REVIEW: LUPE FIASCO - DRILL MUSIC IN ZION

4/5

Mount Zion.

72 hours. That's all it took for Lupe Fiasco to record his new album 'DRILL MUSIC IN ZION'. His first since 2018's 'Drogas Wave' (coming a year after 'Drogas Light'). But don't let that drill into you that one of Chi-town's finest didn't bring it. Broad and bullying in its bulk, 'Zion' is an incredible body of work like New Orleans Pelican and next NBA superstar Williamson's new formidable frame, forged in the lab. From Kanye to Kid Cudi, this is one of backpack rap's best. From Paris to Tokyo. Ever since he kicked and pushed way back in 2006 with his 'Food and Liquor' that had everyone convinced he was a skater like Pharrell. But this N.E.R.D on his own planet like Neptune contains multitudes and he hasn't stopped releasing monumental albums in their multiples as the show goes on. From Lupe Fiasco's 'The Cool', to even a 2012 sequel to his debut, 'Great American Rap Album' six years later. 'Lasers' lighting the way for Wasalu Muhammad Jaco who also fronts the rock band Japanese Cartoon. This is 40. And the 1st and 15th double J former Child Rebel Soldier is a 'Superstar' (like you too if you say you are). The Reebok style of this anti-establishment rapper, rhyming against all the genre's misogyny and vulgarity is on anything but a loop. Now it's time for the mainstream to play and pay...its respects to one of today's best in show.

Because in Zion like the joy of Lauryn, up on the hill, this 'DRILL MUSIC' may just be Lupe's best Fiasco yet. Opening up with 'THE LION'S DEEN', from the rapper who once touched the sky with 'Ye and told us he wanted to "stop lying like Mumm-ra." Testify. Because this is the truth. The genuine article in its conscious attitude and album artwork that portrays even more for his music museum. A triangle mined into the clay like paint of this earth. Speaking to a greater truth, the youth and a watching world, waiting for the change John Mayer sang about way back in 2006. On 'GHOTI', Lupe raps, "Assassin's Creed, rapping it back indeed/Like a mansion that's lacking fees, tapping the blackest keys/Capture catastrophes like a camera feed /Ball like a can of peas, fall like Michael Jackson on anaesthes'/Mistaking maidens for manatees/Neuralink is now pirating all your fantasies/Mistaking the sanitation for sanity/My mistake, I'm mistaking staying for cannot leave." Still one of the genres giant greats with so much to say. Just like on his lead single 'AUTOBOTO', transforming with Nayirah, turning into a Porsche, "I defend myself in court, this is sport, I get signals from the source/I can twist and I contort, I just feel like I'm a Porsche/I'm Carrera, -era, -era, -era, -era, -era, -era-era, -еra, -era, -era, -era, -еra." 

Now if that chorus doesn't have you singing along, playing it in your car (even if it isn't a Porsche...hey, I don't even have one. What's so wrong with fallin' in love with someone with a bus pass?). Then you'll really hold on to these 'PRECIOUS THINGS'. The Fiasco raps are back with, "Never bite the hands that feed/But when those same hands grab the gats and up their sleeves/They gather traps and apparatus for your griefs/They catch you lackin', wrap around yo' hatch and squeeze/I swear my hands werе pure, I gave 'em manicurеs/Became my adversaries, became my saboteurs." Opening the 'KIOSK' on lines for our times like, "diamonds only worth what you are willing to pay/a deceptive game you are killing to play." Whilst 'MS. MURAL' is something that demands oyur attention like the artwork or 'Ms. Marvel'. It's 'NAOMI' that's the real dedication though before 'DRILL MUSIC IN ZION'S' titanic title-track. A dedication by all means necessary. "I was in Roxbury on Malcolm X block/Talking that talk that got Malcolm X watched/Tryna pick up where Malcolm X stopped/Only gave my players a Malcolm Xbox/Look in the sky, see the Malcolm X ring/Malcolm X-files, it's a Malcolm X thing/As you ask yourself, "What does Malcolm X mean?"/I return to the force in a Malcolm X-Wing/And scene." And that's a great way to wrap things up before the fantastic finale 'ON FAUX NEM' and the supersonic storm of 'SEATTLE'. Reigning with bars like, "I'd keep a secret, but I'm honest/If I ever go and leak it, may reactors go atomic over me/Yeah, yeah, yeah/I don't believe in nothing solidBut if we are trapped in here, I hope that we go supersonic when we think." Holding the game like a glove, or Gary Payton too. Drilling his way back into the game. Finding his holy place in the kingdom of hip-hop heaven. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'AUTOBOTO (Feat. Nayirah)', 'PRECIOUS THINGS', 'SEATTLE'. 

