REVIEW: NEIL YOUNG - BEFORE AND AFTER

4/5

Young and Old.

Digging through crates to make his catalogue heavier than Sears, for years Neil Young has been officially releasing previously bootlegged albums, and reissuing some of his finest work. Now, in the same week The Killers turn in some 'Rebel Diamonds' for a new greatest hits package to unwrap this Christmas, Neil Young gives us another best of...with a twist. 'Before and After', the 45th studio album from the Canadian-American, singer-songwriter and Reprise records, is exactly that. An acoustic re-take and recording of some of his past songs. 13 to be exact. Lucky for us. Scrawling chalk on the sidewalk for this artwork, Young paves the way like He Who Remains to a new one. Mere months after taking us to London, England and Tokyo, Japan with his 'Odeon Budokan' via the Hammersmith and Nippon. The trilogy of 'I'm The Ocean'/'Homefires'/'Burned' keeps those ones as such, singling this retrospective re-recording out in promotion. 

Conceived by Young and producer Lou Alder, this here and now from way back when is a "trip into musical history" with a tour guide who uses his great Canadian-American songbook as a road map. Epic and eclectic, it gives lesser known relics from the vault a new craft and curation worthy of their own gallery as he repaints his masterpiece. After the big-three EP, this album intended to be listened to in its entirety in a single setting is actually just one track, 48-minutes long without interruption. "A music montage with no beginnings or endings" says the man himself. The same could be said for the everlasting harvest of Neil Young's career we hope never meets the moon.

Harvesting some of his most wonderful work over the last couple of years that has kept me company and from being lonely in this Japanese journey, Young makes us feel forever that with the Gibson, even in our older years. After he keeps the 'Homefires', 'Burned', Neil finds himself 'On The Way Home' like the 'Last Time Around'. But it's 'If You Got Love' that really resonates. "When you walk in a room/You hold your head up high/You talk to people eye to eye/There's nothing to hide/You're feeling so complete inside/Your heart feels so complete inside/Because you got love", he sings beautifully in his trademark register like the Cat Stevens words of wisdom from a father to a son, for not only the most legendary lyrics of these lines, but his legacy as a whole. 

This is how he 'Sleeps With Angels' on 'A Dream That Can Last', riding to the glory on a Crazy Horse, singing, "All the lights were turned down low/And no one wondered or had to go/Out on the corner the angels say/There is a better life for me someday/I feel like I died and went to heaven/The cupboards are bare, but the streets are paved with gold." This and 'My Heart' of the 'Angels' is all for the 'Birds' like following the 'Gold Rush'. But we ask 'Are You Passionate', 'When I Hold You In My Arms'? This Young man certainly is, brooding like a shopfront to let, "New buildings going up, old buildings going down/New signs going up, old signs coming down/You got to hold on to something in this life." Times and hands may change, but when it comes to the one you hold closest, the heart of matters never does.

"Oh, freedom land, can you let this go?/Down to the streets where the numbers grow/Respect Mother Earth and Her giving ways/Or trade away our children's days/Or trade away our children's days", once more with feeling, Neil Young sings for 'Mother Earth', like a deeper and darker 'Earth Song' from Michael Jackson. We didn't way back then, but will we heed the re-recorded warning called out now? On this classically curated collection, 'Mr. Soul' rides with Buffalo Springfield again. Yet it 'Comes A Time' that this album title-track needs to be heard again in a whole new, calming acoustic light. Capturing it all in the words of, "You and I, we were captured/We took our souls, and we flew away/We were right, we were giving/That's how we kept what we gave away/Oh, this old world keeps spinnin' 'round/It's a wonder tall trees ain't layin' down/There comes a time", before an inspired instrumental break. 

And before this one comes to an end in the after, here we have, 'Don't Forget Love' to remember in parting. The Crazy Horse dragging an unbridled heart away as best it could like a Rolling Stone wild one. Steed singing, again and again, "don't forget love" like, "When you're angry, and you're lashing out, don't forget love/You don't know what you're talking about, don't forget love/When the wind blows through the crime scene and the TV man starts talking fast, don't forget love." We may argue, but our hearts our the glue that keeps all this together. Tying together his hits and the lesser known gems from his jewel cases, before this, Neil was a legend, after this, Young's legacy will only get greater. There's a rich body of work here that's fully fleshed out as he drops the needle. This reissue is his freshest take yet. You've never heard these afterthoughts like this before. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'If You Got Love', 'When I Hold You In My Arms', 'Mother Earth'. 

