REVIEW: HARRY STYLES - HARRY'S HOUSE

4/5

The Stylistics.

New directions have been leading 1D singer Harry Styles to all sorts of places since his band of pop idols called it a hiatus. And now even though South Korean pop Goliath BTS have taken over One Direction's former Beatlemania like influence and then some, Styles has gone from idol to icon. First he stole the show and defied critics in Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' war epic that featured a battalion of leading men from the Bane of Tom Hardy to 'Peaky Blinders'' own Cillian Murphy. He also gave us a classic cameo in a Marvel movie, eternally ours for a universe of things to come in post-credits. Clicking his charismatic fingers as Thanos' brother?! Next up he will be directed by his partner, 'Booksmart' director Olivia Wilde in 'Don't Worry Darling'. Between the sheets with 'Black Widow' and 'Midsommar' Star Florence Pugh and a steamy, wild trailer that's already setting ablaze a previously broken Internet. When he was a teen I said this kid looked like he could play Jagger. Now do you believe like Chalamet as Dylan, like a Rolling Stone? But before this man truly come of age becomes a bonafide movie star, it's music that really matters to this artist who has been going in solo directions, one for all, like the rest of his band of brothers. Now following his 2017 self-titled debut (that had me and a bunch of fellow pushing 40 dudes working in HMV proclaiming that this album was "the s###" after reluctantly putting it on thinking it would be s###) and the 'Watermelon Sugar' of 2019's 'Fine Line', the 28 year old Harry Styles is back with 'Harry's House'. No not a Potter broom cupboard like CBBC under the stairs, but a mix of genres as eclectic as his closet. It's time to come out to this. Like he sings in closing on the closer 'Love Of My Life', "​Baby, you were the love of my life/Woah, maybe you don't know it's lost 'til you find it/It's not what I wanted, to leave you behind/Don't know where you'll land when you fly/But, ​baby, you were the love of my life." And on my life you're going to love this. 

Joni Mitchell, the legend who wrote the classic record 'Harry's House/Centerpiece' off her 1975 great 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns' (you can't find it on Spotify anymore. Why?! Because f### Joe Rogan! That's why!), tweeted that she loved the title of this upside down living room that looks for the light in synth and a Long Island love. But finger to chin, ponder on this. The album is actually named after Japanese legend Harumoi Hosono's also 70's album 'Hosono's House' that Harry rocked with after spending "a chunk in Japan" (me too, buddy). From the Real World of Box, Wiltshire to the Shangri-la Studios of Malibu, California. And somewhere between Hollywood's Henson and an Angelic London. And of course his sonic stage set like the sun in California's Coachella. This pop-funk coming a week after fellow British great Florence and the Machine went after Kendrick Lamar's 'Mr. Morale' with her big stepping 'Dance Fever'. That new classic featured two songs with the best new artist of the last decade Maggie Rogers. This one and the album of your coming summer features the best one of the decade before that. A man who gave us the album of last summer like a 'Last Train Home' song of the season and fall ballad version. John Mayer licks guitar on two tracks (the classic 'Cinema' (f#####g funky, you dig?) and the reverie of 'Daydreaming'). Big artist features in backing is the new thing en vogue like 'Free Your Mind' (because that's when "the rest will follow"). "Holdin' me back/Gravity's holdin' me back/I want you to hold out the palm of your hand/Why don't we leave it at that?" Styles sings on the lead single and it's dance number video of classic cherography that Sia would be proud of or fellow huge English star Ed Sheeran doing that wedding song request. But it's the 'Late Night Talking' second single that everyone is gossiping about like the tabloids his private life. "I've never been a fan of change/But I'd follow you to any place/If it's Hollywood or Bishopsgate, I'm coming too (Ooh)/", he laments to his love on a bubblegum beautiful ode. A love like a night that you just don't want to end. "Come on, Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!"

