REVIEW: DMX - EXODUS

 

4/5

...And Then There Was Exodus.

The Grand Champ is here! Posthumously for a fitting finale. Get it on the floor one more time...because X is gonna give it to ya. Where the hood at? This will make you lose your mind. Up in here we live in a society were we don't let the dead rest for long. It was mere moments after the great purple reign of Prince ended that they were at it. Breaking into his vault of unreleased gems. But now seems as fitting a time as any to release the 'Exodus' that the late, great DMX was working on. X left us last month and a legacy of powerful hard more hip-hop that is passion personified for all the heads that nod to his one mic, vest and chain. The kind that could never keep this dog on a leash. Whose bark had real bite. Sure, when you think of Russell Simmons rap empire of Def Jam, you think of LL Cool J. "Ask Russell who built The West Wing" Todd Smith beautifully boasts on 'The DEFinition' of the Timbaland to old-school throwback 'Feel The Beat'. But X took those same towers that LL built and crashed through the ceilings. Keeping the light on, putting them on his shoulders when he released two multi-platinum classics ('It's Dark and Hell is Hot' and 'Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood') to debut in THE SAME YEAR! Taking them even skyscraper higher. Truly rocking the bells. Rocafella Jay-Z may have made Glastonbury his Oasis, but what rapper do you know "STOP, DROP" rocked Woodstock like everytime Snoopy's kennel was hit by a Charlie Brown fly ball, quite like D? Run-D.M.C. May have rocked with the acid twins of Aerosmith as they walked this way, but DMX once rapped with Limp Bizkit ("bark that s###"), not to mention Ozzy Osborne AND the late, great ODB...on a 'South Park' song for a 'Chef Aid' soundtrack. Competition...there ain't nowhere to run. '...And Then There Was X', 'The Great Depression', 'Grand Champ', 'Year Of The Dog...Again', 'Undisputed' and now the eight wonder of 'Exodus' tattooed on his neck like 1:7 above his silver chain as iconic as Michael Jordan's gold necklace. You can't mess with the Ruff Ryder's discography for his legendary legacy that has sold 74 million albums worldwide. Now how about some more? 

'That's My Dog' like the Swizz Beatz produced prolific opener that's classic D as X's canine growls serve as the beat. Nuanced and nostalgic right off D-Block, The LOX of Jadakiss, Styles P and the Silverback Gorilla, Sheek Louch (thanks for the Cameo's) take the first three 16's, before the dog takes the holy trinity with the last verse. "I ain't your father that shoulda stayed, too late, you shoulda prayed/You ain't know, motherf#####? I'm from the home of the brave/Where we played in the mountains 'cause we lived in the cave/When I came into the game, I crashed with a wave/I'm the best, it's somethin' that I'm takin' to the grave." DAMN! Cradle to the grave, he buried them all. Then the Black Republican's of Jay-Z and Nas reunite like success for the 'Bath Salts' of a former bubbling beef that now soothes in synchronised sound of three golden era greats forming a big-three like when King James went to Miami like Will Smith. "I'm the King of Zamunda, uh, King of the Summer/Come be my Kardashian, queen of the come up, uh/To be loved, Shakespearean/Experience to be us/Jumpin' off boats, hoppin' off another cliff (Woo!)/Every six months, I think I need a new bucket list (Oh!)," Jay raps like he never took all those years off and how we wish upon a star for a new Hov album. All before the Belly of Nas replies like a beast, "Ha, let's put success to the side/I'd still be this fly if I worked at Popeye's/That's a whole lotta spinach, whole game full of gimmicks/Make a fool out of yourself for a post on Akademiks/We are not the same, I am a alien/Hovering over your city, shutting down all the stadiums/Wiping out everything in my radius/Don't play with us, y'all ain't made enough." And then there's X, "Start applying the pressure, give a dog a bone/I'm taking half, it's just that simple/Or I can start poppin' n####s like pimples/I'ma let you call it, you ballin'/'Til you get hit with them hot things, now you're staggerin' and fallin'". It hasn't been this much Murda since Jay and D ruled with Ja. Now who let the 'Dogs Out' with a crack collaboration with another Carter, Lil' Wayne? Swizz Beatz that's who! Who right after 'Money, Money, Money' with more cash in Moneybagg Yo, brings Alicia Keys for a long awaited collabo in 'Hold Me Down'. The most beautiful track on this 'Exodus' for a Romeo who has finally come back in one piece to Queen Aaliyah.

