REVIEW: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - IN TIMES NEW ROMAN...

4/5

Queen's New Roman.

A fortnight following Josh Homme's Them Crooked Vultures supergroup co-star and 'No One Knows', 'Songs For The Deaf' era drummer Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters releasing their first album since the passing of dear drummer Taylor Hawkins ('But Here We Are'), and one week after arguably the biggest and best album of the year ('Paranoïa, Angels, True Love') by Christine and the Queen's, comes the most cohesive by the Queens of the Stone Age. And it's all written in your favourite font, 'In Times New Roman' (Fontastic!). Yet, nothing about this eighth wonder of an album from the Seattle based stoner desert, alternative rock and metal act is regular or go-to. All the way down to the aesthetic artwork that's so awesome it looks like the kind of tattoo Otto from 'The Simpsons' would rock behind those guitars that, you know, are like double guitars, man?

For the Queens' first album since the 'Villains' of 2017, singer Josh Homme's has been through the worst times of his life. Recently revealing he has undergone cancer treatment (we hope all is and continue to wish him well). Writing about these dark days, from God Rick Rubin's legendary Malibu's Shangri-la studios to a Readymade one in Paris, he does so 'In Times New Roman'. And the first Word document of a single comes with 'Emotion Sickness' for those suffering from too much of that on life's journey. The penultimate album track sings, "You got no possessions, just your flesh on, yeah/See the sights, Holy Braille/Feel as you might, ah/Rip some pieces free/Oh, atrocious, f-ferocious, yeah/Check the price/Alibi, buy by the slice/Yeah, absolutely." Said to be about Homme's relationship with ex-wife Brody Dalle. As both sides are telling their story right now. 

This Matador record from QOTSA charges in with the outstanding obscenity of 'Obscenary' to lay the scene perfectly. The second single belongs to the new classic 'Carnavoyeur', the best sounding track on an album from a band that you can just let play in the background as their signature sound can rock and roll you on an even smoother tide. Especially for a metal act from the grungy domain of Seattle, Washington. The latest single, however, is the second song on this top ten tracked album. 'Paper Machete' cuts you to the quick too as Homme in heavy harmony declares, "They're out to get you aren't they?/The kids, the man, the chicks, the breaks/I don't care what you think anymore/Doesn't matter anyway/Joan of arc, victim, perpetrator/Just a paper machete/The truth is just a peace of clay/You sculpt, you change, you hide, then you erase/You think you're brave?/All the plans you made/

Behind my back and from far away?Truth is, face to face, you're a coward/Sharp as a paper machete." Making manipulation face up to the mirror. There are some who just listen to music and let the wise words from a weary soul pass them buy. There are others that read the lines on the paper until they set in like tears that run like ink. If this sounds like you, or something you've been through, maybe it's time to draw a new line. 

Bearded and bedraggled through all the brutal pain, Homme still makes something beautiful through all the 'Negative Space' and brooding, bouncing back. There's a 'Time & Place' to make records like this, and it's here, rocking back harder. On 'Made To Parade' Josh jolts those who aren't living their own lives in this world that loves likes more than the heart of what matters. "Oh, I don't know what time it was/I just felt so young with a brand-new page in the morning sun/So you're made to parade with the mess you made?/Well, by all means/If I followed you, I'd be lost too, that can never be/So you're made to parade with the mess you made?/Well, float away/If I followed you, I'd be lost too, that can never be." Make sure you follow your own one. No matter 'What The Peephole Say' as people look through the doors to your lives without wiping their feet on the welcome mat.

Homme, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman, Jon Theodore, Troy Van Leeuwen stun on the second-best track of the Seattle's supersonic album, 'Sicily'. Like Italy, it inspires sunshine through all these dark days heavier than metal or the blood-red bandana wrapped around the album cover's temple. "You're all peaches and cream/Pink nightmares/Lust a wild ocean/Don't rescue me, I'm drowning in wet dreams it seems", mixes the beauty of love with f###ing explicity. Juxtaposing like the love and hate of love and life. "I'm all used up again/I beat myself like a broken record/Objectified, misuse me as directed/My sweet nothing/The pound of flesh again/Silhouettes witness sheer devotion/I trace your hips/Oh, slow motion/I live between/Your legs." Feeling at a turn in bed, at times like a safe haven, at others in the middle of a sleepless, dark night, a prison. These themes are all wrestled with right until the classic closer 'Straight Jacket Fitting' that will suit and boot you around for almost ten minutes. In these new Roman times, your Stone Age favourites take the throne again. Yet in this game, rocks are still thrown from King's and Queen's, as the head remains as heavy as the heart. It was just written this way. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Emotion Sickness', 'Carnavoyeur', 'Sicily'. 

REVIEW: CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS - PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE

5/5

An Angel's Love.

Dylan, the Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and Ben Folds. Last week's New Music Friday was blockbuster big this summer season. But this one is even bigger with three of a kind. Janelle Monáe gives us 'The Age Of Pleasure' we've been waiting for since the age of Aquarius. Whilst Jenny Lewis is just trying to spread 'Joy'All'. But like 'What Matters Most', let's save the best for last with Christine and the Queens' epic trilogy and Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier's magnum opus featuring Mike Dean, 070 Shake and musings from the one and only Madonna. 'Paranoïa, Angels, True Love' is a Louvre loved work of art, from one of this generation's greatest artists with acclaim. The rain of November gave us the perfect prologue of 'Redcar les adorables étoiles'. But now with the summer sun we can now feel the trilogy masterpiece as Redcar's story continues down the road in three acts. 