Our favourite Styles story, or any celebrity story for that matter (apart from the one were Tom Jones entered a Tom Jones lookalike competition in Wales and came third!) is when his car broke down and he knocked by a nearby house for help and to use their phone. The father at the door obliged and even offered him a very English cup of tea. Its not everyday you have an X factor like this come knocking. Turns out his daughter was a huge fan too. Because of course. But low and behold she was out. So Harry left a note amongst her One Direction posters and fan memorabilia that he was "devastated" that he missed her. He even fed her fish. Can you imagine. The elation and devastation. She won't be cleaning that tank out of years. Let alone the cuppa. But back home in the Hosono inspired 'Harry's House' it all begins with 'Music For A Sushi Restaurant', no matter how you slice it. Raw and uncut and ready for the disco like the ball that is. "Green eyes, fried rice, I could cook an egg on you/Late night, game time, coffee on the stove, yeah (Oh)/You're sweet ice cream, but you could use a flake or two/Blue bubblegum twisted 'round your tongue", Harry harmonizes like "ba, ba, ba" for the black sheep, in a different register for this outstanding opening roll call. Cooking yokes in a way only done before by Charlie Sheen in' Hot Shot'. But this part deux (or is that trois?) asks you how you like your eggs in the morning like Dean Martin. With the kiss of the sweet, refreshing taste of 'Grapejuice' and their blues, forget opening the fridge for some Sunny D...or that purple stuff. The subtle euphoria of the beautiful 'Daylight' won't have your cursing in this calm classic that will float through the coming season like hot air on the horizon. This 'Little Freak' like a Jezabel (word to Hayley Mary just keeps going. Blending the sexuality of Prince with beautiful broods in chorus, worthy of a queen. Now uptop the throne with a crown he's looking for his kingdom like James. 'Matilda' over amazing acoustics being the best dedication since Dahl. "So you tie-up you hair and smile like it's no big deal", he sings to the power of women that just rolls up its sleeves and gets the job done. And they still want to mock him, Kid Cudi and Lakers like Russell Westbrook for wearing a dress, when David Beckham did it way back in the day with a sarong. It ain't wrong. Trendsetters and pioneers. Why not? There's no shame in what women wear. This is their Met. And it's a gala. "Black and white film camera, yellow sunglasses/Ash tray, swimming pool/Hot wax, jump off the roof", he 'Keeps Driving' as he keeps singing, "Maple syrup, coffee/Pancakes for two/Hash brown, egg yolk/I will always love you", he keeps singing. Leaving the world and its troubles in the rearview. Before this pop redefinition takes it out of this world for 'Satellite'. Soon Styles is going to be your 'Boyfriends' favourite singer, girlfriend. Don't call it backwards. It's not so easy. Pop art at its Warhol most vibrant. Since epics like Elton. Or going Gaga. In the world of BTS army's and the three sisters of Haim playing their part for 'Women In Music', pop music has never sounded so golden age good. Reaching new depths by the side of the pool with a relaxed vibe. Feel at home yet? Now how's that for some house music? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Music For A Sushi Restaurant', 'Late Night Talking', 'Cinema (Feat. John Mayer)'. 

REVIEW: KENDRICK LAMAR - MR. MORALE & THE BIG STEPPERS

5/5

To Pimp A Pulitzer .

OJ Simpson spits on the new Kendrick Lamar track. "I said I do this for the culture", he claims. As Kanye West raps in kind, "friends bipolar, grab you by your pockets." And Jussie Smollett adds, "the streets got me f##### up, y'all can miss me." Right before Will Smith claps back, rapping, "In the land where hurt people hurt more people/F## callin' it culture." What the?! Now if you thought that's crazy. Wait! There's more. "Euphoria is glorified and made His", the late, great Laker legend and Basketball God, Kobe Bryant says. Before another Los Angeles lost icon Nipsey Hussle finishes by saying, "as I bleed through the speakers, feel my presence". And we really do. OK. This isn't the craziest posse cut in history. More like the lengths deep fake can go, in something that's really real though in what it's trying to say. Like the latest and last season of Donald Glover's and Hiro Murai's 'Atlanta', especially the episodes that veer from the main narrative, without the principal cast. This is 'The Heart Part 5' from Kendrick Lamar's great series. But it's just the most amazing appetiser to wet your beaks for the crack music that's about to come, fresh off a Future ('I Never Liked You'), Pusha T ('It's Almost Dry') and Black Star ('No Fear Of Time') for this great month in hip-hop. Let alone week in music (Florence + The Machine ('Dance Fever') and The Black Keys ('Dropout Boogie')). All this heart for this Marvin Gaye sweet soul sample and its not even on the actual album. No matter how much we want it like that album artwork (Ernie Barnes' 'Sugar Shack') painting that went for a cool 26 mill. Just like Marvin wanted you. 'Damn'. It seems like a Jay-Z lifetime since the 2017 release of Kendrick's last album. Or 'All The Stars' he curated for the movement of a Marvel 'Black Panther' soundtrack. But with Lamar's fifth LP following 'Section.80', the 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City' Dr. Dre breakout, the aftermath of the amazing 'To Pimp A Butterfly' and the aforementioned, 'Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers', he really stomps. Bringing it big. If K. Dot's last album 'Damn' won the Pulitzer, then this one should make sure the prize is molded in this God's own image. Full stop. 

A crown of thorns that adorns this amazing artwork of beautiful family and the Malcolm X lengths you would go to protect your home, under the belt is evoked in spirit in a sleeve as pure as the white tee or sheets that cover this loving bed. You know from that jump that this one was going to be a classic. Worthy of all the five stars. This double album with all eyes on him is his 'All Eyez On Me' and the hearts of men with his last bark for Top Dawg entertainment. What's next in the scope? Pulling the lever with Snoop Dogg for his new Death Row Records in a switch? Now that would be more than logo iconic, but symbolic in symphony too. Taking a 60 million bite in streams it's first day tells you whoever has him on deck next will own the core of music. This epic event album for a man who remained 'Humble' during this years Superbowl LVI halftime show for California love with Dre, Snoop, Eminem, 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige (not to mention Mr. Anderson . Paak on drums) is a true touchdown. Ever since the moment he made  fans day on Twitter by using his tweet to announce the release date drop (what character). A socially conscious, alternative hip-hop album of West Coast rap, jazz, psychedelia, soul, funk, blues and prog rock. For this jazz age look of parenthood, faith, love, romance and sexuality. All to the tune of Pharrell Neptune and The Alchemist production. Guest spots from everyone from Wu-Tang Clan swordsman Ghostface Killah and Beth Gibbons of Portishead. Not to mention a 'June' sample (on the utterly heartbreaking 'We Cry Together') if you want to talk about Florence and the Machine for this album that gives us fever. Whitney Alford and Eckhart Tolle providing nuanced narration to welcome us to the new soundtrack of these Los Angeles times. 