U2 can get it too as Bono assists on the acoustic 'Skyscrapers' that takes this rappers range higher than the clouds as X marks the spot up there like a helicopter pad. "Reach for the sky", you'll find the best like X there. 'Hood Blues' is a classic posse cut storyteller from the man who used to work as many wonders like this as he did deals with the devil ('Damien') or powerful prayers to God for a man who was 'Ready To Meet Him' from the Far East string beginnings of the King of New York from Yonkers. The first Def Jam from the 'Grand Champ' since 2003 sounds like classic Simmons. How's it going down? Well, how about dog for dog as the Snoop Dogg bone sharing 'Take Control' samples Motown's very own Marvin Gaye for some real hood 'Sexual Healing'. When you get that feeling, I can tell you this is the cut that will take control when you need some lovin'. Wake up, wake up, wake up. Get up, get up, get up. 'Walking In The Rain' with Nas talking about Denzel Washington playing him in a movie with CG is the Def pairs real 'Belly' reunion and the best walk on water since Earl told you he was 'Slippin'' as he gets up here ("Look here, I grew up with the thing, hard living/Found out the source of the pain God givin'/He left me with no shelter in the rain/But I learned to stay dry, so it wasn't in vain/Every time you go through somethin', there's somethin' to gain/And you only truly suffer if you remain the same (Come on).") . That is until in his exit he writes a 'Letter To My Son' with Usher ("I can't give you yesterday, but I can learn from my mistakes") and Brian King Joseph and then puts his hand together for one, last storied 'Prayer' that will move even more than a Kanye West Sunday service. In the name of Jesus, "may we be heard and understood, from the suburbs to the good." Amen. Here's to a hip hop founding father. Devoting, "Dear son, I look in your eyes, I see my own/You look in my eyes, you see my throne/As many times I tried to talk to you, explain to you/See it didn't mean a thing to you/Love you, but right now I wanna bite you/I wanna give you a hug, but I might bite you/Be a man about it, we can admit when we're wrong," with powerful poignancy. And for anyone going through it with their old man, or youngest...pick up the phone. Because you never know. It all seems like not that long ago. Memories of Shaq, the late, great, still can't believe he's gone too, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers jumping around and singing "y'all gon' make me lose my mind" to DMX's 'Party Up' anthem, raining champagne in the Philly locker room after winning the 2001 Finals. College years. I was insecure. Laced with anxiety. Didn't know my place. Then my best man George Garner introduced me to rap whose rhythm I owe my writing career to. It lit a fire under me. He did. He wouldn't let me leave the record store without buying DMX's albums. Purpose. Rest peacefully Earl Simmons. The passion of hip-hop. The soundtrack to our coming of age. The true definition of someone who kept it real. A street poet who honoured God in his work. Thank you for the memories. Here's to one last one. A classic cover of black and white album artwork, this is the perfect portrait. Named after and just like his son or the interlude of beautiful family memories, Earl Simmons' Exodus forever is a father's legacy left in his wake. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'That's My Dog (Feat. The LOX and Swizz Beatz)' , 'Bath Salts (Feat. Jay-Z and Nas)', 'Hold Me Down (Feat. Alicia Keys)'. 

REVIEW: COUNTING CROWS - BUTTER MIRACLE SUITE ONE EP

4/5

Buttersweet.

BTS, the South Korean pop goliath have just released their second all English language single to follow-up their explosive 'Dynamite' Summer smash. And with lyrics like, "Oh, when I look in the mirror/I'll melt your heart into two/I got that superstar glow so (Ooh)/Do the boogie like", 'Butter' is set to spread across airwaves until they burrow back in the studio before we hear their next earworm. But mellow yellow is this the Summer of Butter like Esquire magazine called it? Because on the exact same day the K Pop giants broke YouTube premiere records again with their release, one of America's most storied drive-time bands of that golden era of the 90's have come back with their first new material in seven years. Even if it all seems like yesterday like The Beatles. Just look at the album artwork. Something that BTS themselves would be proud of. A woman drenched in yellow lying seductively next to a spread. Knife in hand, ready to cut through your heart like you know what. Buttercups that you used to playfully tickle under your friends chin as children behind her with yellow wax candles set to melt everything like leaving the dairy product out of the fridge over night that the delightfully offbeat Jeff Goldblum talked about mid-song on his own jazz suite album. Oh yeah and her face...no her whole head, a crispy piece of toast smothered in the dairy product just the way I like it as I butter myself into an early grave. Not for the cholestral faint of hearted, the Counting Crows are back with their new EP, 'Butter Miracle Suite One'.

Mr. Jones, ever since their seven million selling, 1993 debuting classic this Berkley band have been an American institution like 'August and Everything After'. Think Billy Joel meets Dave Matthews Band at the side of the road, or stage. Tuning their cars, guitars, or pianos. Adam Duritz may have chopped off those iconic dreads, looking like 'Man vs Food', but this butter on butter artery violence is good enough to go up against the biggest group in the world, even if this four-track after 2014's rabbit hole return of 'Somewhere Under Wonderland' is only an extended play and not a full album. No matter. The California classic act that once took a Joni 'Big Yellow Taxi' with Vanessa Carlton when she was so huge she could play piano in the middle of the road like Björk's 'Big Time Sensuality' and everyone would just stop and stare have plenty of platinum plaques for all of that. The rocking, 'Recovering The Satellites'. 'This Deser Life' and the 'Colorblind' look through the Hollywood looking glass into the 'Cruel Intentions' sexy soundtrack of lust and love. The 'Hard Candy' tin of Taxi and collaborations with 'American Girls' of the country like Sheryl Crow. The 'Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings' of a band coming to terms with their time from the party to the preacher. And who could forget the 'Underwater Sunshine' of 'What We Did On Our Summer Vacation'? It's been a long time since the 'Accidently In Love' Shrek 2 nominated band have been round here. "Counting crows feet" like a classic 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee' Meets 'Between Two Ferns' Zach Galifianakis joke about Jerry Seinfeld. But "stepping out the front door like a ghost in a fog" it's so good to have them back where they belong in song. 

