REVIEW: BEYONCÉ - RENAISSANCE

4/5

Benaissance.

'Don't Hurt Yourself'. This weekend I should be at 'Fuji Rocks'. A legendary festival just outside of Tokyo. This year headlined by Jack White, Vampire Weekend, Halsey and Japanese Breakfast, overlooking Mount Fuji in Japan. But corona cases are getting crazy again. Besides, this week feels like a music festival itself this Summer for your Spotify playlists. Even after the last one featuring the 'Lemonade' guitarist's second album of the year ('Entering Heaven Alive'). Same song for the RZA ('Bobby Digital and the Pit of Snakes'). One of Ben Harper's best ('Bloodline Maintenance'). A She & Him tribute to Beach Boy Brian Wilson ('Melt Away'). And ODESZA's best with 'The Last Goodbye'. This week we already have two album of the year contenders with the sophomore sets from Maggie Rogers ('Surrender') and King Princess ('Hold On Baby') on the same day, for two who gave us the best of 2019 with their debuts. But we all know who runs the world and what the main event is. The return of The Queen, B. The Carter who buried her husband lyrically, going 'Apes###', rapping in the Louvre in Paris, France like Mona Lisa, after spraying all that 'Lemonade'. The last and best blast of an album. Even NaS couldn't 'Ether' Jigga like that. But 'EVERYTHING IS LOVE' in capitals. It's just the times we go through in trial and tribulation as man and wife. It's all gone now as bygones be. But the 'RENAISSANCE ' like a Q-Tip classic is already in a quest for controversy. 'Milkshake' and 'Millionaire' singer Kelis already hating this right now after Bey and her old Neptune friends didn't clear a sample with her. She says "it's theft" and she more than has a point. Especially when it comes to the ownership of her great body of work. We'll let that settle as it will as the dust does the same. Until then it's time to get crazy in love with Beyoncé again like destiny, children. 

She's on a horse. A pale glass one in all her black beauty. Riding in almost naked like Lady Godiva. Queen B may bring "triggering" 'Milkshake' 'ENERGY' to the yard in all-caps, but that's not all she samples on this lost in transition, tour de force that traps old with new in her music box. Nuanced nostalgia over brilliantly brutal beats that make what she did in the Louvre look like something from her sketchbook. "Just vibe/Votin' out 45, don't get outta line, yeah/Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, pick a side/Only double lines we cross is dollar signs, yeah/Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, hol' up/Wait, I hear you just got paid, make it rain, energy/She more Cancún, he more Saint-Tropez/Big wave in the room, the crowd gon' move/Look around, everybody on mute/Look around, it's me and my crew/Big energy", she raps. Charged up because her life is better than yours. Bossy! Reach, teach and motherf###### PREACH! Bey also shows she's not 'Way 2 Sexy' for a Right Said Fred sample too. Just like Drake. Out of this world for this 'ALIEN SUPERSTAR' ("I'm too classy for this world, forever, I'm that girl/Feed you diamonds and pearls, ooh, baby/I'm too classy to be touched, I paid them all in dust/I'm stingy with my love, ooh, baby"). Right after she gets 'COZY' following the epic intro of this 'RENAISSANCE' proving to us that 'I'M THAT GIRL' (not me...her). Do that little turn on the catwalk. Fred becoming the new nostalgia go to like the 'Love and Thunder' of Thor having to cut a Kate Bush track as 'Stranger Things' had already run up that hill with headphones on. Levitate, levitate, levitate. With new Kendrick and Beyoncé in the same year, this sounds like 'Freedom'. And "unicorn is (the) uniform". There's nothing mythical about this. Just mystical. 'CUFF IT'. In platinum ones. F### gold! 

Nothing's going to 'BREAK MY SOUL' now as Carter gets it, "I'm lookin' for motivation/I'm lookin' for a new foundation, yeah/And I'm on that new vibration." Now it's time for you to vibrate higher like the three stacks that went 'Back To Black' with her like the late, great Winehouse in a different fade for Shawn Carter's curated 'Great Gatsby' soundtrack, sport. All praise to the 'CHURCH GIRL' as we pass the streaming collection plate. Ripping the 'PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA', screaming like Ricky, as we 'MOVE' to this 'VIRGO'S GROOVE'. A six-minute disco ball of funk for Beyoncé's seventh seal of an album. It's getting 'HEATED' in heere too as she tells us "only a real one could tame me/only the radio could play me." Then, right in the 'THIQUE' of it she slows it down. But there's no real refrain here. "A## getting bigger/Racks getting bigger/Cash getting larger/He thought he was loving me good, I told him, "Go harder"/She thought she was killing that s###, I told her, "Go harder"/Just look at this alkaline wrist 'cause I got that water/A## getting thicker/Cash getting thicker (Thicker, thicker)/That's that thick, that's that real s###/That's that jelly, baby, champagne and cherry, baby/That's that thick, that's that ball drop/That's that keep going, that's that never stop." DAMN! This goes even harder than Thor herself, Natalie Portman's raps. Live like Saturday Night. Love God herself, Jack. 'ALL UP IN YOUR MIND' this is the perfect playlist of an amazing album to get you bodied in the gym. Trust me. Even a skinny John like me. Time to get 'THIQUE' (LOL). All as a big-three ends one of Beyoncé's best explicitly, a week after my 'B'Day'. '4', 'Sasha Fierce', the self-titled, self-explanatory. All of it. Ever since she was 'Dangerously In Love'. 'AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM' she proclaims...and the problem is her. 'PURE/HONEY' like Maggie or Mariah and the best use of the C U Next Tuesday word since 'Curb'. But this 'SUMMER RENAISSANCE' comes to an end (on this album at least. The streaming sounds will keep stepping over this scorching season) on a big number that's gonna rack 'em up. "Boy, you never have a chance/If you make my body talk, I'ma leave you in a trance/Got you walking with a limp, bet this body make you dance/Dance, dance, dance." Nothing hits higher than this 'Renaissance' song. Just call this revival a French rebirth. Au revoir. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM', 'PURE/HONEY', 'SUMMER RENAISSANCE'. 