REVIEW: THE KILLERS - REBEL DIAMONDS

5/5

Diamonds Are Forever.

The Killer like Fassbender and Fincher this fall, after making one, Brandon Flowers and his Las Vegas band are on a victory lap on the Sin City strip. Winning this in-season tournament like the new NBA Cup with 'Rebel Diamonds'. Their second best of collection after taking 'Direct Hits' on the first half of their career and giving us another one with their 'Shot At The Night' gamble that paid off. This 20 strong set of hindsight vision closes with the new single 'Spirit' that will leave yours in a stunning trance. "Wiped out, sucking on the fumes of a long-gone flame/Can you leverage love?/Can you process pain?/It grabs you by the night/My dreams are big and bathing in light, so/Come on, touch me, I'm a live wire/Wait, don't cover my eyes/When darkness dampens my sight/My dreams are big and bathing in light", Flowers blooms on this lasting fire that's as ever as the Holy Spirit they channel in a sinful land of high rollers. Spinning the roulette wheel once more on a retrospective, Vegas' finest like the two-time WNBA back-to-back champ comes up aces. 

These diamonds mine more to mark the 20th anniversary of their definitive debut that's opening half played like a greatest hits in itself. Four of those formidable fussing tracks begin this celebration for your heat check. The soul soldiers arming up with 'Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine', 'Mr. Brightside', 'All These Things That I've Done' and 'Somebody Told Me' (that you had a girlfriend) for their catalogue battalion. Most best acts today would finish their greatest hits there, and be lucky to have that many over the span of their career. Let alone to begin a damn debut LP. Yet this band went hard out the gate like the King against the Kings. 'When You Were Young', or should I say, "we"? This was the soundtrack to 'Read My Mind' like nostalgia ("The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds/Cut out of the sun/Can you read my mind?"). From 'Sam's Town' to Tokyo, Japan. The next stage of The Killers turned them dancer and a Ziggy Stardust Bowie for this 'Spaceman' with a 'Human' touch like Springsteen. Storming the gates of Graceland like a Boss reaching for Elvis, they follow these 'Dustland Fairytale(s)', with what up against the wall was one of their best albums, 'Battle Born'. Now, 'The Man' may answer, "I don't give a damn" to that question of why that song from the soundtrack that saw Christian Bale put a 'Vice' grip of Donald Cheney with Adam McKay is the only 'Wonderful, Wonderful' diamond here. But we would have liked to have been able to 'Run For Cover' too. Never mind, this album has hits in spades like the vivid videos of holdovers 'Boy' and the across the tracks 'Your Side Of Town'. 

'Caution', 'Imploding The Mirage' there's even more in store from their latter albums, featuring the incredible 'My Own Soul's Warning' that tells us, "If you could see through the banner of the sun/Into eternity's eyes, like a vision reaching down to you/Would you turn away?/What if it knew you by your name?/What kind of words would cut through the clutter of the whirlwind of these days?" Lifting us out of the planet pandemic of 2020, questioning us to adjust to a new normal, or our own unique path. A year later, still in uncertain times, they gave us their last album and the 'Pressure Machine' of some Springsteen idol like social commentary. The title track put in blue collar work, and the words from a 'Quiet Town' will subtly echo for eternity through the reverberations. "A couple of kids got hit by a Union Pacific train/Carrying sheet metal and household appliances through the pouring rain/They were planning on getting married after graduation/Had a little baby girl, trouble came and shut it down/Things like that ain't supposed to happen", a forlorn Flowers forewarns with this history lesson an animated video that amazes. Brandon branding his American open road dream lyrics with the lace of what happens if you give up the chase. There's hope in the heart of these Killers, bringing new life to the heartland of Americana. We hope the roulette keeps turning for these rebels with a cause, and it doesn't fade to black in a snake's eyes. Seeing red, these diamonds shine with their greatest cuts. Time to give these records another spin. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Spirit', 'Boy', 'Your Side Of Town'.