Ever since the French singer gave you your flowers and the human warmth of 'Chaleur Humaine' the music world has never been the same. Whether the self-titled sophomore set 'Chris' and the wonderful 'The Walker' teased things to come. Or if the deeply personal 'People, I've Been Sad' turned into the anthem of our collective planet pandemic. Now on 'Paranoïa' the first seven tracks takes us even higher in the realm of mesmerizing music for your muses. This experimental art pop opera opens with the opulence of an 'Overture' like the second disc's Mike Dean feature. All before getting straight to it with the instant classic single 'Tears Can Be So Soft' with the grief that falls like 'Aftersun'. Sampling Marvin Gaye ('Feel All My Love Inside') singing, "I miss my mama, miss my mother/Miss my mama at night/Ooh, she gave me life, ah, ah/I miss my brother, miss my brother/Miss my brother all day/Ooh, we used to pray/Ooh, I miss my lover, miss my lover/Miss my lover at night/Ooh, to hold me tight." The pain is profound. 

Marvin's room continues to be inhabited on the magnificent 'Marvin Descending' for this operatic masterpiece. 'A Day In The Water' continued this formidable glow for the source of your streaming. Purification from the pain, soothing "Deeper, and the deeper/Deeper, deeper that I go/Softer, it gets softer/It gets softer, softer, I don't know/Father, oh, father, oh, father/Oh, father, let me go I don't want it no more." But in this magnum opera, it doesn't get more classical, or 'Full Of Life' than sampling a 17th century composer for a hallowed highlight. Johann Pachelbel's 'Canon in D Major,' makes the life of this song exactly that. Major! But if you thought that was big, or the first act's 11 minute 'Track 10' finale in all its musical journey, then wait until you hear 'Angels Crying In My Bed'. Because this is the first time we hear the massive megastar Madonna's moving monologues. "And maybe we will almost fall in love/I will look into his eyes, and he into mine/My one singlе eye, the unfortunatе other blinded by a punishing slap/And we will agree that love can be blind." The superstar storytelling with the greats. 

'He's Been Shining For Ever, Your Son' The second act declares. Beautiful in black and white like the striking pose of the album artwork like a dancer. 'The Flowery Days' continue this beautiful bloom, before meeting an angel again with Lady Madonna. The first 070 Shake collaboration comes with 'True Love' however. And the 'Let Me Touch You Once' second track that follows. "Flexing, flexing hard, flexing hard/Flexing slow, flexing slow/See my abs, see my abs/I'm your man, I'm your man, mm/As I am imperfect/Waiting for some hot sex/Oh, forgive me, parles-tu français?" Unapologetically. Yes, this album deals with the grief of Héloïse losing his mother. But that doesn't mean he can't find the joy in life like Jenny. Or the pleasure principle like Janelle channelling Janet. 'Aimer, puis vivre' concludes all of this en Francais. "Love, love with, love without love/Pour lui, elle a tout lâché, je comprends/Elle tend sa main dans le froid, je n'entends pas/Love, love with, love without love (Je fais des choix)." 

Tarot card album artworks deal you to the third and final act of this ménage à trois for the fourth album. This is where the 'Angels' become 'True Love'. This "operatic gesture" inspired by Tony Kushner's 1991 play 'Angels In America' lets it all 'Shine'. All because like the record company, 'We Have To Be Friends'. "Touch yourself/Boy, it's all still there/Your mouth, your nose/Your eyes, your elbows/Your knees were supposed to go/But it's all still there/And you loved, boy, open wide/A sorrow crashed on the floor, wasted again/But, boy, oh, boy, at least you tried." Heads, shoulders, knees and toes never sounded so good for the whole body you touch. 'To Be Honest' before the first single of this fourth, it gets really racy 'Lick(ing) The Light Out' with Madonna in a neon dream from the sparkling flashbulbs of the Iron Lady. "Descend a bit lower, lower/Mm, and meet me there", he says. Whilst Madonna like a prayer asks, "Where do you think I stand?/I stand in your heart/Just next to your lungs/You smoke too much/Do you want to chase me away?/I am dwelling in your sorry." "If an angel in power decided just to see me/Could I get that much higher?" the Queen asks. Putting two hands together for those guardians from the United States. 

'I Feel Like An Angel', Letissier laments, spreading his wings. All before the 'Big Eye' like the portrait of a famous artist comes to a close. Your love is your power. Your love is your soul. And we see it in collective unison for the one. "After the signal you sent me/When I f### you now/Oh, I touch you now/Recreate it now/Penetrate it now/Soul/My soul/Yeah/Open it all/Open it all/Oh, my word is my sword/Eh, oh, my word is my sword/Recreate it all/And forgive it all/My eyes is my pride/It's all dead inside/It's all dead and then it is reborn in me/Endless memories/I see you from inside, my teacher/Master of love, my pride/I am now your mother." Through the grief and the paranoia comes an angel to watch over you true. Making you believe in love again and the power of the spiritual and the sexual. In the boundless beauty of a Queen's bountiful body of work. This Redcar ain't stopping. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Tears Can Be So Soft', 'Full Of Life', 'I Met An Angel (Feat. Madonna)'. 

REVIEW: JENNY LEWIS - JOY'ALL

4/5

The Age Of Joy. 

Rave unto the 'Joy'All'. The fantastic new album from great American singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis. All in the same big-three new week Janelle Monáe gives us 'The Age Of Pleasure' and Christine and the Queens the even more magnificent 'Paranoïa, Angels, True Love'. But don't forget about Jenny like Forrest. Her first album since 2019's outstanding 'On The Line' is her best since the fellow torso classic of 2014's sea blue 'The Voyager'. Rilo Kelly, Jenny and Johnny, The Watson Twins, Nice as F###, Bill for 'A Very Murray Christmas'. The only one Lewis hasn't collaborated with is Clark. But on her latest epic expedition, her lucky for us 13th album and her fifth solo project has a sparkling seventies feel. All the way down to the glittering disco ball album artwork that will play in your playlist's jukebox. 