REVIEW: KING PRINCESS - HOLD ON BABY

  

4/5

King & Princess.

"Hey, my love!" The moment I heard the atmospheric 'Talia' speak for the first time in 2019, like 'Say It' by Maggie Rogers. I knew that this was instantly going to be one of my favourite songs and singers. Both of them. Both of them had the albums of the year back then. 'Heard It In A Past Life' for Rogers and our 'Cheap Queen' and expensive King Princess. Both of them release candidates for this calendar today, stepping their great games up. Maggie with a 'Surrender' and now Mikaela Mullaney Straus AKA, King Princess telling us 'Hold On Baby'. All on the same day as a Beyoncé 'Renaissance' as pop is in a perfect place right now. Now that's what I call a New Music Friday. And we thought last week (Jack White and the RZA's second albums of the year, Ben Harper, She and Him paying tribute to a Beach Boys and the most outstanding ODESZA) was hot for the Summer. Princess has so much on her throne she can release hit singles that never make albums ('Talia') like '1950' (as 'Harry's House' tells it in style). Or the most romantic song I've ever sang to my girlfriend ('Pussy Is God'. And I'm not trying to be ironic, or chauvinistic). The quarantine anthem 'Only Time Makes It Human' in 2020, locked down that notion. As did last years 'House Burn Down' and 'Pain'. Perfectly boxed up and filed away on their outstanding own. This is a King who even affords more of a definitive deluxe edition to her classic debut, 'All Dressed In White' to 'Ohio' with your 'Best Friend'. But now for your jewel case, 'Baby' comes a perfect package, wrapped in the album artwork of an owl's wings. Straus, wanting to be known for this like another Prince artist was doves that cry. And for her reign, this is a hoot. 

Don't worry, 'For My Friends', there's so much more on constant repeat rotation. "Loving me takes patience", she sings on the stellar single, in her own sonic star stratosphere now. And we could wait forever. It would be 'Little Bother' like the Fousheé flossed hit that tells us, "I guess.../I'm screwed from my past life/And that's why I lost you/But if I think of the timeline/You were exhausting/But we couldn't have said goodbye/Yeah it wasn't an option/While you're watching the paint dry/Remember you lost me", Mikaela muses, as once again her and Maggie show that there's no others better at delivering real and raw relationship lyrics today. Call it 'Cursed' all you like, but once that song hits it'll never lift. "It's good to know that you don't carry hate/Like bricks inside your coat", she cloaks and devotes. A minute after stating 'I Hate Myself (we love you, King), I Want To Party (us too, Princess)', "but instead, baby, I watch TV, f### my girl, check my phone/Play PS5, change my shirt and drink alone/Baby, and only I can bring me down", for the record in opening. But despite the fall, 'Winter Is Hopeful' in all the bounty of its beauty. For Quinn, dearly devoting, "I just love you more when you’re gone, mm/You're worried 'bout girls that I know/Meanwhile I’m singing you praises alone/You're a piece of my home." Wrenching this one like a 'Crowbar' "prying at the chip on my shoulder" and the queen of interludes playing like songs like holding on to the title-track, baby. 'Too Bad' even the greatest in the game, don't have tracks and attitude like this for days. "You're family/And I told you I'ma be too much/Oh, I get scary/And it seems like you're giving up/But when I feel abandoned, a loose cannon/And I'm stuck with the blood on my hands/Oh, I understand it, I'm manic/But you're trying to f### with my plans/Oh, I've heard it all before." The love and loyalty in this passionate person's heart is like no other soul. Especially in an ignorant industry. Don't let her 'Change The Locks' on her heart, or her studio apartment of music with a key on the dresser, "because you're bored." Because it's over now. The throne is fit for a King. 

Don't just call her Princess. Sign on the 'Dotted Lines' with all her impression and inspiration, influencing this perfect day in pop. "I think I'm tied to the bed/Pray I wake and these feelings are dead (Ohh)/I got a lot to regret/Like dotted lines that I signed at 17/I'm f#####' better than them/I'll give 'em good s### again and again, no end/They should be happy and fed up/But instead." What were we just a saying about the industry and how much material Mikaela Mullaney has again? Better hit the 'Sex Shop' if you can't vibrate with that and 'Hit The Back'. "You're a King, Princess" she meta sings like a song that could have been named after herself like a Fistful Of Mercy (no pun intended). "Trying to grip onto something/I don't got a hold of/And I wish that I could fit the frame/Like my hand fits on your waist", speaking of sex struggles in lust looking for love. 'Let Us Die' screams the curtain in closing for another classic for the catalogue, no sophomore slump. All for a still relatively new artist that feels like she's been here for years thanks to the decadence that's coming to a definitive in the making discography. Just imagine what it'll be like when this Princess crowns as many albums as she does singular singles, b-sides and interludes (Maggie too). "I knew this would happen/You're angry and you're captured/And I feel the rapture/Oh I'm not your captor/I hate being hopeless/And you're startin' to notice/And that makes me hopeful/And that makes me feel/Like we'll be alright", King Princess sings. Roaring, "Drive the car right off the cliff and let us dive", as her and Rogers play 'Thelma and Louise' like 2019 again over the canyon. Grand. Today might be the day of the Queen B, Beyoncé. But this world that's run by girls would be nothing without the King. Hold on to that, baby. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Cursed', 'Little Bother (Feat. Fousheé), 'For My Friends'.

REVIEW: MAGGIE ROGERS - SURRENDER

4/5

Put Your Hands In The Air.

