REVIEW: TYRESE - BEAUTIFUL PAIN

4/5

The Beautiful Struggle

Pain is a great teacher, and Tyrese takes us to the old school with his bold, brand-new album, 'Beautiful Pain'. All in the same week, the Watts, California native premieres his new L.A. riots movie '1992', co-starring Scott Eastwood and the late, great Ray Liotta, in one of his last roles. Possibly the 'Fast and Furious' and 'Transformers' star's best picture since 'Black and Blue', or even the classic 'Baby Boy'. This double-header comes almost a decade after we thought the sweet lady swan song of 'Black Rose' would be actor and acclaimed author Tyrese Gibson's last album. But yet, here we are with an open invitation to the actor's music alter-ego as one of the three heads of the king's of grown and sexy R&B, like his TGT allies. If Tank is all about the explicit art of sex and Ginuwine is the dancing king, way before Usher and them, then Tyrese is the love and marriage of heartbreak in beautiful ballads. The perfect matrimony.

Yet, here, my dear, like a contractually obliged Marvin Gaye album in separation settlement, Tyrese's latest greatest goes in on his divorce, for his deepest and darkest cut yet. Tyrese, like his NBA Haliburton and Maxey, new namesakes, recently paid homage to Gaye and his NBA All-Star Game classic 'Star Spangled Banner' with his national anthem at a Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys game. That went viral, like a moment of pure vulnerability back at one of the lowest points of his life, with his back and his future as a father against the wall. The callous, casual cruelty of those who turned this suffering into a meme is what should really be humiliated, but we never see those people that hide behind screens. 

Yet in recent reel worthy interviews with Shannon Sharpe (like a Katt Williams) and Charlamagne's 'The Breakfast Club', Tyrese has laid it all out bare, in brutal and beautiful honesty. Even hilariously and perfectly throwing some tissues in the air like he was going off-script for a moment of levity, bringing it right back to the real and raw truth of the fact that, "black man cry" like we all do and shouldn't be ashamed too. The 'How To Get Out Of Your Own Way' and 'Manology' (with Rev Run) author's next book can't come out soon enough. Just like what it will do for those going through the same mental health and profound pain can't be quantified. 

All the way to the title-track curtain closing classic, this 'Beautiful Pain' is an all killer, no filler, long, drawn-out, 17-track, one hour plus album, that at times feels like a movie. You could imagine this trouble man's record playing out like Motown over his 'Four Brothers' movie as Mark Wahlberg spins around the city of Detroit in the harsh winter of an outstanding opening. Make what you will of the memes, but this deep and decadent album is not for the TikTok generation. Instead, it brings the like legendary likes of El DeBarge ('Runaway'), October London ('Bedroom Bully'), Tamar Braxton ('Neither One Of Us') and Eric Dawkins and the one and only Kenny G for an 'Unbelievable' track. All whilst Mr. Gibson talks about the toxicity of love's 'Poison'. Wondering whether marriage is for the matrimony of life, or just another 'Love Transaction' with him picking up the tab.

"Made my mistakes/Honey, you made yours too/I can't erase all the s### we put each other through/We were supposed to be together/Through the good and the bad/But you folded under pressure/Left our love in the past/Did you ever love me/Or was it the things I did for you?" Ty asks where he almost already knows the answer on 'Don't Think You Ever Loved Me'. All as the roses of his romance novel like album artwork turn into a black heart. It's 'Impossible' in these ignorant days when all we're left with is a ring on the bedside table and the laments of 'What Happened To Forever', with lyrics like, "Nothing in this life is certain/Thought we were untouchable/I don't wanna lose faith in love/But it's got me on this lonely road." Searching for a 'Rescue', 'rese is still 'Willing' to make love work, like you can see in his lovely relationship with health and beauty influencer Zelie Timothy. 