REVIEW: MUNA - MUNA

4/5

What I Want, Want.

Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers appeared on MUNA'S smash single, the smooth as 'Silk Chiffon', last year. And the rest is now L.A. electropop history. Waving its pom poms for the 'But I'm A Cheerleader' movie, singing, "And life's so fun, life's so fun/Got my mini skirt and my rollerblades on/Bag on my side 'cause I'm out 'til dawn/Keeping it light like silk chiffon/Life's so fun, life's so fun/Don't need to worry about no one/She said that I got her if I want/She's so soft like silk chiffon." Now MUNA are signed to Bridgers' Saddest Factory record labels, and it's all happy days as they hit the jukebox with their self-titled third album, following RCA's 'About U' (2017) and 'Saves The World' (2019). Your ode to a queer crush enters the mainstream like King Princess and Maggie Rogers coming out on the same day as Beyoncé in a matter of July weeks. For yet another hot summer and best year for women in music like Haim. Once, twice, three times the part. We refuse to be told it's a man's world now. Because it would be nothing without one-half of the population. Even if the United States needs to be told to go f### itself like Phoebe did at Glastonbury after the anything but Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade like this was 'The Handmaid's Tale'. All in the same week that here in Japan, the government failed yet again to recognise same-sex marriage. Thank God for acts like these who sing for love and women in any way the choose to be. Silk times tougher than leather. And if you thought the cheer they led for 'Chiffon' was a liberation anthem, then wait until you really hear 'What I Want'. 

"I want the full effects/I want to hit it hard/I want to dance in the middle of a gay bar/Ooh, ooh-ooh/That's what I want, there's nothing wrong, with what I want/Yeah, yeah

I want the fireworks/I want the chemistry/I want that girl right over there to wanna date me/Ooh, ooh-ooh/That's what I want, there's nothing wrong, with what I want." Yeah, yeah. This latest single is it like Rogers rocking a wig straight outta Scarlet Johansson's 'Lost In Translation' karaoke. The indie icons of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin and Naomi McPherson are here to stay with album number three. And it's big. No longer notorious. But all of us. Dark power in all its synth for the arts. From UCLA to here today. The Dead Oceans alive with that Pacific sound of new wave disco. Getting as real as it gets on 'Anything But Me'. Singing, "You're gonna say that I'm on a high horse/I think that my horse is regular-sized/Did you ever think, maybe, you're on a pony/Going in circles on a carousel ride?/You're gonna say I asked for the moon/I think that it's you with your head in the sky/All that I wanted was somebody honest/Living for more than their next good time." Taking a bumbling world today of dating, that doesn't really apply itself to task like Tinder, with this serious swipe. But "blowin' on a dandelion" like the wind that "could change at any time", 'Kind Of A Girl' takes it further along the sandy road. Cowboy hats and moustaches on in union harmonising, "I could get up tomorrow/ Talk to myself real gentle/Work in the garden/Go out and meet somebody/Who actually likes me for me/And this time I'll lеt them/Yeah, I like tеlling stories/But I don't have to write them in ink/I could still change the end/At least/I'm the kind of girl/I'm the kind of girl who thinks I can/The kind of girl who thinks I can." Leaving a toxic relationship and way of thinking with this last line of affirmation. 

'Home By Now', you really will be on the last single that takes you there. Now how about this verse "Heard that you were selling your piano and your car/It feels so weird to not reach out and ask you how you are/I wonder if you're moving or if money's just that tight/These are the kinds of questions to which I've resigned my rights", to add to the songbook chapter? We hate to say it, because it hurts the hardest. But break-ups really do make up the best lines like this. You'll feel it all the way down your drive as MUNA bring it right to your door. Going for a jog, 'Runners High' will give you exactly that, strapped to your arm, like your phone to your favourite playlist that that will now be added too. Meanwhile, 'Handle Me' is too hot to with lyrics like, "I am not a brand new bicycle/I am rough around the edge/I am not a flower petal." You have 'No Idea' like, "I think you think I'm like a virgin/Not in a Biblical sense/You think I'm nervous and uncertain/Because I'm waiting." Put your hands together like Madonna. Because like her our prayers have been answered with the new pop queens in vogue. It's not rocked this hard since En Vogue told you to 'Free Your Mind'. The glam rock of 'Solid' spins right round like a record that glitters in all its disco ball joy. Whilst 'Loose Garment' will pull at the thread of your sweater as you walk away, 'til your wheezing. Yet it's the powerful percussion of the albums curtain 'Shooting Star' that really synth soars as it charts a destructive relationship as it heads for the billboards itself. A love so bright it could blind you like,"And tonight when I closed the door, I wanted to turn back/But when I see a shooting star, I stay out of its path/And that's what you are, you're so bright/You burn my eyes and you move too fast/So I say “Goodnight, make it home" like I’m making a wish/On you, from afar/You, my shooting star." One thing you can be sure won't crash unlike Crypto is MUNA. Affording the industry so much more after assembly line years of the saddest excuse of music. With these kind of girls, you can have what you want again. And it's so silky. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Silk Chiffon (Feat. Phoebe Bridgers)', 'Kind Of Girl', 'What I Want'. 