It's time to 'Surrender' to Maggie Rogers for her sophomore album after she 'Heard It In A Past Life' (before dusting off some 'Notes From The Archive' during 2020's quarantined lockdown). The best album of 2019, alongside the 'Cheap Queen' King Princess, who also releases her new album today ('Hold On Baby'), along with somebody called Beyoncé. The Queens are here and it's time to dance in the karaoke booth to the renaissance. C'mon! You know it's what you 'Want Want'. Right now, 'That's Where I Am' like a video ode to New York City and its romantic comedies of the 90's with David Byrne too. 10 things I love about this? Nah, I could name a thousand words. Hitching a yellow cab with all this cosmopolitan city has to offer. Feeling you everywhere, singing and signing the cross between some nuns in the cobbled Meatpacking District for this sister act, sophomore set. Graduating like her thesis, studying all this to the cap and gown. Iconically holding a mic and stage in front of the Empire State Building, glittering with the state of all her sparkling gold. "I found a reason to wake up/Coffee in my cup, start a new day/Wish we could do this forever/And never remember mistakes that we made", and we have too, feeling the same. So let your troubles fade away (because after all "even boulders turn into sand"), and dance, dance, dance along to this with a hairbrush like the closing credits of your favourite movie. All until the sing-along 'Want Want' of the second single that rocks even more into the golden era. With a sweaty and sexy video that now has the best of my top-three wigs for the pixie cut singer who cut off those folky locks like we needed to cut out those "electric Joni Mitchell" comments. She's her own born star. Beating out Scarlett Johansson's pink karaoke do, serenading Bill Murray, 'Lost In Translation' in Tokyo, Japan. And whatever s### I end up getting to cover my thinning head, thinking I'm Andy Warhol, or something. Even the visualizer, lyric videos to these songs akin to the Gatsby eyes album artwork, are something else that feel like pop art themselves from the television sets of the man that brought us Campbells cans, Brillo pads and Marilyn Monroe in neon. 

All the pretty 'Horses' come galloping back to the fields of the 'Alaska' singer who was one with more than nature after a Neptune co-sign. "Cross the street like a dream out my window/Sucking nicotine down my throat/Thinking of you giving head", she signs beautifully in the city like the 'Women In Music', Haim lovingly telling us, "we're watching the sunrise from the kitchen counter/when you're lyin' between my legs, it doesn't matter" for 'Gasoline'. Rogers goes into 'Overdrive' on this opening 'Surrender' with an epic, uplifting track that this album is the makings of. "I don't wanna do this again if you're gon' break my heart/I'm tearing at the seams, can't believe that it's gotta be this hard/You told me that I was all you could see, but you kept me in the dark," Maggie mesmerizes. Giving us not only an ode to the good times when our young life and love was like a movie. But the soundtracks to our very hearts that reside in that time, now broken like a record. Going 'Anywhere With You' and your bruised soul atmospherically over piano and "You tell me you want everything you want it fast/But all I’ve ever wanted is to make something f###### last" lyrics that literally speak for everybody right now. Just 'Be Cool' like Travolta on the new beat of "overload(ing) the speakers" and "listen(ing) to Britney". Because bitch we're, "Sick of the sound of self-importance/I f##### off for a month or two/Needed a summer just to be a teenager/Drunk on the month of June." Amen and cheers to that. Raise your glasses, as you put your hands in the air to 'Surrender' for a toast. And 'Say It' like the introductory song I heard before and now still on repeat like a Starbucks playlist, haven't been the same in life since. Literally saving me from anxiety and playing in the background with someone that centered me. Rogers hammers it!

Shattering the speakers of a new wave for her age. Complete with Florence Welch shaking her tambourine at Electric Lady here, after Maggie Rogers provided backing vocals to the 'Dance Fever' machine. All whilst black and white returning to the roots, past a previous 'Past Life' and not forgetting the 'Dog Years' of where she's from like a Del Water Gap. Like Norah Jones to a Peter Malick Group. From the sweet shyness of an NPR Tiny Desk, featuring the book she helped transcribe, meeting in the bathroom. To the compelling, contagious confidence that you see right now. Watch this Mag usher her way in. From being in awe of how many people came to see her first set at Glastonbury. To cracking a hole in Coachella this year (and all I got was a tour tee). This is THE artist of our time. And a riffing 'Shatter' ground breaks all that. This rock is never turning to dust. Stories to be told. Millions to be sold. Much more to be moved. Oh, men, she's got your number too. "I see it in your teeth again/There's a tightness when you're smiling/It creeps in through the backdoor when/You play pretend and break down crying." And her closest have got her back to, like the good times rolling of the 'I've Got A Friend' like Hathaway had alive and live. After 'Begging For Rain' on the most perfect precipitation, that's definitely running in the romantic rain for the film of someone who would give you Dylan 'Shelter From The Storm'. If they just gave you a(nother) chance. Doing something to the new Batman and making us listen to Dolly, or else. There's going to be hell to pay like Jolene. Maggie truly gets epic on the euphoric 'Honey' like a Mariah 'Butterfly'. "Oh, I believe in the way I loved you then/And the way you held my hand, it wasn't circumstance/Or anomaly but powers about when you/Place your bets and how you choose your friends/Oh, and I believe I could have been your girl/For about a hundred years, oh, in another world/But I had to leave and now when you hear my name/Oh, does it break your s###? Or do you run away." A sensational 'Symphony' like the stellar track of the same name that may be 'Surrender's' superior. All the way acoustically, back in your body for another classic closer in this 'Different Kind Of World' ("one last song, I'll sing a song/And make it a song for peace") since her '19 debut. Maggie, our hands are behind our backs and we're down on our knees. When it comes to your music, do as you please. White flag. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'That's Where I Am', 'Want Want', 'Horses'. 