'This Man Is Me' he declares baring it all emotionally like D'Angelo, physically, when another R&B great asked, "how does it feel?" Well, some of us know all too well, when we are left to pick up the pieces and try and puzzle over 'When Was It Over' ("They say it's never when they file for divorce/Something went off in your mind, light switch went off, baby/What did I say?/What did I do to you?/That made you say this madness was over"). But even so, despite all the years and tears, Tyrese isn't 'Giving Up' in an empowering precursor. Why? Well, it might have something to do with another influential woman in his life, his first love. His dear mama. Paying beautiful tribute to the mother he lost with the bloom of 'Wildflower', Tyrese Gibson gives us the grace this album and his life in the limelight had needed, until now.

"She's faced the hardest time you could imagine/And many times her eyes fought back the tears, Lord, Lord/And when her youthful world was about to fall in/Her tiny, slender shoulders, all the weight of all her fears/And a sorrow no one hears still rings in midnight silence/In her ears." With his eyes on the sparrow, this...THIS is what the man you mocked on social media is really all about and the woman who raised no fool. Mr. Gibson's courtroom drama is still being settled in front of a jury of his peers and a hand on the bible. But for the record, on God, Tyrese shows us all the nuance that happens in the break-ups and downs, that like love, takes two. All whilst taking ownership of his side of the street. Painful as this all is, there's something beautiful in that. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Love Transaction', 'Wildflower', 'What Happened To Forever'.

Spin This: Marvin Gaye - 'Here, My Dear'.

REVIEW: BIG SEAN - BETTER ME THAN YOU

3.5/5

Detroit Spinner.

Sean John may be done...but Sean Don isn't. 'Better Me Than You', comes a few weeks delayed after Big Sean's original release date, earlier this month, but you best believe it's ready now. Bathed in a godly gold light, this shirtless, 'Shawshank' like cover is real redemption for a man who means to embrace life now. Arms wide like Christ. He's staying out of that beef too, where Kendrick Lamar, a big me, like the Foo Fighters showed it was just he. But Sean, completes this fantastic four that took over the summer like 'Deadpool and Wolverine' as a hot Human Torch surprise. Flame on! The Klay Thompson of this rap ish, or one part of the Peter Parker GOAT pointing song with a fellow Detroit native. Now, powering like a piston for all you warriors and mavericks, following the sequel to his city, Big Sean gives us one of his biggest and best...all for the better.

You want singles. Sure, it's got those. 'Yes' like Marv Albert and the empowering 'Who You Are (Superstar)' like Lupe, doing for the Dolly Parton 9 'till 5 generation what 'I Can't by Nas did for the children. Yet, the 'Pressure' points that introduce this album, really hit hard and form a diamond rapper. 'Iconic' (for one in the making) and the refusal to be 'Typecast' really are two big, bold and brash blockbusters to set this all off. "Aye, back to the basics, back to the work/Like we back from vacation, we never not takin', we what? (What?)/Back to the basics, back to the basement/I love makin' progress you peons not makin'/Bro turn this back on me then push back up on me/I'm not really fazed by his fakeness/I'm cut from a different cloth, engineered from a different tier type greatness." DAMN! And that's just the pre-chorus, ready to make the crowd climax.

Features? Of course. This isn't J. Cole. And Sean Don isn't walking back nothing with his maf#####g clique, clique, clique. "Aye, aye, aye." With love still for 'Ye. The soulful sounds of Uncle Charlie Wilson help 'Break The Cycle' as his signature syllables help Sean "do it." Whilst 'It Is What It Is' with Gunna. But it's when we get to 'Apologize' ("Why would you ever deny or go plot against me?/Apologizin', you wanna say you sorry when you not/Want to be friends and do business, man, how could we?/Talk about me, 'cause you lost the privilege to talk it to me/On God, dug your own grave/Now do what you best at, n####, lie") with Eryn Allen Kane that things get more meaningful. This Big sampling 2Pac because he ain't mad at'cha.