Down this line, we are given 'Psychos' like Hitchcock for the latest stab at a single that you'll surely sing in the shower. Marching forward towards the light with lyrics like, "Life goes in cycles/It's a merry-go-round/I've been working off that juju/From my hometown/I am a rebel/All American made/Jesus Christ and the Devil/Yin and Yang." This is her songbook, and she's sticking to her own script. Because after all. All you need in this life is yourself, and a 'Puppy And A Truck' like a Norah Jones 'Man Of The Hour', or the classic anthem from two years back. Its artwork looking like a 70s ABA trading card. Trading love for what truly matters in life, "My 40's are kicking my a##/And handing them to me in a margarita glass/I was infatuated with an older man/And then I dated a psychopath." Hey, we've all been there. This is 40...and it's never sounded so good. 

Following the latest single's album opening comes the LP's title-track. After that on this half-hour affair like Janelle's 'Pleasure' comes the different strokes of 'Apples and Oranges', another fresh, classic cut. "He don't kiss me in the morning/He don't tuck me in at night/He don't know the things about me/That endure despite/He's hot and he's cool/He just isn't you/Oh, apples and oranges/Perfume or poison/Oh, apples and oranges/Look at them (Apples)". Comparing a new love with a former flame. And can you blame? Who can say they haven't done it? Especially for the record in this social scroll day and age. Now how dya like them apples? 

The core of this album gets to the 'Essence Of Life' in all its and the track's beauty. Sounding like a country Kate Bush, singing, "It's not that far away/From L.A. to the Bay/But I may as well be living on the moon/When I heard you say/You're not feeling it in that way/It reinforced what I already knew." Break-up ballads at their most beautiful. 'Giddy Up' and ride along, because this record keeps going strong. But show me 'Cherry Baby' and you'll have one of the top tracks of this ten. Even if it is her "first rodeo". Yet it's the 'Love Feel' that will seep deeper into your skin with the cream of the crop this summer. "Marvin Gaye, Timberlake, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash/John Prine, Waylon and Willie/Ice cold Modelo Tennessee whiskey/Bourbon from Kentucky left my heart in Vette City/Black truck, Pontiac, Plymouth and Cadillac/Thunder and pouring rain, sugar in the gas tank." An all-American classic like the aforementioned names. 

Heartbreak with hallmark helpings of humour and heart make this record and our relationships with it relatable. Making for a wonderful view from the 'Balcony' of this Las Vegas, Sin City singer by way of San Fernando Valley, Californian. "Tell me/Do you want this thing to end?/Are you so ready/To see all of your friends?/At our reunion, I'll pick up the tab/Have the rib-eye on me/And don't feel bad/It's my joy to/Feed you/Woo/Woo/Ooh/Do you remember/Making love?/Do you remember/The Gypsy inn by the sea?/And abusing emotionally/Invisible bruises no one can see/Not me/Or them." Turning misery and the desire of company on a dime all for what's at "steak" in love and life. Fill your country boots with a rhinestone classic that looks for the joy in life without so much as a trace of cynicism or cliché. 

All the way to the last with the 'Chain Of Tears' linked to the fools Motown's finest sang about. "Painted black and blue", hoping "there was some pill I could take/Wash away down the wishing well, hmm/Some procedure I could undertake/To have your memory erased, oh", all to dull the pain of a love that will never feel or be the same. Love in times of lobotomy, or a memory that will always look like a scar...no matter how far. Fading like pictures, or portraits of what we once were. "How do you say goodbye forever?/Sincerely seeking advice", Jenny Lewis asks. Fortunately for us, we won't have to say goodbye to the love of records like this that will last on the line down this voyage. Joy is for y'all. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Puppy And A Truck', 'Essence Of Life', 'Chain Of Tears'.

REVIEW: JANELLE MONAE - THE AGE OF PLEASURE

4/5

The Pleasure Principle.

Monáe makes the world go 'round. Whether it's the 'Hidden Figures' star literally stealing the show on the double from Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig in the 'Knives Out Mystery' 'Glass Onion' as an actor. Or as an author, writing the science fiction Afrofuturist cyberpunk short story collection 'The Memory Librarian' (thank you for the autographed copy, D) based on her last album (2018's 'Dirty Computer') and the short movie that was printed out under its heading too. Now 'The ArchAndroid' and 'The Electric Lady' is back where she belongs in your speakerboxx. All for an album that's less sci-fi and more Bowie meets Beyoncé. 'The Age Of Pleasure' is here. And it's a deep-dive into the water world of love and the age of Aquarius. This little mermaid, aqua marine, swimming suggestively like a stingray between the middle of your legs for some amazing artwork for your swimming pool nirvana. Never mind anything else. 

This half-hour afrobeat reggae soul power feels like something from the seventies like Jenny Lewis' 'Joy'All'. Also out on the same New Music Friday that Christine and The Queens show you Redcar's 'Paranoïa, Angels, True Love' and many mesmerizing Madonna monologues. Coming out on Wondaland and Bad Boy, Atlantic Janelle's 'Age Of Pleasure' is for everyone as the non-binary star who still goes by she/her pronouns as well as they/them gives us their best record yet. She let her first single 'Float' in your collective Clouds for a minute. And it opens everything here with guest features Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Inviting a world of wonderful musicians to this pleasure party suitable for all. Yet it's the Met Gala after party debuted 'Lipstick Lover' that really makes you pout as you apply it to your playlist. "I like lipstick on my neck/It let me know I'm your number one select/I like lipstick on my neck/Hands around my waist so you know what's comin' next/I wanna feel your lips on mine/I just wanna feel a little tongue/We don't have a long time." The only thing sexier than the lavishing lyrics is the stunning visuals of the music video. 