REVIEW: ODESZA - THE LAST GOODBYE

4/5

An Ode To ODESZA.

Is this it? 'The Last Goodbye', my friend like a song from The Kills, or the late, great Jeff Buckley. In all caps for ODESZA. The epic, eclectic electronic American group from Bellington, Washington. Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, who had me dancing 'Across The Room' during quarantine staying safe at home, like Leon Bridges at a cookout beautiful video for a collaboration off the pair's last album (2017's 'A Moment Apart'). All for a collaboration so good from the 'Texas Sun' to the 'Texas Moon' that it even beats 'The River' singer's one with Khruangbin for the extended play. It might have taken me a minute to get in to ODESZA, but that song is still on my go to playlist's regular rotation. But now with their fourth album ('Summer's Gone', 'In Return', 'Apart' and now this 'Goodbye') and first in five years (let's also not forget the 'Friends Never Die' EP, because they don't lie like 'Stranger Things' too), this has me fearing it might be the end. Even if we'll be dancing forever more. Mills and Knight (professionally known as Catacombkid and Beaches Beaches respectively) have been doing this for a decade since they formed after graduating from Western Washington University. And we could still hear them doing it for decades like those thirtysomethings who still wear college tees (*holds up hand*. He doesn't even go here). Even if it takes a miracle like the hell of an Eagle freezing over for one of America's best acts right now. Because like Smokey Robinson once said, 'What's So Good About Goodbye'?

Newsflash, this isn't it for your PSA. This grand return after a half decade break is exactly that, a return. A time apart in reflection for the Seattle based band to needle through what's important and realize that it's time to keep beating for the friends and family who are a part of their rhythm, rhyme and reason. The outstanding opening 'This Version Of You' with a poetic Julianna Barwick is atmospherically, exactly that. "This version of you, simply becomes real", 'The Magic Place' singer of electronic loops says over an inspiring intro featuring the joy of children laughing around you, just like Curtis Mayfield called it on 'The Makings Of You'. Piano's on the platform as a parent asks, "can you say I love you yet." Resurrecting your heart from reverie, you want to know how much this return, act, album and actual song mean? Check the top YouTube comment. "Odesza is a genre. The best genre", another one says on the second track ('Wide Awake' with Charlie Houston) that keeps this all going. Open your eyes and you can see how much they've been missed. "I've been wide awake feelin'/People seem to change their feelings in time/Did we make a mistake healin'?/It's more than I can take not feelin' too fine," Houston sings for all our problems. It's the way of the world right now. And whether it's the stunning second single 'Better Now' featuring MARCO ("been trying to fix it/And find out what's been missing/I want to live a life that is worth living" (here, here). Their differently dedicated 'Love Letter' with The Knocks ("you can't break my heart, 'cause I was never in love." Damn!). Standout 'Behind The Sun' in all its grand, glorious glare. Or the latest and last single seeing the 'Light Of Day' ("if I reach the light, I'm OK") and its animated music video. Featuring Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds on this return to goodbye and classic closing. The odyssey of ODESZA is outstanding. 

Before Beyoncé, Maggie and King Princess for your Queen B next week, we have five huge releases this new music week...not to mention many more. Notably, Jack White and the RZA's second cuts of the calendar ('Entering Heaven Alive' and 'Bobby Digital and the Pit of Snakes'...I'll leave it up to you to guess who's is who), Ben Harper's beautiful 'Bloodline Maintenance' protest in name of the father and Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's She & Him tide testament to The Beach Boys in 'Melt Away: A Tribute To Brian Wilson'. But for all these big names, the best is saved for 'The Last Goodbye' in our album of the week. Campaigning for release of the year. 'Forgive Me', but that single worthy song featuring Izzy Bizu is worthy of that. No talking up filler. The 'North Garden' for this bold band of brothers in musical bloom. 'All My Life' waits for a sing like this that soars through the soundscape. All before the legacy making Låpsley shows you your 'Equal'. Our hometown hero (born in York, but grew up in our Southport, Merseyside, going to Greenbank High School like my sister. Small, beautiful world). Singing, "I go the whole nine, drivin' through the whole night/Hold you 'til the first light, so tight, love is pain right/I lose sight, I can see the signs/Blinded by my own fire, I take flight, I take flight/And it's all in my head and I'm stood on the ledge and the people/Walk through the day while I'm tryna make sense of the prequel/I just want our love to be equal", for the prelude of a powerful pre-drop. There was a time foolish hearts thought dance music had no depth. Not when its substance gets into your brain like this. No drug, just EDM music. It's the kind of 'Healing Grid' that helps you through the night when you say 'I Can't Sleep' like the RZA's most vulnerable, razor-sharp Wu-Tang Clan cut. But when it comes to the title-track and the first single of 'The Last Goodbye', nothing hits harder from their absolute range with Bettye LaVette. "When you pass by me/Say hello once in a while/When you pass by me, baby/Does it hurt so much to smile." Triggering the senses as "you feel to stay is wrong". Letting you down easy, "for your love for me is gone." Heartbreakingly true. But guess who is still here to heal? The partnership you thought was done. And even if this was a real goodbye. This one would always last somewhere in the memories of your past. The one that only music can hit like nothing else but the moment. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'This Version Of You (Feat. Julianna Barwick)', 'Wide Awake (Feat. Charlie Houston)', 'Behind The Sun'. 

REVIEW: SHE & HIM - MELT AWAY: A TRIBUTE TO BRIAN WILSON

4/5

Beach Boys and Girls.