REVIEW: JACK JOHNSON -MEET THE MOONLIGHT

4/5

Moon Knight.

Springsteen, Dylan, Young. Ben Harper. From legends to contemporaries, the great American singer/songwriters have always had a protest song or two in their back pocket. But how about the great Jack Johnson? Streaming across our airwaves and Spotify playlists steady, like the tide coming in to our feet on a beautiful Hawaiian beach. His form more in the mood of a peaceful calm surrounding us. Lulling us into a rocking boat reverie that doesn't feel like malaise, but more a meandering path to great resistance. Ever since he came to us 'In Between Dreams' with his 2005 break-out like footprints in the sand. He's been our balm of calm in a mad world. Even though his 2001 debut 'Brushfire Fairytales' (who would have thought back then in February, how much we would have needed him that year?) and it's follow-up 'On and On' was what first introduced us to his indelible inspiration in an ignorant world. His peaceful protest has just been that much more subtle. But we still need it on the surf like we need the shaggy shades of Bob. Here's a guy that asked why newsmen don't shed a tear when reading 'The News', made records with inquisitive primates ('Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George; (including the reduce, reuse, recycle anthem 'The 3 R's)) and always took his wife and kids on tour with him. 'From Here to Now to You' always setting the most beautiful example as we 'Sleep Through The Static', all the way to the sea. Now after a half-decade, following 2017's 'All The Light Above It Too', Jack's back as it's time to 'Meet The Moonlight', five-years later. And so much greater.

Better together, forever, for our worse times. Johnson is music's most meaningful like the ever hard-working Norah Jones. His bare-feet in the sand just as important as the bootcut, blue collar work of The Boss. Get the Grammy ready for one of the greatest of our generation. He needs to be part of the conversation. No longer sitting, waiting, or wishing. Just reminiscing, like we do on all the greats, before he shows us what's next. Coming out of the paradise cage of his hiatus, Johnson takes 'One Step Ahead' with critically acclaimed producer Blake Mills of collaborative fame featuring of course Dylan, Fiona Apple and artist of our moment Phoebe Bridgers' (her Glasto protest put her United States on blast) 2020 (has it really been two years. Well...because the pandemic) album 'Punisher'. On Mills, Johnson told Rolling Stone, "When Blake and I first got in touch we’d send each other playlists, and over time we realized we were drawn to music that sounds effortless despite all the effort put into making it." Now could you think of a quotable that actually encapsulates Jack's music better than this? The brush of this artists fairytale fire. This lead single communicates a message these days of how we receive our information through social channels. Another form of protest for the record. Slowing down to a calming crawl on the chorus that breathing through the noise, Jack tells us is the listener trying to find that same calm we talked about. Singing, "When it feels like it's all closing in, mmm/All the linеs we won't cross, we bend instеad/Never mind all the noise going through your head, oh/'Cause every time we talk, we say the same things that we say/'Cause you never mind all the noise going through your head." Although the rest of this record and the Blake assisted album as a whole is on a new up-tempo groove from the laid-back warriors usual fare. 'Ahead' takes us further.