Kane appears again in the 'Black Void' with Thundercat ("HOOOOO!"). And there's 'Something' with Syd too. Bryson Tiller and Kodak Black snap on 'This N That', and the big Hollywood guns are brought out on the 'Million Pieces' with Teyana Taylor, Larry June and the legendary DJ Premier that will break you like kintsugi. The gold forming on a chorus that is anything but melodramatic as Taylor awards us with academy lines like, "It's hard bein' a healer, when I'm scarred as hell/But the world can tell, all of the pride, let it die/All of the tears, let 'em dry/I look at myself, got a million mirrors to help." A 'Certified' NASAAN and the C.R.E.A.M. nirvana of 'Cash Cobain' help 'Get You Back' on this rap ish. Just like The Alchemist forming Voltron like chemical closer of 'Together Forever'. But it's the precursor and all the 'Happiness' that comes after that's really profound for this enlightened, epic rhymer. England's own Ellie Goulding loves us like she does again with the warm glow of 'My Life' on an LP that is as big as Sean's rap name. No gimmicks or Trice tricks.

Knock, knock! Who's there? Skits, b####! Funny like Chappelle, Big Sean brings the lost stand-up form of the hip-hop art back, like when Ludacris was a def jam. The kind when you'd tear open the album plastic to read the credits and get hyped for the next one in the booklet like Jay-Z said for his grey album. Do they still make those? Even albums. Sure. And Sean takes us back to the time album tracklists felt like movies. But even without all the spoken word performances and A-list features, Big could still give you a great album, all on it, and his own. 21 with savage like 'Precision' over tracks like 'On Up' for a man who has more street anthems for Motown than Tamala. But even with all this for the record and a new joie de vivre in his lust for life, Big is not afraid to set 'Boundaries', like as all should. "I gotta start settin' boundaries/'Cause everybody want a part of me, now I'm a piece of me/Been dealin' with the part of me that people hardly see/I gotta fall back and just get organized/Soak off in the sun rays and get fortified/I gotta start back wakin' up early mornin' time/I gotta feed my soul, 'cause it's cryin' out/I gotta execute, no more tryin' now." Now THAT'S the anthem in all of this boundless music. Better you AND me to pay heed. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Iconic', 'Who You Are (Superstar)', 'My Life (Feat. Ellie Goulding)'.

REVIEW: RAY LAMONTAGNE - LONG WAY HOME

4/5

There's No Place Like Home.

It's been a 'Long Way Home' for American artist Ray LaMontagne since the pandemic of 2020, yet he's back, four years later, like the Olympics, for his first music since 'Monvision'. The 51-year-old, Nashua, New Hampshire singer's new album and its red bordered Barbara S. Beck's Japanese inspired woodblock artwork is classic like a shamisen. Let it play, as Ray at a half century, takes you back to his youth, where thirty years ago, in a Minneapolis club, he saw Townes Van Zandt perform, and was instantly inspired.

Like you will be, listening to this album from the 'Trouble' singer, whose songs made soundtracks like Ben Affleck's 'The Town' (the new 'Jolene') and 'She's The Man' (the heart aching 'Hold You In My Arms'). The music video for his latest single is artwork in itself. The kind Paolo Nutini would be proud of, like a pair of 'New Shoes'. And make sure, you, too, 'Step Into Your Power' with the positive affirmations of this new accomplished anthem. "All you need you already own/It was given to you on the day that you were born/Anything (Anything), that your heart can dream/You can make it reality." Step on up, those who don't need inspiration like that, right now. All to the call and response of LaMontagne and the Floating Action produced, "If you want it, you can have it/All you gotta do is just reach out and grab it/If you want it, you can have it/All you gotta do is just reach right out and grab it." I can already feel the goose flesh calling me to step it up.

The rest of this nine-track plays like a classic (CC: 'Supernova'), and 'I Wouldn't Change A Thing' too (like track two) on this ninth wonder like the hip-hop producer from an artist that has taken cues from everyone from Van Morrison, to Beck. 'Yearning' is exactly that, singing, "Lyin’ there in the soft moonlight/My fears have given up without a fight/My weapons fallen without a sound/Hit from behind, and it gave me a fright/Got my baby in my arms, you know I'm feeling alright", like the deepest desire in an earth on fire. Meanwhile, 'And They Called Her California', open the doors, like a flag of a bear, for a new iconic track for your L.A. woman playlist. Like a Ray of light, this artist also channels the gospel soul of Motown's own Sam Cooke on the delightful 'La De Dum, La De Da', completing a compelling big-three, right there in the springtime of this 'Long Way Home' album.