Wouldn't it be nice if this Summer could feel like the California dreamin' of The Beach Boys again, for all you Mamas and Papas? Well, before all the leaves turn brown for grey skies this fall, 'New Girl' Zooey Deschanel and guitarist M. Ward, AKA, She & Him have done exactly that. Melting away with a tribute to the one and only Brian Wilson. Yes, man. This is exactly what we need. And after volume after volume of the perfect pair's work, including many a festive yuletide for 'A She & Him Christmas' (on turntable record repeat in time with ever years advent calendar), the duo give us their first long-awaited and eagerly anticipated album since 2016 (another 'Christmas Party' nonetheless). All for one of the biggest new music Fridays for your NPR this year in a scorching Summer. Joined by second albums of the year from White Stripe Jack White ('Entering Heaven Alive') and the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA ('Bobby Digital and the Pit of Snakes'). A new one from underrated great of our generation in Ben Harper's 'Bloodline Maintenance' for the family. And the best of the week in 'The Last Goodbye' from ODESZA. After a trilogy of 'Volume', She & Him lay down a beach towel, taking it back to the 'Classics' Once more for you boys and girls. 

'Foreverly' like Norah Jones and Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong paying tribute to The Everly Brothers, forever, this is beautiful in She & Him signature style. Floating instruments and delicate vocals with the strength of timeless vintage. The best band since Munchausen By Proxy with their City of Roses, Portlandia, Oregon roots. From the forest to the sand, 'Darlin'' 'Melt Away: A Tribute To Brian Wilson', begins with the beauty of dear devotion to their muse on the surf. Their eighth wonder of an album on Fantasy Records is exactly that with love for the Beach Boys like Weezer studio sounds in all their recordings. Wilson is one of the greatest and still somewhat underrated songwriters in the history of all music and She & Him give him his due, like you and me should. I mean what other song do you instantly all sing along to in unison as soon as it sings through your speakers like 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'? Instantly recognisable even more so than the motor of Springsteen's breakout 'Born To Run' or the first chords strum of a 'Purple Rain' for Prince. Lovely and richly reminding you of a better time. Just so blissfully carefree as it washes you away like the tide at your grainy feet. Swirling like sticks in the sand or the amazing artwork that could curve 'round the photo frames of a roadside diner on your way to Route 66. But this one keeps its kicks on Santa Monica pier, by way of Rip City to the P on the peak of your cap, shaded from the sun. Dedicated like 'Deirdre', 'Til I Die.' Alive like entering Jack White's heaven with no fear of the dawn on these Summer nights longer than that song from 'Grease'. This is the one you want as you 'Melt Away' to the title track. 

Melting melancholy malaise of these frightful days are lulled away like an Eddie Vedder (get well soon) yukele 'Into The Wild'. 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' like a late, great Israel Kamakawiwo'ole redefintion of Judy Garland's Dorothy in 'The Wizard Of OZ'. Between classic standards, covers and Christmas, you may be yearning for some original her and he. It's been almost a decade since 2013's 'Volume 3' and we can't wait to go forth for more. But why rush one of the acts who will be around for a long time with their music living forever just like the beach? From the iconic 'Good To My Baby' in harmony, to the reassuring 'Don't Worry Baby', they make all these songs their own (like the flipping, undeniable vocals of 'Heads You Win-Tails I Lose') without disrespecting the originator. Creating moving music with the great Brian Wilson himself who appears on 'Do It Again' one more time for this sets sensational highlight. Hallmark like 'Kiss Me Baby' this touch of the cheek was 'Meant For You'. So 'Don't Talk'. Just 'Put Your Head On My Shoulder' with headphones on and listen. Like 'This Whole World' who know California, even if they haven't seen sand in their lives, thanks to Brian. But what about the lyrics, you wonder? Don't worry, baby. You know Brian's belong in the great Californian songbook like Bob's American one. But 'Please Let Me Wonder' says it all. "Now here we are together/This would've been worth waiting forever/I always It'd feel this way." That's songwriting. That's love. For two things that are one on the same. By the beach She & Him give you some real pet sounds for your boy or girl. Good for your baby. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Darlin'', 'Do It Again (Feat. Brian Wilson)', 'Heads You Win-Tails I Lose'. 

REVIEW: RZA - BOBBY DIGITAL AND THE PIT OF SNAKES

4/5

Snakes On A Digital Plane.

Jack White isn't the only legendary artist of our generation releasing two albums this year (the rocking 'Fear Of The Dawn' and the rolling in reverie 'Entering Heaven Alive'). A month before Jack, Wu-Tang Clan head honcho The RZA released 'Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater, Pt.1', in March. Chopping it up with DJ Scratch in collaboration. Now itching for more from Spring to Summer grass, Bobby Digital is back like DMX (rest peacefully) debuts on the double as the RZA 'Presents Bobby Digital And The Pit Of Snakes', the same day as White's 'Heaven'. An eight track wonder just a few seconds of shade under a half hour that won't leave you like Samuel L. Jackson screaming, "I'VE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF###### SNAKES!" Instead as Bobby goes Digital again throwing up the W for his clan, but soaring in his solo career to a new stratosphere, you will just hope 2022 is a trilogy year for The Godfather of Wu. 

Storytelling is the true nature of hip-hop, all the way down to the poetic prose. But no one twists and tells you a tale quite like the Clan that's for the children. Are you sitting comfortably? Then he'll begin. Like the great Slick Rick, "heeeeere we go!" Once again. And this new adventure for your hi-fi (if anyone still has one like an ipod) is an R.E.M. dream for the legend with sleepy eyes like Tracy McGrady, but always engaged like Mac balls just as hard. 'Under The Sun' this one sounds like a Western, Gary Cooper. Although theatre of fu for the Wu still slaps and kicks your ass. Setting the scene like a rap Shakespeare, "He traveled across waters many oceans rivers and lakes/Slept in the desert amongst a pit full of snakes (sssssss)/Slap boxing with kangaroos/Running with the wolves/He ran so much with the wolves/You think his foot had hooves/Slept in a bed full of wool stuffed inside his pillow/Spent his days counting flowers and petals upon the willows," by the campfire like the '8 Diagrams' return in '07. Spinning the chambers of his six-shooter in this duel, RZA has' Trouble Shooting' with Shot of all rap names, rapping "Trapped in a web of trouble/I untangled it". Before coming back "Wrangled up my golden horse/Then I angled it." There's 'Something Going On' with Stone Mecca to the tune of, "The sky may fall and worlds may shake/I bonded friendships I'll never break/We were brothers from another mother/Now when we speak/We both seem to stutter/Have we've grown that far apart/With a stone inside our heart," he ponders and wonders with brutal beauty. But still 'We Push' like "One nation under god, indivisible/Approached with a force, that seems invisible/We drink gold nectar and make a miracle."