'United In Grief' encapsulates us all as it hold begins this modern look of America. All in an album that feels so 23 LeBron King in its innovation, all at the same time as sounding Magic like 32 in its throwback feel. "I’ve been goin’ through somethin’/One-thousand eight-hundred and fifty-five days/I’ve been goin’ through somethin’/Be afraid," he tells us from the jump. Straight to 'N95'. Unmasking the truth as he flies with cars in his video in black and white 'Alright'. "Take off the foo-foo, take off the clout chase, take off the Wi-Fi/Take off the money phone, take off the car loan, take off the flex and the white lies," he tells us in real talk. But keeping it 100. Keep on that N95. On 'Worldwide Steppers' he continues this walk. Before Blxst and Amanda Reifer's footsteps in the sand join him on a song that is 'Die Hard' like Bruce Willis (we will miss your acting, champ). There's a sixth sense of soul from Sampha on the 'Father Time' that will really take your daddy issues to task. And so much more to unpack if you "come from a generation of home invasions and I got daddy issues, that's on me/Everything them four walls had taught me, made habits bury deep." A 'Rich Spirit' with Kodak Black takes a sample of all that. The guest feature here uncredited, but appearing again under all of the lights, haunting the 'Silent Hill' of the second disc. The first one closing with the 'Purple Hearts' of this warrior, a Shaolin soldier and Summer Walker in this California soul that Prince reigns like that in Laker road colours. 'Count Me Out' does anything but that to begin Side B, before Kendrick takes the sort of 'Crown' that walks with Jesus. A king like the fever of Florence this week. But it's the 'Savior' with Baby Keem and Sam Dew and the interlude before that truly inspires. Showing you the human side of your heroes as he raps, "Kendrick made you think about it, but he is not your savior/Cole made you feel empowered, but he is not your savior/Future said, "Get a money counter," but he is not your savior/'Bron made you give his flowers, but he is not your savior/He is not your savior." Mr. Morale is full, big stepping effect. Like that part title track with Tanna Leone. But it's the 'Auntie Diaries' that really resonate in its transgender empathy and respect. "My auntie is a man now/I think I'm old enough to understand now." But if you thought that was fond for family wait until 'Mother I Sober' featuring Portishead's Gibbons. "All those women gave me superpowers, what I thought I lacked/I pray our children don't inherit me and feelings I attract/A conversation not bein' addressed in Black families/The devastation, hauntin' generations and humanity/They raped our mothers, then they raped our sisters/Then they made us watch, then made us rape each other/Psychotic torture between our lives we ain't recovered." There's your second Pulitzer there in all its raw poetry. All for the man standing in the 'Mirror' or reflection of a last and best album. "I choose me, I'm sorry", he says, having the last word. And why not like Laker Russell Westbrook? Over and over again like, "I realized, true love's not savin' face/But unconditional/When will you let me go?/I trust you’ll find independence/If not, then all is forgiven/Sorry I didn't save the world, my friend/I was too busy buildin' mine again." Now build yours. Off modern classics like this that underscore our lives. Music matters with men like this. Let's just hope he doesn't fade to the same black the Carter got. Thank Mr. Kendrick Lamar for stepping up our morale when we needed it the most. This is damn big. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'United In Grief', 'We Cry Together (Feat. Taylour Paige)', 'Auntie Diaries'. 

REVIEW: FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - DANCE FEVER

4/5

Dance Against The Machine.

Electric Lady studios, Greenwich Village, New York City, last Summer. The best artist to emerge over the last half-decade Maggie Rogers was downstairs on a 'Surrender' to record her new album and follow-up to her dynamic debut 'Heard It In A Past Life', due July. Upstairs was a legend she had already shared a stage with. Florence Welch and her machine that rages against the idea that we don't have any timeless Dylan like music today (Maggie too) in all their Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush power. Clearly hearing and loving what each other were working on the pair of red hot artists decided to trade backing vocals on each other projects. Cue to an earlier story spun by Jack White for Spin magazine. Now you know what it would have been like if you knocked on Mariah Carey's door that White Stripes recording session day, Jack. We can't wait to hear what Flo, the Rogers dubbed "sorceress sister" has in store for 'Surrender', on our most anticipated album of the year, let alone Summer. But on the 'Dance Fever' of something you do actually want to catch these days, Maggie Rogers lends her beautiful backing to two tracks. "I met the Devil/You know, he gave me a choice/A golden heart/Or a golden voice", Florence sings on 'Girls Against God', debuted at an intimate show in Newcastle. The new anthem for "crying into our cereal at mignight", as you know which choice she made. Whilst 'Dream Girl Evil' is an absolute standout. Even next to the already four singles. "Well, did I disappoint you?/Did mommy make you sad?/Do I just remind you/Of every girl that made you mad?/Make me perfect, make me your fantasy/You know I deserve it/Well, take it out on me," Welch asks. Hey girl, I don't mean to sound like Ryan Gosling, but this is the best Flo-ing collaboration since Lady Gaga for 'Joanne'. "Love you forever" the 'Alaska' singer tweets. You too Mag'.

