REVIEW: MUMFORD & SONS - RUSHMERE

4/5

Mount Rushmere

Mumford are back, my sons...and daughters. And it's been the longest time. The folks from London return with their first album since 2018's 'Delta', and we still can't 'Believe' the electric change of a 'Wilder Mind'. Yet, Mumford & Sons are back to their Barack's best band roots like 'Babel', but not with haste, so sigh no more. Even if, following their 'Delta Tour' EP released during COVID, this marks the band first album without guitarist and banjo player Winston Marshall, who left a year later in a cloud of controversy. 'Rushmere' is the new peak for the group in big, bold, red for dead letters, and classic album artwork photography with all their friends. This Island and Glassnote record for the grassroots British band is their longest gap between albums, but they haven't lost a step, even if they have lost a member.

Recorded in RCA's Studio A in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as Mumford and Sons' home studio in delightful Devon. 'Rushmere' also serves as the album's opening single, whilst the opening track 'Malibu' makes for the second, like California. From the United Kingdom to the Hollywood of the United States like Marcus Mumford's marriage to fellow Brit Carey Mulligan, the Cali' born, British raised singer says, "And I feel a spirit move in me again/I know it's the same spirit that still moves in you/I don’t know how it took so long to shed this skin/Live under the shadow of your wings", on a track that builds beautifully. On this New Music Friday of smooth Santana's like Carlos, black stars, most definitely, a Fresh Prince and a Boygenius, Mumford & Sons' Rushmere also features Madison Cunningham on the track 'Blood On The Page', just like Cunningham compels Lucy Dacus' new album of the week, 'Forever Is A Feeling'.

Named after a pond in London's Wimbledon Common, Marcus Mumford and his band of brothers and somebody's sons give us the first real release since Marcus' self-tilted solo set and his 'Good People' collaboration with great music nerd, Pharrell Williams. Rousing anthems hold 'Anchor' in the bay of their signature sound they dive, not dip, back into. All the way until this top ten half hour of power urges us to 'Carry On' with the memories of the darkest days still holding dear. 'Monochrome' like the artwork, Mumford adds 'Caroline' to that muses biblical chapter like songbook. Whilst 'Surrender' gives up even more in the form of the words, "Defeat and surrender always feel the same to me/But what does it matter? They both bring me to my knees. Yet this best of British band will not be broken like a Ben Harper classic.

 And that's the 'Truth' with lines like, "You cannot complain if you don't throw a dice yourself/Sit outside the lines, blame everybody else/I refuse to offer myself up to men who lie/Spit and sell and smirk, out the corner of their eye." This band is back 'Where It Belongs', singing, "When you speak, do you think you could do it kindly/Or does your anger overwhelm?/When you're weak, do you ever think of livin' wildly/And let your anger go to hell? Bringing words that feel like they should be taken as gospel to their chapter and verse. The banjos are back, with hints of synths, even though Marshall is missing, as he stepped down, so the band didn't have to share in the cancelling he was facing. He'll always be a part of this band, like the family that their name suggests. But now after a big break, and an even longer one, it's time for a new day for the band who will wait no more. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Malibu', 'Caroline', 'Blood On The Page (Featuring Madison Cunningham)'.

REVIEW: WILL SMITH - BASED ON A TRUE STORY

3.5/5

Will's Way

Ready for another hit from what was once Hollywood's most marketable star, who banked number one records to underscore his movies of the same name (here comes and cues the 'Men In Black')? The 'King Richard' Oscar winning Best Actor turned 'Bad Boy'. Did he really have to turn it in? Well, judging from the skit of the scene setting 'Int. Barbershop-Day' intro to Will Smith's brand-new album, featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff and B. Simone in soundbite, he did. With a rush of receipts like news clippings hitting the floor with all that hair, as those who like to chatter talk that gossip. Those used to this family guy's nice, clean raps, may be averse to the curse dropped here, but they shouldn't forget the bleeped out F-word on his criminally underrated protest anthem 'Tell Me Why' with the great Mary J. Blige. That was an unbelievable twenty years ago on Smith's last album 'Lost and Found', showcasing the skills of the good old, first rap Grammy days. Now for his fifth solo album (after the aforementioned and the Hollywood big-three of 'Big Willie Style', 'Willeniuum' and 'Born To Reign'), tenth if you count his classics with Jeff, the comeback is complete.

After the intro, 'Based On A True Story' moves on from the Chirs Rock slap and back to our regular scheduled programming. And we should too. Especially when Will Smith takes it back to the Fresh Prince days of his rhyming skills with 'You Lookin' For Me?' Just like turning his school blazer inside out for that lava lamp lining, even Seinfeld would be proud of and heading back to the future with a Mr. Ben costume change. W.S's. 'B.O.A.T.S.' Season 1 ('R.I.T.W.'), like Queen Latifah, even looks like a throwback, right down to the fresh 'Code Red' artwork as Philadelphia's own who rang the Liberty Bell at the latest Sixer game is decked out in Phillies gear. The big-hitter bringing it back at the same time when LL Cool J has been rocking them bells again to show us who's the real G.O.A.T. Smith brings out the big guns too. A holy Rave, YCMI and WOA Sermon for 'The Reverend' interludes of inspiration. Jac Ross' vest on his chest for 'Bulletproof'. Teyana Taylor, helping him get through 'Hard Times'. Joyner Lucas throwing a 'Tantrum'. India Martinez and Marcin's 'First Love'. And Fridayy and the Sunday Service Choir for the beautiful standout 'You Can Make It', with not a dry eye in the congregation.

Yet it's the 'Beautiful Scars' single with OBanga and Detroit's own Big Sean that really hits harder. Especially when it comes to the movie of a music video that the now Instagram famous Will teased on his social media platforms, finding new life after the cancellation from his cultures. Back in the day, before Keanu Reeves, Will Smith was meant to be the one to play Neo in 'The Matrix'. Yet, he did 'Wild Wild West' instead. And you thought that other thing was the biggest mistake he made (it really was). This wild west duel is as crazy as the time he almost played 'Django', before Jamie Foxx showed how unchained he really was. Fun fact, Foxx actually appears multiple-times on the 'Big Willie Style' of the 'Independence Day' and 'Six Degrees Of Separation' star Smith's debut album as Keith B Real in those legendary interludes and even gets slapped...by Jada. Willie tells us to keep all that business out of our mouths before a 'Rave In The Wasteland' that feels like the party Pinkett went to in 'The Matrix 2', but reloaded Will even makes records with his kids now. Dodge that! As 'The Pursuit Of Happyness' and 'After Earth' co-star, Jaden appears on a 'Work Of Art' with Russ. Although, through all the wicked wisdom, we really need the best music maker of the family, Willow, whipping her hair.

