 2020, when we finally see a brighter day? Take a look at yourself. How about the Kings? When we were all one, the crown fit. We sang 'Sex On Fire' without protection. Now we all mask up like a masquerade ball. Not knowing what is what. Let alone who's who. It's been a long time, but we'll be fine. Just like this band of brothers. Leon hitting again like when Jean Reno took care of a young Natalie Portman and all of Gary Oldman's men in the Luc Besson classic. It's been a long time, but they're more than fine. Sometimes it seems closer to the time when the 'Sex' spawning Kings Of Leon album 'Only By The Night' set the world on fire to the tune of 6 million copies and spare change than it actually is. But 2008 was a few long term relationships ago. Albums stream now, They don't sell that much anymore and neither do this band...and that's no slight. Nothing is the same like nothing has been the same for this band since. After they lay where they were laying following their 'Because The Times' breakout, fans sought after their cult classics of the long hair like quarantine, don't care if you know what I mean, salad days, 'Youth & Young Manhood' and 'Aha Shake Heartbreak'. But since the 'Fire', fans have given tepid responses to records including 'Come Around Sundown' like a sophomore slump. All like this ride was just a 'Mechanical Bull'. Three albums over the last decade have passed by with little consequence, but they have all been cohesive sets that show these veterans are reliable on tap as a bar band for your tab. Especially their last guitar glory of 'Walls' that looked on to break on through to the other side like The Doors. Or the one they used to be on, kicking it in like the Notorious one who has a story to tell on Netflix right now for one more chance. Time for these Kings of the USA's country capital of Nashville, Tennessee to take a good look at themselves. And us too. 

NSFW? Nah, this isn't selling 'Sex'. This is not suitable for bitcoin like dating apps. This is NFT (nope, not 'No Free Tickets'. No one is going to concerts anymore). A 'non-fungible token' that allows fans unique assets like music and art in exchange for their non mutual interchangeable purchase...or there's always Spotify. But this form of cryptocurrency makes history for the band  as they give us a show package with concert content in a time were we need live music to keep us alive in our living rooms. But as you go 'NFT Yourself' (charming), is this audiovisual experience worth giving a f###? Well, judging from the 'Stormy Weather' of their hit single, that in the back of some classic American muscle goes for a ride in the turbulence of a car was like when those girls of 'Women In Music' Haim last Summer were in it with Hollywood director Paul Thomas Anderson, that is the forecast. And as those distinct vocals of Caleb sing to the coming storm, "Running like bulls of Pamplona/Try as I might to control you/You're like smoke in my eyes/Closed every time/Face of a starchild/Born in a sea, a mile high/Never seen a bad moon rise/It's the right time now." The band feel back like that. Right here, right now. Just like half of their album title in the self form of, 'When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away'. Pulling us close in this turbulent time with that gorgeous guitar. Locking us down with lyrics like, "This space in time, this bated breath/I’ve seen your kind at your very best/This long goodbye is overdue/You never came where I called on you." Or, "We’ve crystalized, it’s dawned on you/You have the face of someone new/The pleasures of this life I’m told/Will spit you out in the middle of the road/A scenic place the sky grows cold", for maybe their best song in a decade. It's enough to make 'The Bandit' cry as with wailing frets this band steals away another stellar single. Going like gangbusters. By the night it feels like old times again. And that's as black and white as their video visual for this audio. It's enough to move '100,000 People' like another hit...even if bands don't do that these days anymore. This one could.