The Queen is back after a long awaited four years with the follow up to the 2018 different time's 'High As Hope'. All in a big week with anticipated releases from Kendrick Lamar (the five star 'Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers', that's got next) and another one from The Black Keys ('Dropout Boogie') just 364 days after their 'Delta Kream'. And it's all crowned by the lead track and single, 'King'. A record that really takes the throne in thorns and branches of a natural regal presence, in all the nature of her beauty. "We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children/About the world ending and the scale of my ambition/And how much is art really worth/The very thing you're best at is the thing that hurts the most/But you need your rotten heart, your dazzling pain like diamond rings/You need to go to war to find material to sing/I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king." A "bloody sword to swing" and sing on this fifth and most personal album to date. Ceremonial from the lungs of this singer with a plus. How big. How blue. How so beautiful. 'Heaven Is Here' truly on the second single from the indie progressive pop powerhouse before the gates open on 'My Love'. Just an absolute classic ballad, straight forward on an album of epic experimental measures. But still as bold as Hendrix, singing, "I was always able to write my way out/The song always made sense to me/Now I find that when I look down/Every page is empty." Nah, this isn't writers block. Quite the opposite. But if it was. It never sounded so good. Just like the latest single 'Free' that sets us off and tells us, "I hear the music, I feel the beat/And for a moment, when I'm dancing, I am free/I hear the music, I feel the beat/And for a moment, when I'm dancing/I am free/I am free." And in turn, at last, so are we. 

Flowers for Florence in an album that takes us from the studio to the hospital, deep in her anguish and love. Our standout amongst all these singles and Rogers appearances is 'Daffodil'. As classic and beautiful as a Van Gogh sunflower in its single stroke of gesture. "English sun, she has come/To kiss my face and tell me I'm that chosen one/A generation soaked in grief/We're drying out and hanging on by the skin of our teeth/I never thought it would get this far/This somewhat drunken joke/Sometimes I see so much beauty/I don't think that I can cope." This is your tarot card of choice in a deck, songbook thick of lasting lyrics for a legacy of legend, belonging to the best like Bob and Bruce, brooding around Greenwich with the beat poets. This Polydor baroque record co-produced by Jack Antonoff, Kid Harpoon, Doveman, Dave Baley of Oxford's Glass Animals and Florence herself is right there with Bon Iver as the soundscape of our best inspirations today. As hallmark in its iconic stature as the Autumn de Wilde filmed album artwork and music videos from the great photographer and director. The 'Cheromania' (there's even a track about that) of dance explored in concept by the woman who once covered "sometimes I feel like, throwing my hands up in the air". Citing Iggy Pop, playing passenger as her main inspiration for this album, as we ride through the city of London tonight. Also invoking Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and movies like A24's 'Midsommar' (starring another Florence...Pugh) and 'The Wicker Man' that it burned with in the woods of inspiration. All for this industrial gothic disco that still a ball. After our dark ages, this middle inspired one is our euphoric return to the festival. 'Back In Town'. An ode an answer to your 'Prayer Factory', like 'Cassandra'. A muse that slams its palms against the glass, telling us, "I used to see the future and now I see nothin'/They cut out my eyes and sent me home packin'/To pace around the kitchen for scraps of inspiration/Cryin' like Cassandra, I/I used to tell the future, but they cut out my tongue/And left me doin' laundry to think on what I'd done/It wasn't me, it was the song. But liberation comes out the margins of this record. A moral panic to 'The Bomb', showing no 'Restriant' in harmony like the classic lyrics, "sometimes you get the good/sometimes you get a song" as more bodies hit the floor. Casualties of love and war. But as this classic comes to a curtain it's the 'Morning Elvis' that says, "thank you very much" and so much more after the beginnings of King. "When they dressed me and they put me on a plane to Memphis, well/I never got to see Elvis/I just sweated it out in a hotel room/But I think the king would have understood/Why I never made it to Graceland." Just like Springsteen storming the suede shoe steps to get the gates, like we all wish we could. But nothing will be returned to sender here. After almost four years of production, this Pre-Raphaelite album of tragic heroines gives us a victorious one, laying claim. As beautiful as a place in Italy. Best Florence since Nightingale. This gives us fever like Peggy Lee. Dance, dance, dance. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'King', 'Dream Girl Evil (Feat. Maggie Rogers)', 'Daffodil'. 

REVIEW: THE BLACK KEYS - DROPOUT BOOGIE

4/5

Black Star. 