Red pill, blue pill, this Slang album really goes hard when Smith goes it alone. Something he's felt over the past couple of calendars, as his most "personal and impactful work" is something that finds "resilience in difficult times." Lighting up the Grammys after his Academy ban, Will knows his way around working a stage. And tracks like 'Make It Look Easy' ("Give it to me when the game on the line/Rain or shine, all fine, all fine, yeah/Give it to me when we runnin' outta time (Runnin' outta time)/Get behind me when they comin' for you/I take the hits and the misses/The risks and the disses (Ha-ha, look)/Even when they happy or they vicious/That don't change who Will Smith is") track that. The comeback may fall a little short at times (like 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' with another legendary comic, Martin Lawrence, didn't), and the 'Selective Outrage' of Chris Rock's own Netflix one may have hit harder, but we just hope these two former 'Fresh Prince' episode co-stars can get it together again, like we always knew Smith could rap. From 'Summertime' to shaking the room with a boom. Some just don't understand, but this man is more than nothing but trouble, even if some have already burst his bubble. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Beautiful Scars (Feat. Big Sean and OBanga)', 'You Can Make It (Feat. Fridayy and Sunday Service Choir)', 'Work Of Art (Feat Russ & Jaden)'.

Spin This: Will Smith - 'Lost & Found'

REVIEW: LUCY DACUS - FOREVER IS A FEELING

4/5

Girlgenius

Forever music is found this New Music Friday with the release of singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus' brand-new album 'Forever Is A Feeling'. And it's much more than all of that. One-third of the Holy Trinity, heaven-sent triple-threat that is Boygenius (with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker), this is Lucy in the sky with diamonds for the first time since 'The Record', or her last solo set ('The Rest') in 2023. Out now, on Geffen Record, 'Feeling' evokes singles like 'Ankles/Limerence', 'Best Guess' and the terrific 'Talk'. Not to mention a big collaboration with 'Hozier', hitting the 'Bullyseye' with a daredevil who has been unearthing all kinds of music of late. Yet after the classic 'Calliope Prelude' that opens everything up, it's 'Big Deal' that finds a yearning forever. Saving the best track...for first.

Inked across the bare chest, like the classic album artwork in a formidable frame, Lucy sings "We both know that it would never work/You’ve got your girl, you’re gonna marry her/And I’ll be watching in a pinstriped suit/Sincerely happy for the both of you/So what changеs, if anything?/Maybe everything can stay thе same/But if we never talk about it again/There’s something I want you to understand." That this girl is more than a kind of Burgundy big deal. Just like Dacus, whose album, just shy of April, is one for the year. So much so, that 'Forever Is A Feeling' that is about to embark on tour. 'Forever' features bandmates Bridgers and Baker, as well as contributions from Blake Mills, Bartees Strange, Melina Duterte and Madison Cunningham, who also features with 'Blood On The Page' for the first Mumford & Sons album since 2018's 'Delta', 'Rushmere', this week. Folks, rejoice!

On 'Modigliani' Lucy yearns for more spirit, singing ""Loving father, friend and son"/Printed backwards on my shoulder blade/From leaning back on a plaque on a bench/I carry David's name until it fades/Why does it feel significant?/Why do I have to tell you about it?/Trying to fall asleep, back flat on the floor/While you were eating continental breakfast in Singapore/You make me homesick for places I’ve never been before." Even more of the best leafs out of this calendar's songbook come from the sweet sound of 'Talk', that inspired me to talk my 'ish, and write my first song in months in that Boygenius signature style. From the titular track, to the 'Lost Time' evoking epic closer, it's never over. Not for this party that comes out like, "I missed your call because I was in a board room/Full of old men guessin' what the kids are getting into/There was a cardboard cutout of a cowboy in the corner/Pointin' his gun in my face/I don't belong here, nobody does/Except maybe those old men collecting dust."

The Virginia singer knows how to spin a yarn that even Dylan would blow a toy whistle at. Songwriting, poetry, or both? Your 'Best Guess' is as good as all of them. But it's the 'Most Wanted Man' that really nails up the best bounty to this artist's great reward. "Got me wrapped around your finger/Tied in a double knot/Just like our legs all double knotted/In the morning at the Ritz/$700 dollar room still drinking coffee from the Keurig/We're soaking up the luxuries on someone else's dime/Living the dream before we fully pass our prime." The book on Lucy is a holy one. In the same week of New Music from Santana, Yasiin Bey (AKA Mos Def) with The Alchemist, Will Smith and those sons, this is the biggest and best. Destroying and creating. Finding forever in those common moments we just wish we could hold on to, for only a little longer. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Big Deal', 'For Keeps', 'Bullseye (Feat. Hozier)'.

REVIEW: SELENA GOMEZ & BENNY BLANCO - I SAID I LOVE YOU FIRST

4/5

Only Lovers In The Building 

Love wins. Even in the face of the shameful, shaming, cruel comments Benny Blanco has received for his relationship with fiancée Selena Gomez. The super-producer has frankly faced disgusting comments about his looks and life with the billionaire musician and star of 'Only Murders In The Building' TV series with Steve Martin and Martin Short and the Oscar nominated musical 'Emelia Perez'. But then again, even Michael B. Jordan would be punching above his weight when it comes to Selena. Never mind all that b######s, because with a sex pistol of an album through the keyhole, the pop princess and producing prince of a power couple, Selena Gomez and benny blanco (that's not shade, it's how he writes his artist name) give us 'I Said I Love You First'. 

Pop is in a perfect place, right now, and with this polished production of a home album, this is the new Ross and Rachel for the "no, no, you sign out first" generation, friends. Another half-hour, all power album in a New Music Friday that sees the Japanese Breakfast of Michelle Zauner and co keep company 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)'. Coming a few weeks after the BLACKPINK artists (LISA and JENNIE) she had 'Ice Cream' with went head-to-head with the 'Sour Candy' of Lady Gaga, and each other, haters will say this is just a new Selena Gomez album, with her husband-to-be riding her coattails. But no. This best of both world's affair has Benny Blanco manning the boards and sharing the spotlight, like John Leguizamo (AKA "Benny Blanco from The Bronx") did with Al Pacino in 'Carlito's Way'. Especially in the cinematic sounding, music video matching 'Younger And Hotter Than Me' song of solidarity to all those starlets in Hollywood, that are actually anything but that, and instead, are the substance and everlasting beauty of real women.

Whether it be the "big, BIG heart" tongue in cheek of the City of Angeles perfect 'Sunset Blvd', or that Billie Eilish like sound of Marina del Rey, like that Grammy robbed (expect a nomination here, though) artist, Gomez may owe a debt of gratitude to her inspiration from Lana Del Rey. Yet this album is still all hers...and Benny's for better, and no worse. Collaborating with Gracie Abrams on the grace of the leading single 'Call Me When You Break Up' on this album that is as LA as John Mulaney's 'Everybody's Live' (but why the STAPLES Center like name change?). Tainy and J Balvin also feature on 'I Can't Get Enough', but aside from that, it's all Benny and Selena. From the titular opener to the 'Scared Of Loving You', Finneas O'Connell co-wrote closer and 'Stained' bonus. "You want me to act like the bad girls/Put you on your knees/Kiss me like we're meant for each other/Say you'll never leave", Selena empowers on the 'Cowboy' ride that's all sexual and explicit, with tongue in cheek of the one you love. Riding off into the sunset together...forever. With cans on string following the "Just Married" licence plate.