Lovers in all their f###ing feeling, the Queen makes us all bow down as low as we can go. Racy to the top of the charts, sex hasn't been this artistic since the days Prince would 'Come' in 'Controversy'. The collaborations are classic too. Something 'Phenomenal' comes with Doechii. And CKay 'Know(s) Better'. Even Nia Long joins Amaarae on 'The Rush' of you know what. But 'Ooh La La' The je ne sais quoi comes when a modern day icon meets a loving legend in the form of Grace Jones (and you thought the Queens and Madonna collaboration was a f###ing monster (it is)). "Ah oui, qu'est-ce que tu fais, tous les deux la?/Vienez-moi tous les deux/C'est est est est ton ami?/C'est ton ami?" Miss Jones asks. Pardoning your French in all her grace. 

Speaking of French and in tongues, we enter the Moulin Rouge in all the district of its red light for the album interlude highlight 'The French 75' featuring Sister Nancy. "Cheers to Paris, the vibes The French Quarter, French kisses/Cheers to the last night, French fries/Partyin' and gettin' f###ed up (Yeah)/Cheers to us not motherf###in' havin' a hangover (Yeah, cheers)/Cheers to us dancin' our asses off (Yes)/Having a good motherf###in' time," she toasts. We'll clink a glass to that. On her 'Champagne S###', Monáe raises even more glasses in spirit for this ice-cold diamond of a cut. All to the sands of a 'Black Sugar Beach' that streams,"I'll be your lottery tonight (Champagne s###)/I'll be your lottery tonight (Champagne s###)/(Champagne s###)/(Champagne s###)/Shake it all up (Hip, hip, hips, shake it all up)/Back that a## up/(Skip, skip, skip, shake it all up)/(Hip, hip, hips)/(Champagne s###)." Still on that bubbly skit until the refrain that likes it raw. Ooh, baby! 

"I'm raisin' the bar, they'rе givin' me stars/They think I'm supreme/They say I look better than/David Bowie in a Moon Age Dream/They keep on gassin' me up/I'm smokin' a pack of that loud/Ain't see me like this in a while/I'm young and I'm Black and I'm wild", the android going up against 'Paranoïa' sings in this sonic oasis. The couture of this 'Haute' is a grand design. Keeping it wet on the pool party 'Water Slide' of this heroine's hedonism. Before we are all 'Paid In Pleasure' with words like "I want my love made to your measure (Measure)/I wanna feel how you fit around me (Mmm)/I don't need money or treasure (Treasure)/Spend your quality time on me (Mmm)", for this age today. All for the best of this good year with one last sip of 'A Dry Red' that makes wine out of your tears for the INXS love of leading man Michael Hutchence whose memory could never be torn apart. 

But for your eyes only it's 'Only Have Eyes 42' in its worthy clever concept that's the real big game. "I like to love with my eyes closed/I try not to lead with my ego/Everything happened in slo-mo/But we all smiled and said, "It's alright"/'Cause you're the one, you're the one/Double the fun, triple the time for love/'Cause you're the one, you're the one/You suck the words from my tongue/That's when I knew." Even after the heavy hitters of a blockbuster last week, this ménage of the big trois of Janelle, Jenny and Christine's painted masterpiece gives us one of the best f###ing weeks of new music. Now, the 'Pleasure' is all yours, and more importantly...hers. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Lipstick Lover', 'Ooh La La (Feat. Grace Jones)', 'Only Have Eyes 42'.

REVIEW: BEN FOLDS - WHAT MATTERS MOST

4/5

Ben Is Back. 

Folding over a new leaf, for all the big new releases that came out this Friday gone (the Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and many more), we saved the best for last in the form of another Ben. Weeks after Dave Matthews Band ('Walk Around The Moon') and Matchbox Twenty ('Where The Light Goes') took us back to the nostalgic 90s, we now have another golden era great back for the first time in way more than five years. Albeit without that last digit like Maroon. The last time one of our generation's greats released an album was in 2015, 'So There'. But right now, if you've got nowhere but home to go like a Counting Crows 'Monkey', at least you have "Ben Folds on the radio". Ben Folds Five gave us classic after classic, from their self-titled debut, to 'Whatever and Ever Amen', and Ben has also collaborated with everyone from English author Nick Hornby ('Lonely Avenue') to yMusic ('So There'). His last straight solo set was 'Way To Normal' in 2008, but now with 'What Matter's Most' he gives us not only one of the best albums of the year, but the greatest of his career. 

Instant vintage when you look at the old married couple up in the clouds of a heavenly blue sky, this is just a great album that works and feels so fresh from the outset, like going to 'Susan's House' with the Eels to meet a 'Beautiful Freak'. This indie chamber pop recorded from Wisconsin to Germany blooms like it's beautiful 'Winslow Gardens' lead single. Lulling you lovingly despite the 'Exhausting Lover' of a second single that trades his girlfriend for "third-degree carpet burns" in the one-night stand of a motel affair that sings, "Don't know what came over me/As I awkwardly dropped my room key/I said I think that's yours/And three hours later/I was banging this verse out". The brutally honest storytelling continues on the latest single 'Back To Anonymous' which you can call by its name, despite the previous song's shame, dealing with fame. "Strangers/Creepy and comfortable that they knew my name/It's not at all what I thought that fame would be/It was just a small world/For a while/Is life better now?/Well, that depends on how I'm feeling about it/It's not so much that I wanted out/I really didn't have a say."