Graphic like the lyrics, this pit is actually based on a new graphic novel by the RZA of the same name. Coming alive when he draws his samurai sword through the videos for this visual album, scratched and scrawled to new artistic strokes. This ain't for 'Cowards' as the razor raps with Moon Diggs and Shot, "Protecting women of color I discovered/A fiendish plot of the micro dots/That has to be uncovered/The truth has been smothered/About the queens who mothered." Really representing for black women. 'Fight(ing) To Win' with Mecca again as he discography extends a catalogue bigger than Madison Square. Let alone the collective Wu one in union's that is like the rap Dylan great American hip-hop songbook. "I don't thirst nor hunger/God walks amongst us/Snakes laying by the grave/I told them freeze/I'm not afraid, I'm no longer a slave", he says like the mantra of this anthemic chorus for really one of the most important years of his career or hip-hop history with his best work. Focussed to a fine sword point and sharpened. Honed and owned all the way to the 'Live Your Own Rhythm' of the spoken statement outro that stresses, "nothing beats the sound of nature" and everything has a rhythm. Urging us to 'Celebrate Life', beat-to-beat. "Let our spirits soar like the clouds up above", because "we're not weak anymore". Amen to this positivity and strength of self. Like the amazing album artwork, get ready for Bobby Digital to be a comic-book superhero like the Black Panther. Wu-Tang forever. Timeless like those classic rap legends who felt like iconic characters of your favourite story. All the way down to the clocks ticking on Public Enemy, the Adidas on Run-DMC's feet and the ninja swordsmen the Wu-Tang Clan looked like on a chessboard, shadow boxing for the art. From the gravel comes a new pit, but make sure you cut the grass. Because here like Jay-Z quoting Nas said, "the snakes will show." TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Under The Sun', 'Fight To Win (Feat. Stone Mecca)', 'Celebrate Life'. 

REVIEW: JACK WHITE - ENTERING HEAVEN ALIVE

4/5

Heaven Sent.

Alive with heaven, Jack White may be entering his best year yet. And this is a man who has the big-three in modern mainstream rock and roll bands with The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and of course the 'Seven Nation Army'  (check it out at Glastonbury this summer, with the call and response cheer to the iconic riff like a Quincy Jones 'Italian Job' soundtrack, football terrace chant) of The White Stripes with Meg in red. Now the Third Man pressing records in blue like Yokohama (expect a neighbouring plant in Tokyo soon) is about to headline Japan's famous Fuji Rocks festival next week with Halsey and Vampire Weekend. Right after releasing his second album of the year this weekend. 'Entering Heaven Alive', the sweeter and slower alternative to the hard rock that came with April's 'Fear Of The Dawn' for the industry outcast's 'Speakerboxx/The Love Below' moment. And if that wasn't enough, this blues man with a home in Nashville like Johnny Cash just proposed to his girlfriend, singer Olivia Jean like she was June Carter, onstage in his native Detroit. Promptly marrying her there and then when she said yes. Is there a priest in the house? Because it doesn't get holier than this for the roller. High times all around. Love abound. 

Fear no more, the dawn of a new day is here and heaven is waiting to be entered. This Jack of all trades-heavy and slow of song-giving us his second album of the year on the same day Bobby Digital, the RZA and leader of the Wu-Tang Clan gives us his second album of the year also. Not to mention new albums from Ben Harper ('Bloodline Maintenance' for his Dad) and She and Him paying tribute to Beach Boy Brian Wilson. And we though next week was Beyoncé big with White's 'Lemonade' guitar playing and sophomore sets from Maggie Rogers ('Surrender') and King Princess ('Hold On Baby'), who both gave us the dual best albums of 2019 with their dynamic debuts. Don't hurt yourself. Because we're alive now. And that's 'A Tip From You To Me' as Jack's back singing, "Walking through the park, my fingers clenching tight/Then I noticed that I'm all alone tonight/But it's hard to know for sure/If I even need to think now anymore." Songs for our strained times as we put out hands together and hold them tight. But it's the acoustic 'All Along The Way' that's really worth your pay. "Who knows/If I could find you in the dark/When I’m old/You said, “I’ll be back before/My coffee gets cold in your hand”/So I’ll do the best I can to/Follow you into the dark every day/And we’ll say the things that/Lovers often do." Lyrics lament as waiting lovers play the side of their hot coffee cup like a saxophone. The piano of 'Help Me Along' does exactly that to you in an organ accompaniment. "And I'm going to love you/And I'm willing to share/And I'm dying to take you/Everywhere." Simply beautiful. That's your marriage proposal right there. 'Love Is Selfish' he says over guitar that reminds you of the time he could tell 'We're Gonna Be Friends' like "books and pens". Right before he turns around and sticks us with 'I've Got You Surrounded (With My Love)' for the half. 