Homeward-bound, more love is found, like Verona, in 'My Lady Fair' for all the Juliet's looking down from the balcony at some Romeo with the same addiction that the late, great Robert Palmer had. Turn your lights on this evening to odes like, "Standing on a mountaintop, shout it out loud/Standing on a mountaintop, never gonna come down/Walk along in silence/I will sidеstep all of the violencе/Making my spaces just for you and me". Like a stone skimming off your window, all is fair in love and war...but this sonnet is so much more. And that's just 'The Way Things Are', like "Give my heart to you and no one other" (you got it, babe). 'So, Damned, Blue' like Joni, or another love addiction like Jane's. On the same weekend, that church going Hozier gives us his fourth release (whether it be LP, EP, or reissue) in just over a calendar, Ray LaMontagne completes our month, tuning into the self-titled closer. "Summertime, summertime/Summertime must yield to fall/And that's what hurts me most of all," he sings, obviously never spending September in Japan. Yet as Ray leaves us with, "Winter come to us, all my friend/Just as every childhood has an end" and memories of his mama. We just hope he, and we, make it home again. It's been way too long. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Step Into Your Power', 'And They Called Her California', 'La De Dum, La De Da'.

REVIEW: HOZIER - UNAIRED E.P.

4/5

Unearth Exhumed.

Taking us back to his church in the wild, this Sunday, it's been exactly a year since Hozier released his undeniable 'Unreal Unearth' LP. And yet he is still digging up new music for your Friday from soil to record crate. There was the 'Unheard' version of 'UU' mere months ago, and now we have another EP to bookend his classic, like last year's 'Eat Your Young' EP of his discography menu. After the unheard comes the 'Unaired' extended play and a big-three of tracks as Hozier, in black and white, lies on top of the unearthed dirt, exhausted with how much he's extended himself.

But you can hardly hear it, because going into battle, this Irishman is 'Nobody's Soldier', not losing a step, or his footing in the ground. All for a sublime single that could match his flurry of 'Eat Your Young', 'All Things End', 'Francesca', 'Unkonwn/Nth', and 'De Selby (Part 2)'. Let alone any of his greatest hits like his girl that "giggle's at a funeral" ("for all we know, death is fun" like a young Zoë Kravitz (as told in this month's Esquire) told her mother, Lisa Bonet, consoling her after she lost hers). Matching even the 'Long Way Home' of great Ray LaMontagne's latest LP, released on the same day, as it steps into its own power. "Choose between being a salesman or a soldier/Just let me look a little older/Let me step a little bolder/Choose between being a butcher or a pauper/Honey, I'm taking no orders/Gonna be Nobody's Soldier", Andrew sings like Springsteen for the soldier's still at war with mental health and anguish. He won't be complicit in their suffering, but he will stand with them.

'July' this August, is another new favourite that wouldn't have even been filler if it made the actual album. Extra special and playlist signature for this writer who was born on the 20th (not this year, hell, I'm almost 40). We can all sing along, in perfect time, to lines like, "Winter wore me out like I was Prada/Threw up on me when the night was through/You can keep a dream in your mind/Only to find it's the hope that was killing you/But you arrived like sunlight in the gloom/And burned off the haze when the year was still new" in wildflower and barley. But as this EP ends with the 'That You Are' collaboration with a beautiful Bedouine, after all that and this, we still are left itching for more from an artist who is painting brushstrokes with the grace of a Buckley. Jeff or Tim. "It's the sound of it that brings me there/This city locked into the song of prayer." Let's put our hands together in thanks, for all that Hozier has let air. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Nobody's Soldier', 'July', 'That You Are (Feat. Bedouine)'.

BOOK REVIEW: GHOSTFACE KILLAH - RISE OF A KILLAH (MY LIFE IN THE WU-TANG)

3.5/5

The Killah In He.