This English and Spanish album following Selena's 'Revelación' extended play and Blanco's own 'Friends Keep Secrets 2' sequel, both released in 2021, deserves its own follow-up too. An inspired Interscope album that features its own share of heartbreak ('Don't Wanna Cry', 'How Does It Feel To Be Forgotten' and 'You Said You Were Sorry') for the young lovers keeping it real. But 'Don't Take It Personally'. Amongst highlights like that, 'Ojos Tristes' (featuring The Marías) and 'Do You Wanna Be Perfect', it's the 'Bluest Flame' that burns the brightest as Selena sings, "Hey there/When I lay in your arms, am I there?/When I'm lost in the garden of air/You know how it feels/Body on body, it's you and me and it's real". All to a love making hook ("Ah, I just wanna go all night/I just wanna go insane/Touchin' in the summer rain/Hotter than the bluest flame, hotter than the bluest flame") you'll really f### with over and over. Young and in love, who are we to judge? Engaged in wedding planning and a matrimony of joy, the happy couple atop the cake have just found their reception playlist. Now how about the first dance? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Younger And Hotter Than Me', Sunset Blvd', 'Cowboy'.

REVIEW: JAPANESE BREAKFAST - FOR MELANCHOLY BRUNETTES (& SAD WOMEN)

4/5

Breakfast Can't Wait

Good morning from Japan. Your breakfast is ready. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, indie pop act Japanese Breakfast (fronted by Korean-American Michelle Zauner of 'Crying In H Mart' bestseller fame) are back. And they're about to set foot in the land of the rising sun for some set-lists as part of their world tour, visiting Tokyo (Zepp Shinjuku) and Osaka (Club Quattro). All for 'The Melancholy Tour' supporting their brand-new album 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)', which came out this big New Music Friday just gone, alongside the likes of Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco ('I Said I Loved You First'). But there's no infinite sadness to this melancholia like the smashing pumpkins, because this Dead Oceans album is the first Japanese one since they smashed yellow tomatoes in the 'Jubilee', coming out of corona of 2021. Save the sensational 'Sable' video game soundtrack released in the same year. 

Breakfast is served via Peter Bradley's guitar, Deven Craige's bass, and the drums, keyboard and backing vocals of Craig Hendrix. Setting off singles like 'Orlando In Love' and 'Mega Circuit' on this top ten track album and their respective nostalgic, throwback videos, chasing cinematic pirates and camcorder recorded dirt bikes lost in the woods. But for all the American love to the cities, seasons and attractions (whether it's the highlight 'Winter In LA', or the closing 'Magic Mountain' peak for all you Floridians), the real big-hitter for the former Little Big League singer is the big collaboration with 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Tron' star actor Jeff Bridges, remaking his own musical legacy once again, like he did with a 'Crazy Heart'. On 'Men In Bars', the 'Sleeping Tapes' singer sings "Got back in the ring, I took a spill/I spent a while just tumbling down/Found my head again and took to a new town." All as Michelle muses to her Hollywood one, "Got lost on the way, I took a route/I didn't mean to follow down/And I was tempted, sure/But I have come home now."

From the 'Here Is Someone' declaring outset, these 'Melancholy Brunettes', are ones that could garner another Grammy nomination like 'Jubilee'. Produced by Blake Mills, who's cut his teeth with Bob Dylan and Fiona Apple, this real record takes inspiration from both. Going from a complete unknown to what they say in 'South Park' about not giving a rat's a## if you're not Fiona Apple. Buried on a pirate's treasure of a feast of food and skulls on this album artwork, this 'Sad Woman' is a reflective album that's as real as it gets for the lonely world we see to be living in now, politically and personally, when people are voting and swiping for the wrong kinds. But whether it be the sweet 'Honey Water', or the ode to 'Leda' ("Talking to you/It's nearly morning where you are/While my afternoons move so slow/Pacing the room/Awaiting a moment gone too far/And your special way of ruining the mood"), this 'Little Girl' is grown on this gothic album of a poet on the verge of inspiration under the gloom of darkness. Open the 'Picture Window' and you can see it in all its glory from Sound City Studios, LA. Inspired, in title, by John Cheever's 'The World Of Apples', this is the best bite yet. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Orlando In Love', 'Men In Bars (Feat. Jeff Bridges)', 'Winter In LA'.

LIVE REVIEW: JACK WHITE @ Toyosu Pit, Tokyo, Japan (17/03/25)

4/5

No Name, No Gimmicks.

Ears still ringing, that may have more to do with the fact that I'm rounding 40 like Shohei Ohtani is bases this week (heading home for the Tokyo World Series), I'm still transfixed. As much as I rocked out, I could listen to a genius like this play all night (shout out to the guy I met just taking it all in after). He could put the phone book through a guitar, and I'd still be in awe. I may have whiffed on tickets for the baseball this weekend, as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs were in town to take on the Tokyo Giants and Hanshin Tigers (no champion Yokohama BayStars?), but who else has rent for a thing like that? Well, you know, Jack. Randomly getting a seat next to Bill Murray apparently for a full circle 'Lost In Translation' moment. The White Stripe, Raconteur and Dead Weather member, and sensational solo artist in his own right Jack White, on his 'No Name' tour, could have rocked and knocked the Tokyo Dome out of the park himself. But after touring Japan, from Hiroshima (Blue Live) and Osaka (Gorilla Hall) to Nagoya (Diamond Hall), the Third Man returned to the terrific Toyosu Pit for two nights (three if you count the surprise show at Shibuya shop Hysteric Glamour). For the record, and all you tourists, it's near TeamLab.

After setting up shop in Tokyo's Fender flagship store in Harajuku, gifting his new favourite axe-murderer from first night support act Otoboke Beaver with a guitar, this jack of all rock trades had more surprises. Treating all the fans (hey, Fox. Hope you enjoyed the gig) from his weekend show with a very special guest in the form of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, who was taking photographs in Osaka of White in uniform, looking like he worked for the city. Monday's concert was still fair of face before the grace of Tuesday, however. As decked out in a cool lime green jacket for St. Patrick's Day, with spiders like the Maman sculpture from the late Louise Bourgeois in Roppongi Hills, and armed with beautiful blue and tuxedo looking guitars, White could have opened his own guitar store like his record one in Nashville, Tennessee. The motor of Detroit and the best thing to happen musically to the city since Motown, charged out of the gates abruptly to lights out fanfare as he beckoned the crowd to get involved with his opening jam, before ripping into those 'Old Scratch Blues' and anthemic 'Icky Thump'. Adding even more punch to the prose, "White Americans, what? Nothing better to do/Why don't you kick yourself out? You're an immigrant too" over growling guitar.