"Sonically, lyrically, emotionally, I don't think it's an album I could have made at any other point in my career", Folds told press. And you can hear this storytelling arc of truth from the grand opening 'But Wait, There's More' like an Usher 'Confession', to the grand closing of 'Moments' with Tall Heights. But...if you want to talk about formidable features, it's the 'Clouds With Ellipses' with dodie in brackets that's worth your quoting for all that remains unsaid. "Fits and starts, clouds and ellipses/I fill silences with the dark/And I, I can take it/I wanna know the uncensored thoughts/Or maybe not." See?! With his song for your new favourite, this bespectacled man behind the piano is like America's Elton John...but then again, no. That's Billy Joel. And beside this boy is his own man. An amazing artist with the songwriting strokes of his own dabbed brush. 

After his blue Jenny Lewis like 'Voyager', this star treks and really take it to the keys on the album's title track, wondering what means the world to him before "the door slams tight." 'Fragile' is an even stronger song for this heavyweight album for the record, one that breaks even more ground. But if you're already feeling Ben's big band nostalgic, then wait until you recognize 'Kristine From 7th Grade' and one of this album's greatest hits. "Are you the same Kristine/I knew from seventh grade?/No, it's definitely you/Just with a new last name/Someone who laughed a lot/Is what I remember the most/But the face in your profile/Suggests maybe not so much anymore/Yeah, I got the emails/These last two years every day/And I just don't reply because/I'm not really sure what to say", touching base with an old friend, but who's the one that got away? Profound and powerful in the nature of the different paths we take after school, and where they could leave us in the poetry of life. 

But for all the highlights on this half-hour and then some of an album, it's the 'Paddleboat Breakup' and the depth in the water that will drown you like Norah Jones did 'Miriam' in a music video that didn't make the same mistake as her Little Willie's cover of Dolly Parton did with 'Jolene'. I'm begging of you, please take this to your playlist, man. "Tossed about the ocean/In boats built for a lake/Life is but a dream/A stream of beautiful mistakes/On a quiet lake/So far from the shore/We had paddled for an hour/Back would be way more/She said, "That's just great, oh/What is wrong with you?/You wait 'til we're trapped in a boat/To tell me we're through."" Nobody breaks it down like Ben. Folding love letters to songbook storytelling up into an envelope he pushes, signed, sealed and delivered. Offbeat and outstanding we're so glad this artist is a Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges drama. 'What's Matters Most' this New Music Friday might just be a battle of the Bens. This and Harper's acoustic accomplished 'Wide Open Light'. What's the matter with that? Why not let both of them shine as they're doing the most? Even without 5 on it like the Luniz, playing his greatest hand, Ben will never fold. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Clouds With Ellipses (Feat. dodie)', 'Kristine From The 7th Grade', 'Paddleboat Breakup'. 

REVIEW: JACK JOHNSON - IN BETWEEN DUB

4/5

Dub's Up. 

Dub for your plate. Almost a year after he met the moonlight, Jack is back with a repainting of his masterpiece. All in the same week a live album from Bob Dylan ('Shadow Kingdom') joins a set list of the best rock acts releasing records. Opened by the Foo Fighters working through the grief to proclaim 'But Here We Are'. Not to mention a tale of two Bens. Folds, unfolding 'What Matters Most' for a contender of this year's best album, not to mention his first in an attic box worth of calendars. And of course, Jack Johnson's long time frequent collaborator Ben Harper with the 'Wide Open Light' of some atmospheric acoustics. Johnson boxes up a 'Yard Sale' single collaboration on that said album, change short of a cycle since Harper's last 'Maintenance'. But after last year's career highlight, 'Meet The Moonlight', with ska stars he now reggae remixes his magnum opus 'In Between Dreams' and other early career classics for more audio reverie. 

Sitting, waiting, wishing, you might not find that one, rewinding it all like the mesmerizing and vivid music video, but you will see the spirit of some 'Traffic In The Sky' as the great Lee 'Scratch' Perry sets this all off with his amazing ad-libs. Only Puffy sounds cooler...and he invented the redux that is the musical retake. Perry scratches out Johnson and Johnson classics like 'Wasting Time' and the Foo similar 'Times Like These' with Subatomic Sound System for the Jack of all acoustics who could now find an auditory home in your subwoofer. "And there's always been laugh and cry and birth and die/And boys and girls with hearts that take and give and break/And heal and grow and recreate and raise and nurture/But then hurt at times," the former pro surfer sings. Riding over the beats for your reduced, reused and recycled Marley headphones. 

Great Dennis Bovell dub's Jack in the music box crate classics like 'No Other Way' and 'Calm Down' his own, as the lapping tide of these laid back and relaxed tracks feel like the warm water of the Caribbean at your feet. All the way from the green and gold, to Jamaica Queens in New York City. The meeting of the musical minds with the Hawaiian calm of JJ making for the perfect vibe check. It's the dream of a Nightmares On Wax collaboration that truly makes this all 'Better Together' for the Don Dada like Supercat of Johnson records though. "There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard/No song that I could sing but I can try for your heart/Our dreams and they are made out of real things/Like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving/Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart/Like why are we here and where do we go, and how come it's so hard?/It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving/I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together", Jack sings. Back from a postcard from 2006 with words that sound as fresh as fruit that has just fallen from the tree of life. 