Grammy family members can really be counted on and stone the crows if this EP won't spread into a formidable full-length by the fall. They once told screamed at you in the 'Jurassic Park' sequel starring Goldblum, 'The Lost World' to not go into 'The Tall Grass'. But that was because of Raptors, not these reeds. Springsteen storytelling with lyrics like, "Oh, she takes a train to Paris/For a weekend with a friend/They take you places/Trains and summers/At 200 miles an hour/That you’ve never been/Did I ever say/The way your breath/Takes mine away" that feel as good as a Bordeaux on the streets of Pairs, flowing like the Seine behind. Taking us higher than the moon on 'Elevator Boots' Duritz is back in his groove singing, "Bobby was a kid from round the town/Kicks pumped up and head held down/Underwater more than he was up/He dreamed submarines in bottle green/Imaginary flight machines/But in blue jean flares he bubbled like a 7up", like a young sprite. But it's the 'Angel Of 14th Street' that really hits in New York City like Amy and the atmosphere. Count this as a crows classic. All before the fall of the 'Butter Suite' closer (for now) 'Bobby and the Rat-Kings', stalking the subways like a pack of Dino's and ole blue eyes. "I saw Dorothy in drag/Taking the Tin Man for a ride/And then Z the Cat said she knew where to go/Then she kissed me without a thought/And said “Sometimes memories are all that we got/So come on boy, let’s make some at the show”, the song sings as this group reunites for the memories they left and the new ones they give us. And how suite this one is. The Counting Crows are back. It's a miracle and we're all butter off. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'The Tall Grass', 'Elevator Boots', 'Angel Of 14th Street'. 

REVIEW: THE BLACK KEYS - DELTA KREAM

4/5

American Kream.

Roll with Stones, Leon Kings and Stripes of White all you like, but rock and roll just aint the same without songs in The Black Keys of life. In the same day we get new releases from the seventies soul of a new St. Vincent ('Daddy's Home') and rapping baller J. Cole on fire like the hoop ('The Off-Season'), we can't forget about Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. These 'Brothers' like an 'Everlasting Light' gleam again. The duo from Akron, Ohio like a Hollywood King hop back in an album vehicle like an 'El Camino' and pull into the 'Delta Kream' surrounded always by Coca Cola for this road stop and your ultimate highway music to hit the road to Jack. The garage rock blues brothers give us an album of hill country covers that still sounds as fresh as one of their own original sets. Recorded in about 10 hours in a Nashville stereo like Dolly or the Man In Black. That's as real and raw as it gets is straight cash like breaking a twenty. The Easy Eye Sound Studio is not hard on your hearing either. "Well, I'm a crawling king snake, babe/Crawl up on your door/Crawl up to your window, babe/Crawl up on your floor/I do anything I want to, babe/Crawl up on your door/Crawling king snake/And I'm going", Auerbach sings on the 'Crawling King Snake' of Big Joe Williams and John Lee Hooker lead. Honouring the Mississippi blues tradition...lets rock!

'Louise' is a beautiful ode, word to my sisters middle name. Whilst 'Poor Boy A Long Way From Home' by R. L. Burneside burns with a new urgency and this acts agency. "Babe, I can't stay here long/No, no, no/Poor boy, I’m a long way from home/Where the world can't do me no", The song sings with an aching urgency in this poetic time were everything comes back around. The blues hasn't sounded this somber in a long while...and I can't remember the last time we needed it quite like this. As this record plays into your lonely night, medicating it like whiskey for your love on the rocks, here comes the twist like the way she used to move. 'Delta's', 'Stay All Night' and its yearning darkening your door is the cream of 'Kream's' crop, changing up the register like cashing up. "Girl I love/Girl I need/To be your baby/Hold me tight", they sing like Junior Kimbrough as you "take off your clothes, and throw them in the corner". Motel music perfect for that one night you'll find company 'Going Down South' with another Burnside for this road stop on the trail. Revisiting the genre legends words, "I'm going with you, babe, I'm going with you, babe/Going with you, babe, I'm going with you, babe/Don't care where you go/Some other man, some other man/Some other man, some other man/He's always hanging around/I'd rather be dead, rather be dead/Rather be dead, I'd rather be dead/Six feet in the ground," in this outstanding ode and the American dream that woke up this type of sound in the bruised heartland. 