Sonic sounds, These 'People' are classic Kings like everything that follow that is all killer, no album filler for a band America forgot like they didn't the heartland of Brandon Flowers' Las Vegas outfit. "You do, you do, you do" Followill sings on the hook of a harmony we'll all follow. This band catch 'A Wave' back to their late at night atmospheric sound of haunting ivory and vocals that build into ballads of beautiful rock and roll. Some critical guardians are trying to cleverly call 'When You See Yourself' "not much to look at" (that's reassuring in a time were we all need to be in positivity). How quaint. Turns out they really have a hold over nothing. Not quite grasping that this band wasn't going to make their bed with 'Sex On Fire' again. So why is everyone still f#####g with them? This band was always more than just a one night live stand. Real fans will still be here for the morning after, no matter the hangover, or dive bar music. Rock's supposed to hurt our heads now and again as it bangs and this band still knows how to throw down even when people throw beers like rocks at the Kings' throne. In this 'Golden Restless Age', this generational group have the sound to wake us up and take us back to the golden era. In a time were far too many reach for negativity (and we're even talking before the age of COVID-19 were today people at least have an excuse), you have to hand it to a band and their vocal leader who have been honing their signature sound for decades now as one of the best. It feels like this is still a new band, but clocks strike fast and around 20 years later 'Time In Disguise' just show us how iconic KOL have become as the drums beat to the riffs and licks. "Blind attraction, chain reaction/What you have is mine/Persian ivy running widly/Ashes left behind/Come a little closer, come a little closer/Closer now to the edge/Winds are blowing, fires glowing/Dancing in your head'" Say something different in this "grand occasion conversation" as you "light the crowded room". "Run from the mountain" like "poison in the fountain". Forget hate and remember why you love this band again as the dancing in your head starts a chain reaction that hopefully slow dances in the aisles of a 'Supermarket' between the fresh fruit and washing up liquid. As 'Claire & Eddie' move in time "drifting in and out like the thunder" like a flowing 'Fairytale' through the speakers ether. 'Echoing' in all this subtle, epic sound so beautiful. Nashville's Leon has had a raw deal over the last decade, but with this hand nothing's coming up but the Kings. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away', '100,000 People', 'A Wave'.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: BIGGIE-I GOT A STORY TO TELL

  

4/5

Reborn Again. 

Listen up, I got a story to tell. The King of New York died March 9th, 1997. So to mark the month of mourning on March 1st, Biggie has a 'Story To Tell' too like the last track off his 'Life After Death' definitive, double disc classic. At least they waited a day though. February 28th crosses the point on the calendar New York lost one of its greatest Knicks. The pioneer of the Point Forward position (what's up Draymond Green, Julius Randle), Anthony Mason. Not the same Mase that was a Bad Boy too, but one that used to shave 'Dogg Pound' into his dome for games like Rodman spray canned his hair and according to the rumor that Fat Joe a few years ago perpetrated was the victim of the events of the song 'I Got A Story To Tell'. Which apparently wasn't a story, but a track by track take and account of a real life scenario (although this heresay hasn't been confirmed by anyone close to Big). One that Christopher Wallace on the wax lyrical song says took place in the home of a New York Knicks NBA player, in bed with his wife. An event that ended with the player coming back earlier (the game must have been, "rained out or something" the Notorious one hilariously remarks about the Worlds Most Famous (indoor) Arena of Madison Square Garden), to which a desperate Biggie improvised by getting dressed Fresh Prince (how about that Vegas, "Gimmie the loot. Gimmie the loot" reference?) quick. Instead of opting for the penthouse window-ledge, B.I.G. then proceeded to throw on the wife's scarf like a ski-mask, grab a pillow case and put his pistol to her head, pretending to be sticking her up (s###...he kind of was). Pretending and then proceeding to actually rob the athlete who was giving up "mad paper" like when the Knicks re-signed Houston for mo' problems. Sure Biggie tells this story better than me, but releasing this documentary the morning after the day Mase died in anniversary lacks tact. But we just hope this was as much a coincidence as we believe this story to be a fabrication for fun and not based on factual events. 

