LIVE REVIEW: BRUNO MARS @ TOKYO DOME, Tokyo, Japan (30/10/22)

4/5

Mars Attacks.

Life on Mars ain't just a song, like Lana Del Rey once sang. Although, it certainly felt like we were living on the red planet, apart from the third rock from the sun during lockdown. Like being 'Locked Out Of Heaven', but we don't talk about that, Bruno. Now we're out of quarantine and the world has opened its borders back up, our social distance is reaching out to get close to each other again. Even though everyone in attendance is still masked up to stay and keep each other safe. Japan recently extended its hand to the outside world, and thanks to that we have seen many a live show in concert. From the race to see Lady Gaga in Saitama in September, to Norah Jones hitting gold in the old Tokyo, 1964 Olympic Games venue of Nippon Budokan. And now it was time for some 'Uptown Funk' to give it to ya in Tokyo Dome, where as Springsteen sang on his 'Wrecking Ball' (not Miley's), "the arena's filled and Giants play the game". But this weekend, it was the 'Unorthodox Jukebox' dynamo who knocked it out the park (even though the roofed Dome doesn't really allow that, unless you're Shohei Ohtani). Don't believe us? Just watch! 

5 Domes Sold Out, between here and Osaka. This trip to Mars was red-hot as Bruno brought the Dome down for a monster show this Halloween weekend. Toniiiiiiight the stage was set like XXIV for '24K Magic' for the first time since that tour sold out (many wearing creative baseball clothing from that time in number) the Saitama Super Arena like Steph Curry's champion Golden State Warriors and hometown hero Rui Hachimura's Washington Wizards last month for the NBA Japan double-header. But before that, Bruno pedalled 'Moonshine', saying "hello" for an illuminating opening that sent neon across the arena, before there was 'Versace On The Floor' and so much more. All to the tune of some stunning set designs that neon shone like Shibuya crossing at night. As creative as the costumes we saw later that evening. Gleaming in bright lights in this big city, like the Atlas stops Queen made in Rami Malek's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie. Galileo! 

Those blinding lights reached the furthest bleacher. Meaning even if you were a home runs worth away from the plate of his stage, you could still feel close to one of the biggest stars of the world and his gang of Hooligans. All of the lights with them dripping in all their 'Finesse'. A 'Treasure' for those who are 'Chunky'. You know, those "girls with the big ol' hoops". 'That's What I Like'. That's what I like. But before everyone said "I do" when he asked to 'Marry You', the man bathed in a purple reign like Prince with his own guitar performed a medley of numbers, because after all one half of Silk Sonic has too many hits. 'F### You!' by Cee-Lo. 'Wake Up In The Sky'. And an inspired version of wanting to be a 'Billionaire' like Gym Class Hero, Travie McCoy. But it was 'Nothing On You' by B.O.B. I wanted, "so f###ing bad". Please me. C'mon and just please me, like Cardi B. 

But 'Runaway Baby' and you could see that nothing kept the crowd moving like his showstoppers, as fireworks popped eardrums while he continuously cut a rug. Even the hardest song ever wrote by a man who once described the art of songwriting perfectly, ten years ago ("you've got three minutes to try and capture an emotion"). 'When I Was Your Man' being the closest thing we have these days in moves and grooves to Michael Jackson's own 'She's Out Of My Life'. Catching 'Grenades' before the 'Just The Way You Are' post-encore finale, gave it up for the band. The best moment for a man who even counted on us like ichi, ni, san, was when Mars holding up two peace signs to his cheeks came out in a number one Tokyo Giants jersey with "Kawaii" on the back (cute). The rest of his team decked out in uniform unison. Under the dome, no longer 'Locked Out Of Heaven', me and the one I held close jumped in perfect time to the signature "whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah, yeah, yeah's", pointing to the skies to acknowledge another legendary Tokyo Giants fan. If only we could stay here. Spend the rest of our days here. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Set-list Picks: 'Moonshine', 'Locked Out Of Heaven', 'Uptown Funk'. 

REVIEW: SNOOP DOGG & DJ DRAMA - GANGSTA GRILLZ: I STILL GOT IT

4/5

Old Doggfather, New Tricks. 

Snooperbowl. The Dogg is doing it all these days. Proving there's more bow wow in this old chow. Whether it's performing at the Superbowl halftime-show with West Coast luminary Dr. Dre. Or announcing to the mouth of Stephen A. Smith that he and the good doctor are about to prescribe a newly produced Snoop Doggy Dogg album for 'Doggystyle's' 30th anniversary. Aptly titled 'Missionary'. Calvin Broadus is positioning himself as quite the renaissance man. Rap's self-dubbed Dylan has even pulled the lever down on a massive move to acquire his old record label, walking Death Row, again. Last year saw an animated album that brought it all back to that life and reality ('BODR') amongst many compilation collaborations for the Row and some 'Metaverse' drops this year for the record. Let's not forget, the Dogg also moonlighted on a 'Day Shift' with Jamie Foxx as vampire hunters for Netflix, bringing those Def Jam Vendetta moves back. Not to mention, Snoop also remixed the theme tune of Larry David's classic HBO show for my personal favourite of all his recent achievements. Complete with a grey haired, bespectacled, digital Snoop/Larry hybrid video, featuring Tupac and a burrito spite truck, 'All Eyez On Meat'. 'Crip Your Enthusiasm'. 

Now, before he assumes the 'Missionary' position for the good doctor (erm), Snoop has another album for us. And you best believe this 'Gangsta Grillz' collaboration with another no stranger to hard work is no mixtape. This is DJ Drama's third release of the week on the same day. After Jeezy's 'Snofall' and Symba's 'Results Take Time' (even though this DJ churns out music like the 'Real Housewives Of Hollywood' do his music moniker). 'I Still Got It'. Did you even doubt it, or read the last paragraph. "How the f### I let Dre talk me back in the booth" (do the same for 'Detox' please, like Eminem said he'd make Dre do) Snoop Dogg asks on the opening 'I'm From 21st Street' new classic featuring Stresmatic rapping. "Couple croquesaques with the tube socks/First bank account was the shoe box/You know the cheese gotta come with the wine/I show you how to make a profit off of twenty-one crimes/Time, time for action, main attraction, flash the captain/A## is clappin', chain reaction, laughin'/Get a whiff of what these h##s be askin'." The rapping Dogg is back like 213, "Warren G, Nate Dogg, corner pocket, 8-ball." Jeffrey, break out Lucille. 

"Wreak havoc, I was a savage 'fore 21", the Drama dubbed "world's most famous rapper" (he's not wrong) muses a week before 21 Savage's new album with Drake drops. It gets even bigger on the Dave East and Kurupt assisted 'I'll Holla Back', as Cali' is still active like Tha Dogg Pound unleashed. The title-track says it all though, like the black and white film of the album artwork getting the blue carpet treatment, like this."Baby, I'm a rich n####/Diamonds on my wrist glitter/Show you the big picture (Yessir)." Keeping it 'Lit' with Daz Dillinger, before collaborator of the album Dave East takes it back to 'My City' for the best track of the album, bar the bars of the big-three intro that don't let up. "Let me walk you through the city", your West West tour guide says on this training day like he was Denzel and you, Ethan Hawke. 