Take it as red that Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are prolific in their production and would be if they worked their 'Dropout' album artwork jobs in exterminator and chef black and whites too. They're smokin'. All cigar. Auerbach already in the 'Chemtrails Over The Country Club', down the 'Blue Bannisters' of production for Lana Del Rey, whose brought out more albums in the pandemic than family photo ones when the one you're dating comes around to meet the parents. So guess who's coming to dinner again? All in the 'Wild Child' of a classic American diner for the States best look of modern blues in all their broods. Cutting more than a cheque please for the record in this road stop that comes exactly a year after The Black Keys pulled into 'Delta Kream'. Well 364 days to be exact, if you want to split hairs on this May day, new music Friday like NPR. This 'Dropout Boogie' over pink script, you usually see revolving above your plates reflection in neon, is a wonderland of the best of blues and a return to form for these songs in the Keys of rock life. A week after Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey's Black Star changed the streaming game with a podcast release. Auerbach and Carney don't take 24 years to return to their stage as star studded as a hell for leather jacket on the backseat of their ride. 'Kream' that paid tribute to an 1970's Mississippi stop was recorded in 10 hours over just two afternoons. This one began last summer, mere months after the 'Delta'. Bringing Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound and longtime friend Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top to the Easy Eye Sound studio of Nashville, Tennessee. A play like Williams that will have you dancing like a cat on a hit tin roof. Straight cash like the man in black. 

A Band Of Horses (whose latest album 'Things Are Great' really is that, making the best of the worst of times) in support will join this 'Dropout' tour for all you fans of college rock. But it's the Keys that are about to move you like Alicia. The lead single 'Wild Child' is just that crazy good, kids. Singing, "I'm just a stranger/With a twisted smile and a wandering eye/Your heart is in danger/Come close now, let me tell you a lie/Wild child/You got me runnin' through the turnstile/Baby girl, we better make it worthwhile/You're gonna get my love today-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-yeah." Sing along. It's the new American anthem for those too cool to slide out their booth. Put another dime in the jukebox and see how many times it takes before you get to steppin'. The second single even more stirring is actually the second track to boot. 'It Ain't Over' is a beautiful deceleration of subtle defiance. Even with a losing hand. Here's the gambit from Auerbach. "Money and love ain't no sure thing/You live for a thrill, you die for a dream/And when it comes around, you lay your money down/You got a love that's a real long shot/Breakin' the bank for your new weak spot/When she comes around, you lay your money down/No one else for you to blame/But when you play that losing game/It ain't over." It just keeps on rollin'. For better or worse. Just like 'For The Love Of Money' as these two for it, put even more stacks down. Just like they were betting on the Bucks. 'Your Team Is Looking Good' and in the fourth so is this dynamic duo's. All before they recruit a sharp dressed man with a hell of a beard for the Gibbons axe assisted 'Good Love'. Pointed like a pincushion as you face the facts. In three verses and no chorus. Straight like that with no chaser. "Good loving is so hard to find/Everybody wanna waste your time/Waste your time, yours and mine/A good love is hard to find/Good loving is so hard to feel/You got nothing till you find the real deal/Find the real, there it is/A good love is hard to feel/Don't you rush it, gotta take it slow/You can't listen to the friends you know/'Cause they don't know what you know/But good love is hard to know." Could you put it better any other way? That's love. 

The Black sound keyed in here will never fade to black as they become to stars and stripes what a Jack and Meg White or a Stroke of good blues is. 'How Long' have they been doing this? 11 straight albums as they give it to us like that as they 'Burn The Damn Thing Down'. All in the same week we get the hotly anticipated Kendrick Lamar album ('Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers') and a long awaited Florence and the Machine release that rages on the floor ('Dance Fever'). Let alone a magnificent month in what is almost already six months and a great year in music. You can't ignore this one as Auerbach says, "Way out over the ocean/Deep down under the sea/Way up high to the top of the mountain/And everywhere in between." Rolling day and night, even if they are tried and tested and fresh off another album only a calendar yesterday. But the US and us can never get enough of those good ole blues. This is the sort of 'Happiness' that comes with a hollowed track like this. Or a great to the genre in signature style like 'Baby I'm Coming Home'. Knocking at your door. Dan singing "I buy the things that make you smile/And send them with a kiss/The road is winding home/And only you know what I've really missed", to his sweet Sadie. 'Didn't I Love You?' He asks in 'Dropout's' fallout as Carney touches the skins. "You may not be believe me, baby/'Cause I didn't always treat you right/Might have deceived you, lady/Maybe I stayed out late at night." It's just these classic couplets of loving laments, sung by King's and those stuck in Muddy Waters that remind us that this is what the blues are all about. And back to Black this shade of blue for the red and white makes everything alright. Up jumps the 'Boogie'. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Wild Child', 'It Ain't Over', 'Good Love (Feat. Billy F. Gibbons)'. 

REVIEW: BLACK STAR - NO FEAR OF TIME

4/5

Fear Of A Black Star Planet.