"AY, AY, AY!" The fans chanted in unison like the terraces of football fields on match day. Hoping 'Seven Nation Army' would make the program like it has those same stadiums in song. Doing what the late, great Quincy Jones did with 'The Italian Job'. They were in for an epic encore treat, too, like the Glastonbury gig (YouTube it, folks!). As Jack introduced his brilliant band of brothers, calling them out after the Holy Trinity of convenience stores (7-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart) they have lived in this week. White broke out the Stripes ('Fell In Love With A Girl', 'The Hardest Button To Button' making me think of that bit from 'The Simpsons') as well as songs from The Raconteurs ('Broken Boy Soldier', 'Steady As She Goes') and The Dead Weather ('I Cut Like A Buffalo'). Yet, amongst classic covers, like Loretta Lynn's 'Whispering Sea' and 'Baby Blue' by Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps, it was his own work on this solo set that hit harder. Whether it be classics like 'Love Interruption' and the snippet of 'Three Women'. Or new tracks off the same crossed out name album (that came out of nowhere, by the way), he's touring right now, like 'Underground' or 'Archbishop Harold Holmes' in closing. All to the tune of a man dressed like he just left Alaska, bum-rushing the crowd he was set to surf.

Flowers must also be given up for this night's support act, Japan's very own TsushiMaMiRe. Wowing their hometown crowd with the bassist giving off an Este from Haim vibe (can't wait to see my favourite group play with Vampire Weekend and The Hives this summer at Fuji Rock). But once Jack gave us everything from 'Little Bird' to 'High Ball Stepper' it was on. The next time he's in town, I suggest you be, too. Because this is amongst the best of American acts in Tokyo over the last couple of calendars in smaller venues like Beck and Phoebe Bridgers. I can't believe I left this one until a game-time decision (hey, in my defence, I pull down an English teacher's salary). Using the fact that I'd seen him before as an excuse, like the time I wouldn't go to his gig after watching 'Sinister'. Albeit with the incredible Alison Mosshart led Dead Weather, where he only stepped from behind the skins to dedicate 'You Just Can't Win' to a Gallagher brother (they'll be here soon, too). The fact is, you could watch White play for the rest of your life, all the way to the Queen of England and the hounds of hell and still not get enough, like his great Motor City songbook. Again and again, even if 'Over and Over' was a milk carton (and I didn't catch hell, like Glen). Wherever he goes next, I'm there, like Wichita. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Set-List Picks: 'Whispering Sea', 'Archbishop Harold Holmes', 'Seven Nation Army'.

SONG FOR THE MOMENT: HAIM - RELATIONSHIPS

4/5

Relationship Goals

Haimally! It's been a long seven years. And I'm not talking about the time it took these 'Women In Music' to work on this new single and follow-up to their classic that helped us through COVID-19 to be the best album of 2020. Besides, did we forget about the gem of a 'Lost Track' three years ago? No, instead, I'm talking about this Haim super-fan, I have the Spotify Wrapped receipts to prove it, finally getting to see his favourite band live. Years after trying to see them in London with my bestie like Este (thank you for the signed vinyl), only to be locked down here in the Far East. Instagram story jokes about "not Tokyo" when Haim came out of corona with a 'WIMPIII' world tour announcement. This year, they'll finally find themselves in the Land of the Rising (and scorching...you been here in July?) Sun. Playing the last day of Japan's Fuji Rock Festival headlined by Vampire Weekend alongside the likes of The Hives and English Teacher (me?!). I couldn't be happier.

The Summer girls are back. And this is the best thing to happen to Los Angeles since Luka Dončić (I know these fans will love that). Fresh off the lot with a new music video, co-starring Drew Starkey ('Queer'), that feels like a PTA, the season after spring has come early with this one in your step. The music video is gorgeous, girls and the 'Relationships' track itself?! Exactly what we need in the malaise of this modern day dating age where we really need to apply ourselves more. Haim playing up the photo of Nicole Kidman leaving divorce court, like the weight of the world was lifted, perfectly (sorry, Tom, please don't unfollow me). All whilst Instagramming their own announcements. "I'm single", says Danielle Haim's, who also features on the new Bon Iver single 'If Only I Could Wait', t-shirt. "I'm ???", says Alana's who recently got the attention of The Academy, starring in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Licorice Pizza'. "I'm taken" beams Este's as she also boasts some beautiful bling on her finger. I promise I'm happy for you (sniff).

The trio's first record in three years truly is one of their best. Feeling like the energy that 'Something To Tell You' came out of the gates with on 'Want You Back' on a deserted Californian street. The Valley girls give us something that sounds so them, yet so fresh, all at the same time. Can I say, it's the best song since the Backstreet Boys' 'All I Have To Give' (what?!). "Baby, how can I explain/When an innocent mistake/Turns into seventeen days?/F#####' relationships/Don't they end up all the same/When there's no one left to blame?/I think I'm in love, but I can't stand f#####' relationships." After touring with Taylor, the sisters give us a hook we can really feel, as everybody is caught up in it these days. Even dropping a link to hook-up culture's Bumble in the comments, Haim are playing this relationship record hand for all their worth. But, wait! If they're in Japan and on the apps this summer, does this mean I could maybe match? Yeah, right! But you can't blame a guy for shooting his shot. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

REVIEW: LADY GAGA - MAYHEM

4/5

Beauty Behind The Mayhem

A star is reborn...back the way she used to be. Like 'Abracadabra'. Lady Gaga is back for one of the biggest albums and New Music Fridays of the year...and we've only just marched. Releasing the 'Mayhem' of her new album that takes us back to the good old 'Fame' days of her pop art like Warhol. Going head-to-head, but also in togetherness, with 'Sour Candy' BLACKPINK collaborator JENNIE and her new 'Ruby' album. And, no doubt, there's little between Stefani and K Pop sensation, coming one week after her bandmate LISA. Both albums are just that brilliant. Like these women in music, word to the new Haim material coming soon, back a half decade ago in 2020. That candy, like Pink's 'Ice Cream' with superstar Selena Gomez, came off Gaga's 'Chromatica'. An album that shower the Oscar winning star of Bradley Cooper's 'A Star Is Born' could still make music as good as her movies, like the recent Grammy, going out of this world with a smile, showed.

Going Gaga on 'The Chromatica Ball' world tour, this Lady couldn't be stopped. Even coming here to Tokyo, Japan, coming out of corona. Just like Tom Cruise's massive 'Maverick' megahit sequel to 'Top Gun', spearheaded by Gaga's single from it, 'Hold My Hand'. I'm not ashamed to say, I shed tears when I saw this live in concert...it had been a rough time, and it just sounds so epic. Germanotta was such a sure thing when it came to movies ('House Of Gucci'), she was cast as legendary Batman villain, The Joker's love interest Harley Quinn in Todd Phillips' sequel to the Joaquin Phoenix Oscar win, 'Joker: Folie à Deux'. With big pink stilettos to fill after 'Barbie' blockbuster superstar Margot Robbie made it her own, putting the hammer down. It was a great bit, but critics didn't get the gag. Still, amongst all this mayhem and madness, daddy's little fame monster still didn't stop. Scoring a Grammy with Bruno Mars for their definitive 'Die With A Smile' duet, whilst the pop prince was making 'Apt.' anthems with other members of Blackpink (Rosé).