Running the row electric, what Snoop Dogg album would be complete without showcasing the future like Babyface's latest. It's the West's night out and JANE HANDCOCK ('The Price Went Up' and 'Girls Love Snoop' like LL) and the Saadiq sounding October London ('Lime and Squeeze') are stars right now in the city of them. Even Juicy J steals the show on 'Been Smokin''. But there's 'No Half Steppin'' like Big Daddy Kane for the crip walker, as Big Snoop Dogg spells it out like many a guest appearance. "I'm the dog, I made it through, so they don't ask questions/Long Beach, and it ain't no half reppin'/Once a dog, always a dog, so they don't ask questions." Need you ask any more?

Answering it all, 'Around Here' there's no one like Snoop. 'From tha Streets 2  tha Suites'. Or tha chuuuch to the palace. He's 'Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss', from a 'Last Meal' to a 'Malice In Wonderland'. Masterpieces like 'Rhythm and Gangster' and the soulful 'Ego Trippin'. Reincarnated as a Lion, or a gospel preacher for the 'Bible Of Love'. In this 'Doggumentary' he's even gone country with Willie Nelson. Brothers of the same herb. But on 'Dolla Signs' with Trinidad James for another 13 track with Drama, Snoop lets it be known, "Flyin' in on a Falcon or a Hawk/I'm in the A makin' plays it's the big boss/Keep the ball on the grass or get picked off/Walk around on my grounds you can get lost have a seat/Let me show you what this s### do/Good Game good thangs here to get you/Hit you up no cup just bottles to the face/A little drip from a Crip in and out of State Bake Cake with the southerners/Drop a Tape with Drama and all the bad b#####s start showin' up/Slowin' up just to get you caught up with the product/Drippin' like Water while I'm flippin' your Dolla." All for one of his best on wax. And then just like that, they're gone. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'I'm From 21st Street (Feat. Stresmatic)', 'I'll Holla Back (Feat. Dave East & Kurupt)', 'My City (Feat. Dave East)'.

REVIEW: JEEZY & DJ DRAMA - SNOFALL

4/5

Snowtime.

Clinton Sparks said it best, when he said, "this isn't a mixtape, these are albums". And the same can be said for the Gangster Grillz of DJ Drama. Even when Lil' Wayne said, "and this is just a mixtape", you knew his 'Dedication' was deeper. And now there's three-times the Drama on the same day. As this New Music Friday, the DJ has spun three new records. One with Death Row legend Snoop Dogg ('I Still Got It' (he sure has)) and another with young Symba ('Results Take Time') waiting to be the King. 

So in the same week Taylor Swift burns 'Midnights' for her run, Norah Jones gives us a deluxe wrapping of 'I Dream Of Christmas', and legend Babyface brings us the whole of the better half of the young R&B industry for 'Girls Night Out', you can't ban the Snowman. Because walking on rarefied air again, Jeezy is back for 'Snofall'. The Young may have gone, but one of trappings best is still here, 'Bruh'. From the title-track to the close that keeps it 'One Hunnid'. Despite the spelling. 

Mountains of 'Scarface' (featuring EST Gee) snow deck the middle of the A, on the skyline artwork of this monster mixtape of an album. The iconic Snowman symbol staring down on it like a Bat, one for this Gotham in this J.U.S.T.I.CE. League. And you know just who to call on. As Jeez and Dram s### talk over signature drops. Aaaaaaaay! 

The 'Most Hated' with Lil' Durk loves the game. And with 'Mr. Game 7' they 'Trap Or Die' again. "Pink slips no leases, f### it, I'm facetious/When this s### drop I ain't bout to be doin' no more features", says the man who once responded to a car challenge by suggesting a real estate Versuz. He's got the 'Street Cred' to certify it and 'Kolors' for days like "I count a quarter million dollars every day (Every day)/Doctor say your boy need a wristband (Woo)/Black on black/Lamborghini (Skrrt)/I be swerving 'round this b#### like Batman." We told you we saw a signal on this dark night.

"Drop Thug Motivation, he's the number one thug (Thug)/Icon s###, heard he whip with one glove (Woo)/Said the shoes so flat, moonwalk on them b#####s (Yes)/Gotta use a brillo pad, white stuff on them dishes", this self-dubbed Michael Jackson to Drama's Quincy Jones says on the thrilling, free-throw line taking off 'MJ Jeezy' that walks on more than moons. All as he continues to 'Plug On 'Em' like Jordan before the smash single 'I Aint Gone Hold Ya' proclaims, "I ain't gon' hold you, feel like I got the world on my shoulders/Remind me of weighin' up them boulders/Catch me in an all white thing, chillin' at the red light/Top down and that motherf#####s gorgeous/What about that Royal Oak AP with the black face/Yeah, that motherf##### blacker than some Folgers" in front of Lambos tonight for these Lam-bros. All for this "Quality Street Music" that has nothing to do with the British sweets, but a different type of wrapping.

'Put The Minks Down' like 42 Dugg and let these men walk as we watch the throne. Because heads will roll with 'King's Crown'. So much so that Laker King LeBron James has been tweeting about it. The Shop talk is true, vintage Raymond Briggs is back in studio session. Hawking ice-cold hits like Trae Young. Silencing the competition. 'Still Havin''. 'How Deep' you ask? Like Keith Sweat on this standout, "I love the game/I live for the hustle (Is your love)/I thrive off the passion (Gangsta Grillz)/How deep is your love?/How deep is your love?/The greatest to ever do it/We unstoppable." That's how deep it go, Sisqo. Dong da, dong, dong, dong.

Get the 'Grammy' ready, because even the mixtape deserves its own category. 'My Accountant' is going to have some problems and Jeezy's is telling him to pay some taxes on these millions like Wesley Snipes. "50000 gram still the suitcases/All black Prada gloves you know the boots lace/Pearl-white ‘rari call it toothpaste/Tom Ford on you know the suit place/Assets and the cash flow/We re-rocking when the cash low." It's all 'BIG SNO' in capital exclamation with DJ "the f###" Drama. "No introduction needed, f### it, I'm still conceited/I'm on that Billie Jean, I took the fork and beat it (Woo)/I cannot be defeated, I cannot be deleted/I seen that Snow call, I know you n####s need it (Hey)/Seen how I beat the streets, seen how/I beat the beats I did it my way, Sinatra to say the least." The new Chairman of the Board says, "the forecast has called for snow every day. For the rest of time," for the first time since 2020's pandemic of 'The Recession 2' sequel. Mr. Thanksgiving gives us three kings and tapes in one day with all the Lil Jon ad-lib trimmings. And it's all going to snowball from here, this fall. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'I Ain't Gone Hold Ya', 'King's Crown', 'How Deep'. 

REVIEW: BABYFACE - GIRLS NIGHT OUT

3.5/5

Girls Trip

How's this for some whip appeal? The 'Tender Lover' is back, but this time the return of this 'Face2Face' 'Playlist' is a collaborative effort. Much like the 'Grown and Sexy' R&B legend for the 'Lovers', Babyface's albums with Manchild ('Power and Love', 'Feel The Phuff'), The Deele ('Street Beat', 'Material Thangz' and 'Eyes Of A Stranger') and fellow 90s legend Toni Braxton ('Love, Marriage & Divorce'). For the cool in them, Babyface tends bar on the ninth wonder of an album. Because this is ladies night. Time for a 'Girl's Night Out'.