'Moonlight' is as subtly powerful as Mahershala Ali in the Barry Jenkins movie of the same name. Mills (who recently rocked with The Black Keys) and Johnson gives us some alarm-clock music that shakes like Alabama with '3Am Radio'. But on 'Calm Down', the Hawaiian lullaby dream sings, "Sirens sing from far away/Charm the wind and wonder why you’ve/Been so lost, been so long/Been too many things gone wrong and/How low until the bottom?/Echo, echo, echo, echo, then you let go" in hallowed harmony. 'Meet The Moonlight's' title-track is as beautiful as the album artwork in black and white, where you can see the stars from the shores. Whilst 'Don't Look Now' will really prick up your ears. Songbook adding lavish lyrics like, "Come on, wake up, how late were you up?/Late enough to see the sun/I know that we're turning, but it feels like it's rising/It doesn't really matter which one/To know that I feel things or feel like I know things/Or sing like no tomorrow comes/But it comes like a thief in the night/Look for what's left in the light/If you steal it, you're goin' to have to deal with the light when it's gone." There's work hidden in these wonderful lines. Urging you to reach for more and understand that this singer does, even swinging between trees in a roped-up bed. It's not a masquerade, but 'Costume Party' will really reveal the world we live in behind the mask. All before 'I Tend To Digress' shows us what Jack Johnson is really all about. "But I want meaning I want reason/It’s not enough to have a pleasing morning/Listening to birds sing songs about getting their money’s worth/Or the earth beneath the cement/Beneath the chair I’m sitting in/Under the roof over my head/Under a sky that’s turning red/Under the stars, begin to shine/As I become unstuck in time/Waking up in strange places/Chasing good conversations with my friends/Where’d my mind go? With my friends/What do I know?/I tend to digress from time to time." If only we truly understood the multitudes this man's music contains as his 'Windblown Eyes' soothe us like the breeze through the palms that feels like a higher power reaching. Is it 'Any Wonder' like the classic closer, that in this time of planet pandemics and unjust states of a world we thought united, we've forgotten ourselves, and Jack too? Well now it's time to get reacquainted and acclimated. With this beautiful 'Moonlight', you need to know Jack again and his wonderful world. Get ready to meet him. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'One Step Ahead', '3AM Radio', 'Windblown Eyes'.

REVIEW: DRAKE - HONESTLY, NEVERMIND

4/5

Hold On, We're Going House.

Steph Curry with the Finals MVP, boy. You can't deny that shot. And as one of the GOATS from downtown, or any area or arena, and his Warriors, just beat the storied Boston Celtics on their hallowed parquet road to become the 75th anniversary NBA champions. Bringing the dynasty they thought was dead, back. You can just imagine they bumped the new surprise Drake album that dropped on the same night as champagne flowed like Papi. Even if the ownership of this Toronto Raptor rival used to pick lint out of the Chef's cap, just to get under Stephen's skin before Canada won their very own championship. Drake had more NBA friends than Jimmy Goldstein, and more fans than those who will Dub themselves Golden State ones like an overnight celebrity. Drizzy celebrated his own hoops championship this week...in the Sanctuary of his very own basketball league this week. Sipping champagne and spitting that s###, as the greatest rapper today not called 'Mr. Morale' or J. Cole (living out his own hardwood dreams) compared himself to Kobe in what fans trolled as the literal real life bronze medal meme. You know the one where the guy is putting up his middle fingers, kissing the medal bearer and spraying bubbly on the gold and silver better athletes like this was F1. Some fans have been throwing more shade thanks to this new album, dropping like Biggie and heading towards the house of dance music like when the Love of Puff Daddy went by Lectro Black. They wanted bangers (and they have in close-out with 21 Savage and 'Jimmy Cooks'), but the 'Certified Lover Boy' who gave us Adele's best album of 2021 (we're assuming she didn't include her own '30' piece) is still keeping it 'Way 2 Sexy' a month after telling Future 'I Never Liked You'. 'Honestly, Nevermind' the hate. Because if you're reading this. In a year of Kendrick and a new Beyoncé album just announced on the eve of this surprise release, this new Drake rocks the house. 

Some may hate and say this lacks luster or blockbuster bluster from one of the biggest in the game like LeBron James. But like The Roots of drumming legend Questlove tweets, "this Drake jawn is a gift." "Only people not wit the program are people who don't move their bodies. That ain't sexy yo." And this is way too that. Co-signed by the iconic afro comb that gave us the 'Summer Of Soul' music movie documentary. A true renaissance of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Featuring the likes of Stevie Wonder Sly and the Family Stone. A televised revolution that won an Oscar. Lest you forget after Will Smith delivered a thunder-clap to Chris Rock right before and all the reverberations that came after, that failed to give respect to what Rock was actually standing for. And in another troublesome year of torrential pain, the man who gave us the 'Dark Lane Demo Tapes' mix that felt like an actual album going hard between the balaclava like shadows of venetian blinds, the atmospheric 'Intro' really plays like when Drizzy got his 007 on with no time to die, keeping friends and enemies alike close on the opening of 'Views'. But here 'Falling Back' gets right to it on the metal type of this album artwork that will turn in to a t-shirt quicker than it takes to add all this to cart. But it's the following 'Texts Go Green' ("Texts go green, it hits a little different, don't it?/Know you miss the days when I was grippin' on it/Know you're in a house tonight just thinkin' on it/I moved on so long ago.") that's a standout like rectangle illuminations at night from the text message relationship rapper hanging on to a thread. Begging to never be left on read. 