Fear not, Luminary's. If you air on the Neil Young and Joni Mitchell anti-Spotify side now Joe Rogan and his podcast of misinformation sounds like he smokes rocks and not the 'Chappelle Show' Tyrone Biggums character that appeared on his 'Fear Factor' show (this is not the first time he's been told to taste you know what). 'No Fear Of Time' is here for you in a time were Tower Records are being torn down (except here in the CD crazed Japan) and streams are being crossed like 'Ghostbusters' from Amazon to Apple Music. There was a time back in university, were if you weren't a 'College Dropout' like Kanye, your album might be pushed back further than this writers hairline (credit to The Game for this original line on trailblazing Portland basketball legend Clyde 'The Glyde' Drexler). Release dates for albums in stores would be anticipated on high, but these days rappers from Kanye to Drake drop like the bird excrement the Notorious one spat about. But how about 24 years? That's how old I was when I first got into these hip-hop legends that have just changed the world in 24 hours. And that's how many years it's been since the last album from the great, 'Black Star'. An act so classic we want to say Bowie named his last iconic album after them (we can't verify that, but we can dream). Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (the artist formerly known as Mos) have released classic albums since then ('Reflection Eternal', 'Black On Both Sides', 'Eardrum', 'The New Danger' and so many more). Appeared on each others ('Supreme, Supreme' off Kweli's 'Beautiful Struggle'. 'History' off Def's 'The Ecstatic'). Given Mary J. Blige a truly 'Beautiful' remix. Reunited at Dave Chappelle's 'Block Party' like The Fugees (and even recorded a new 'Born and Raised' studio cut for the soundtrack). And even appeared in movies (Bey a bona-fide actor starring in many movies like '16 Blocks' alongside the great Bruce Willis we wish well in his retirement in from acting. What a hero). But now since 'Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star', this is the first time we look upon one since the great 1998.

Backpacks back on. Because the socially conscious legends that Kanye and even Jay-Z talked about in his 'Moment Of Clarity', breathe back out after holding in their 'Respiration' in Common for almost a quarter of a century. Even with the controversy that surrounds Kweli on social media, these two giants of the genre still have something to say. And, yes, we can't not address it and our concern for the situation between Talib and one of our favourite artists Res, who really made beautiful music together in this struggle. But we have talked recently on our brother blog 'Films For Fridays' from reviews about 'Fantastic Beasts' to 'Death On The Nile' that when we don't know the whole story it's hard to comment with any real clarity without looking like we're on some distancing, or virtue signalling s###. Plus denying a review of something when we try to cover everything we can because of one man, diminishes the hard work of others. We will just say this; bad, or even bullying behaviour should not have to be tolerated in any forms and should be dealt with in a way that is more than just another blogger sounding off on something he knows nothing about (let alone the fact that I'm hardly qualified to talk about this music thing). Let's all try and be better people. Learn from the many mistakes we make. Replace our anger to burn with understanding to learn and realise that even if we escape certain laws, rules or regulations. God sees everything. Everyone has a right to be safe. And everyone has the right to right their wrong. We wish we could put it a better way. But it sure looks like Kweli and Bey are trying to do that for music. Making this album a true exclusive and only available to those who subscribe to the Luminary podcast. A platform that also sees the pairs show with classic comedian Dave Chappelle. A man no stranger himself to recent controversy last year, although we really belive he was trying to make a more forgiving and unifying point with his humour (again, see, Harry Potter). But then that all came to a head and realisation of what's actually a joke and what's real abuse, when a fan went all Will Smith on him last week until Jamie Foxx stepped in with a sheriff's hat. 

Rick James energy like a Reflection Eternal interlude, what did the five fingers say to the review? Just talk about the music, bitch! So heeere we go. Because this thing more than slaps as the kids say today. It's a classic worthy of the original greats like the grand return of A Tribe Called Quest (2016's 'We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service'). Sounding so innovative and throwback at the same time like new Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang. So old and new, like the traditional and modern Tokyo (or 'Conrad Tokyo' as Q-Tip put it). A half-hour of all power, no filler. Produced entirely by the music maestro Madlib. Now a frequent Kwe' collaborator on the boards like production partner 9th Wonder (racing around on the 'Indie 500' album), or the eternal Hi-Tek ('zilla) on Reflection. After their 2007 'Liberation' they briefly released for free (already ahead of the game before this podcast game changer) on MySpace of all social media outlets. Feel old yet? Because 'No Fear' will stand the test of time as these two 'o.G.'s trade bars. "Joy and pain, coin of the realm, both sides, racks/Such powerful current could make tears touch the eyes, facts/Grace for every morning, God opened up mine and thine, Alhamdulillah/We all on notice that any next moment could be the last time/You stand on this side, slow down, son, you're killing 'em/But only the phony because the real don't die, on God." To Talib stating his case, "I'm making it plain, I talk to 'em/Dissecting all the doors of perception, I walk through 'em/They think I'm arguing, I'm not talking to 'em, I talk through 'em/Way too many garbage humans, they sewage." All as Yasiin brings his beautiful singing back for the chorus. "I want to thank you for helping me reach the understanding/That time is relative 'cause the truth is everlasting," he repeats, as you put this one on the same. And this whole nine-track wonder plays the same, 'So Be It'. In a symphony of syncopated sound like 'Sweetheart, Sweethard, Sweetodd', one of the best things heard in years ("One said I'm too noble for simple love/Said the other, "Have you ever been noble enough?"/But, never mind, clever fool, I love you still"). Dimes over jewels. Raw lyrics over beats just as fresh. Ooh baby, ODB would have loved this. Popping shot like 'My Favorite Band'. Rocking over riffs and affirmations like 'The Main Thing Is To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing'. Exactly. All the way to 'No Fear Of Time's' classic album title-track closer, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey have changed the mainstream without being industry in these streams. This Black Star still beautiful with a new North. On 'Yonders' it's 'Supreme Alchemy' for your 'Supreme, Supreme'. Like they say with Bey, getting free on 'Freequency' with The Roots of Black Thought, "Bismillah/Reversing the misfortune by moving forward/Every direction is determined by intention/Life is a school for all of us without exception/24/7, seminars are in session, ha/Some serious studious, some class clowns/The reality like gravity shut that ass down/They laugh now then cry later and longer, ha/They told me ain't nothing growing without some water." Both real rappers and their guest's book of rhymes here is encyclopedia thick (f### a phone book). And why not? We've waited a long time for this story to be told on in the new American songbook. One that makes this genre as poetic for the people as Dylan. A Kobe or Kiefer number in years later. Black Star still shining. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'o.G', 'Sweetheart, Sweethard, Sweetodd', 'Freequency (Feat. Black Thought)'. 