Then 'LG7' was announced. Lady Gaga's seventh studio album, following the huge successor of its predecessor and the more personal 'Joanne' before that. Crazy when the 'Five Foot Two' singer had just released her own personal songbook for her Joker character in the 'Harlequin' album, that went next to the 'Folie à Deux' soundtrack, which felt like another actual album in itself akin to her 'A Star Is Born' duet big-score with 'Maestro' Bradley. Heading for 40, and still the Queen of 'Artpop' like LeBron James is the King of Basketball. Recorded at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La studios in Malibu, California, and armed with Hollywood hits and music videos (the delightful 'Disease' and amazing 'Abracadabra') in all their classic chorography that breaks a whole new hallowed ground, 'Mayhem' also features the Bruno bonus, when originally this Grammy winning best original song was not going to feature on either artist's album. You best believe both have the hits to leave it on the cutting room, but Mars should make it on his own one too. The inspired inclusion to all this 'Mayhem' here seals Lady Gaga's seventh heaven of an album as an actual classic as the rest of the world catches on.

Yet, even without it, this sensational slice of synth-pop and beautiful genre blend still hits. Like the boundless bloom of the next one in the 'Garden Of Eden' for all you Adam and Eve's in the Big Apple. "I could be your girlfriend for the weekend/You could be my boyfriend for the night/My excuse to make a bad decision/Bodies gettin' close under the lights", she sings to chorus conclude this big-three grand opening. From the black and white, back to the basics cracked reflection of a classic cover, to the epic experimentation of these beautiful blends of album artwork, Gaga goes back to how she always used to do it...pushing the envelope like no one before. Whether it be the 'Perfect Celebrity', or the 'Shadow Of A Man'. Even the lavishing lyric videos to these songs actually feel like music ones. Especially 'Zombieboy' or 'The Beast' for all you beautiful monsters. French DJ Gesaffelstein assists a 'Killah' track like Ghostface on the ones and twos, but it's 'Vanish Into You' where we see and hear Stefani Germanotta at her most beautiful and personal.

Prince. Bowie. Electronic and industrial music. They all help inspire one of pop's best, greatest albums to date. All the way to bonus tracks like 'Can't Stop The High' (Japan etc) and 'Kill For Love' (Target, HMV and them). From a magic, 'Spellbound' sampling opening, Gaga takes the mic again like this was 'The Hunger Games', and we show our allegiance like two kissed fingers high to the sky. Like a 'LoveDrug', how bad do we want her? Well, how about "She's on your mind, like, all the time/But I got a tattoo for us last week/Even good boys bleed." Still, the 'Telephone' singer hold her own and the phone, telling us 'Don't Call Tonight'. The pop icon like Beyoncé returns to her roots and grows even more from these fresh cuts like a 'Blade Of Grass', inspired by a heartfelt moment with her fiancée Michael Polansky. "Lovers kiss in a garden made of thorns/Traces of lonely words, illusions torn/You said, "How does a man like me love a woman like you?/ I said, "Hold me until I die and I'll make you brand new"." Even far from the shallow now, Lady Gaga shows she's still a pure pop songwriter first and foremost. And a force of nature amongst all this mayhem. Dying and smiling, now how's that for some magic made together? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Disease', 'Garden Of Eden', 'Die With A Smile (Feat. Bruno Mars)'.

Spin This: Lady Gaga - 'Harlequin'.

REVIEW: JENNIE - RUBY

4/5

love JENNIE

Ruby Rose. One week after LISA gave us her 'Alter Ego', BLACKPINK are back on that solo thing once more with the release of JENNIE's 'Ruby'. Now, after 'Number One Girl' Rosé's 'Rosie' album, we're just waiting on my favourite, Jisoo. 'The Idol' to Lisa's 'White Lotus', Jennie from the Seongnam block (with the best name. Oh hey, sis!) gives us banger after banger, like her Blackpink sister. Keeping the charts ablaze like when the BTS brothers did their solo stuff. Even if Rosé's album, armed with its own 'Apt.' anthem with pure pop hit maker Bruno Mars, hits even harder with its deeper cuts. The alter-ego of 'Ruby' is the best album since 'Rosie' and brings out the big guns, too, for your new number one girl. Recorded in the same 'Seoul City' studio (the inspired Ingrid) and Paradise Sound Recordings in LA as Lisa's set, probably dropping in and supporting each other's sessions, 'Ruby' is as Hollywood as it's massive music videos, or Rose namesake.

Alongside strong singles, like the new empowerment 'Mantra', and the 'like JENNIE' anthem you'll instantly love and recognize as iconic, Jennie has some monster collaborations on the rest of the radio ready, big-budget singles. Flossing in grills over teeth as white as her suit, lent back with the Grammy winning Doechii for an 'ExtraL' song that doesn't take a single one. Riding 'Handlebars' with megastar Dua Lipa and waking up from a 'Love Hangover' with Dominic Fike. Not to mention a hilarious Godzilla drive-in movie video with more bad first dates than Bumble. Just watch her bowl. Jen is bringing the music video back to this post MTV generation more concerned with a TikTok. She knows nostalgia, even referencing the sing along to Mariah Carey's 'Sweet Fantasy' during 'Rush Hour'. Like Jennie? Nah! You're going to love her.

From the anything but plain 'JANE' intro with FKJ, to the Ruby 'Twin' that inspired this stage setting red on black album artwork of finding yourself, Jennie is in a world and concept of her own. Coming into a spaceship at zero gravity with the coolest ruby red astronaut suit that could have been made by Maybelline. Or maybe she was born wi...never mind. I don't want to 'start a war'. For all the big hits that are here, 'with the IE (way up)' (speaking of 'Jenny From The Block') and no 'Filter', it's 'Atlanta's' very own Donald Glover AKA, Childish Gambino playing Mr. Smith to a song featuring Kali Uchis that really hits. Your 'Damn Right' with lines like, "Candy-cane blue sticks bump in the Range (You make me feel so good)/Gettin' top notch means the simpler things/Playin' hopscotch but she landed a square (You make me feel so good)/He never even tried to put her legs in the air (Ooh-ooh)/He never even tried to put a baby in that." This is Jennie's moment, mind you. And on the same New Music Friday that Lady Gaga returns to the 'Mayhem' of her dance floor, Jennie bests even that pop art icon. Let alone her K Pop sister's own landmark album, last week. Feeling like the nostalgia of coming through corona with the 'Sour Candy' of a BLACKPINK collaboration off of Gaga's 'Chromatica' ball. 

A dynamic, dynamite debut, Jennie's 'Ruby' shines like Tuesday for this rolling stone. Or by 'Starlight' with lines like, "You say you see the starlight in me/Shining so bright and pristine/What about the moments in between?/You said you see the starlight in me/What about the black mystery?/What about the moments you don't see?/It's way deeper than what you think" after the neon gleam of 'Seoul City' like a souvenir tee. Achieving a state of midnite hour 'ZEN' with a moment of truth and "On that energy, yes/I am what you think about me/Cross me, please/I'ma keep it Z, Zen/Presence, bless/Money can't buy sixth sense." More mantras making their way through every hook. Line and sinker. 'F.T.S.' ("whatever happened to freedom and honesty") and all the rest. With so many genre alter-ego's like Lisa and Rosé, Jennie shows she is a straight solo artist in her own right. Just like the 'Ruby' name she took when the Korean was growing up in New Zealand. From a Kiwi, to a blood burgundy gemstone of real durability, Jennie is showing us the real her. Before we go back to black, red runs even deeper than pink. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'like JENNIE', 'Damn Right (Feat. Childish Gambino & Kali Uchis)', 'Seoul City'.