These wax nightmares are what dreams are made of, recurring on the true dub 'Breakdown' between it all. All before the Mad Professor works to 'Turn Your Love', like nuts and bolts of a Frankenstein scientist with a monster of a record that purrs more than it roars for cat calm sounds for your tranquil fleeting feelings in the sea of sleep. Another Scientist keeps us 'One Step Ahead', but it's the Yaadcore dub that 'You Can't Control (It)'. Environmental protest for the dancehall preaching, "Mom forget to tuck you in?/Make you begin a war within your head/One that you could never win/Send in the troops and insecurities/What doesn't matter in the end/So daddy told you hold your chin up son and/Understand one thing/If and when you drink/From this vast ocean/You can't control it/Nah, nah Nah, you can't control it," surrounded by all we throw in the sea like the single artwork. 

The album artwork in vibrant Johnson and Jamaican yellow is anything but mellow, waking you up to the gold glory of a genre that's slept on not only for its greatness, but the hidden messages behind the happy face of its sunny disposition. 'It's All Understood' here though on the classic closer for one of Jack Johnson's greatest hits like the boxer. Because after all, "Everyone knows what went down/Because the news was spread all over town/And fact is only what you believe/And fact and fiction work as a team/It's almost always fiction in the end/That content begins to bend/When context is never the same." Those words meaning even more now than they did back in the rain of the 'Brushfire Fairytales' of 2001...and we all know what happened to change the word later that year. Three years after the original concept of this remix record was brought to shore, it finally finds land. Paused due to the pandemic and the departure of the dear, late great Lee 'Scratch' Perry from this Astral plane world as we know and believe it. The legend surrounded by so many others bringing new light to another one truly back down to earth for the record. Dub this, the reinvention of the remix. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Traffic In The Sky (Lee "Scratch" Perry Dub)', 'Better Together (Nightmares On Wax Dub)', 'It's All Understood (Monk Dub)'. 

REVIEW: BEN HARPER - WIDE OPEN LIGHT

4/5

Where The Light Goes. 

This Friday may just be one of the biggest days this year for the release of new music. Five albums highlighted by the first Ben Folds record in an age ('What Matters Most'). The Foo Fighters' first album since the tragic loss of dear drummer Taylor Hawkins ('But Here We Are'). A live album from the songbook of the greatest, Bob Dylan ('Shadow Kingdom'). And even a remix album from Jack Johnson ('In Between Dub') amongst many more. The surfer sings, "Love is a yard sale/Strangers wander up on your grass/To hold your future hostage/And bargain for your past/But all sales are final/No returns, not that you would/I'm pretty sure she's gone for good", on the lawn of Ben Harper's 'Yard Sale' too. The lead single from Harper's brand-new album, 'Wide Open Light'. Ben and Jack, frequent collaborators for the cream, like Ben and Jerry. All as Ben broods, "She came to gather/All of her personal effects/It seemed a bit too late/For goodbye sex/Out the window an engine idled/Some guy leaning on the hood/I'm pretty sure she's gone for good." Yet this record doesn't register on NPR's weekly reliable roster of releases every New Music Friday. 

It's probably merely due to the sheer amount of albums out this week, but his instant vintage vinyl shouldn't be lost in a Spotify shuffle. Like the solitary smoking figure in the lonesome window of a typical, traditional New York apartment block in the middle of a summer that scorches like the lighter. All for some amazing artwork that ranks amongst Ben's best, between 'Both Sides Of The Gun' and 'My Childhood Home' too. Ben of the Folds variety may have the best album of the week. The Foo, the deepest. And out of the darkness, Dylan and Johnson give collectors more for their catalogue, but Harper's latest put his bazaar of versatile music is the most diverse, even if it is mostly all acoustic like the instrumental 'Heart and Crown' opening, similar to the 'January Rain' of a David Gray 'Serendipity'. 

You only have to listen to the phantom piano playing of album standout (in more ways than one) 'Trying Not To Fall In Love With You' to see the bluesy, folk hero who can relentlessly rock with 7, sing spirituals with Blind Boys and form supergroups with the son of a Beatle has another level like Jay-Z working with UK R&B. All in a whole new key for something almost akin to operatic staged moments. This epic, smokey lounge jazz takes you as high as the kingdoms of Dylan's concert film soundtrack shadows. Yet, it's 'Love After Love' that is classic Ben Harper, complete with those compelling couplets that over time have become his signature. "Some run for cover/Some chase the storm/Flags raised with a vengeance/Battle-ready and worn/The hardest words/That I'll ever have to say/Is nothing to the debt silence can never pay", he laments with love. Talking about days that run away with all the pretty wild horses, even though this rolling stone could never, like Jagger, be dragged away. 

With no agenda, the songs are more than enough. Haunting like 'Giving Ghosts', or the spiritual of the album's amazing title-track that lets the same light Matchbox Twenty wondered about last week, in. Whilst he paints his 'Masterpiece', Harper harmonies "There's no time like now/There's no place like here/So throw your loving arms around me dear/And I'll lean on you like a beggar/Leans upon the moonlit street/Loving you is my masterpiece." Originally written for the Rickie Lee Jones album 'The Devil You Know', it's a better way is found with this heaven sent talent you know. There really is no time like now, or place like this album as the ode of our greatest masterpiece and life's greatest magnum opus resides with the one we love like an R.E.M. dream. FIRE! 