Two ticks for Drake for this one. Message received and we love to see it. Don't read too much more into it. We're into this. Like a rapping Billie Eilish. We don't know if he's 'Happier Than Ever', but no 'Bad Guy', he's giving us more than a steady stream of quality material for the catalogue. Delving deeper and darker into the human condition. And the 'Currents' are strong. Dealing with the cousins of loneliness and isolation. Comfortable in the knowledge that he could still rap with those that believe sleep is tour Uncle and Aunties son's relation to death. This middle of the night music is just that potent in its subtle power and poignancy that seeps through your speakers poetically. Lulling you through the night like 'A Keeper', or 'Calling My Name' like Chalamet. He's just married to this. No ring on the dresser. Like he is to everyone and all their Instagram handles that are about to have so many sliding into the DM's, in the matrimony video of lead single 'Falling Back'. Featuring Canadian NBA big-man Tristan Thompson as Aubrey's best man and the best wedding singer you ever had after 'The Hangover'. A service that sees him moan "your pussy keeps calling my name" on his new mood board like the legendary King Princess (new album next month on the same day as Bey, like Maggie. Just saying) calling it God. We all know the feeling. And he fiends for it more on 'Sticky' like the lush kush of a drug. Playing with the cat (you know how it get) and rapping in French Canadian, "lifestyle she respect/Ayy, two sprinters to Quebec/Chérie, où est mon bec?/They only givin' n####s plus ones, so I never pull up to the Met/You know I gotta bring the set." It's clear to hear, he's having a ball. And this is his gala. Going into 'Overdrive', this is 'Massive'. And I hope you've got your tickets like those for the champion Warriors heading Far East to Japan to play native hero Rui Hachimura's Wizards. Because the 'Flight's Booked' and this is the best yearn for a distant lover taking to the skies since Kelis "hope(d) you miss(ed) your flight", or we saw how it 'All Falls Down' from Kanye's perspective. And now before 'Donda 2' you can say yey to this one too over the 'Ties That Bind'. Rolling, but never going 'Downhill' as this rap asset is no 'Liability' either. Drake once had a 'Celebration' with the 'R&B Money' (affording August) of Tank, who brought out a Blackstreet of audio artillery on his next album with the vocal distort. And that's what Aubrey accomplishes so well on this sets penultimate track. Rapping, "you get in my bed, you twist up my head/I'm changing for you, changing for you/You get in my bed, you twist up my head/I'm changing for you, changing for you/You die with the lie/You lie and a piece of me dies/Inside out, I pray, so much I can take/I'm here for the ride, your pride might be the reason why/We don't even make it to see the days/Woah." Woah indeed. Honestly, for Drake fans, 'Never Mind' is Nirvana. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Texts Go Green', 'Liability', 'Jimmy Cooks (Feat. 21 Savage).'

REVIEW: BTS - PROOF

4/5

The Vault.

Proof positive that BTS still rule the world like everybody's tears for fears. With Beatle like mania on the Rolling Stone cover of iconic magazines, time and 'TIME' again. South Korea's ARMY, who may even avoid mandatory military service thanks to the 'BTS Act', are touring the world, from the United Nations (twice) to the White House like an NBA team with the championship. Even the arrogance of Tucker Carlson knows not to poke the bear of the most loyal fandom on the planet. After all this is the ARMY that reserved all the seats at a Trump rally, only to not show up as the man who is no longer President ended up addressing less people than he hoped his mail fraud would. Now how's that for some trolling, Donald?! Those who don't understand K Pop's greatest act (with all due respect to the hot-on-the-heels BLACKPINK, CL, KATIE and the Godfather of all this Psy who Agust D just gave some Suga too), just don't get it. They can only afford two cents in the comments section like 'Ye said, seeing no punctuation. Or the fact that the entertainment center of the earth has moved from the parasite of Hollywood, to a place with more Seoul. They just don't get it. Like real music doesn't have to be all about this faux cool, careless attitude and giving a damn in trying to inspire the youth doesn't have to be corny (the former being what is actually lame). It might just get you a pass at the UN and a podium at the world's most famous house. But now with their latest album these bulletproof boys open the Vault like Prince giving us a live at Syracuse, 1985 redux last week. Safe as recording houses with their billionaire boys club sound. 100% 'Proof'. 