Spin This: Lisa - 'ALTER EGO'.

REVIEW: ALOE BLACC - STAND TOGETHER

4/5

Stronger Together

Back to Blacc, Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III, AKA, Aloe Bacc, returns to the mainstream after a half decade out of the game (2020's 'All Love Everything' following his 'Christmas Funk' album). The 'I Need A Dollar' (off of his sophomore set 'Good Things') megahit singer has already proven that he is 'The Man' (from his 2013 'Lift Your Spirit') when it comes to harnessing huge hits from his hooks. No one hit wonder. Remember the late, great Avicii's 'Wake Me Up'? But now, he may have just given us his best album since his 'Shine Through' debut. Spearheaded by the soldiering solidarity single 'Don't Go Alone', 'Stand Together' is a call to arms that embrace in the face of all that is going on in the world right now. It's something we all need this New Music Friday, especially after what happened in The White House last week. This American singer and rapper from the boundless beauty of Laguna Hills, California, even tells the President to go to hell on a protest anthem in the face of all this disgrace. The not so United States of America may look like The Statue of Liberty in the Adrien Brody Oscar winning movie 'The Brutalist' right now, but Aloe it telling us, 'Not On My Watch'.

Watch this, and witness a pure and important poet of our generation telling us like it really is, in a time when we all need the word of God, or something just as spiritual. Blacc even covers a beautiful rendition of Marvin Gaye's ultimate protest song 'What's Going On', just like he did reworking The White Stripes' legendary 'Seven Nation Army', all to his own. From the single opening, to the titular close, 'Stand Together' is full of anthems of affirmation, painted like the worked denim carried on his shoulders, like the album artwork. 'Grow Together'. 'Daddy Told Me So'. Not to mention, love in the face of all this hate, like 'Love In Control', or the vision of 'My World'. Like his Emanon act with producer Exile, Aloe knows how to escape through the music, and this genre bender is truly special in its spiritual soul. Each of the dozen tracks come with a cause of philanthropy. With all this unifying sympathy, striving for more, name an album more important right now?

"What does it take to move a mountain/That no one wants to climb?/When they tell you there's no answer/How do you change the heart and mind?" Aloe asks, searching for 'One Good Thing'. Whereas the beat of 'Breakthrough' will inspire you towards your own one, as he adds, "Everyday is another chance for redemption/I paid my debts for the dirty deeds that no one needs to mention/For all the pain l've caused I apologize/With deep regret please forgive but don't forget/l've opened up my eyes/I'm not the same that I was way back/But now I'm getting my life on track/When it feels like everything's breaking down." Admitting his own flaws, that have made their way into the home that is his life, Blacc does not shy away from the shadows and the dark corners of his past. If he can make change like Obama, then surely we all can, like POTUS should.

On an album cover that looks like a clothing commercial, collaborated with the typography of a cosmetics company, Blacc is back in fashion, coming up like roses. Watch him 'Shine' like 'Aurora's Anthem' as the biggest soul star with chart crossover potential since Anthony Hamilton. Blacc's boldest and most beautiful work, marches forward when some of us are still forlorn about what happened in February. Alas, all broken hearts will be healed after this. Aloe Blacc vows to 'Never Let You Down' like Ye, before he went the other way. "Everyone deserves a little happiness/It's hard to find in these modern times/Where our minds are filled with all kinds of stress/But when therе's someone who's by your side/It makеs you feel like you can heal/And everything will be alright/There is somethin' about love/That you need to know/The more and more you choose to give/The more it grows." Wiser words have barely been sung. Now if we can only sing along...together. It's time to make a stand. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Don't Go Alone', 'Not On My Watch', 'What's Going On'.

Spin This: Anthony Hamilton - 'Ain't Nobody Worryin''.

REVIEW: LISA - ALTER EGO

3.5/5

New Music Pink Friday

Anything BTS can do, BLACKPINK! can do better...with exclamation. YouTube views. Spotify streams. And now, it seems, solo success for the international K-Pop act. Around the same time 'Number One Girl' Rosé closed out the calendar with her 'Rosie' album, featuring huge hit and actual anthem 'Apt.' with Bruno Mars (so chorus catchy, I use it to teach English to Japanese kids at school), bandmate LISA was fronting Billboard magazine, across the continents with different country covers like a 'Cowboy Carter'. Now, with the instantly iconic album artwork of her born pink 'Alter-Ego', she shows us her sister side. Albeit keeping it in the border breaking dance halls that this 'Rockstar' made her first name only needed (like Beyoncé) household one in. Rocking the house like she does her Thai rapping home, in the scope with one of YG Entertainment and Interscope's biggest records yet. Putting 2025 into focus like 'Rosie' did, pulling the curtain on 2024's closer.

'The White Lotus' star is in a resort of riches all her own, with something else to show us. Smash singles for this 'New Woman' (featuring Rosalía for Rosé's friend), 'Born Again' (with Doja Cat and Raye). All as JENNIE is making 'ExtraL' music and videos with Doechii. Determined to 'Fxck Up The World' with the free bands of Future, Lisa is on one. Yet it's the inspired interpolation of Sixpence None The Richer's classic 'Kiss Me' that really is industry influential under the milky twilight. "Kiss me under the Paris twilight/Kiss me out on the moonlit floor/Kiss me under the Paris twilight (Ah-ah)/So kiss me," she sings on 'Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me)'. She also samples Tame Impala's 'New Person, Same Old Mistakes' on 'Rockstar', and brings out rolling stone other ones on further features. Tyla is by her side on 'When I'm With You' and THE Megan Thee Stallion lets her hair down on 'Rapunzel' Surely a smash for the huge hit future. There are also Vixi and Kiki solo versions of these tracks, if you didn't think Lisa could do it on her own.

Please! Don't you know how much this star shines? Even if BLACKPINK! are on a hiatus like their friends from Seoul. This incredible 'Elastigirl' has got it, all the way to the growl of a 'Badgrrrl' and the curtain drawing 'Dream' you don't want to wake from. A slow swan song singing, "I've been thinking/That I got no idea what you're thinking/Are you happy? Are you sad?/Are you always gonna hate me for that night in Tokyo?/When it ended, I kinda hoped that it'd be open-ended/But you never looked back/Well, I guess you can't hold on to something once you let it go", here underneath the Tokyo SkyTree neon night (ask her to teach you Japanese, and she'll say "hai"). Bringing the 'Thunder' all through the night like Prince, this princess come Queen sees the morning light on the relaxed vibe of 'Chill'. But heed her warning, "With a heart so cold, I give you ch-ch-chills (ooh-ooh)/With a kiss so cold from the ice that’s on my grill (ooh-ooh)/If it ain't for fun, I'm runnin' for the hills/Only want you for the thrill/Come on fast, it won't last/Boy, you need to ch-ch-chill", like this hip-hop throwback call and response.