Buzzing like the Wicker Man, no song beats the next one. Not the 'Queen Of The Bees'. Because folks, this one takes you back like the album artwork in black and white. Working on the strings as White plays, "I feel lonely when I'm left all alone/I feel homely when you leave me at home/And the witchcraft that you're putting on me/Is a patch on a raft that is far out to sea/Pass me the bread and the brown sugar cubes/And I'll butter your toast while you take off your shoes/The coffee is warm, but it's not too good/Or maybe it's misunderstood like me." This b-side to 'Dawn's' 'Hi-De-Ho' with Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, a week before the Beyhive is full of activity next new music Friday. Ready to burn, baby burn like 'A Tree On Fire From Within'. Made from the ivory of perfect piano. "And violet roses give such a scеnt/2022 And it doesn't matter how long it's been/Even a dead rose is a good rose/You only have to see one to know/Like a tree on fire from within." Roses are now violet, Jack White loves blue and 'If I Die Tomorrow' lives with Beatles harmony too. Crossing roads like Abbey. 'Please God, Don't Tell Anyone', but there's 'A Madman From Manhattan' to deal with before this album comes to a classic close. "There's a madman from Manhattan/There with a man's hat and a floor mat made of satin/But this cat was not like this or that/But that which was aptly named for a man whose plan is a dime in a can downstairs for a dollar/If he can win the time with a dame/He ain't ashamed to holler". And neither is this raconteur with storytelling at its finest like 'Carolina Drama' for your 'Consolers Of The Lonely'. But as 'Dawn' and 'Heaven' fade to their conclusion for all your fear and hope, there's a gentle version of 'Taking Me Back' to do exactly that and remind you of the true essence of a song stripped-down to its bare and beautiful essentials. With these dual discs Jack White enters the sphere of Dylan's songbook. And this man can press his own records too. Heaven help anyone who tries to enter his zone. There'll be hell to pay. They might not get out alive. The new dawn is here. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Queen Of The Bees', 'A Madman From Manhattan', 'Taking Me Back (Gently)'. 

REVIEW: BEN HARPER - BLOODLINE MAINTENANCE

4/5

Father Time.

Ellen Harper showed us her and her son's 'Childhood Home' in 2014 with a family duet album for the record and photo album. Now almost a decade later, it's time for the songs of the father. Ben is back with 'Bloodline Maintenance' this summer. For the first time since he sat down in 2020 and showed us 'Winter Is For Lovers' instrumentally on the lap of his iconic guitar plucking. 'Blood's' amazing album artwork shows a young Ben tugging at the denim-clad arms of his father in a shot so Sly and the Family Stone seventies, all the way down to the sunglasses from the shade of the California cool. It's beautiful. Like the opening call and response in unison of 'Below Sea Level' to stop us from submerging. "Read in the papers/Watch on the news/Planets hangin' on/by the strings of its shoes", the Rolling Stone Italia cover star sings on his first vocal album since there was 'No Mercy In This Land' in 2018 with blue legend Charlie Musselwhite. Getting down on their Grammy winning 'Get Up' sequel. The multiple bands man's (he reunited with The Innocent Criminals in 2016 to 'Call It What It Is') first solo set since 2011's 'Give Till It's Gone', unbelievably over a decade ago. Although we're still waiting on those Relentless7 and Fistful Of Mercy follow-ups. Showing we're not alone, 'The Will To Love' legend fights for our minds once again 'Like A King' with his new protest song in subtle anthem, 'We Need To Talk About It'. And just like Kevin, we really do. 

Maintaining the bloodlines. Like the subtle surf protest of his friend and collaborator Jack Johnson's first album in time ('Meet The Moonlight'). Harper will also join Johnson in concert, now he's finished supporting Harry Styles on the One Direction singers album of the year ('Harry's House') tour. Here, he clearly has something to say after the instruments of his 'Lovers' trying to cure the ills of 2020, in black and white. "Slavery/We need to talk about it (We need to talk about it)/I say Black Lives Matter/'Cause history says we don't/You're either a Christian or a racist/You can't be both", he says in statement response to all the police brutality and the wrongful incarceration of black men and women that's existed for centuries in chains. That is not godly, or holy. Why would anyone who burns a cross think it was? This is a protest anthem and spiritual song akin to soulful artist of our generation Leon Bridges' 'Sweeter' with saxophonist Terrace Martin for its subtle beauty, but profound message in the margins like Stevie Wonder's 'Happy Birthday' ode to MLK day. All for a king who blends more genres than Prince as he chases Springsteen and Dylan's great American songbook with the urban legend of his own legacy making lyrics. Classic couplets continue this when Ben asks, 'Where Did We Go Wrong'? "Lost all perspective/Nowhere to take aim/With new marching orders/To find someone else to blame/They stormed the castle/But the king turned out to be a pawn/Where did we go wrong." Anyone that scoffs at the Springsteen or Bobby comparisons to Ben, need see the urgency of lyrics like this for an underground King like Bun B. and the late, great Pimp C. 

Father's and son's like Cat Stevens will see more of the growing pains on 'Problem Child'. "My glass is half empty/You hand me a smaller cup/Then you resent me when there's not enough." This is the type of poetic prose Harper has been writing in harmony for a wonder of years. But the child has a problem with a different father...the founding ones. Or at least the ones that neglect some of their sons. All lives can't matter until black ones do too. And that should be on more than a 'Need To Know Basis' as the video for this song dropped on the same day as the LP. Sampling Stevie's 'Superstition' the first record Harper's pops ("probably") played for him. "You're the reason/Aliens would come down to earth/Outer space must look small/From inside your universe/We paint time/With the colors of our lives/With what we do to survive", he laments with the writing on the wall. 'It Ain't No Use' trying to deny this album in a discography discovery of the definitive from early days with Tom Freund, to taking it to church like Hozier with The Blind Boys Of Alabama. It's 'More Than Love' like one of the best tracks on this album. A crazy, amazing ballad for a man with so much depth, he has a greatest hits package. "Like a train in the night/The never-ending fight/For justice deserved/I cry at an epitath/When I'm reading Grapes Of Wrath", reads 'Smile At The Mention'. Whilst 'Honey, Honey' will serve you too as the sweetest thing since Ben stole your kisses with The Neptunes. Out of this world gone 'Donnie' mad comes this timeless classic and you 'Knew This Day Was Comin'' like the times that are a-changin' or a Notorious warning. All the way to the atmospheric, classic closer 'Maybe I Can't'. "Some memories I plant in the garden/Others scattered never to grow/Maybe I can't let go", he says in parting as he let's us. Leaving us with something that will stick in our mind like a lump in our collective, constricted throats. The same day Jack White enters heaven alive for his second album in as many months and the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA AKA, Bobby Digital gives us his second offering of the year, Ben gives us his first since the year that changed us all for the worse in 2020. Musically, he was lost for words then. But now believing in a better way again, he gives us all a voice. Now that's what I call maintenance. On blood. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'We Need To Talk About It', 'More Than Love', 'Maybe I Can't'. 