Smooth like 'Butter', but ready to explode like 'Dynamite' at any given second. Like their even better than the studio sound live version and video on America's Got Talent (Korea has too). These 'Idol's' are 'On' like a record with Sia. And this anthology album over two hours has tracks from their previous releases too. Like The Beatles then and before, looking down from their old digs on the red and blue albums curated and created for the stars and stripes of the red white and blue. From 'Boy With Luv' with Halsey to the instantly on repeat 'Jamais Vu' for ma cherie. Or the 'Persona' intro by the moving '.mono' of rap monster RM, to the 'Ego' outro by J-Hope that doesn't stop the party like a 'Chicken Noodle Soup'...with a soda on the side. We could talk about these tracks like a Captain America all day. But like Prince once said in London (and we're paraphrasing here), "(they've) got too many hits." These 'Born Singer(s)' with the 'DNA' and no 'Fake Love'. All the way to the blossoming of the next 'Spring Day' (my personal favourite). But let's get off that. Because haters will say why are they packaging greatest hits on to a new album? We're saying they're just giving their new fans, from me in 2019 to Matthew McConaughey (making his own important and influential trip to the White House), a taste of their past in addition to a whole new album...and that affords the furthest thing from ripping them off. These smooth criminals gave us 'Butter' and 'Permission To Dance', just when we thought they didn't have any more lean, or steps in 'em. But now they're spreading themselves across the streams. And the only thing that's thin is them. Were like Bon Iver they show that skinny people can get love to (finally) and 'Crazy Rich Asians' can be sex symbols too. It's no longer just a blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus from a group with one direction bigger than the Fab Four who said they outshined the Lord. Christ! 

Our saviours are here. All the way to the end of the line for 'The Youth'. Symbolic in black and white like the logo of their straightforward album artwork, as the laser and chrome blue new sensation billboard stands proudly here in Tokyo's scrambling Shibuya crossing like Hachiko waiting. 'No More Dream' singing, "What were you dreaming to become?/Who do you see now in your mirror, I gotta say/Go your own way/Even if you live one day/Do something/Put your weakness away." 'N.O.' Yes these boys are rocking in a music matrix of leather and a slicked back look to their usual pastel candy coated portraits. Going even harder to rob the bank with this 'Proof' of new life. Now you've heard of 'Boy With Luv', but how about the karaoke confusing 'Boy In Luv' that drops the mic? Shaking us up as J-Hope muses, "If it's with you, I think I can go to a good college/ABCDEFGH Hakuna Matata/Your profile picture is the same but why do I keep checking it?/But don't misunderstand, I'm not an easy guy." Hey, we've all been there J. But it's not a passing craze, or problem-free philosophy. WARNING! These maverick top guns are taking a highway to the 'Danger' zone. Sing it! Only Tom Cruise is more famous right now as fans slide across the floor like 'Risky Business'. Singing 'I NEED YOU' in all-caps, into a hairbrush. Real, relatable and now raw, with their latest release, the Korean collective give us their 'Blood, Sweat and Tears' as they 'Run' through a perfect playlist for your towering record. Longer than LOTTE. Just when you thought you couldn't get any more fire, these boys are 'Burning Up'. All this and just think the best is 'Yet To Come'. Want 'Proof'? Here it is. And it's the most beautiful moment. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Butter', 'Dynamite', 'Yet To Come'. 

REVIEW: PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION - SYRACUSE LIVE 1985

4/5

Syracuse Purplemen. 