That's just the 'Lifestyle' of the one who rocks, "Fast cars, drop tops and tank tops/Diamonds on my tick-tock/That's just my lifestyle, oh-woah/LA to Bangkok/Can't stop, so we don't stop/That's just my lifestyle, oh-woah." LISA has been around the world like Stansfield (and that sample), and I, I, and you, you know she's the truth. When BLACKPINK! get back together it's going to be a blockbuster, but this 'Alter Ego' is still one alternative act that blooms like a lotus, and her own growing confidence that deserves the cockiness of a rapper. This is the best 'Alter Ego' since R&B singer and 'Fast and the Furious' and 'Transformers' franchise star Tyrese showed his rapping side, Black Ty. A dynamite debut from the dynamic star. Cocksure and charismatic from California's Paradise Sound Recording Studio in Los Angeles and the Legend Music of Phuket. This feels like Hollywood and home. Some critics are calling out the cohesion, but that's just their own ego's talking. LISA has always known how to blend styles like the purple one, and now as she pink switches up, she hits like a Dodger. Blending English and Spanish language like LA, Thailand's own reaches even more hearts, minds and egos. Name a better alternative! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Rockstar', 'Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me)', 'Dream'.

Spin This: Rosé - 'Rosie'.

EXHIBITION REVIEW: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO 'SEEING SOUND, HEARING TIME' @ MOT, Tokyo Japan

4/5

Sound And Vision

@ Museum Of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan.

Magnum, like his 'Opus', the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto was more than music. The classic composer, and Japan's answer to the dearly departed Ennio Morricone, scored all sorts of sounds, sure. From the electronic (his Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) group), to the soundtrack (like the Oscar winning Alejandro G. Iñárritu movie 'The Revenant', starring Leonardo DiCaprio, changing the landscape of cinematic music). Yet his art hit even harder to the heart than all of that. The death of this dearly departed artist subdued a reserved Japan even more. Sure, he was in ill-health, but at 71, it seemed far too soon for a man who was looking his most iconic in later year glasses and shades of grey. Still pioneering new worlds of sound. Holding quarantined meetings in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku (instantly recognizable in its rooms for being made famous by Sofia Coppola's classic 'Lost In Translation' starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson) with Suga Of South Korean pop sensation BTS, as they crafted a classic collaboration. He wasn't done. Real artists and their art never are.

In his passing, Sakamoto left us with so much more. Just like the 'seeing sound, hearing time' exhibition that you can now catch in the MOT of the Museum Of Contemporary Art, here in Tokyo, Japan. Overlooked by the stirring and strong structure of the Tokyo SkyTree. And what a moment of truth this really is, in the amazing architecture of a concrete building I haven't seen since corona. The last time being for an epic exhibit from the Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, matching pop artist Yokoo Tadanori and his wonderful work that has inspired everyone from Yuki Mishima to The Beatles. Here, Sakamoto's showcase shows collaborations with many an amazing artist. Shiro Takatani, Daito Manabe, Carsten Nicolai, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Zakkubalan and Toshio Iwai. Not to mention a special collaboration with Fujiko Nakaya. And, yes, if you've already taken this in fellow Tokyoites, that is the one and only Tilda Swinton sleeping in a motel room, hauntingly like only she can. Mirroring her latest movie of 'The Room Next Door' with Julianne Moore and director Pedro Almodóvar. All marching along in a shadow, like the last TeamLab Borderless digital exhibition projected onto Kanazawa Castle. As timelessly traditional and future forward as this Tokyo home itself.

The actor, composer, record producer and keyboardist hits another note as an artist who transcends space and time, not to mention the hereafter, with what he shows our eyes and ears. Speaking to us from the great beyond with the prose of poetry and jarring and beautiful soundscapes that awake all of our senses and show us life is but a dream. Coming to us just before saying Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, this epic exhibition, which is drawing more crowds than crossing the streets of Shibuya, will march forwards until the end of next month. And you should catch it, whilst you can, because its meaningful message will stay with you for much longer after. This library of sound, drawing from Ryuichi's reservoir, features outside and inside installations. The foggy smoke outside, near the speakers, influencing the black mirrors of the Instagram crowd. But from the iPads and phones of his home and studio life, it's the perfect piano standing on its own that will move you to tears like seeing the John Lennon one at The Beatles Story, from Tokyo, to Liverpool, what a way to go (imagine). Especially when you learn what it survived. All before you see Sakamoto's own one, played perfectly, powerfully and poignantly by the man himself in the silhouette of a haunting hologram. This is the closest you can get to what we lost. And what we will if we don't see sound and hear time in the perfect harmony of what means everything to you and me. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

REVIEW: THE LUMINEERS - AUTOMATIC

4/5

Automatic For The People

Don't adjust your sets. The Lumineers are back. The "I belong with you, you belong with me. You're my sweetheart" folk singers return with their first album since the 'Brightside' of 2022. Live in technicolor as we all tune in. Spurred on by their one-shot video lead single, that is anything but the 'Same Old Song'. But with that being said, and the second single, of the 'You're All I Got/So Long' duality, the luminous Lumineer legacy amongst their Bon Iver and Augustine luminaries is one of a signature sound that hits the sweet spot between spiritual and anthemic. This half-hour Dualtone record, released on New Music on St. Valentine’s Day Friday, is a prism of love, live in living colour. Following their big swing, 'Live At Wrigley Field,' last year, they are carrying on like a Chicago Cub.

Dialled to eleven, with Dave Baron tapping in on production for this indie act, this amazing, accented album was recorded at the Utopia studios of Woodstock, New York for that beautiful Bohemian feeling in a rhapsody of real records. Actual albums have a home again in the first quarter-century of the new millennium. And it may only be mid-February, like the Kendrick Super Bowl in NOLA or NBA All-Star weekend in a Chef Curry Golden State, but you can already chalk this one up, as one of the better albums of 2025. Get those Grammies ready for this awesome album artwork antenna. Not bad for an album recorded in less than a month, 'A##hole'. Looking at the blurred line absurdities of the modern world, all the way to the 'So Long' closer after some short 'Sunflowers' like Van Gogh. These Lumineers are struggling to tell the difference between what's real and fake. But we know what the former is...them.

Numbing ourselves between boredom and overstimulation, like the fingering treadmills that are our smartphones, The Lumineers turn that same television that the Red Hot Chili Peppers told you to throw away, back on. This 'Automatic' album is for the people, with lyrics to go, like the television card teased words on the same social media they are waging and raging against. Yet, together, Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites write wonders for those songs in your back pocket, leafed for their own independent version of the great middle-American songbook. Stirring 'Strings' from the heart of 'Colorado', dreaming wild, like Casey Affleck and Walton Goggins playing real life brothers with a dream. This album reaches for a 'Better Day' with standouts like 'Plasticine' and 'Ativan', but in a bounty of beautiful break-up ballads to make up, it's 'Keys On The Table' you shouldn't leave, like the one(s) you let get away.