Right now like a John Mayer (speaking of guitar heroes) 'Continuum' (speaking of classics), the state of America is in repair, United under Biden's US with a Springsteen workman boot stamping out a red cap. It still need tinkering under the hood with some American muscle, but it's getting there like the end of the highway and the light in that roads tunnel to the dream you always loved growing up around the world with posters on your wall. And into their second decade The Black Keys are part of the real great American legend, as they honor another one far greater in any tradition to celebrate their twentieth anniversary in the game with their tenth album. Auerbach and Carney in this country and the music of this same name have the keys again after we almost faded to black for this 'Coal Black Mattie'. So let's roll with this tour across all the routes to your heart with these songs in everyone's back pocket. Tuned in as they 'Do The Romp' with another crawling Kimbrough rendition that's King like James. As a matter of fact the caboose of the album, aside from Big Joe Williams' 'Mellow Peaches' with Georgia on your mind like Willie Nelson plays all for Junior like the kids of proud parents. On 'Sad Days, Lonely Nights' the pair toast somber solidarity with lyrics like, "My mama told me/When I was a child/She said, "Son, gonna have hard days"/My daddy told me too/He said, "Son, gonna have sad days, lonely nights"/Sittin' alone, head hung down/Tears runnin' down/Sad days, lonely nights/Done overtaken me." But they won't let it pull them over as 'Walk With Me' takes us away and holds a thumb up in approval to a set that shines without a broken taillight. It's the classic closer 'Come and Go With Me' that really tides you over however. Culminating in ravishing riffs that will encore the rest of your evening as day turns into the twilight of night, staring through the rearview of your windshield. Zoned out to, "Come on, come on, baby/Come on and go with me/I need lovin'/I need love so bad/It's a lowdown cryin' shame", and the music that shaped these Keys' sound as they picked up picks and sticks. This amazing albums artwork comes courtesy of Memphis, Tennesseean William Eggleston of an Oldsmobile Cutlass parked outside this shop in Tunica during the 1970's. Sadly, like all the best things in life, Delta Kream doesn't exist anymore. But thanks to The Black Keys Mississippi music like this, does. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Crawling Kingsnake', 'Louise', 'Come and Go With Me'. 

REVIEW: J. COLE - THE OFF-SEASON

4/5

The Courtside Story.

Lights on again please! It really is a Cole World now. Putting on for his home state of North Carolina in the 2019 NBA All Star Game in Charlotte, NC, his mid-game classic with no choruses was so good, there was no way he was letting Nas down now with this halftime show. It was so raw and real it even butter played toast, played close to Marvin Gaye's funkafied rendition of the National Anthem from the 1983 game for those who wanted sexual as well as spiritual healing. With a mane of dreads this young Simba was playing for the King and them and it's only got better for 'The Sideline Story' over the last two. 'The Come Up' complete for the 'Born Sinner' from 'Forest Hills Drive'. Mixtape to album everything else looking like a 'Warm Up' next to these 'Friday Night Lights'. Don't judge a book by its cover. Even with this iconic black coat 80's throwback that looks like something between a Weeknd concept, Michael Jackson and Madonna, 'Like A Prayer'. The basketball goal burning behind him like a religious icon for a man whose held more balls on his mixtape artwork than the New York Lottery or a Kardashian. Like a burning one on SLAM J. Cole even 'Dedicated To The Game' sits on a hoop throne for the cover of the latest issue of the basketball magazine he reaffirmed, "Jordan was like Jesus, SLAM was like the Bible". In a big-three, holy trinity with New York's new finest in Julius Randle and RJ Barrett and the ladies of this game in the WNBA champion Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm, Nneka Ogwumike, leader of the Los Angeles Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury's Skylar Diggins-Smith and 'White Mamba' GOAT Diana Taurasi. This cat can ball too. He's been signed by the Rwanda Patriots of the Africa League and this professional player about to change another game has even been endorsed by Puma like Kyle Kuzma with the Laker young star tweeting track-by-track with all spaces like how the downtown gunner spreads the floor. With so much ballin' Master P can only say "uhhhhhh", all that's left now is 'The Off-Season'.

But you know that's when most of the blockbusters and real games happen like 'A New Legacy' of 'Space Jam 2' and this guy, "can't leave the game yet, I feel like LeBron" like he raps on '1 0 0. m i l'. "Ja Morant, I'm" on my Grizzly" he dedicates on 'm y. l i f e'. F#####g around like Ice Cube on a good day and giving it up for the new Oscar passing triple-double king Russell Westbrook on 'a m a r i' ("kill a song, walk out the booth, do the Westbrook rock-a-baby") as he freaks everybody every way like MJ for more hoop head name drops for the rapper than Fabolous has throwback jerseys (and Jermaine Dupri tells us that guy even had Elden Campbell's). J even samples fellow rapper/hooper Dame D.O.L.L.A. AKA, Damian Lillard like a DJ Jazzy Jeff 'Practice' with Allen Iverson on the blazing 'p u n c h i n'. t h e. c l o c k.' It's Cole time now for a guy with cooler song titles than Maxwell and Music Soulchild puttogether. "Cole been going plat' since back when CD's was around" he raps on the '95. s o u t h' opener with a foreword from the pink don Cam'ron. The Rocafella Diplomat back with immunity like he was meant to star in the other game before he blew out his ankle. Rappers want to be ball players and ball players want to be rappers. But when it comes to Cole and Killa Cam, we all ball. All the way to the Bas 'h u n g e r. o n. t h e. h i l l s i d e' closer for the man who "walks through the flame like I'm Teflon". No wonder the rest of the game not in his lane ("I see through you like Tupac hologram") dreads the man who "has grey hairs already" in those Wyclef's. Oh and if that wasn't enough the man who once did it all with no features is complete with crunk ad-libs from Lil'Jon. "WHAT?!" YEAH! 