REVIEW: ARCADE FIRE - WE

4/5

The Fire WE Make.

Pandemics, war and so much more. It's the end of the world as R.E.M. knew it, but somehow we feel fine. At least sometimes. Some of that has to do with some of our favourite bands coming together and releasing tried and tested albums to tide us over through our trials and tribulations. See most recently, the Red Hot Chili Peppers ('Unlimited Love'), Band Of Horses ('Things Are Great') and The Lumineers ('Brightside'). No matter how many members leave or come back like John Frusciante. Even the fire of a classic Canadian band playing arcade games again after last year's original score 'Her' (the classic 'Lost In Translation' Spike Jonze response movie starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson). For their first full length studio album since 2017's 'Everything Now', Arcade Fire are saying 'WE', not me in this solidarity time of self were we all need to come together like John and Paul. Despite the departure of Will Butler (this is his last LP for the record) from this band of brothers. On the run, Win, his wife Régine Chassagne and the extended family of Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara are still searching for victory in a time were we need to count our blessings as much as remember our losses. The indie outfit of alt, baroque pop giving a new testament to their 'Neon Bible' of a Bowie Stardust and LCD Soundsystem style as we put our hands together. This sixth studio album from Colombia records comes at a time were our palms are reaching out for it. Making its recording rounds in New Orleans, El Paso, Texas and Mount Desert Island in Maine. As when it comes to leaving America, the Canadian Butler just can't do it.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's Russian dystopia novel is the name behind 'WE' in all-caps for this statement sound. Whilst the arcade of the two lead singles light a fire under you. 'The Lightning I, II' strikes you as a big record in all its parts. "Fourth place anthem playing tonight, on a broken radio/I thought we reached the mountaintop, but now, we just feel so low/The sky is breaking open, we keep hoping, in the distance we'll see a glow/Lightning, light our way ’til the black sky turns back to indigo", Win sings before our ears...and eyes, like the pupil of this poignant album artwork, shot by French artist JR, with Terry Pastor airbrushing for the pastels. But it's the 'Unconditional I' first part telling you to 'Lookout Kid' that really feels like a weary, but warning anthem for the times we're living in together. All the way to the "do-do-do-do's", singing, "Lookout kid, trust your mind/But you can't trust it everytime/You know it plays tricks on you/And it don't give a damn if you are happy or you're sad/But if you've lost it, don't feel bad/'Cause it's alright to be sad." Truth be told. Truth be told.  All before the Genesis of Peter Gabriel comes in like a sledgehammer for the second act of 'Race and Religion' on a ten track album of basically five songs in a couple of parts and a prelude. It's almost biblical in its proportion. The message in this music having high magnitude in this 'Age Of Anxiety' we are truly living in. But like the outstanding opening of the same name and the title track classic curtain conclusion, 'WE' for the people is set to calm the stormy seas in your mind like the 45 minute instrumental 'Memories of the Age of Anxiety' piece that was promoted on the meditation app Headspace.

Through the looking glass like Alice in this wonderland the 'Rabbit Hole' takes you further. Don't unsubscribe like the signage seen around London. These gentle folks moving in meditative lullabies "missed you". Now it's time to groove to this dance-pop in a gentle shift. "Heaven is so cold/I don't wanna go/Father in heaven's sleeping/Somebody delete me/Hardy har-har", Butler tells us as he rabbits. Laughing like the Mad Hatter in an America he once told us has lost its ability to take a joke in this sense of wonder (see; Smith, Will and so many more grey areas to all this). We really do live in a time to fear being alive. Especially when knock, knock knockin' on heaven's door can wait. As we're not sure what lies beyond eternity's gate. The punctuation of a 30 second 'Prelude' on this 40 minute, top ten album especially profound in its power, before the 'End Of The Empire' parts I to IV strikes back like a star war. In the galaxy of this epic calm of a big record that was originally meant to be recorded in Texas during the election. 'Last Dance', 'Last Round', 'Leave The Light On' and 'Sagittarius A*' grading the curve of these chapters in this concepts conclusion. "One last dance/Here at the end of the empire/Makes me cry/Watching the moon on the ocean/Where California used to be/It's not half bad, oh/Spend half your life being sad/Well, don't be scared, oh-oh/Just chronically impaired, oh-oh/Just take my hand, oh-oh/Standing at the end of the American Empire," singing in storybook beginning to the makings of an epic. Why spend all that time sad, when you can be glad for the good tidings of this one carrying you over? Zamyatin's novel tells us, "a man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading." 'WE', together, can make the end of our story better. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Age Of Anxiety I', 'Age Of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)', 'Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)'. 