Surely this 'DOOMSTARKS' collaboration album between Ghostface Killah and the late, great MF DOOM has to come out now. Especially with an avenging Robert Downey Jr. set to play Doctor Doom, to go along with his iconic Iron Man, classic character, in the new Russo Bros 'Avengers: Doomsday' movie. Well, for the 411 on all that, and the 'All That I Got Is You' (featuring Mary J. Blige) rapper's behind the scene's story from his cameo in said Marvel movie that was left on the cutting room floor, pick up Dennis Coles AKA Ghostface Killah's new amazing autobiography 'Rise Of A Killah: My Life In The Wu-Tang' for this Cole world.

Following the Toney Starks, that even RDL recognizes as the original, 'Iron Man' ('True Reflections From The Soul of the Wu-Tang Clan') book and his 'Cell Block Z' graphic novel comes this 'Rise' with its own comic-book interlude. Chapters curated with some of the realest ish he ever wrote in Wu logo yellow, this biography that is laid out like an unauthorized book is the real deal. It's the perfect accompaniment to his Wu-Tang brother Raekwon's own bold and beautiful book 'From Staircase To Stage: The Story Of Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan' like Ghost was to the Chef's cooked classic like 'Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx' (so much so, it could have been a collaborative album like the latest Jay Electronica with Jay-Z). And my brother, who gracefully got this biography for my birthday (thank you, G), tells me in that book, Rae talks about how 'Face would still carry half-eaten sandwiches around with him, even as a millionaire, because he was brought up not to waste food. Because as mountaintop high as you get, you never know where your next meal is really coming from.

Now, hot off the heels off his May album, 'Set The Tone: Guns & Roses', comes this big, brash book in the same month (sorry for the delay, but my birthday's not in May, and it takes a minute to read). One that opens with the poverty, but the love, that Dennis grew up with. When you read all about the pure reverence for his grandmother, it will make you, I assume, being part of the generation that grew up with the Wu that was "for the children" like ODB said, want to make some grandkids...STAT. There's some uncomfortable home truths that follow about the 'Bulletproof Wallets' rapper's criminal past, that's as real and raw as it gets...but at last he's honest. What's even more uncomfortable is the pain he had to go through losing two brothers to muscular dystrophy. But once you get to the closing chapters, converted to Islam, you'll feel healed by his new outlook on the world, even one at war where he details the raw reactions to what happened to George Floyd ("better let your kids watch that so they can know what's going on in the world today") and countless more to this day, as Black Lives STILL Matter.

After the Tearz that come from the start of the book, comes the bookending joy and pain, that is such as life itself. But between all that, we get tales from The W like 'The Manual'. 'The Pretty Toney' even breaks down his Eagle on the writs, bathrobe style, with more suits than Stark. All before, in contrast, playing down the prolific nature of his Def Jam run. But 'The Pretty Toney LP', 'Fishscale', 'More Fish', 'The Big Doe Rehab', 'Ghostdini: Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City' and the 'Apollo Kids' over six years, before '36 Seasons' begs to differ. And that's without mentioning the '718' Theodore Unit mixtape. Iconic and incredible, like the 'Wu-Massacre' (with Raekwon and Method Man), 'Wu Block' (with The L.O.X. and D-Block's Sheek Louch), Adraine Yonge (the 'Twelve Reasons To Die' series) and BADBADNOTGOOD collaborations ('Sour Soul'), amongst others. Giving us the Mary J. Blige on the vaulted 'Supreme Clientele 2' sequel that may be Blockchained. Not to forget the absolutely amazing 100 plus albums from Wu-Tang artists (he ends the book with an epic take on each one of his brethren), or the only Clan you should follow's affiliates. Ghostface is right to say they're rap's Rolling Stones, they've killed it, like he has this book. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

More Reading From The Book Of Rhymes: Raekwon 'From Staircase To Stage: The Story Of Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan', Ghostface Killah 'Cell Block Z', Ghostface Killah 'Iron Man: True Reflections From The Soul of the Wu-Tang Clan'.