Running up that hill, Kate Bush is having a resurgence (like she ever left our collective consciousness) right now. Taken to the Max on a characters headphones and Walkman (remember (what are) those?!) in the first volume of the fourth season of Netflix's 'Stranger Things', culminating in a classic moment that runs and runs. All for a show that takes it back to the fond and nostalgic 80's like 'The Goonies' (one of them was even in it). The last fourth of July season of 'Things' was even set in the month and year I was born. So it's only right we take it back to 1985 again for the man who partied like it was '1999' and brought the house down with that very number like a millennium bug. We've had some powerful posthumous Prince releases that 'Holly Rocked' the house in all his star power since the purple one's tragic death in 2016. From the stripped-down 'Piano and a Microphone', to last years 'Welcome 2 America'. We've even had some revolutionary reissues, like the new power given to the 'Sign 'O' The Times' anniversary. But this remastered concert from Syracuse in 1985 during the reign of the 'Purple Rain' your, moviemaking in itself dunks on all of that with funk like Hakim Warrick's bag of nuts. Cutting down nets, never 'Melo. But as orange as wearing that colour on National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The last high pitched sample of '99 ("mama, what does everybody have a gun") ringing out in The Artist symbolism. Game. Blouses. 

"Hello Syracuse, and the world. My name is Prince, and I've come 2 play with U." In more ways than one for this remixed and enhanced live album that in a bootleggers dream now becomes an official part of his classic catalogue collection for a definitive discography. The concert film entering the ranks as a great documentary too. The frills are back, but the thrill is far from gone in some amazing artwork amongst the purple pinstripe suits that scream the throwback 80's, as a Gatsby like face that even Maggie Rogers' eyes are surrendering too for her new album looks on. "Is there a doctor in the house", Prince asks the crowd as his keyboard player in scrubs let's rip in a mask years before his time. Because you're going to need some CPR after this. Resuscitating the sound of The Revolution, playing on Prince day, Happy Birthday to an actual King. From the signature 'Let's Go Crazy' opening with an elevation that will never bring you down. All the way to the epic encore after doves cried in swan song of 'I Would Die 4 U', 'Baby I'm A Star' and of course an 18 minute 'Purple Rain'. No two ever sounding the same like individual drips and nothing sounding quite like this in build-up and riff-roaring goodbye for the man's axe that strikes a love symbol down into the live stage like a microphone. 

Much too fast, even at just a shade under two hours this album passes us by all too quickly like a 'Purple Rain' moped or a motorcycle like Easter Egg tribute in this year's 'Batman' movie for a man who once did an entire soundtrack for the Dark Knight like a 'Partyman'. But under the pale moonlight you're going to love dancing to this one, no devil, like the heavenly intro to 'Little Red Corvette' that feels as fresh as the day it came out. Or the 'How Come You Don't Call Me' yearning ode, a cult classic and standout here that Alicia Keys made famous like Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen's 'Because The Night'. And just like The Boss, we know which version is more chart-topping famous. But nothing compares to the heart on the purple sleeve intention of the original's emotion. The instrumental 'Yankee Doodle' plays like a national anthem and Nelson plays with us on his introduction to 'God' and the spoken words he mixes from other tracks. "I've got too many hits" he said during his 21 dates at London's 02, touring there more than the local Tube line. This is why he goes 'Delirious' after he goes crazy, like the 'Raw' comedy of Eddie Murphy, or beating his late, great brother Charlie at basketball, like the brothers did Rick James' legs. Breakfast can wait, when your bacon and eggs is 'Take Me With U' and 'Do Me, Baby', served with a side of toast and 'Irresistible B####'. "Yes, Wendy' this album is everything like 'Computer Blue' and 'Darling Nikki'. Prince playing like a man 'Possessed'. All before the 'International Lover' headed to the South of France in 1985, touring for the world like all those young lovers who like to pretend their married. Dearly beloved, as we gather here today over these 20 tracks in a time were COVID-19 still leaves us gig shy in concert. 1985 comes alive again with the Prince who changed the world back then as he took the throne forever more. Smashing any picture that his legendary legacy would die in time, Prince paints a perfect picture on 'The Beautiful Ones', a track later covered by the 'Butterfly' honey of Mariah Carey and Sisqo of Dru Hill. Baby, baby, baby. What's it gonna be? Don't waste your time on anything that makes you lose your mind. Because I want THIS! A televised event now available for your Spotify streams. The Revolution will be immortalised. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Setlist Picks: 'Little Red Corvette', 'How Come You Don't Call Me', 'Purple Rain'. 

REVIEW: FANTASTIC NEGRITO - WHITE JESUS, BLACK PROBLEMS

4/5

Black Jesus.