It's a new day for the 12 time Grammy winner who has written 26 number one hits for a career that has produced like Pharrell. "Her eyes, her smile, her skin/Her smell, her hair (She's incredible, baby, ooh)/Her walk, her talk, her way her savoir faire/There she goes, there she goes (There she goes)", Face once sang about 'That Girl' with the Neptunes. But this album is about THESE girls. Ari Lennox, Kehlani, Ella Mai, Queen Naija, Coco Jones, Tiana Major9, Tink, Baby Tate for tour face, Muni Long, Amaarae, Sevyn Streeter, Tkay Maidza and Doechii on the title track.

Babyface mainly plays the background, but he's always on Ashanti and Ja Rule time, unlike La La Anthony, running late for this album intro with the Queen of R&B radio Angie Martinez. Face it, this album is fun and fancy-free like the candy coated album artwork. But it still hits like the Grammy producer with no hangover. Chased with some dialled up number ones, you can call on. 

"Let's all sip and toast to our exes/No regrets for goin' through texts/He tried to switch lanes and ended on exit", Doechii sings to those hitting the freeway like Braxton. Unbreaking your heart as Babyface's lines love you again like, "eyes on you when you hit the door". Reaffirming that the bar is still on him as he passes the buck to those up-and-coming artists for the rhythm and blues genre. Just like the outstanding opener, pouring 'Liquor' with a Lennox like Annie. Sweet urban soul dreams are made of these.

Some may balk at this album's concept, leaving Babyface in the bassinet, but this is anything but phoned in for the cynics and critics. 'Seamless' like Kehlani you will 'Keep(s) On Fallin' for this album like Ella Mai. Especially as the concept flips a classic Babyface as soon as it gets home. Your faithful lover is still here through all the tears. But now it's time to floss and get over that loss with a celebration of independent women. 'Game Over' to the haters with Queen Naija as Coco keeps it 'Simple' with lyrics like, "I wanna believe in us/ I wanna be cool, I wanna be chill/But baby, I've seen to much/Just bein' real, can I be honest?/I don't believe in love/The more that you give, the more that you get/Don't wanna feel unsure/I ain't doin' that no more/Yes, I've been jaded/So go 'head and say it/Got my guard to high (Mm/ And you know, and you know why/So complicated/But that's how we made it." Straight up, talk is never cheap when it's this real. Especially for a genre that has always afforded more affection, even when industry and ignorance has always sold it short.

Say more, even though Tiana Major9 will have you singing 'Say Less'. Because these amazing artists deserve their day like the one Face has given them. Killing it like his name was Ghost, this is more than 'Whatever' like Tink. 'Don't Even Think About It' Baby Tate says on a track that predicts future fate in the malaise of modern love and swiping loyalty. Muni Long gives us 'The Recipe' of a better way. Adding ingredients like "need you to love me, trust me, think it's so important/That we communicate, 'cause end of the day, I need you supportive/Can you respect me, yeah, will you protect me, yeah/But it's only gonna happen if you let me", to dash your new rules with some real helpings. All on said tack that's got you, soon as you get home. The game has changed. It's time to retire the players.

There's more than 'One Good Thing' about this cool collection. And you can feel it on the streets for the Sevyn Streeter and Tkay Maidza assisted 'G Wagon'. Streeter singing in unison with the host with the most talent at anything but his disposal, "Life on this side (This side)/Grass a little greener on this side (This side)/Yeah, this side (This side)/If you wanna be on this side (Green light)/Yeah, green light (Green light)/Grass a little greener on this side (This side)/Yeah this side, show you how we do it on this side." That's the hook. It's time to raise your glass to something a little more refreshing and toast like a new day. This 'Night Out' may leave Face fans pleading "please say the Baby" like Lil' Wayne, but soldiers, this album was always about who really runs the world. Girls. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Seamless (With Kehlani),'Keeps On Fallin' (With Ella Mai)', 'One Good Thing (With Amaarae)'.

REVIEW: NORAH JONES - I DREAM OF CHRISTMAS (DELUXE EDITION)

4/5

The Second Norah.

Tokyo, Nippon Budokan Hall. The one-time home of Judo and other such sports during the Tokyo, 1964 Olympic Games. Norah Jones was here last week for three-nights. Two years after the pandemic of 2020 postponed everything, including Japan's first games in over a half-century. On a big tour in Japan that also took in Osaka, Sendai and Sapporo for her Shinkansen. It felt like Christmas had come early, seeing one of the greatest of all-time, praise the Lord. The only thing that would have put a star on top of all this like a cherry would be if Norah had performed some choice cuts off last year's 'I Dream Of Christmas' album. We don't care if it was too early. We had the feeling like a Jones for Norah.

New York City, 2021. Live from the top of the Empire State Building on a piano like Alicia Keys in mind. The best jazz singer of our generation made the concrete jungle her own with a dream of a set. Wrapped up in gloves and scarfs, playing festive Yuletide hits by a crisp Winter's day long into the cold, cold night. All before finishing up with a tribute to The Beatles. Twice-over, from 'I've Got A Feeling' to 'Let It Be', before she got back like Peter Jackson. Performing with her band and Sasha Dobson of her Puss N Boots supergroup, no stranger to Christmas trimmings for the record, like She & Him. Come young brave, come young children, come to the book of love. Those 'Christmas In My Soul/Christmastime' segue and the 'Run Rudolph Run', 'Blue Christmas' and 'You're Not Alone' Empire making live takes make up the deluxe edition of Norah Jones' rewrapped, but not regifted Christmas classic this weekend. The same New Music Friday that Taylor Swift matched Spotify's most streamed 'Midnights' with her own '3AM' miracle of an addition. Expect this one to be streamed into the millions like 'A Legendary Christmas' from a dear John once the nights start drawing in and the early dark is illuminated with fairy lights and that warm, festive feeling.

After making her own Christmas classic seamless across and alongside the great American songbook's standards. From the 'I Dream Of Christmas' title-track, to the 'Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones)' (also in concert here with live treatment). Norah gives us her second Noel in a run through the pandemic, where only Taylor has moved as swiftly with the catalogue releases. Ready to soothe us for another holiday season like the 'O Holy Night' bonus of a Japanese editions dream. The previous Amazon expanded 'The Christmas Waltz' for this Queen like Nat King Cole makes the cut here. And you'll find the jazzy 'Last Month Of The Year' and timely classic of 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' (and I will be too, Mum and Dad. For the first time in three long and quarantined years). But check the bottom of your stocking and 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' for Norah's new good tidings brought. 'Tis the season to dream of Christmas once again, with more under your tree. And the Jolly Jones is back to make her eighth wonder of an album even more wonderful. When you wish upon this star, your dreams of Christmas come true...early. To you and yours. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Last Month Of The Year', I'll Be Home For Christmas', 'Christmas In My Soul/Christmastime (Live At The Empire State Building)'.

REVIEW: TAYLOR SWIFT - MIDNIGHTS (3AM EDITION)

4/5

The Midnight Hour.