REVIEW: NICKI MINAJ - PINK FRIDAY 2

4/5

Pink Friday Night Lights

Here's your eagerly anticipated, long-awaited, New Music Pink Friday. It may have been delayed more times than flights at Christmas, but superstar rapper Nicki Minaj is back this festive season to unwrap the sequel. 'Pink Friday 2' strives to be better than the original, over shocking streets and teddy bear riding subway beats above her own created city. Roman returns b#####s! Just like Young Money after Drake gave us 'For All The Dogs'. But this one is for the queens with the crown. You know whose holding it again now. The one with all eyes on her and her incredible body of work. Reloaded for the first time in a half decade since 'Queen', the descendant of Missy Elliott's ('Beep Beep' like the Roadrunner), Lil Kim's and Salt...with a little bit of Pepa reunites with October's Very Own this December to 'Needle' us. Following the money of Drake's latest and Lil' Wayne's own 'Welcome 2 Collegrove' collaboration album with 2 Chainz, with the Weezy F feature 'RNB', alongside Tate Kobang. Lourdiz rides 'Cowgirl' and Lil Uzi Vert also features on a monster 22 track album like the latest Rhymes 'Blockbusta' that brings 'Everybody' to the party. Skillibeng and Skeng keep it moving 'Forward From Trini' for this worldwide rapped up release. Whilst beautiful 'Blessings' come from Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Yet the most formidable features come from the man whose albums don't come with them, on the J. Cole assisted 'Let Me Calm Down' and the Future 'Nicki Hendrix' number which might just rack up its own collaboration album in the future like 'What A Time To Be Alive'.

Life is good this Friday, spearheaded by the successful singles 'Super Freaky Girl' that really gets its f#####g freak on, and 'Last Time I Saw You' that delves even deeper still. Freaking straight to the number one spot on the Billboard 100. The first female rapper to do so since 'That Thing' that the great Lauryn Hill did with her 'Miseducation' 'Doo Wop'. Just like the inspired into 'Are You Gone Already' that like Billie Eilish's 'What Was I Made For' asks the most vulnerable of questions from the jump. "In three days, you'd meet Papa (Like it like that, mm)/The waiting, the gazing/The painting, the raging/The ravin', the pacing/The praying, the shaking/I must admit, I was breaking/I must admit, I was taking/I must admit, my heart was racing/Telephone ring, he didn't make it/I just believed you wakin'/A memory in the makin'/Call me/Won't you call me? (Call)/No, you gone." This is quite possibly the most meaningful and best work Minaj has ever done...oh, and a sampled Eilish is on the track too. Right before darling Nicki gets 'Barbie Dangerous' and back to the raps in the year of that monster Mattel Margot Robbie movie from Greta Gerwig. A 'Barbie World' that Minaj also entered via the Aqua sampling soundtrack. Who else, but the one that holds the keys to that kingdom...not to mention all the toys?

"Fierce, fun and unapologetic" like this 'Megatron' transforming told Jimmy Fallon, this late night affair will leave you reeling and reacting to this host like the time she dedicated her award win speech and dress to Michael B. Jordan in acceptance. Shout out to the G.O.A.T. The creed of this sequel that with 'Roman Reloaded' makes an unofficial trilogy clears some of the sweetest samples you've ever heard in the rap game. Nicki waxes lyrical over Eilish's 'When's The Party Over', the 'Notorious Thugs' of B.I.G. and Bones (on the harmony of 'Barbie Dangerous'), like a precursor to 'Nicki Hendrix', and Wacka Flocka Fame's 'F### The Club Up' on the more commercially viable 'FTCU'. Travis Scott's 'Pornography' presents 'Pink Birthday', whilst Junior Senior 'Move(s) Your Feet' for everybody. The Trinadadian rapper brings Dave Kelly's 'Stink' and 'Showtime' riddims to this 'Forward From Trini'. But the best samples belong with Lumidee's iconic "uh oooh's" of 'Never Leave You' on 'Red Ruby da Sleeze', Blondie's 'Heart Of Glass' on 'My Life', and Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun' game changer on 'Pink Friday Girls'. Not to mention the 'Super Freak' of Rick James b#### for this 'Super Freaky Girl'. But in closing with the beautiful, brooding 'Just The Memories' (which itself samples Beenie Man's 'Stop Live in a de Pass'), Nicki says it all as memories don't leave like people do. "I 'member when I was the girl that everybody doubted/When every label turned me down, and then they laughed about it/I 'member goin' home and writin' fifty more raps." Now they will always remember her, as there's never been another. With her fifth album and first in five, Minaj mesmerizes. Even the Empire State Building turned pink like an exclamation point this Friday for the Queen's regal return. No King has got s### on this. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Super Freaky Girl', 'Are You Gone Already', 'Just The Memories'. 