'A m a r i' is fresher than the days of Atari. Whilst 'm y. l i f e' with 21 Savage and Morray goes harder than your last day. Sampling Styles P and Pharoahe Monch as J raps, ""Spiralin' up, just like a rich n#### staircase (Spiral up)/No fly zone, please stay the f### out my airspace (Out my face)/N####s say things behind backs that they wouldn't dare say (Dare say)/Know it's on sight when I see you, I'm workin' at Squarespace/Yeah, top of the mornin', I know that you thought I was dormant/Woke up early from shots that were swarmin'/A block full of opps, now the cops in an orbit". 'a p p l y i n g. p r e s s u r e' for a man backing everyone else against the wall as he's never scared. Like he said on a Kanye West 'G.O.O.D. Friday', 'Lookin' For Trouble', "they say you are what you eat and I still ain't pussy" (still my favourite line). "When I defeated believe I get up' he says keeping it 100 on 'm i l' with Bas for year Beats bass. Thankful he made it past his 30's (I feel ya...who am I kiddin? That was a half decade ago) on 'p r i d e. i s. t h e. d e v i l'  Cole LeBron and AD's with Lil Baby. Before reuniting with Bas and 6lack with 'l e t. g o. m y. h a n d'. His most personal on this set and maybe to date as he relates, ""I'm wonderin' just when did I become my biggest critic?/I wanna be my biggest fan, like how I was when didn't nobody know my jams/Today my son said, "Dad, let go my hand"/Reminded me one day he's gonna be his own man/And my job is to make sure he's equipped". This hell of a life a trip when, "My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would've thought it?/I bought that n### album in seventh grade and played it so much/You would've thought my favorite rapper was Puff," (me too). Now it's J.C. like the almighty. Inspired 'i n t e r l u d e' s' and the like on 't h e. c l i m b. b a c k.' as the sample asks, "are you doing this work to facilitate growth? Or to become famous?" Now which is more important? Getting? Or letting go? Now that question keeps you 'c l o s e' like The Chosen One whose every bar is a scar, cross to bear, or chapter and verse, gift and curse. "Villmatic". Now Nas can't let him down. It's funny end-to-end how quickly the game changes back and forth. Right now when it comes to Cole they're "labelling him the GOAT". Only Kendrick comes close. I'm sorry Drake. If you're reading this. You know, "too late". Roc Nation and Frankfurt, German's (aufstehen) own shows no sign of slipping like a DMX classic (rest peacefully), even in 'The Fall Off Era'. Over a half-hour of halftime motivating power, the (un)official soundtrack to the forthcoming NBA Playoffs and contender of the album of the year won't come down like, "game...blouses". This J is up in the big leagues now. We can't wait for the tip-off. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: '95. s o u t h', 'a m a r i', 'p u n c h i n'. t h e. c l o c k'. 

REVIEW: ST. VINCENT - DADDY'S HOME

4/5

Annie's Home.

HMV, 2017. I have a confession to make. Listening to Annie Clark, AKA St. Vincent's 2017 classic 'MASSEDUCTION' over and over on the companies stereo until we realized it was too blue for the Joni Mitchell crowd (we ain't saying anything is wrong with that) and had to take it off our daily, regular rotation (imagine serving an elderly lady whilst listening to the lyrics to 'Young Lover', "I miss the taste of your tongue" play). It's the only album Clark that's darkened my door. Even if I even garden to it like Bill Murray singing along to Bob Dylan's 'Shelter From The Storm' hosing down his flags for another perfect Bill moment at the end of the movie...'St. Vincent'. I know 2007's 'Marry Me' debut, the stunning sophomore 'Actor', 2011's 'Strange Mercy', the 'Love This Giant' duet album with David Byrne and the eponymous throne-taker are all definitive discs. I just haven't got round to them yet (hey, this is a guy born just outside of Liverpool who didn't get The Beatles until he was 25 (I know right). Now a decade later they're in everything I do), I've just been stuck with this mass seduction. Even the stripped down and naked, back to ivory skin basics of the piano perfect 'MassEducation' schooling a year later couldn't bring me back (although I regret not immersing myself in these acoustics like I regretted the night this hoops head was in New York and chose a Knick game over Annie performing on the other side of Broadway across the bridge in Brooklyn. Really...the Knicks (although we can't say that much longer. Isn't that right Julius Randle?)). The point is I'll get round to those classics soon, saving each one for their own time, that will be like discovering a new book, or movie to my patient pleasure. I even listened to the 'MASSEDUCTION' that made its way to me buying Spotify premium to cure my addiction once His Masters Voice weened me off it this morning one more time before daddy came home for the new album from Clark and her first original one in almost five years (WAIT...WHAT?!). Proving just how fresh her last 'Los Ageless' album was. From the 'Pills' popped with the vocal assist from Cara Delevingne. The beautiful ode to 'Happy Birthday Johnny'. The sexual 'Savior' that whispered dominating tones over a local seaside town stores clientele. My latest favourite 'Fear The Future'. And the epic conclusion that feels like a trilogy of 'Dancing With A Ghost', 'Slow Disco' and 'Smoking Section' for an album that still hangs on me like the regret when I walk the streets with the soundtrack playing to 'New York'. Let's hear it.