"Midnight/You come and pick me up, no headlights", Taylor Swift sang on her sublime hit 'Style' off the album of her career, '1989'. In a video of sweet stylish aesthetic that spearheaded a tunnel of 'Lover' like vision run and new style of reissuing 'Taylor's Versions' of her classic albums. Something that will never go out of fashion. Like 'Folklore'/'Evermore'. The most successful singer/songwriter in the industry is the hardest working one, like the boss, Springsteen. Forget what Damon Albarn says. It's all been a blur, but burning the midnight oil, after 'Evermore' comes even more. 13 tracks, lucky for you, this fall Friday in October for an artist that now owns that season like red leaves. Your Hanks sleepless nights just got some solidarity in company. Whether you're looking out from a window that needles Seattle, or a Nashville skyline like Dylan. The songbook just added another chorus and chapter. 

0.00 sharp. That's when 'Midnights' comes to pick you up, all bright lights in this lonely neon. How fitting. Like forlorn yearning for the one who kept you warm on these cold, cold nights. And in a 24-hour cycle of this modern love and life that feels like a fever dream, we didn't even make it to the stroke of the next midnight before Taylor Swift's brand-new album broke records as Spotify's most streamed of all-time. Co-produced and wrote by Jack Antonoff and Catwoman herself, Zoë Kravitz, as if that wasn't enough already, a few hours later Swift released the '3AM Edition' with more bang for your buck and tracks for your playlist. 

Meet her at midnight for those 13 sleepless nights, scattered among even more that helped her get there from the cutting room floor. Because we don't have to be Haim on an epic collaboration to know that '3AM' is the new midnight. When oil becomes gasoline. No body, no crime like the remix. And if you want to talk about huge 'Women In Music' collaborations, then how about the 'Blue Bannisters' of the other hardest working artist in the industry, Lana Del Rey? Seamlessly sounding like each other in chorus with the 'Snow On The Beach' that Janet Jackson approves of on Twitter to the lyric, "I can't speak afraid to jinx it/I don't even dare to wish it/But your eyes are flying saucers/From another planet/Now I'm all for you like Janet/Can this be a real thing?/Can it?" Like Obama, yes it can.

But for this 'Anti-Hero' whose Twitter bio reads, "I'm the problem, it's me", the lead-single features her alter-ego at midnight in the decor of this road-stop like motel for your nocturnal concept. And even an attack of a 100-foot Taylor by the rooftops, like Lana in LA 'Doin' Time'. For us, it's the infectious lead track 'Lavender Haze' that really hits, however, as these 'Midnights' come to full moon bloom. Contemplate that, or 'Maroon' like 5, that is "so f#####g hot"! Truly unreal. Like it blows my mind. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Now, if you didn't think Taylor could usher in more, watch this.

1970's art and fashion aesthetics fit this storybook album like a movie. Just like the title, 'You're On Your Own, Kid'. Loving lamented lyrics lace this track like, "Summer went away, still the yearning stays/I play it cool with the best of them/I wait patiently, he's gonna notice me/It's okay, we're the best of friends/Anyway/I hear it in your voice, you're smokin' with your boys/I touch my phone as if it's your face." Tender like the ghosted nerve of lost love. But it's the 'Midnight Rain' this evening, where the Queen really precipitates. Like the anticipated 'Questions' that could give 50 Cents '21' a run for their money over this album of hip-hop beats, rhythms and synth. "Can I ask you a question?/Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room?/And every single one of your friends was making fun of you (You)/But fifteen seconds later they were clapping, too?" Are you beginning to understand what it feels like to be in her shoes? 

'Vigilante S###' keeps the 2017 'Reputation' energy going as the beat goes on. From folk to the electronica of a chilled dream-pop fever. Matching the restrained passion of the compellingly candid, conflicted confessionals in the booth. Such is the heart of life. Insecurity in insomnia. Self-critical in reflection. This is the water of Taylor Swift's deepest album yet. And by far one of the top of the ten. 

Midnights mayhem with her like TikTok. These 'Bejewelled' tracks belong in her crown with bewitching magic. A 'Labyrinth' like Bowie or lipstick marking turned over stones, singing "Breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out/I'll be getting over you my whole life", for anyone who loves from ashes to dust (hands up). Hey 'Ye, it's 'Karma' to the haters, critically speaking, "You talkin' s### for the hell of it/Addicted to betrayal, but you're relevant/You're terrified to look down/'Cause if you dare, you'll see the glare/Of everyone you burned just to get there/It's coming back around." These sentiments are not 'Sweet Nothing's', but everything like that exact track. The work of a 'Mastermind' in closing. Everything planned out perfect like Nas.

But then, at three hours past midnight, came the contingency. All for 'The Great War' that is love. Nothing hits harder than, "My knuckles were bruised like violets/Sucker punching walls/Cursed you as I sleep talked/Spineless in my tomb of silence/Tore your banners down/Took the battle underground/And maybe it was egos swinging/Maybe it was her/Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur." Until these seven seals that helped her get to the 13 sleepless 'Midnights' are more than a deluxe edition this Friday, like Norah Jones dreaming of Christmas again for a new package. This is 'Bigger Than The Whole Sky' for the master of her own craft, like the re-recordings of her own body of work. Welcoming you to 'Paris' like she did you New York ("Stumbled down pretend alleyways/Cheap wine, make believe it's champagne/I was taken by the view/Like we were in Paris."). The 'High Infidelity' of more concepts for your Cusack (or Kravitz) record shop ("Lock broken/Slur spoken/Wound open/Game token/I didn't know you were keeping count/Rain soaking/Blind hoping").

There is no 'Glitch' in this Matrix. Or the reloaded revolution of the midnight oil burning at 3AM like 'Would've, Could've, Should've'. Don't fall into that trap, 'Dear Reader', as Swift has some Taylor made advice in closing with the darkness, all before a brand-new day. "Dear reader/Bend when you can/Snap when you have to/Dear reader/You don't have to answer/Just 'cause they asked you/Dear reader/The greatest of luxuries is your secrets/Dear reader/When you aim at the devil/Make sure you don't miss/ Never take advice from someone who's falling apart." Word.

"We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren't-right this minute-about to make some fateful life-altering mistake", Taylor told us to prelude her midnight run of songs "written in the middle of the night", where more than the bed bugs bite, trying to get over that itch, or stitch in time. "A journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face." For her and all who have "tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching." In vain hope that "when the clock strikes twelve...we'll meet ourselves." And not our carriage as a pumpkin. 

This Halloween it's close to midnight, but for this GOAT like Michael making records with Quincy, nothing comes close to the thriller that is 'Midnights' and the way it strikes. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Lavender Haze', 'Snow On The Beach (Feat. Lana Del Rey)', 'Midnight Rain'. 

REVIEW: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS -RETURN OF THE DREAM CANTEEN

3.5/5

17 Again.

Still slapping that bass at 60. Today, one of the greatest bassists of all time, Michael 'Flea' Balzary celebrates his birthday. Many happy returns like 'Acid For The Children' ( I mean rereads of your amazing autobiography, I don't condone kids dropping LSD. That is not the school trip I suggest they go on). The Red Hot Chili Pepper lifer and accomplished actor (from 'The Big Lebowski', to 'Boy Erased' and most recently Star War's 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' show) most recently tweeted, live from the preseason, that this year's Laker team stinks (so far, he's not wrong) after appearing on Hulu's 'Legacy' documentary on the Buss franchise as a superfan like fellow 90s musicians of Los Angeles Times, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube. Some critics have said the same thing about his team's latest album (for the most part they're wrong).