Roots of blues and R&B have never been the same since Xavier Amin Dphrepauleez, better known as the one and only Fantastic Negrito, entered the scene and cleared the competition. 'The Last Day Of Oakland' like 'The Last Black Man In San Francisco' movie, bridge to bridge, was a Grammy certified contemporary classic that confirmed this Mr. Fantastic was a true Warrior. Stretching over the Bay of Golden State and reaching out to the whole world, dialling from Steph and Klay distance. The style was fit for a Prince for a man who gives us a new LP on the same day we're taken back to the purple one and The Revolution's 1985 show in Syracuse. The reign was ready for the throne. Especially as 2019's 'Please Don't Be Dead' and 2020's critical 'Have You Lost Your Mind Yet' scored him three consecutive Grammy's for the Best Contemporary Blues Album. Now two years later, we may live in a multiverse of madness where strange things happen. But one things for sure. With 'White Jesus, Black Problems' Negrito is about to make it a fantastic four like Reed Richards. Please believe. Lord knows.

99 problems. The world has more than that right now. From pandemics to an epidemic of negativity that is ripping through the world and beating us down like an Oscars slap. Hitting back with all the black and white responses to this and Hollywood trials in the court of public and social media opinion that fail to see the grey. The masses acting like the burning torch 'Simpsons' community every time Homer makes a mistake. But here's a silver lining for you. Fantastic Negrito is not one. He is the one. Bringing that good time music back, all whilst moving us to a protest march that sings for freedom and the Black Lives and love that still matters even if Twitter trends have turned to the new flavour or disorder of the month. 'White Jesus, Black Problems' in wild west type, slap bang in the middle of an album artwork of striking red in classic Hi-fi stereo, evokes the feeling of Jamie Foxx in 'Django Unchained'. And Negrito is off it when he opens with some 'Venomous Dogma'. "Locked down in this hole, oh, it be so lonely", he croons in chorus as he warns us, "Y'all better wake up/Life and death here don't take up/Demons of the mind, let's shake up/Conspiracy lies/The laziest minds kill most of their time/A preacher/Spittin' dark rhymes through speakers/Candy for liars and tweakers/Standing in line for Air Jordan sneakers/No hustle, no grind." The game is to be told, not to be sold. Not even to the 'Highest Bidder' who Negrito says, "Technology feeds the spiritually dead/Fantasies that live inside your head", making his message clear to this smartphone generation as he takes American capitalism, greed and the racism of socio-economic inequality to task. All for some real gold bars. All before 'They Go Low' and then move in unison to the lead single 'Nibbadip' and it's powerful and compelling video adding to the album art. "He said, "Please don't sell me" (Don't you sell me)/'Cause I'm in love with woman/Freedom's in her eyes," he sings on this spiritual. Fighting back against slavery and the systematic racism that still arrests today and breaking free. 

'Oh Betty', the roots of this album are beautiful in all their blue. Even if the jarring 'You Don't Belong Here' interlude, reminds us of how real and raw racism still is in the US and beyond. Sounding like another antagonist filmed in Central Park questioning why an innocent man or woman is just taking a walk outside in what's supposed to be a free country. Treating the black man like a 'Man With No Name'. "Listen, please hear my story/My life was stolen/By the bad man/This is not the place for me/My life was stolen/From my homeland," he tells us in a hook that gets its grips into you. This world is so cold, 'You Better Have A Gun' with the heat of this number as everyone's could be up these days were we are looking over our shoulder with a mask on. Running shirtless in 'Trudoo', Xavier refuses to give in. Singing, "Someday, I hope you'll find me, I'm out here all alone/Wandering out in the darkness, sad from a broken heart/Feeling like a teenager, crumbling into parts/Stealthy, but not so graceful, stumbling in the dark", on a verse that is chapter like scripture. 'In My Head' will get further into your cerebellum and the chambers of the organ of where your real thought and feeling reside. Right as the 'Register Of The Free Negroes' interlude serves as an intro to the curtain calling 'Virginia Soil' that gets right back to the roots of this record. "Freedom will come/I know one day, I'm sure that freedom will come", he repeats with no refrain. Concluding a cinematic album and multimedia movie feature with a 'Lemonade' like music video for each track, that as a matter of fact makes more than lemons. This full film tells the full, true story of Dphrepauleez's seventh generation grandma, Grandma Gallamore and indentured servant living with Xavier's enslaved Grandfather Courage. And their defiance of racism. Refusing to be separated in the segregated 1750's as they lived in a common-law marriage. And to think we call music like this groundbreaking. It is. But in this music world, it would be nothing without these roots which were the seeds for so many to grow. Just look at the family tree. This visual album is visionary from a man as Fantastic as such. The man has a real problem now. And his name is Jesus. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Nibbadip','Venomous Dogma', 'Highest Bidder'.