Netflix have a story to tell too though. And the streaming service that have given us moving music documentaries from 'Quincy' to 'The Two Killings Of Sam Cooke' do it B.I.G. with this Notorious one. And stripping away the Hollywood hype like movie mythology we get in buoyed biopics (like the pretty good 'Notorious' which always had mo problems being named after one of the greatest movies of all-time...let alone rappers), this one takes it back to the Brooklyn born roots of the rapper that lie in Jamaica. Not Jamaican, Queens, with all due respect, but the actual beautiful land of Jamaica for the kid (he passed ages 24...can you believe that in all its senselessness?) who became the King of the five boroughs like the crown of that famous red room photo Oscar winner Marhershala Ali posed under for Netflix and Marvel's 'Luke Cage'. Or even the epic and iconic Source material cover of this man taller than the Twin Towers. But, "blowing up like the World Trade" it was all good and 'Juicy' baby, baby like "Super Nintendo. SEGA Genesis" for Big Poppa. One who spread love the Brooklyn way when he wasn't sipping champagne when he was thirsty before he fell years prior to the towers. Still you best believe if this man was still here there would be, "sold out seats to hear Biggie Small speak". You can see it in the yellow Bad Boy basketball jerseys that are still rocked like fictional Bel-Air High ones that "pass it to Will" in the same color. Or the love Brooklyn spread and paved his way down the streets of his funeral precision. When tears were replaced with cheers for the man who just wanted to keep dancing on that 'Party and Bulls###', as that classic catalyst joints producer Easy Mo Bee drove this Notorious thug down the belt of New York City late at night in harmony like Bone. 

'Ready To Die'? Nah this young gun was 'Ready To LIVE' like the t-shirt of his man Damion Butler in this film. The best friend of the Bad Boy for life who documented it all on a hand held camcorder like these moments golden should be immortalised so we can always hold them. All for some profound personal and private snapshots of this young man's short life...oh and on that note, it turns out Will Ferrell's Robert Goulet, he CAN croon. Now back to it. When it came to Biggie's dominant debut and absolute hip-hop classic he just wanted to show you how it really was. From "f### the world, my mom's and my girl", to the last dial tone of his fallen body and phone on the last shot of 'Suicidal Thoughts'. Quite possibly the deepest and darkest rap track of all-time when it comes to personal power. Hearing him formidable frame thudder like thunder off the chair still puts a cold chill down this die-hard fans spine. Netflix cross their streams with everything these days from shows series in season, to Oscar contenders. But to their credit they don't tell Biggie's story with a view to make money off his passing, but to document a true tale off his passion. It's not all about the Benjamin's this time as all his albums play back-to-back from CD changers to Spotify playlists. You don't have to make this a movie. The rap Godfather who looked older and game wiser than his less than a quarter century time in his iconic presence lived his life like one in a Bond villain bowler hat. Shooting like 'Scarface' in the mansion with his little friends, to the red dots on your head that served as a 'Warning'. And like they say with P. Diddy by his side like Pacino and Coppola, or Scorsese and De Niro, this producing director and star power dynamic duo like Shaq and Kobe (can't wait for THAT Netflix documentary) was no act like Eric B and Rakim were no joke. Sean Combs offers inspired insight here without ab-lib, "take that, take that, take that" taking over the show. As does Christopher Wallace's mother Voletta. From laughing at who was going to take care of her son ("this guy called Puffy...Puffy"), to her moving memories that will leave as many dry eyes as Biggie's comedy punchlines ("I get more butt than ashtrays"). Wallace's wife, the legendary Faith Evans, family, friends and members of Junior M.A.F.I.A like Lil' Cease are also on hand. But milk cartons are out for luminaries like The LOX and the relationship with Lil' Kim. This disappoints a little for the over an hour and a half documentary that also glosses over the beef with the late GOAT Tupac Shakur a little too much (but we all know why that is) and the still unsolved double murder investigation. Still seeing these two rapping together as friends will live in the love of our memories longer than the pain of what lead to their passing and to this stories credit it doesn't try to make excuses, hits or money off including 2Pac's name. The same goes for the Notorious protege you may know about. He goes by the name Jay-Z and is just seen here in a classic, throwback photo you'll love like the dough, "gassed off Shaq". They used to say who is the best rapper Jay-Z or Nas, like they did Big and Pac', but this film isn't about the life of hip-hop. It's a story about one of its greatest rappers, dead or alive's lives. This is Notorious' to tell and it doesn't get much bigger than this. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Notorious', 'Biggie & Tupac', 'The Two Killings Of Sam Cooke'.