Time to check your sense of smell in these times, because if anything, this album's the s###. Mere months after the famous Red Hot logo gave us 'Unlimited Love' in downtown neon, they are already back like they or John never left for all those years. The Chili Peppers' 'Return Of The Dream Canteen' is worth getting a tray for in their Hollywood Walk Of Fame galaxy, far, far away. In this city of stars there are none quite as recognizable as frontman with the funk jam, Anthony Kiedis, 'The Drummer' that looks like Will Ferrell (but is forever, the one and only Chad Smith), the bassist that itches and Frusciante who returned after the capable Josh Klinghoffer gave them 'Dark Necessities' in harmony with an Olivia Wilde skateboarding music video for 'The Getaway'.

Don't worry, darling. This album is as cohesive as said director is 'Booksmart'. By the way, this is the second album of the year from RHCP to feature 17 tracks (or Rick Fox or Andrew Bynum worth, for those in the know). Proving their love really has no limits like a club classic from 2 in the 90s. A lucky strike of a 13th album, just in time for Halloween for a monster act that's best fancy dress comes in a tube sock. All from sessions with the great Rick Rubin that yielded around 50 tracks. So you know there is some quality control as the Peppers heat up like a late, great DMX calendar debut. But we could go for album number three, too.

You see, with catchy singles on the 'Tippa My Tongue' like acid for the twins, Aerosmith like artwork and 'Peace and Love' this canteen is legendary as the Eddie Izzard 'Star Wars' Death Star one that deserves its own Disney + series. Warner gives it to us with no parental advisory sticker, doubling-up for the second time this year. Recorded at the Shangri-La studios in Malibu, California, sure it could have been shorter. But the 'Shang-Chi' Marvel movie could have taken some advice from the 'She-Hulk' finale too. And we still loved 'The Legend Of The Ten Rings' like we do this fab four, Californian modern day Beatles, coming together again. You know when it comes to Sinatra's sound, to be Frank, it all sounds the same, but so good you could just hit shuffle on Spotify and let it play? Well, the same will be said and heard for the Chili's once it's all said and done.

But 'Peace and Love', we hope that day is a storm drain length away, like Schwarzenegger spinning that shotgun on DA CHOPPER! There are standouts and new sounds here that sound beyond 'Unlimited'. Rendering this more than a B-side or throw away album. More, one that will grow traction in ensuing years of throwback nostalgia. 'My Cigarette' is simply smoking like Brad Pitt dipping 'Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood' and 'La La La La La La La La' is the eighth wonder, fresh standout like the 'Oh La, La' of the late, great Coolio. Rest in paradise. C U when we get there.

A wealth of material, making up for the ten-year absence of dear John, their heart and ours in kind truly grows fonder in these forlorn times like these. Where we're losing too many like Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins and, in turn, ourselves. The Van Halen inspired 'Eddie' pays tribute to another great, all whilst these legends cement their own lyrical legacy. From 'Reach Out' to 'In The Snow' like "hey oh", before Winter sets in like the coming thrones. Nothing is 'Fake As Fu@k' here (don't @ me) with odes to 'Bella' in all her beauty. On a rush of blood to the head on 'Roulette', Kiedis gives us one his coldest plays, rapping, "The college years were lean, well/Coming out but maybe not so clean, my love/And if I stay much longer/My feelings for you, they might get much stronger, now/A Motorola coma/Sleep your way into a deep diploma, girl/At the dormitory/You've come to pour me one of your best stories, girl." One of the greatest wordsmiths any game has seen.

Sure, this is a 'Handful', but 'Shoot Me A Smile' because this will last to the 'Afterlife' like "long live the King/The young grows old with his buffalo spring." It's worth of 'Bag Of Grins' for your 'Copperbelly'. Taking us home on...erm, 'Carry Me Home', where they lament and urge us to notoriously, "Kick down the doors that you don't understand/Please, don't lose sight of this generous plan/Blinded by prisms, we wind up in court/I'm folding chairs while you sold yourself short/She's about to redefine the way/Reminded me to say the other way was right/She's in a place to pray for me/And now we've got to flash the funky light-a/You've got your way and it seems I've got mine/Both gonna die at the very same time." This is B.I.G. like Puffy. Happy Birthday, Flea. Even in this comeback town, they don't write returns like this. It's all a dream. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Tippa My Tongue', 'My Cigarette', 'La La La La La La La La'.

REVIEW: M.I.A. - MATA

4/5

Meaning In Action.

"A turd". That's what M.I.A.'s 2010 mixtape 'Vicki Leekx' was jokingly dubbed as, even though it was the s### (no need to be one). Then, after flipping the bird alongside Madonna at the 2012 Superbowl (the British rapper said it was a spiritual gesture) the self-righteous NFL community (with no reason to be) and audiences beyond America acted like Maya whipped out three nipples (they did Janet dirty too). It's no wonder Mathangi Arulpragasam has been missing in action like her stage name since the true 'AIM' of 2016. Missing in Acton, Britain has been in a state of Brexit disarray since. 

But now the 'Paper Planes' singer is back when we need her the most to bang, bang, bang, bang (*cash register open*) take our money. Because no one on the corner has swagger like her. Not Jay-Z. Tha Carter, Lil' Wayne. King of the South, T.I. And certainly not Kanye West, right now. The Internet sensation since 'Arular' gives us her best since 'Kala' with 'Mata'. Despite 'Matanga' and the self-titled 'Maya' being massive in the tens. 

Automobile gangster, this "bad b#### from Sri Lanka" as a 'Monster' Nicki Minaj once put it, before 'Vicki' homaged, brings the alternative dance and electronic hip-hop music back for the world in a selection of globe-trotting signature samples and one line staples. 'Mata' matters like this former refugee who became one of TIME magazine's 75 most influential people of the 21st century. Flip that bird. 

Controversy should not be the label on a Member of the Order of the British Empire, with good reason. Her compelling services to creativity and the way her music moves should be. She is 'The One' like her lead single that stresses "Head for the gate, art in the Tate/I'm the thing that sons imitate/You can't stop the fate, stop the weight, lock away/Deny the debate relevant to the day." Finding her truth and sticking to it, like she told Zane Lowe. Flexing on the fierce 'F.I.A.S.O.M.' opening parts (the second featuring a punctuating Priya Ragu) that gives this neon electric album more light like the luminous artwork bordering Maya's portrait. 

'100% Sustainable' is the best take on modern life since St. Vincent's 'Pills' to wake, pills to sleep with Cara Delevingne. "Is there a pill for sickness, slickness/Working out, fitness/Your ego so bad, my goodness", she muses like Matt Bellamy with tongue in cheek satire, hiding the pill beneath. The Island Records get 'Popular' for the world on the second single, all before the latest 'Beep' goes for 911 broke like Missy Elliott. 

'AIM' was meant to be the last true album before the rapper went backwards into the sunset. But we're glad M.I.A. is cocked and loaded again for a long awaited album she said she would leak(x) herself if it didn't wake up by September. But now in October she gives us one of the year, let alone week's best on the same music Friday as fellow countrymen the 1975 and the second album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers of the calendar with more tracks than a greatest hits. All in the same month as genre bender and music maestro Bjork's first in years. What a time. 