Night-swimming between the '8 Minutes' that feel more like two, Ben tells us, "Today I turned 33/My oldest didn't call/Middle's outta state/And the youngest lives here with me/It's not just a town/It's a final resting place/When I die from choices I refused to make." A deep-dive, poetic and profound look at love and life. What it takes...and what we make of it. All before it's deeper and deeper, 'Growing, Growing Gone' with the auction of "Your feet barely touched the ground/By the time I turned around/When dreams come true/It's hard to sleep/Slowly drifting in the deep/She's growing/Growing/She's gone", for the heartbreaking house that always wins like the father time of life. Adding, "She's quite a sight behind the wheel/Now I'm in the passenger seat/With nerves of steel/I'm misery in harmony/Now that you're wild and free", for what could be a lover lost, or a daughter all grown up, looking into her father's eyes. It's just 'One More Change' Our bodies, hearts and minds go and grow through over the seasons like, "Been holding on/Too long to let go/Been running too hard to slow down/Believing too deep to not have faith/I've got one more change to make/One more chain to break." The poetry. The profundity. 

Ben is back once again. And this new Chrysalis record is organically minimalist, yet magnificent. With his own stellar songbook with a wide range of chapters that could have their own series of novels, Ben Harper is a living legend who should not be mentioned as a footnote, playing in the margins. He belongs with the Johnson's and the Folds. The best bands like Grohl's fighting for a Springsteen songbook that chases (like Benjamin's middle name) the poets like Dylan. Sliding through his guitar work, the only surf this Californian rides more than the tides of different genres is a realm of relentless releases. From Innocent Criminals to legends like Charlie Musselwhite. Just like Jack, it's not even been a year since his last album 'Bloodline Maintenance' (22/the days after my birthday in July (thanks, Ben)/22), that honoured his father. But this one with the 'Childhood Home' duet of his mother Ellen's voice creeping in strikes another chord. Bookended by acoustics like his 2020 pandemic shut-in of 'Winter Is For Lovers' with the final 'Thank You, Pat Bayer' beautiful tribute. It's time we pay respect to another real one too. Needle dropped with this raw and ready record that crackles like lit cigarettes for the stores today. Even in a wide world open to darkness these days, there will be a light again. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Yard Sale (Feat. Jack Johnson)', 'Trying Not To Fall In Love With You', 'Love After Love'. 

REVIEW: BOB DYLAN - SHADOW KINGDOM

4/5

Kingdoms In The Night.

Tokyo, Japan. Fortunately this writer was finally able to see Bob Dylan live last month. A once in a lifetime experience akin to a religious one. Blooming in the epic Eden of the cities Garden Theatre as he painted his masterpiece. The sublime set list part of his huge world tour supporting the 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' album that only COVID could stop in a brief hiatus. In this age of curating collections digitally for the great American songbook, Dylan's new live album like this 'Shadow Kingdom' sits on a throne above any bootleg. Shining a light on a live classic whilst all looking to make a quick buck off the inspired icon cower back into the darkness from which they came. 

This soundtrack to a concert film from Thom Zimmy, shot during the pandemic when the closest we could get to all the stars was a laptop screen, is a big score. Even without the black and white smokey look of a soundstage that smouldered like Norah Jones. Lucky for us, we now get to hear 13 of these tracks hand-picked by the man himself. Outstandingly opening with the art of 'When I Paint My Masterpiece' and the brilliant break-up ballad of 'Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine)'. A double-act threat that anyone who recently saw him in concert will be nostalgically and fondly familiar with. 

"Now when all of the bandits that you turned your other cheek to/All lay down their bandanas and complain/And you want somebody ya' don’t have to speak to/Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?/Aw, won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?" Zimmerman asks approximately on 'Queen Jane', revisiting 'Highway 61'. The gravitas of the gravel in his voice isn't lost on the 82-year-old who once declared that he couldn't sing. But he'll be your baby tonight as you kick off your shoes and bring the bottle over here. Poetically yearning, "Well, that Mockingbird's gonna sail away/We're gonna forget it/That big, fat moon is gonna shine like a spoon/But we're gonna let it, you won't regret it", as his classics lull you into a mystic reverie at the bluesy live show that brings you folks to somewhere in New Orleans like a Tennessee train. 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues', classic standard after classic standard plays out over strings and harmonicas that sing. You'll be given a heavy dose of the 'Tombstone Blues' for the pain you thought would kill you. All before his words are right beside you like 'To Be Alone With You' in an ode to the heart, never to depart. 

'What Was It You Wanted'? Compelling classics like that, singing, "Was there somebody looking/When you give me that kiss/Someone there in the shadows/Someone that I might have missed?/Is there something you needed/Something I don’t understand/What was it you wanted/Do I have it here in my hand?" Evergreen records like this will stay 'Forever Young', just like we wish we could. Lyrics carved in stone, or engraved in Grammys, rhyming "May God bless and keep you always/May your wishes all come true/May you always do for others/And let others do for you/May you build a ladder to the stars/And climb on every rung/May you stay forever young" to the reason of this beautiful devotion to your dearest. On the 'Blonde and Blonde' of 'Pledging My Time', Bob asks and promises "Won’t you come with me, baby?/I’ll take you where you want to go/And if it don’t work out/You’ll be the first to know." Although a hobo steals his baby away like 'A Wicked Messenger'. 

The storybook of this live show continues its chapters 'Watching The River Flow' to words that stream the same, whether on Spotify or on the paper in your mind's eye. 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' he breaks again on the powerful, penultimate live take that's so lovingly cared for that it sounds like a studio session. Poetry for the microphone, clicking, "The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense/Take what you have gathered from coincidence/The empty-handed painter from your streets/Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets/The sky, too, is folding under you/And it's all over now, Baby Blue/All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home/Your empty-handed armies are going home/Your lover, who just walked out the door/Has taken all his blankets from the floor/The carpet, too, is moving under you/And it's all over now, Baby Blue." 