REVIEW: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO - OPUS

5/5

Magnum 

The Shinjuku Park Hyatt hotel in the heart of Tokyo, Japan is one of the most famous landmarks and locations in the Land of the Rising Sun. And that's not just because of the holy trinity of the three points of its rising triplet towers. Definitive director Sofia Coppola made her classic 'Lost In Translation' film here in this very hotel. Setting off fireworks, like the ones you can see from the view of them Meiji Jingu Yakult Swallows baseball stadium after a summer showcase, between legend Bill Murray and a then, coming of age star, Scarlett Johansson. Sharing relaxing times and Suntory times in the famous New York bar from where you can see the whole city of Tokyo in the distance. Even a building that looks like the Empire State Building, right on time.

BTS star Suga (AKA Agust-D) made his way through the unmistakable art deco halls of the Park Hyatt to an executive suite as part of his Disney + documentary 'Road To D-Day', chronicling the completion of his own classic. As he entered the room masked up, for more reasons than corona, and made his way through many handlers and well-wishers, he was greeted by a grand piano, and the grandest maestros of masters behind it. One of the biggest acts in South Korea was honoured to meet a Japanese legend in the form of composer, pianist, record producer and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto. Those undeniable framed glasses, underneath curtains of platinum white hair, making this artist the Warhol of the piano. Fondly following the deepest of bows on both sides came an utterly compelling conversation between the two pioneers that made that documentary's road all the more definitive. Suga even got his chance to sit with Sakamoto behind the keys and play with him (collaborating on the 'D-Day' track 'Snooze'). It was a beautiful moment in the making. 

Mere months later, we said goodbye to Ryuichi Sakamoto.

But he has one last gift for us, just over a calendar later, with the swansong of his magnum 'Opus' album for his last waltz. One hour and a half of cinematic decadence in black and white from a man who will never fade to that. 'Opus' is outstanding. An absolute classic, start to finish, of pure piano and sobering sentiment. What else could you expect from the man who made scores, soundtracks and his own solo work his very own? Well...everything and anything. Rolling stone Sakamoto is Beatle famous in his native Japan, for everything from the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), to spearheading several electronic scenes. Fusing 'A Thousand Knives' with hip-hop, as seamlessly as the 'Liquid Swords' of the Wu-Tang Clan. Right now we might be in the last lap of the Paris 2024 Olympics that came after Tokyo's postponed games in 2020, but the flow of Ryuichi's energy even composed the music for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona like a dream team.

Oscars, BAFTAs, Grammys. France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Even ringtones for Finland's Nokia...THE mobile, back when iPhones were nothing but Steve Jobs dreams. Anime's, video games and movies like 'The Revenant' (or starring in 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' (that's here, too)  with David Bowie). And now this, the soundtrack to score his concert film of the same name, released last year, directed by Neo Sora. Premiered at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. You can feel how movie making it all sounds like the look of Bill Kirstein's classic cinematography of 'Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus'.  As lovely and lonely as walking those 'Lost In Translation' halls of the peaceful Park Hyatt at night, like Suga heading back to Seoul after sharing a heart-to-heart with his new friend he possibly saw for the last time. Yet these striking chords stay with you like the heaviest of hearts.

This New York film festival, BFI London, and of course Tokyo International Film Festival favourite, which scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, details the last concert of a great whose attention was always paid to those, like the love and honing of his craft. Recorded in the winter of 2022, a few months before his death, this powerful, poignant and profound concert saw Sakamoto return to the stage for the first time in years and the last ever occasion. But what a bittersweetly beautiful one it was. Struggling with cancer, but striving, surging and soaring above it all. Saving the best for his last performance. Piano perfect. From a 'Lack Of Love', to a 'Happy End'. The 'Wuthering Heights', 'Sheltering Sky' and 'Last Emperor' in-between. It's all in the stage spotlight solitude of all the small happiness we get from the pageantry of life's richest moments. Just like the opulence of this 'Opus'.

Here in Japan, just outside of Tokyo, I recently went on a date with a piano teacher to Yokohama's brand-new YAMAHA flagship store. Inspired by all the instruments and the one who has influenced my heart. Asking her to play a little something for me like Brad Pitt to his daughter as baseball's Billy Beane of the Oakland A's in 'Moneyball', I plugged in headphones privately and closed my eyes as she began to play. And at that moment...I think I might have just fell in love. Moved to do more. Like all the surrounding children, practising piano and each and every instrument thanks to people like her, the piano playing that populates Japan...and the legend of Ryuichi Sakamoto. The children of the future. The next great is being shaped there in his honour. Taking note and watching over from the heavens. Play it again, Sakamoto. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: Everything.