Lassoing promotion like Ted on FIFA 23 with an exclusive uniform skin in 'Mata' colours. Kicking it across tracks like 'Energy Freq' and 'Zoo Girl' for an animalistic album as contagious as the one thing you haven't wanted to catch for the last few years that have cancelled everything like everybody. 'Time Traveller' takes us back to her future and on 'Puththi' she proclaims more power. But it's 'K.T.P.' that really keeps the peace in anthem. There's "lessons in the struggle", she says. "That brings us to the bridge of this battle/Cause you're fighting in a place that's already won/I'm not gonna ask you where you got your gun/You're hiding in a place that's already found/Hope you'll realize this fakeness don't count." Time for us all to genuinely sing along until war is over and put to bed for peace like Lennon and Yoko.

It's just that 'MATA LIFE' as Maya slaps on the 'Marigold' to tighten the album closer and new favourite. "When times are difficult (When times are difficult)/We're gonna need a miracle (We're gonna need a miracle)/When things are critical (When things are critical)/We're gonna need a miracle (We're gonna need a miracle)/The world's in trouble (The world's in trouble)/Cover it in marigolds (Cover it in marigolds." Sing it over and over. Because it's all we can do right now, as a 'Mata' of fact. Time for some action. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: '100% Sustainable', 'The One', 'K.T.P.' (Keep The Peace) '. 

REVIEW: THE 1975 - BEING FUNNY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

4/5

Funny Business.

That seventies band are back. Sounding as sweet as '1979' by the Smashing Pumpkins. But this is The 1975. Always, like their iconic, instrumental introductions to their albums. Wimslow's finest last left us with some 'Notes On A Conditional Form' after 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships'. But now 'Being Funny In A Foreign Language' (which is a guidebook I need as an Englishman in Tokyo, Japan, like their bookending tour in the land of the rising sun) could be their best album since their self-titled 2013 debut. Now they've moved away from those 'I Like It When You're Asleep, For You Are So Beautiful, Yet So Unaware', Ken Jeong 'Community' inducing odes (but really it is all so beautiful). Pure pop that will leave you grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Tumble down this rabbit hole of modern mainstream music at its best, and you'll be left dancing on the top of a burnt out car on the beach, like Matty Healy in black and white. Forget a Lionel Richie ceiling, or Toploader moonlighted. Loaded with top-heavy jams, this is it. One of the album of the year contenders in a calendar of pretenders like Chrissie Hynde. This is that 'I'll Stand By You' music like the smash single, simply put, 'I'm In Love With You'. "She's got her broadsheet/Reading down the list of the goin' wrongs (Yeah, yeah, yeah)/I'm getting no sleep/Tossin' and turnin' all night long (Yeah)/Oh, there's somewhere I've (Somewhere I've)/Been meaning to (Meaning to)/Take the conversation (Hold that thought)." Flowers for your morning commute on a love train through the Springsteen same tunnel, covering O'Jays. 'Only The Strong Survive' like a Boss and only love thrives. 'Looking For Somebody (To Love)', will make you feel like kings and Queen's collaborating with George Michael.

Lead 'Part Of The Band' and second single 'Happiness' feel like they've been here for years, heard. So listen, don't call it a comeback. Rocking their peers with their latest ('All I Need To Hear') the '75 get electric from those Lady studios in NYC. Songwriters pen to lips musing, "'Cause I don't need music in my ears/I don't need the crowds and the cheers/Oh, just tell me you love me/'Cause that's all that I need to hear." Devotion singed, sealed and delivered in the wonder like Stevie of single form, looking for a love like matrimony.

But, between beautiful ballads like the touch of 'Human Too' and the 'Wintering' to come, dance-floor broods like 'Oh Caroline', even match the sweetest devotion to that music muse. Apologies to Neil Diamond (ba, da, ba, baaa). But there's nothing as real and raw as the following, "Getting suicidal?/It's honestly not for me/I'm gettin' on my nerves by gettin' on my knees/Getting cucked, I don't need it/The place I want to be is somewhere in your heart/Somewhere guaranteed." There's your inquiry into the modern malaise of modern relationships, right there. No need to be brief. But let's keep it that candidly when we say this is one of this year's deepest and hard hitting pieces of pop art, full stop.

This is 'About You', me, him her. Especially when Healy harmonizes through the harm, "There was something about you that now I can't remember/It's the same damn thing that made my heart surrender/And I'll miss you on a train/I'll miss you in the morning/I never know what to think about." "Did you think I have forgotten?" As we "get married in our heads". The fifth album from one of this generation's best bands, dressed like The Beatles, wraps its arms around you in an epic embrace like their principal photography as a group. All culminating on the classic closer 'When We Are Together'. Storytelling in acoustic melancholy, "Our first kiss was Christmas in the Walmart toy department/She said, "I should take you with me when I leave"/We were searchin' New York for a fancy, new apartment/She said, "Central Park is Sea World for trees"" for your infinite sadness. But this is a 'Love' that searches for lead 'Happiness', finding inspiration in Lana Del Rey's light amongst the darkness as they man the boards with this generation's Rubin, Jack Antonoff. All as these young princes find diamonds and pearls in the rough like 'Ruby Tuesday' for your New Music Friday as they roll like stones for their latest licks. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Happiness', 'Oh Caroline', 'I'm In Love With You'. 

LIVE REVIEW: NORAH JONES @ Nippon Budokan, Tokyo Japan (16/10/22)

4/5

A Jones For Tokyo.

We meet again. It's been a long time, and we shouldn't have left the live show. But corona quarantined us at a social distance and concerts were cancelled like everything else scheduled for 2020. Fortunately for us in solidarity, superstar, 9 time Grammy winning legend Norah Jones 'Picked (Us) Up Off The Floor' with her album of that calendar, just after the lockdown hit. Coming hot-off-the-heels of the time, she told us to 'Begin Again'. Releasing even more music at a crazy clip. From Puss N Boots collaborations for Christmas, to her own holiday album that gets the deluxe wrapped treatment just in time for the season trees that are about to be cut down.

Norah even gave us a live album for our gig Jones, ''Til We Meet Again'. Thankfully, it wouldn't be as long as we first thought. In the year of her 20th anniversary of her undisputed, diamond (nobody mines diamonds any more) classic, 'Come Away With Me', Jones returns to our shores for a world tour. Big in Japan where she has performed at stops in Sendai (I hope you checked out the Daikannon), Sapporo and Tokyo (twice). One being last night's powerful performance at the historic Nippon Budokan, between shrines and trees that blossom with cherry in the abundance of Sakura season. A legendary venue for one of the greats. Records were made and broke here in the former judo home of the Tokyo Olympics...in 1964. But none for air conditioning. Tonight she takes a Shinkansen to Osaka, before returning to Tokyo tomorrow (certainly not cost-effective when you look at the price of just a single ticket, but I'm sure she'll be OK), one more time on a bullet train like Brad Pitt. Get your tix.

But what a night last night was for my girlfriend's first gig before the pandemic (with Maroon 5 and (maybe) Bruno Mars (fingers crossed) next) and my second after the race to see Lady Gaga, last month. And maybe also for an old friend that I'm sure was there at least one of the nights ('til we meet again). After her summer US tour that kicked off at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, she gave her all to us. Many hollering,"I love you's" donned in their genius 'I Have A Jones For Norah' t-shirts (the best since the 'Go Haim Or Go Home' of those 'Women In Music'), like me (in the tee, I've learnt not to scream, shout and let it all out eternally since a Louise Redknapp gig when I was 10). Miss Jones loved it and requested for it to keep going. Which it did in good, albeit Japanese trademark polite nature.