And then it is, as the shimmering 'Sierra's Theme' sails you away like Sara, in smoke and a reflection of bar mirrors below the bottles on the wall. In black and white, Bob Dylan, like The Beatles, has been covered more times than manholes, rock and soul. But nothing compares to the testimonials he dedicates to his own live takes of his greatest hits. Twisting and turning like the cigarette smoke that stains the ceiling, as the spirits in these bars carry on up above into the skies. All the way to the heavens that only the purest forms are allowed in. From Michelangelo to Beethoven. Concerts of chapels and churches. This is how you paint your masterpiece. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'When I Paint My Masterpiece', 'Most Likely You Go You Way (And I Go Mine)', 'Forever Young'. 

REVIEW: FOO FIGHTERS - BUT HERE WE ARE

4/5

Hereafter.

Summer blockbuster season is upon us. Soon we will see Hollywood franchises like 'Indiana Jones', 'The Flash' and Tom Cruise's 'Mission: Impossible' hit movie screens. Grab your popcorn...and your amp, as it seems we are in a scorching blockbuster season for big bands and music too this sweltering summertime. Especially this New Music Friday that sees new albums from Ben Harper (where's the love NPR?), Jack Johnson, Ben Folds, and even Bob Dylan amongst others. Headlining all this it's the new album from the Foo Fighters that strikes the deepest chord. 'But Here We Are' after tragedy for the rockers epic eleventh album, but first without their beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins, who tragically passed away last year. Now his stepping in front of the skins to sing the powerful 'Cold Day In The Sun' is even more profound. May he rest peacefully and forever rock in our memory. 

Frontman Dave Grohl has been through this type of hell before-losing Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain-but it doesn't make the pain any less raw. Now working and rocking through grief, the daddy of our generation's guitar God's and heroes performs all the kick and snare drum pieces (although Josh Freese will play with the Foos on tour) like the multi-talented, Queens Of The Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures bandsman that he is. All whilst 'The Storyteller' gives us more for the songbook like his awesome autobiography that we are still audibly making our way through (perhaps it's because we just don't want it to end...if you know what we mean). But these songs are all too real. Like the Roswell record opening single and album track 'Rescued' for their first album since 2021's post pandemic 'Medicine At Midnight'. "It came in a flash, it came outta nowhere/it happened so fast, and then it was over", the first verse soberingly tells us. 

The second single gets 'Under You' too, in all its skin and bone. "Someone said I'll never see your face again/Part of me just can't believe it's true/Pictures of us sharing songs and cigarettes/This is how I'll always picture you/Over it, think I'm getting over it/But there's no getting over it", Grohl mourns, raging against the pain, this is just utterly heartbreaking. Like on 'Show Me How', looking for the light at the end of this tunnel of grief that began and will always need with love. "Where have you gone?/Walk in circles back to square one/Made it through yesterday/Spilling wine, thinking of the time/Wrote you a melody/Rolling your eyes, I held your hand a while/Need not say anything to me/Hear you loud and clear, loud and clear." As fans, we miss Hawkins, but when we hear these words written we just wish someone (not to mention someone we revere in rock and roll legend) didn't have to go through a pain like this. We know it from our own experiences, but can't even begin to imagine what it's like for someone so close to a friend who's been through so much on their own once in a lifetime journey together. We just wish we could make it easier. Maybe singing along and chanting his name in stadium rocking unison could serve as the best solidarity we could provide at this time. 

The four formidable singles that preceded this 'Here We Are' album finish with the lessons learned from the ten-minute epic 'The Teacher'. An album standout that falls into the beautiful closing 'Rest' where hopefully this band of brothers can find a measure of peace. Someone's at the door, telling you to wake up as, "Hurry now boy, time won't wait/The here and the now will separate/There are some things you cannot choose/Soul and spirit movin' through/Hey kid, what's the plan for tomorrow?/Where will I wake up? Where will I wake up?/Hey kid, what's the plan for tomorrow?/Where will I wake up? Where will I wake up?" helps you begin to move on as you rock through like the ending of 'Come Back'. If only the ones we love the dearest could. But in reality, right here in our hearts, they never really left. 

'Hearing Voices' will haunt you, and the title track will also take you there, through everything you've been through. The lamenting lyrics, "Hey (Hey)/Lay your burden down/Turn around/Turn around/Fate (Fate)/Written in the stars/Arm in arm/Arm in arm we are forever" making for a spiritual anthem. 'The Glass' will shatter you too, before 'Nothing At All' finds something between the cracks like, "I've been meanin’ to tell you/I've been out of my head/Left my heart on your doorstep/Left you out of my bed/Maybe I'm delusional/Is that so unusual?/Didn’t mean to offend you/Was it somethin' I said?/Put me into your locket/And pulled me off of the ledge/Maybe I'm insatiable/I'm feelin' so sensational." Respites from the unanswered questions until death do us back together again are all too brief. We just have to carry on in their honour. 

It's 'Beyond Me' and all of us, until we meet again. But as Dave sings, "Everything we love must grow old/Or, so I'm told/Or, so I'm told/You must release what you hold dear/Or, so I fear/Or, so I fear/But it's beyond me/Forever young and free/But it's beyond me/Forever young and free," we can see meaning in the space between the here and now and the great beyond. Life is not promised, even in the seeming invincibility of youth and the heroes we put on our walls as teenagers. Yet as we watch them before we go we see that this life, albeit so fleeting, is meant to go on. To keep living and loving. Just like we did all that came before us. Just like Taylor. That's what makes it great. That's what they'd want. To fight like the Foos. Even the two Ben's and even Bob couldn't make something more meaningful this week, Jack. Dark times may have bereaved this band, but as you can see from the light of their album artwork, this is their white album. With the power of their courageous chords and the memory of their drummer beating in their hearts, the Foo Fighters will never fade to black. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Rescued', 'The Teacher', 'Rest'.