REVIEW: J-HOPE - JACK IN THE BOX

4/5

The Great Hope.

The hiatus is here. After BTS gave us 'Proof' last month out the monochrome blue that they were calling it quits (just for a bit), we all thought it would be a long time before we heard from the idols again. Between mandatory military service in South Korea and the anxiety that groups that take a break rarely ever come back (from The Beatles to One Direction (yet)). But straight out the box like a Jack comes J, to give us hope again. Merely weeks after fans were left floundering with the news. The rapper and K Pop idol whose 'Ego' always gave us some of the best solo songs (even on the actual group albums), is here for his first full album, clocking in at 20 minutes. Not twenty-some, or so days after the farewell for now, greatest hits, self select 'Proof' package in Matrix leathers, for the soon to be reloaded revolution. Faster than food. Sandwiched between the 'Forever Rain' of RM's moving 'mono' mixtape, the 'Daechwita' of Suga AKA Agust D's 'D-2' and what comes next. The man that still has us dancing like a clucking chicken on top of cars to his soup, noodling through the California concrete, now gives us his soda on the side with 'Jack In The Box' and 'MORE' in the form of an all-caps exclamation single with an LP of no filler. Let's get it, let's get it, let's get it, let's get it! 

Colourful like wasp warning danger. Glove tip touching the fingers of a mouse like Mickey, akin to a renaissance painting of Christ. Draped in a zebra, Met Gala killing suit that will have you screaming, Lord Jesus, this is it. He's about to burn the game down with 'Arson' and it's incendiary video screaming, "'Cause with my fans/With my label, with my fellas/같이 함께 타오르기에, all day/합리적인 공범/방화범 was fun (Heeh)/무서울 건 없어/한 치 앞 f### off (F### off, f### off)." Charming! Walking under the bridge like a Red Hot Chilli Pepper with everything burning around him." But wait...watch this like a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR. 'MORE' is when Hope gives us exactly that like Usher. "Yeah, I'm thirsty/필요해 비트 위 surfin'/난 물 만난 물고기/Soak up the music, yeah/Eenie, meenie, miney, moe, oh (Right?)/춤추는 아기 flow (Right?)/Keep my passion, I gotta go/I'm still (Not enough)." But trust me...he is. Eenie, meenie, miney, moe. Catching The Riddler by the toe like Robert Pattinson to Paul Dano. Even when the biggest band in the world pauses their run, this man won't stop working. More and more and more again. All for an album of the 'Future', that straight out the 'Safety Zone' and into a top gunning danger one like a Maverick Cruise this Summer won't 'STOP' all the way to the 'Arson' like Bansky vandal artistic strokes. Showing just how hip these BTS cats are when it comes to rap. Especially J who is an instant bucket when it comes to hop. Rhyming over old school samples, beat breaks and even ODB piano, this guys a glorious bastard just like the ARMY is for the children like Wu-Tang. We like it this raw. 

'Pandora's Box' opens for this 'Jack' with an iconic intro for Hope's influence and inspiration. "She lifted the lid once more, and out fluttered a small, bright, most beautiful creature she had ever seen/It flapped its delicate wings as it danced around Pandora, lightly brushing against hеr shoulder/Pandora immediately fеlt her angst melt away and her heart glow with warmth/It was hope that was kept in the innermost nook of the box/It trailed behind the miasma of darkness/Assuaging their ill-effects on humankind/Hope gave people the will to carry on living amidst the pain and strife." And thus, as it goes, Hope is here. Opening 'Pandora's Box' for his opening, even though Spike from 'Notting Hill' never got to see it. Declaring, "They call me hope/Do you know why I am hope?/Pandora's history, that's my birth/The sincerity of the sacred heart given to man by great gods/The ray of light that is left in the Pandora box/Put it into a pure-hearted boy/Till the end, framed to become Bangtan's hope/The ceremony of fate, knighted in that name/That's my name/With a meaning from the depths of a myth/On my way." Out the box this is a treasure. And from the chest the game is his. Still beating with a Bangtan heart. Even with the standout '= (Equal Sign)', right now he was no equal like collaborator Ed Sheeran album mathematics. That's just the 'Reflection' on this 'Music Box' for a man with a lunch break album with no track that breaks the mark of a couple of minutes. Why? Because when you've already made your point, don't waste time. And J's is pencil and sword sharp. An army of Bangtan fans may soon as 'What If' when it comes to this trial separation. "What if I have no passion?/What if, what if, what if, what if/What if I have no vision?", Jung Ho-seok asks like he's less his second name. Well, he never had to worry about this like his fans seeing him on a milk carton. He's back from the hangover of the morning after to stir your cereal, with the most important album of the break of day. Remember you're his hope, he's your hope. And this is new hope. A jack of all trades...and a master of them all. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Pandora's Box', 'MORE', 'Arson'.