Supported sublimely by the great and gracious Rodrigo Amarante who also encored with Norah on a few tracks, Jones shined bright like a diamond in a mirror ball suit-jacket below a flag of the rising sun that sparkled in stage lights. Performing her most recent 'Floor' fillers and 'Day Breaks' before a 'Nightingale' took us away. Weaving through the rich tapestry of her decadent, definitive discography like a King, Carole. Highlights included of course the sweet 'Sunrise', which always awakes the oohs, a piano version of her 'Young Blood' from 'The Fall' of over ten years ago (the last time I met her in concert, in London) and the title-track from her diamond anniversary with the most beautiful lyric of all-time ("come away with me, and I'll never stop loving you"). Sure, we may have wished upon a star for some live takes off her 'I Dream Of Christmas' LP (especially as the deluxe comes out swiftly, this Friday), or her Empire State of mind Beatles covers. But as we found nothing like that under the tree, we just let it be. Because Norah didn't disappoint. Especially as she drenched our hearts in wine like the Budokan in beautiful cheers like we 'Don't Know Why' (serving an even better tour tee that had coins pouring). Finally, with borders open after all this time, we got to come together once again since a 2020 where we couldn't even get an Olympics. Jonesin' no more now Norah's back. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Set-list Picks: 'Sunrise', 'Young Blood', 'Don't Know Why'.

REVIEW: WILLOW - < COPINGMECHANISM >

4/5

Weeping Willow.

Controversy can cruelly cripple the careers of even those indirectly involved. But as Will Smith looks for his own 'Emancipation' from all this year's Oscar drama with his new Apple TV + movie directed by Antoine Fuqua of 'Training Day' and 'Legacy: The True Story Of The LA Lakers' fame. Let's focus on Willow and her music alone. Because Smith gives us a '<COPINGMECHANISM>' that can endure absolutely anything.

Such is these 20s roaring with our perplexed pain, but it doesn't seem like over a year since Willow like everybody told us 'Lately I Feel Everything' for another amazing album. Even so, Willow is still playing with yet more music for her FIFTH studio album (six, if you count 'The Anxiety' with Tyler Cole. We do, so sixth). Even though she is a week and change away from feeling 22 like Taylor Swift, who right now is the only one more prolific. Powering through and burning the 'Midnight(s)' oil next week. Partying like it was 1975, who will also teach you all about 'Being Funny In A Foreign Language' (living in Japan, I need this).

Making noise in a relatively quiet New Music Friday, Willow leads by saying '<maybe> it's my fault' in single. Adding, "Met her at a party, I said, "She seems nice"/Every time I thought about it, I got butterflies/And when I told you, we agree that she's alright (Ah)/Never thought I'd be trippin' over the lost time I said it was fine, yeah/Layin' down, six feet under, it's sublime/Should've saw the signs, now we're in a fight", crying painted tears on the artwork like the albums axe to grind, smashed TV set, looking like the 80's days of Talking Heads.

Yves Tumor brings rumours of more classic collaborations, 'Perfectly Not Close To Me' for an artist who got down with Avril and Travis last time out. Yet, the rest of the set remains J.Cole as the latest Smith family megastar member 'hover(s) like a GODESS' in ALL CAPS. "Just meet me inside the bathroom, "that's what she said/You're all that I see, not only for me, oh/To taste you is sweet, my heart is in pieces/When I walk, you f#####' hover like a goddess/Just meet me under the covers, baby, I wish/For you to be free, my only intent's to please you." This young queen making Murakami beauty out of eliciting the explicit, just like a Prince.  

The Ying and Yang 'Curious/Furious' and a 'Split' decision round out the rest of the album's standout singles. But it's the album's title track that is a titan in this punk clash of genres, like when the purple one we just talked about reigned. Representing a generation of anxiety in a worried world. Singing like an anthem about to reaffirm with truth, "Fun fact, I'm so, so sick of myself/My mind's a breeding ground for un-health/The walls are talkin' and the voices in my head (They're screamin' out loud)/Fun fact, some days, I just cry on the couch/Put my whole life away on a shelf." Yet, you can't put her records on the same dusty area. Because her talent is assured as the fact that it's the competition that will see the studio cutting room floor. Just like that hair she whipped into shape.

Laying another brick, this is just how she does it on her red table. 'BATSHIT!' crazy with 'No Control'. 'WHY?' You ask like a SHOUT! Because "I don't wanna keep feelin' alone/Isolation got me goin' psycho." And Willow, in solidarity, makes sure her fans that share the same sentiment don't. Or never will. 'Falling Endlessly' with the notion in devotion of "Don't wanna get up now/It's still the same every day/Lose myself and just f### around/It's an escape, yeah, it's a shame/I don't wanna get up now/Don't wanna get up now." "The least you could do is find someone else" she tells a friend ('ur a <stranger>' now, buddy) in a situation with a former flame. Boss brutality like the same Springsteen who said 'I Wish I Was Blind' ("when I see you with your man") and once even gave us an acoustic cover of 'Hair', Late Night with Neil You...I mean, Jimmy Fallon. Truth be told, it's time we all spoke our own in this filtered time of "I'm fine". Time for us to feel everything with the one who sets us free to do so.

Rocking like the Roc Nation she represents. All with the same bald head she shaved when she emancipated herself from Jay-Z and her father's requests to 'Whip (Her) Hair' all the way 'round a world tour. Making for the mature mentality of an incredible story of individual ground standing...as a child. In just under a half hour, Willow can give us quality and control in what would take other artists decades worth of discs to master. Now how's that for a coping strategy? Music for your new mechanism. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Maybe It's My Fault', 'Hover Like A Goddess', 'Perfectly Not Close To Me (Feat. Yves Tumor).'

REVIEW: BJORK - FOSSORA

4/5

Love Lockdown.

Beethoven. Mozart. Sinatra. Aretha. Dylan. Springsteen. Madonna. Prince. When it comes down to the greatest names in music and all they've done for the art form, Björk has her place on the shortlist, on a first name basis like John, Paul, George and Ringo. Yet, none of the aforementioned have moved music quite like her. She is an instrument in herself and continues to push the envelope of the genre like a love letter to music itself, serving as a postcard from her native Iceland. From 'Venus As A Boy' to 'It's Oh So Quiet', screaming. The icon has changed, but stayed her own, true self so many times and over amazing album after amazing album. Her 'Big Time Sensuality' taking her 'round New York on a big wheel in 90s black and white. She's a legend and even the world tour she's about to embark on (fingers-crossed, entering the lottery, here in Tokyo) comes in two forms. Orchestral or cornucopia, as you like it. Ready for another big riot? 