Now 'Daddy's Home' for the new album that will father my speakers for decades to come and it has nothing to do with that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg movie, or even the 'Savior' of a "teachers little denim skirt for your seduction education that "ruler and desk" will "make it hurt." Although this seventies soul is always sexy. The Jack Antonoff assisted album is inspired in turn by both Annie's fathers release from prison in 2019 and the Soho New York City scene and sound of the first half of the 1970's. And like a lightning bolt to the face, Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie would be proud of the closest musical hero to him, even if just for one night. And I'm saying this with just over one album heard. In this Electric Lady studios after Nina Kravitz rewired 'Masseduction' you 'Pay Your Way In Pain' these days and this lead single smarts in all its profound punctuation. The new look, bobbed blonde dropping the latest bombshell to her amazing aesthetic. "Stand up/sit down/hands up/break down" as Elton John at the Troubadour piano comes into play with a music video that takes it back to Kate Bush dancing around Top Of The Pops like 'Running Up That Hill' to 'Wuthering Heights'. Until "last nights heels on the morning train" take you a long way back 'Down And Out Dowtown' on the soundtrack to storytelling at its finest from this anti femme fatale stereotype that is as killer as walking previous "unwelcome" at the park pointed heels all over you like Sinatra boots. That's Nancy...to be Frank. Digging the crates of the "basement of her past" for her best record off her most atmospheric album to date, for the record.

Hands to the glass, "I send autographs in the visitation room" she sings on 'Daddy's Home' title-track in her register signature. Talking about how they both did time over seventies screams and scenes from a prison drama that locked down is all too real for this artist who is now free...just like the person she's always wanted to be. She's already paid her dues. So it's time to platinum pay her back on her most personal passion project yet that's the gold. She takes you away in the slow burning fever of 'Live In The Dream'. "Hello, do you know where you are", she asks the world in a haze with this beautiful midnight malaise. "There's a lot of people here who want to do you harm/stay with me fallen lamb and I'll keep you in my arms". Its lucky she found us when she did like the mothers milk of a mothers love to the bone. Even the "monsters gone" of Lennon's legendary loving 'Beautiful Boy' would be in awe of this daddy here. Whilst 'The Melting Of The Sun' will take the rest of you away in the atmosphere of a musical trip that soothes like radiant light, instead of burning acid in this toxic world of trolls and "hot takes". Those 'Humming' interludes harmonise with this too, before Annie Clark calls 9-11 ("what's your emergency") on 'The Laughing Man'. "If life's a joke, then I'm dying laughing" she vows on this beautiful, burning ode to a desire for the higher. "You hit me one time/imagine my surprise/when you hit me two times/you got yourself a fight" she counters from her corner on "I'll take you", 'Down', never proving out and reestablishing the head of the household position on a new equal standing. On 'Somebody Like Me' she proves there is no one like her. Whilst kids WON'T be made on 'My Baby Wants A Baby' which shows the other side of the fire of desire and our agency of choice on the best sounding track of the set. "But I want to play guitar all day (please do. How about that riff?)/make all my meals in microwaves (I hear ya Anne)". So DING! Just dance '...At The Holiday Party' as the trumpets play. Because this one cuts a rug to the past that the 'Chemtrails Over The Country Club' could only dream of. And we mean this as no diss to Lana Del Rey. We're not taking shots at one of the greatest of this generation. It's just Vincent is a legend on a whole other level with each album being another beautiful chapter of her career in classic concept, as definitively different and sensationally separate from the past that she hallmarks in this call back. "You can't hide from me" she warns over and over again to close before the last lick of the sugary sweet 'Candy Darling' to finally get your teeth into. Biting back, back home in the seduced charts of the mass hearts, this is more than the Daddy. This is Annie. All hail the Queen of saints. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Down And Out Downtown', 'Live In The Dream', 'My Baby Wants A Baby'. 

REVIEW: WEEZER - VAN WEEZER

4/5

AC/WZ

All hail like Halen. Weezer drop albums like coins in the couch...and they're all money like Michael Jordan taking off from the free-throw line, but this time with a V like jump for the man, complete with a guitar instead of Spalding for this axe strike. Because this is 'Van Weezer' for all the Van Halen fans who miss stadium rock like Bon Jovi misses hair spray. Rivers Cuomo and his collective release more albums than The Beatles around 1969 ('The White Album', 'Yellow Submarine', 'Abbey Road' and 'Let It Be'...DAMN! They could have called it a career right then...and they did), or when DMX (rest peacefully) started his career in 1998 with two albums for Def Jam ('It's Dark and Hell is Hot' and 'Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood') that helped keep the towers than LL Cool J built from being rocked like the bells. Only Nelly releases more albums (remember the 'Sweat'/'Suit' on the same day that was really hot in heeere?). Now the Los Angeles, California band since 1992 are already back this May like a Timberlake meme, in sync with the ipod and CD crowd with another album. After already beginning the year with the pet sounds of The Beach Boys inspired orchestra of 'OK Human' that was real radio for your head like 'OK Computer'. Now the power pop of this hard rock straight out the van of a tour bus comes at a time were we wish we could gig again together in concert. Crowd surfing like these boys do off Venice Beach when they're not in the studio growing their discography like Rivers' moustache and mullet. This riff and hard chord change from the electropop darlings is a love set-list to the likes of Black Sabbath, Metallica and of course Van Halen with a made up Kiss. Rocking in the USA they wish could be a free world again like Neil Young with this crazy horse power.