REVIEW: FUTURE - I NEVER LIKED YOU

4/5

The New Future Is Here.

Days of future past have Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, AKA Future (Hendrix) from Pluto sitting in the backseat of a gold interior car, draped in Lakers purple like a Prince reign. An eye mask the same over his usually shaded eyes, looking like he pulled his face one up too high. That's a good thing from the mumble generation rapper who still sounds so good and wastes no time telling you 'I NEVER LIKED YOU' in all caps style so you can hear. All for his new smash album and ninth solo from the Meathead's huge discography in the trap and on the plug. This Epic record from the Jungle City studios of the concrete one (New York, New York) comes a week after Pusha T told us 'It's Almost Dry' for another rap classic and two years after the planet pandemics 'Pluto x Pluto Baby'. The lead single 'Wait For U' proving it was all worth the wait for a man whose output is so prolific, two years seems like two decades. Or maybe that has something to so with the lifetime we feel like we are now in, coming our of quarantine. "You pray for my demons, girl, I got you/Every time I sip on codeine I get vulnerable" he raps alongside Drake and frequent collaborator Tems. October's Very Own exhibiting a different flow on this one like 'I'm On One' showing N.W.T.S. "Yeah, I been trappin' 'round the world/I sit on my balcony and wonder how you feelin'/I got a career that takes my time away from women/I cannot convince you that I love you for a livin," Drizzy drizzle months after this 'Certified Lover Boy' got 'Way 2 Sexy' with Future, a Right Said Fred sample and of course 'Fun Guy' Kawhi Leonard. When these two get together it really is 'What A Time To Be Alive'. Ha, ha, haaa! 

'712PM' like a '9AM In Dallas' or all those other city time digital readouts from Aubrey opens proceedings with a 'Moon Knight' beat. All as Mr. Future summons the suit on this night time music as smooth as the haze of purple skies, crushed like velvet. "I'M DAT N####" he proclaims in capital exclamation again like he was shouting, and why wouldn't you believe one of the most influential of this gen? All as he 'KEEP(S) IT BURNIN" with superproducer and rapper Kanye West who is doing the same with the flame lit between 'Donda' releases and dual production credits with Pharrell, helping the G.O.O.D Music of Pusha 'Dry' to a T. "Cross me so much, I got nails in my hands", 'Ye raps from his Sunday Service walking with Jesus for this "city on fire" during the 'Donda 2' era. Hendrix rocking "blood on my money, see the blood in my eyes/LaFearri, bando, two at a time." I know the feeling. Going 'FOR A NUT' with Gunna and Young Thug like Scrat (did you see? He finally got it) with an 'Ice Age' around his wrist. 'PUFFIN ON ZOOTIEZ' and wanting all the smoke. Eating like a breakfast cereal and this is the prize. 'GOLD STACKS' like bullion from a Bond villain and the backseat of that album artwork where he swings another episode like LL or Fleming. A licensed to chill, even if it's no days off for this ill rhymer who's killing it. Speaking of Cool J, on the '10' like 'LOVE YOU BETTER' the rapper who's about to hit double figures in albums raps, "Takin' our memories on love and treatin' it like nothin'/Takin' our memories on love and treatin' it like gossip/It's my love from my grandmother make me gentle when I care for you/Tell me you fallin' out of love, it's breakin' my heart in two." Now tell me that's bit something. F with him, you know he's got it.  

Deep tissue on 'MASSAGING ME' really works it's way into your muscles, for the slow flow of this LP that for this record will keep you moving in the gym, or...erm...another room that leaves you a little hot under the collar. But it's the 'CHICKENS' with EST Gee that really cluck before 'WE JUS WANNA GET HIGH'. High like "Panamera view inside my truck like a penthouse" for the panorama of a man who switches "(lady friends) like tennis shows", whilst I just brought my first pair in a half decade. But an Undefeated pair of Nike Blazer NBA 75th anniversary special two-tone editions, fresh out the box like Mario, from Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, if I may add. Its enough for this Kodak Black snapshot assisted 'VOODOO' from the child of Hendrix, before getting even higher than the 'HOLY GHOST', guys and dolls. Lord, this guy is good. Good God, Lord have mercy. "Mad rich, got it out the mud, it was ugly/Average, I can't go back to havin' nothin'/Savage, product of my environment, I'm hustlin'/Karats, clarity gon' glisten when it's dirty/Karats, they glisten when they dirty, keep a thirty/Bulletproof Suburban, avoidin' all the worries/The way I ball, I know for sure that every time my jersey breakin' the laws/Wake up early morning, go serve it/Take the time buildin' my crib like a pyramid (That's my crib)/Reminiscin' where I come from, get money a religion/You got smoke in the air, don't let it cloud your vision." Pushing like the T of the Clipse. This real rapper has got bars like the other weight he's packing too. A franchise King like 'Bron, 'Bron as he talks about 'THE WAY THINGS GOIN'. Right before he takes it 'BACK TO THE BASICS' like Ginuwine in 2005 for an album that we will never like. Because YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE IT! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: '712PM', 'KEEP IN BURNIN (Feat. Kanye West)', 'I'M ON ONE (Feat. Drake)'.