Blowing more than a fuse, Björk, who cultivates pure creativity, is back for the first time in five years (2018's 'Utopia') with a grand return like The Mars Volta, this month. The One Little Independent record 'Fossora' of avant-garde, techno pop a tribute in part to her late mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who she lost in 2018,a year after her last release. 'Sorrowful Soil' a moving tribute, chapter and verse. "In a woman's lifetime/She gets four hundred eggs/But only two or three nests/Woven with a mother's life force (Woven with a mother's life force)/Emotional textile (Woven with a mother's life force, woven with a mother's life force)/Self-sacrificial (Woven with a mother's life force)/This is emotional textile/Self-sacrificial, self-sacrificial." Dealing with grief with grace, just like on the third-single 'Ancestress' featuring Sindri Eldon. "She had idiosyncratic sense of rhythm/Dyslexia, the ultimate freeform/She invents words and adds syllables/Hand-writing, language all her own", lamenting the love of this wonderful woman, all her own like the child she raised. 

Other collaborations feature Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney on the closing door of 'Her Mother's House', finishing this album. And the amazing 'Atopos' sonic single featuring Kasimyn and its vivid video like the album artwork of fungus metaphor of something that lives underground and psychedelic pops up everywhere. Now, if you think Sindri and Ísadóra feel familiar, that's because they're Björk's children. Continuing the legacy of family, from the roots their grandmother left. In all the epic experimentation of Björk's career, this is truly what completes it and makes it great. Refusing to give in to 'Victimhood', or 'Freefall', Björk innovates her own emotions, just like her soundboard. 

Kasimyn, on the other hand, also features on the 'Trölla-Gabba' inspired instrumental and the iconic title-track. Whilst a serpentwithfeet (but no shift or space bars) licks at the toes of a 'Fungal City' (which might just be a bad case of athlete's foot). Still, it's 'Allow' with Emilie Nicolas that allows so much more sonically and spiritually. Lyrics like, "The warm, open wind on my skin/Primordial, a plants glazed at me/With moisture directed at me, erupts/My hair fossilised with salt and crust", showing the proof that Björk's poetry is just as potent as her instrumental artistry. The second-single and track of 'Fossora', 'Ovule' is outstanding. "The hostility a broken heart endures/The velocity of that injury is returned to thе world/With the same grin showing teeth", the Icelandic queen sings on a song of "romantic intelligence" and "sensual tenderness" in its "digital selves, embracing and kissing."

Electric, eclectic and of course epic. The latest in Björk's chronology, conceptualized during COVID-19's lockdown, is all about love. All the way to her native home. Mushroomed through the strings and roots of, as she puts it, "survival, death and ecological meditation". Because this album also deals with the difficulty and darkness of her divorce, as she now comes out from the soil and sorrow to bloom anew. 'Fagurt Er í Fjörðum' is formidable, but on 'Mycelia' you can feel it now, without a word. 'Her Mother's House' tells us with and for her daughter, "The space in your voice/Shows the scale of your compassion/The tone of your voice/Reveals the space you give others," with the moving message of generational grace, "the more I love you, the stronger you become." 'Fossora' translates as the ungrammatical feminine version of the Latin word for "digger". And as Björk mines more in our music, this genre-less form of expression continues to grow like our hearts, in kind. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Atopos (Feat. Kasimyn),' 'Sorrowful Soil', 'Her Mother's House (Feat. Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney)'.

MUSIC/TV REVIEW: KID CUDI - ENTERGALACTIC

Album: 4/5

TV Special: 3.5/5

Raging Love.

92 Mins. Starring: Scott Mescudi, Jessica Williams, Laura Harrier, Tyrone Griffin Jr. & Timothee Chalamet. Created By: Scott Mescudi, Kenya Barris & Ian Edelman.

If you believe, the 'Man On The Moon' is back, then put on. Not even a full year after December's 'The Chosen' conclusion to his trilogy. Mr. Rager rages on despite the hate given to him over a damn skirt and friendship by former friend and frequent flying collaborator, Kanye West. And let's say this, before we make this all about 'Ye. From '808 and Heartbreaks', to the drying of Pusha T's latest album, the instrumental, melodic voice of Kid Cudi has always moved more than mere units for Mr. West. WAKE UP! What you're doing right now is worse than when Drake mocked his mental health. And just like October's Very Own, you're not free from your own controversy. Scott Mescudi has none. 

Shaking it off swiftly, like Taylor. And burning the midnight oil on new passion projects that keep it moving, Kid Cudi has a new TV special movie for monster streaming service Netflix and an actual album to go with it too. More than the soundtrack to his life. Scoring big as this epic animation soars above the clouds, out of this world to a whole new and higher solar, solo system. Going 'Entergalactic' like a spin on the Beastie Boys, this is Scott's great personal love story, like Donald Glover heading out to Amazon's 'Guava Island' with Rihanna. The head-trip, fever dream animation will remind you of the groundbreaking 'Into The Spider-Verse' for miles, as Cudi's character races around the streets on the 'Premium Rush' of a bicycle like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's pre-Uber Eats bike messenger. The spokes of this acting as a love letter to New York City like 'Two Distant Strangers'. 

See this, brother. Although this animation accompanied by his eight wonder of a studio album and the engrossing 'Entergalactic Theme' is not for kids. Swimming in adult themes from the haze of drugs, to getting down and dirty in the laundry. Originally meant to be a series like long-running anime, this special released on late great fashion designer Virgil Abloh's (who inspired this cartoon's costumes) birthday and dedicated to his memory. All the way to an Easter Egg mural.

Mescudi voices Jabari, a street-artist with a familiar tag (Mr. Rager voiced by the great Keith David, who gave us another classic cameo this summer in Jordan Peele's 'Nope') that is about to be turned into a comic-book hero. But this story is a romance novel, not a superhero one, although the special-effects will awe-inspire your wildest dreams. Just like the who's, who of the vocal cast. Jessica Williams, Laura Harrier, Vanessa Hudgens, Jaden Smith, Macaulay Culkin (slaps cheeks...no, not those). And of course Timothee Chalamet in a lead role alongside fellow friend Tyrone Griffin Jr. AKA Ty Dolla $ign. Who alao provides brilliant backing on two key, sound tracks. 'Willing To Trust' and the montage moments of the standout 'Can't Shake Her'. 

2 Chainz ('Can't Believe It') also scores an album appearance, as does the hook of Don Toliver on 'Somewhere To Fly'. And just wait until you hear the Steve Aoki 'Burrow' with Dot Da Genius and the Don. Yet for all this 'New Mode', 'Livin' My Truth', it's 'Angel' with its halo that blesses the movie with its music moment and Scott Mescudi with his next most successful single as the Kid. 'Ignite The Love', 'In Love' and 'She Lookin' For Me' keep the heart beating over the 808s. And 'My Drug' (not mine, the music). 'Maybe So'? Definitely maybe in this outstanding oasis of music and movies and visual and aural amazement. On the explicit, emancipating break-up song 'Do What I Want', Kid Mescudi affirms, "More rage, more rage, black Porsche in the rain/Someone stop me, b####, get off me, man, my life ain't the same/Natural killer, born and suddenly feelin' in pain/Now it's like I'm on my Sepeher and I'm feelin' them games/Been through hell and back, made it, it's a wrap/Can't keep a n#### down, down, baby, that's a fact." Anyone that disagree better do like this special's half-baked catchphrase and "STAY OFF THE WEEEEED!" Cudi is smoking. Enter this galactic. You won't regret it. Flying yourself to the moon like Sinatra on a Hendrix purple haze. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Entergalactic Theme', 'Angel', 'Can't Shake Her (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign)'.

Further Filming: 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse', 'Two Distant Strangers', 'Guava Island'.