Postponed in the past until we can all get close enough to stage dive without looking like Jack Black at a 'School Of Rock' social distance, 'Van Weezer' is finally here. Even if live shows aren't quite the ticket...just yet. Hopefully soon I'll be able to go Haim and go home during these hard times to see the Valley Girl, 'Women In Music' with my bestie like Este (what's up D!). Weezer still release studio albums at a wheezing pace, even if the last time they released two albums in the same year (or any album for that matter) was two years ago in 2019 before corona locked down everything in social, studio isolation. Staying safe at home behind the studio booth before 'Van Weezer' pulled up.  That's when 'The Black Album' and 'Teal Album' of classic Tears For Fears and Toto covers like blessing the rain down in 'Africa'  that they Rick rolled out were sewn together for the 'Buddy Holly' band that has more strands of colour albums ('Blue', 'Green', 'Red', 'White' and 'Pink...erton') than threads of sweaters or a Pink Floyd 'Dark Side' kaleidoscope (can't stop, won't stop and if they do I'll become a scientist and invent more colours just so they can bring out more albums). So much so this writer that lost his way a few years ago had to catch up in a 'Pacific Daydream' for these California dreamers. Even taking it back to the 'Maladroit' days of 'Pinkerton'...perfect for listening to an album to start every sunny day in Japan like their sophomore sets 'Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō' woodblock album artwork and Japanese references from Hiroshige. Here in the Marine and Walk, Santa Monica like area of my new home in Yokohama there's a sign that reads, "the same stars that shine down on Los Angeles shine down on Yokohama. From the sky, our cities would look much the same." Which makes Yoko like Ono the perfect place for this writer from just outside of Lennon's Liverpool to reunite with his love for the garage rock band from 'Raditude' to the 'Make Believe' Santa Monica dream. Here's to you 'Hurley'. 'Everything Will Be Alright In The End.'

There goes my 'Hero' like a Foo to start the proceeding and party that fights for our right to festival again. These boys are beasts as they rip roar back into our headphones stages, singing, "When I was a kid, I thought I'd save the world/Running 'round and chasing all the criminals/Swinging on a web, flying in the sky/Shooting lasers from my eyes/But now I know it never was my destiny/It's not my place in life, not who I'm meant to be/And I don't need the glory, I don't need the fame/And I don't wanna wear this cape". As even with all this cape fear, superhero fatigue, Spider-Man and Cyclops get their props. 'All The Good Ones' keeps it rocking for the nice guys who no longer finish last, until the first single, 'The End Of The Game' keeps playing like Atari. The alien video and 8-bit game make this saga complete for this bands fifteenth album as Rivers runs, "I was Mick and you were Marianne (Marianne) /You would harmonize when I felt bad (I felt bad)/But now you're gone". This one is not for the noobs. The midway point of this album gives us the 'Beginning Of The End' (interloping Billy Joel inspirations for 'The Longest Time') like when an 'Illmatic' Nas talked about 'Haltime' for this albums that's a half hour slice of rock heaven that will have you riffing, 'I Need Some Of That'. On the Ozzy Osbourne 'Blue Dream' this bat biting rock goes Sabbath hard like Tony Stark in a black tee screaming, "Everyone gets lei'd/When they get to the beach/I bet you really wish/You were here with me/I jumped off the deep end/Left it all ashore/What'd I have to lose?/I've been through this before" for the 'Everybody Wants Some' Cali' crowd. Before they go for '1 More Hit' like a Dodger with three more bases left to steal. 'Shelia Can Do It' they tell us after trying to make it with a home run hit that knocks it out the park. As Weezer sing for Sheila and your "watered down hearts", "She's shaving her legs and she's feeling alright/She's putting on jeans of the type that are tight/She's getting herself ready to take on the night". And these guys do like 'She Needs Me' too. All before they slow it down for a beautiful ballad at least for hard rock in the 'Precious Metal Girl'. As Cuomo couplet dedicates to his "faster pussycat" loving lyrics, "When the neon lights stop shining/I see you like a silver lining." It's the punctuating perfect classic closer to this precious concert cargo that shows this band can still Stevie sign, seal and deliver their signature even when pushing the envelope. We may be a long way away from a golden ticket to the factory of festive stage shows, but these heroes offer hope. Even without a tour bus, Weezer still have a truck load of hits like they do discs to deliver on the double. Load up the van. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Hero', 'The End Of The Game', 'Precious Metal Girl'. 

REVIEW: JULIA STONE - SIXTY SUMMERS

 

4/5

Queen Of The Stone Age.