REVIEW: THE SMASHING PUMPKINS - AGHORI MHORI MEI

4/5

Smash Mouth

Many members have left The Smashing Pumpkins sitting on the stoop, like rotting pumpkins on the porch a few days after Halloween. Yet the Smashing sound still remains fresh. As the pumpkins bring more records by the year, like the orange cultivated squash in patches of October. Now, barely a year since the three acts of the 'Atum' rock opera like a 'Mellon Collie' 'Teargarden', founding fathers Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain give us 'Aghori Mhori Mei'. Complete with its own reel on social media to help you with the pronunciation. It sounds like, "lookitupyourdamnself". Lucky for us, though, the Pumpkins are much kinder with their thirteenth album produced by Martha's Music and Thirty Tigers. And after discographies worth of tracks on their last couple of LPs, this top ten track set is short, sweet and so complete.

"As a Janus exclaims/Don't you flee/Don't but stray far/You can never leave this stage/It's not just me/It's about you here in heart/For there's your need," Corgan proclaims on the 'Sighommi' sole single (so far) of the project from the prolific artists. Speaking to their success and their strive, as they drive to give us definitive release after definitive release. It's their grace. They've never strayed far from their own stage, like their fans, who will never flee from their need. Even melancholy souls still feel the heart of love. With no singles prior to 'Aghori's' release, this 44, like the late, great Jerry West, minute album was conceived over a two-year period. Billed as a "rock and roll guitar record", from the epic opening of 'Edin', to the staring through your rearview of 'Murnau'. Fans will love the call of '999', from the US to the UK, or the sensational, soaring 'Sicarus', "in flames."

Powerhouse songs from 'Pentegrams' to 'Pentecost', keep this LP of mostly one-word tracks playing without skips as you can shuffle this like the complete catalogue of one of modern rock's greats, without ever having to lift a finger as you keep it moving. But it's 'War Dreams Of Itself' that hits harder in these times, stating "There's thrush in the flue/Come here mighty Orcus/And swing that cue/Yeah/A 21st-century schism/On a 21st-century loom of red, white and blue" for the record. Bold and biblical and holding a mirror up to the Stars and Stripes. It's a different day from the time those who were lost in darkness, stayed at home with a ZERO t-shirt on and their favourite album as company, embracing their ears like hugging headphones. We all seem lost these days, tempted by the despair. But bands like this, still run and care. Circling back to some Pink Floyd like artwork that breaks the prism, this dark side of the moon will help you see the light. "So I found/A postcard from the cross/Said, hey, hi, how are you?/The weather's fine/If you like that kind of view", Corgan croons on 'Who Goes There'. 

Twinning with the likes of 'Siamese Dream', this old-school Pumpkins record will keep the fans happy "for once". Although personally, everything that's come out since they started releasing tracks individually and digitally has been inspired and redefining. You'll be able to get physical copies of this streaming sound soon, as you slip off the dust jacket and sip tea in Corgan's Chicago Madame ZuZu's tea-room. But before dropping the needle, it's good to note that even 'Sighommi' wasn't going to be so much of a single. Always forced to choose the first record, the band said "meh" to all that, as they wanted 'Mei' (pronounced "me", or "may". See, I'm not a complete prick) to play as an intact body of work. And it really works that way, which is why we can't leave without celebrating the glory days adored sound of 'Goeth The Fall' ("I'm tired of lying in wait for your love/Reach for me through fire/The kino's burnt down/In fairy dust and in sight and sound/Won't you follow me/Oh, won't you dance with me/A love, a love as found/Summon naked doubt/'Cause I'll always be around"). Now, the only question remains is, 'Aghori Mhori Mei', what does it mean? Well... TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Sighommi', 'War Dreams Of Itself', 'Sicarus'.