REVIEW: MIKE SHINODA - THE CRIMSON CHAPTER EP

4/5

Crimson Peak. 

Through death, depression and despair, even without the dearly departed, late, great Chester Bennington, Linkin Park remain one of the greatest acts of our generation. Their 'Hybrid Theory' of mixing rock and rap for the MTV generation even went on a 'Collision Course' with hip-hop GOAT, Jay-Z. With their seventh seal in 2017, Linkin Park gave us 'One More Light' with their last LP, shining creatively and differently in its own one. Since then LP co-founder and Fort Minor bandsman, Mike Shinoda has continued his stirring solo work that has worked with everyone from Lupe Fiasco, to Styles Of Beyond. In 2018, he became 'Post Traumatic' and since then has been working on volume after volume of his work, like the 'Dropped Frames' trilogy. It's been a minute like midnight since the pandemic, when his last record dropped, but now the needle hits a new song that's 'Already Over' and a new extended play for Mike Kenji Shinoda titled 'The Crimson Chapter'.

Crimson and clover, over and over, there are many mixes of the lead, strong single here, including a major Fort Minor one. The crimson tide of this king sings as Mike Shinoda on 'Already Over' tells us, "Bruises, broken in pieces/Spread out 'til they didn't exist/Losing sight of what's decent/And too righteous to know what you did/Maybe it's just survival/Optimistic, but blind/Maybe it's just denial/Out of sight, out of mind." Many still wonder on the fate of his band and whether Linkin Park is now already over after losing a man we all miss and simply can't replace like Michael Hutchence of INXS ( although the great Terence Trent Darby did more than a decent job live on stage for one night only). But remember this park's garden was sown by five famous members and one co-headliner as Shinoda sings, "Floating in between places/Somewhere that the signal won't work/Hoping you could be nameless/Washed off of the edge of the earth/Maybe you're just entitled/Unaware of your crime/Maybe it's just denial/Out of sight, out of mind," for maybe the most personal and profound songwriting of his cohesive and collective career.

Reorganizing this to a second part, Mike also drops a Finer mix of 'Fine' that's exactly that. On this track he spits, "Fingers stretching out from nowhere/Reaching for my throat, they're/Hungry for my skin/Teeth wide smiling that they found me/Circling around me/Slowly closing in while you sing", bringing new order to his 'Post Traumatic' hit. Then, 'In My Head' he delves even deeper. The 'Scream VI' soundtrack stab featuring Kailee Morgue cutting with lines like, "Coming around/Thoughts are intruding, I'm pushing them down/Stopping it now/Blocking out, in fact I'm blocking it out/Holding too tight/Kidding myself, turn a wrong into right/Thief in the night/I've been the one putting gas in the lights." This ghostface is a killer, and like Wu-Tang nothing to f### with on an EP whose crimson artwork takes you back to the days when Jared Leto's fellow nu-metal band Thirty Seconds To Mars was just a beautiful lie. The artist, whose canvas work can be found in the Japanese American National Museum, paints a perfect picture. This Los Angeles star like Shohei, referencing Ichiro as an angel watches over him, knocks it out the park. The verses in this chapter keep the blood running in this hereafter. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Already Over', 'fine (Finer Mix)', 'In My Head (Feat. Kailee Morgue)'.