This Summer, this sister is doing it for herself. 2010. Over a decade ago me and my good friend and former co-DJ at my hometown's hospital radio, John met three great Aussies, (hey Joel, Carli and Iain) on the London Eye. That Big Smoke landmark takes a minute to blink, so we chopped it up over where we were from and what we were doing. We ended up making plans for dinner and serving as tour guides. The three of them said they'd be in Manchester in a few days...more my neck of the woods. So we agreed to meet. "We're going to this concert of this brother and sister due from our way back Down Under. You should come." I asked who they were going to see. "Angus and Julia Stone". Sounds good...it was. A half decade later and like "Ron's in the kitchen making pizza" I'm in Santa Monica, in holiday in L.A. about to watch the Lakers after spending New Year in New York across the coast in Times Square as the ball dropped. A good friend of mine who I would later fall in love with is texting me after I wrote her name in the sand. "How's your day?" "What you up to?" Those questions that mean so much more when they're from someone who means that much more. I send her a photo of my iPod (yeah, I'm that old) that's playing a song we both love and have talked about, as it has particular relevance to where I am at the moment just off Venice Beach. Then she send me back a screenshot of her iPhone (she isn't old) and what she was listening to. And unless she fast forwarded to around 2 minutes and 41 seconds into the track (only I'm that sad), she was listening to exactly the same song at the exact same time in sync. 'Santa Monica Dream'. Now last year when I moved to Tokyo, Japan who would happen to be on vacation at the same time? No not the girl, but one of the three friends from back in the day. Ready to reminisce. Good times. Like the ones we've lost and the ones we miss. Goodbye my Santa Monica dream. 

Angus and Julia Stone have been through it all. That's what family is for. From Hollywood to writing songs named after 'Sylvester Stallone' that rock like Balboa up steps in Philly. They started their careers chapter with 'A Book Like This', before they were 'Down The Way' of Santa's and Monica's. Ending up collaborating with the legendary Rick Rubin for their 2014 self-titled, coming of time classic. Before the producer as prolific as his beard suggested the pair of siblings record their next album of Sly cuts (the 'Snow' fall) at Angus Stone's Byron Bay cottage. That was in 2017. But this isn't the first time the brother and sister act have done their own thing. Remember 'The Memory Machine' a decade ago when I met my friends? Sister and brother is forever. That sort of thing never really breaks up. You can expect another family affair very soon. Now following 2012's 'By The Horns' a Christmas EP ('Everything Is Christmas') and last years 'Twin' extended play (not to forget her most iconic and important track in the beautiful but critical 'Beds Are Burning' with this 'Song For Australia') comes the full length 'Sixty Summers' we've been waiting for this year out of quarantine. From Boy and Bear to The Jezabels and INXS to this, the best music really does come out of Australia. And 'Summers' is a classic from the opener and each track after in season that are so good you wish this album had sixty of them like its name. But a lucky 13 and an "ooh la, la" French version is all you need. Right from the opener 'Break' that breaks open new ground on fresh sound as Stone sings, "So I left and started dancing under the street light/And you saw me and I saw that you saw me And you were always one to wander 'round these places/With eyes for ears and ears for ideas."

Setting off this album with the sax of the self-titled track Julia tells us, "looking for the brightest star/In the back of your car/We just wanna make each other happy," and that kind of mid-nite hour mood in love permeates the whole album that gives us star standout after star standout. Like the Matt Berninger of The National assisted duet, 'We All Have'. As these two go it alone together Berninger simply says, "love is all we needed to be here for" in a time we need this heart like we need The Beatles. But it's the beat to beat style of 'Substance' that similar to fellow ruling Aussie Sia really shows you who this singer truly is in all her depth. Just like the hold on you the new classic 'Dance' will have cheek-to-cheek. Whether, "why don't we dance?/Only one thing left to do/You got that hold on me/I got that hold on you." Or the French lyrics, "Je ne dors plus jamais, je m'ennuie aussi/Mais je comptais sur nous pendant mes insomnies/Je cherche encore le sommeil pour te retrouver dans mes rêves/Dans ce bar" not lost in translation. On the trumpet throwback sounding declaration of 'Free' the celebration of coronation continues for your two-step. Until she asks 'Who', "who do you think you are, loving me like you do." But it's the 'Fire In Me' that burns bright like the monumental coliseum of album artwork that is animated on Spotify as Stone sings. 'Easy' is as good as a lazy Sunday with nothing to do but listen to good music like a Commodore. Whilst 'Queen' continues the anointment by royal decree. But 'Heron' is were this heroine really shines like gold with lyrics like, "you were only trying to fight it/Music that would call to me/When you'd fall for me/I could tell that you were frightened/Music that would always be/In your beauty." That undeniable, unmistakable voice on 'Unreal' is exactly that on the vocal beat. And then when she sings 'I Am No One' ("You drive me down your street/The trees are all breathing/You were teaching me there's something bigger than this/Now I'm leaving again I'm leaving you/Again") on the beautiful closer, she couldn't be more the opposite than the title of that terrific track. Now that's how you top off a third solo album that's the charm. So Grammy get ready like this record collaborating with the iconic talents of Annie Clark AKA, St. Vincent who also has a new release on the way ('Daddy's Home'). Not only is your first real candidate for album of the year here. But this one has the heat to be the soundtrack for more than 'Sixty Summers' straight. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Break', 'Unreal', 'Dance (French Version)'.