This one restores your faith in modern love gone in ways that would make Bowie ashamed with lines like, "And if you've lost the faith, boy/Leave your keys up on the table/Evеrybody knows, everybody knows/Scared you had a bad hеart/And you're sleeping in the carpark/Everybody knows you're all I got/You're all I got." But just like the album title track repeats the 'Automatic' name', another favourite, 'You're All I Got', harks back to these jangling keys. "Feelin' bored and runnin' from the shame/Livin' for the love of yesterday/Lawyer fees, stretch limousines/Pull the cord and flush it down the drain/Let the light come down on me/Let the light come down on me/You're all I got/You're all that I got." Darkened by divorce at the door, but still taking and talking love like a champ, The Lumineers show us that even in the depths of depression, the heart and soul is near. And they can shed light and remember what really means something to them, when those three little words turn into two and alimony. We need a new way in this day, especially with love, and the lovely Lumineers are trying to help show it. The rest should be automatic. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Same Old Song', 'Keys On The Table', 'Sunflowers'.

Spin This: Augustines - 'Augustines'

REVIEW: THE WEEKND - HURRY UP TOMORROW

4/5

Living For The Weeknd

New Music Friday, Saturday and Sunday sees the return of The Weeknd, tuning in for the first time since 2022's 'Dawn FM' with guest host, smokin' actor Jim Carrey. A 24-carat Kobe number of tracks (if you count the '00XO' bonuses of 'Runaway' and 'Society') for the first major mainstream album of 2025, the year of the snake. All in the same month he once dominated at the Superbowl half-time show, with no half measures like a Prince. Showcasing the same album that began this trilogy ('After Hours'), and single-handedly saved the entertainment industry from COVID-19 a year prior. Right before Kendrick Lamar proves once again he's 'Not Like Us', as he looks to Beyoncé Bowl this year's NFL mid-game entertainment section, finishing his touchdown play on Abel Tesfaye's old friend Drake. 

'Hurry Up Tomorrow'. That's what fans have been hollering for years, waiting for The Weeknd like a viral Daniel Craig SNL introduction meme on that show's 40th anniversary. Well, back with what would have been a double album in the pre-Spotify age, and all eyez on he, Tesfaye is able to keep it going until the sweat drips off of his head like the accented album artwork that everybody thought would primarily be the above photo (until The Internet and eggplant shadows had its fun with it). It still is one of them, mind you. In those eyes that are the soul, like MC Lyte once rapped to us, the 'Can't Feel My Face' singer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AKA The 6 and "We The North", STAND UP!), gets compelling in a Conway, Los Angeles, California studio. Not to mention, cinematic, with uncredited choice cameos from Annita (on the second single 'São Paulo'), Playboy Carti ('Timeless'), Travis Scott ('Reflections Laughing'), Future ('Enjoy The Show', 'Given Up On Me') and frequent flyer by the Hollywood sign Lana Del Rey down in 'The Abyss'. In addition to production from Metro Boomin ('Cry For Me', 'Given Up On Me'), Max Martin ('Open Hearts') and a 'Timeless' Pharrell Williams, this side of Neptune.

Even the late, great David Lynch gets sampled in on the title-track, curtain closer, just a week after his death. And this epic album really is an event like 'Twin Peaks' (I promise, I'll watch it, Chris) from the 'Wake Me Up' introduction like a splash of nightclub bathroom water on the face to the damn good coffee music 'Baptized In Fear', 'Until We're Skin & Bones'. Even the track titles sound like albums ('Enjoy The Show', 'Opening Night'), or best pictures ('Drive', 'Red Terror' (copyright it now). But it's the singles ('Timeless' and 'São Paulo') that really show you this Idol is back from the critical panning brink and ready to return to the arena he best fits in, with this 80 minute plus theatre of his mind. "Oh, city on fire when I'm comin' home/Fill up the sky (yeah), I fill up the Dome/They'll play it one day (yeah), it's a hell of a show/But it's gonna hurt 'cause we did it first." Gothic and operatic, this could be the "last hurrah' for Abel as The Weeknd. But 'Give Me Mercy', if this really is the 'Big Sleep'. Because, like he says on 'Without A Warning', "hope you'll love me 'til my final day/Even if it was in vain/Leave my guts all on the stage."

Declaring like Dylan, 'I Can't F#####g Sing', from a complete unknown to pop's Prince, with a 'Purple Rain' harking closer, The Weeknd is still one of the biggest star boys on the planet with his name in La La Land lights that blind. Out of the darkness and beauty's madness he weaves even more tales and odes to the city ('Take Me Back To LA' too), and landmarks and loves of his life, wetter than 'Niagara Falls'. Sampling Nina Simone's 'Wild Is The Wind' and throwing anything but caution to it, the man in the red suit and bloody Band-Aid's still rides through the night, right through to the dawn. From the first, eleven-track pressing, to the movie to come (May 16th), it's clear this Weeknd will last all year, no weak day. Let alone a morning after hangover. A psychological thriller from XO and Republic Records, 'I Can't Wait To Get There' like the song says, "Dear summer, we've been runnin' the numbers/We just shy off a billi’, sold my crib to Madonna." A terrific Holy Trinity of a 'Trilogy' like the remasters of the massive mixtapes 'House of Balloons', 'Thursday', and 'Echoes of Silence'. All before the real name, no gimmicks, like Obie Trice comes into play for an artist who has fictionally shot himself on stage, like Eminem. The Weeknd show is over, but no need to hurry up. We're living in tomorrow now. TIM DAVID HARVEY.  

Playlist Picks: 'São Paulo', 'Niagara Falls', 'Take Me Back To LA'.

REVIEW: DAVID GRAY - DEAR LIFE

4/5

The Life Of David Gray

It's a grey, January day, this weekend, as British singer/songwriter David Gray releases his first album since 2021's 'Skellig'. Standing in the middle of a bleak beach in a trench coat and turtleneck, the 'Sail Away' singer holds up a circular disk as reflective as the ocean for his thirteenth album, 'Dear Life'. All before, he reflects on his career with his forthcoming 'Past & Present' tour from the United Kingdom to the United States, and all the stops along on the way. The 56-year-old best of British artist began his career back in 1993 with 'A Century Age'. Really sticking it to us with the bifocal labels of 'Sell, Sell, Sell' three years later. But it was the diamond, three-year charting album 'White Ladder' that climbed from number 69, all the way to number one thanks to singles like 'Babylon', 'This Year's Love' and the cover of Soft Cell's 'Say Hello Wave Goodbye'.

Saying hello again, a week after fellow Brit and Beatle Ringo Starr did, looking up with his new country album, another man who deserves to be in the rock and roll hall of fame is back. Gray became a superstar after 'Ladder' with the formidable follow-up 'A New Day At Midnight', seeing you on the other side. Not to mention mainstream albums like 'Life In Slow Motion' (what a title track) and deeper ones like the cuts found on 'Foundling'. David's work found itself on soundtracks like 'Serendipity' (the guitar of 'November Rain' on an instrumental moment in the ice rinks of New York's Central Park between John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale), and coffee shops across the country. Even this year in London on a trip back home I heard 'Babylon' in a shop, sounding as fresh as it did the day it was released back in 1998, as well as a timeless classic that feels as British as a brew after a trip to the shops.

It's hard to top the tenth-highest selling album of the 21's century, yet the man from Sale, Cheshire still knows how to sell, sell, sell on the way to sixty. Always opening albums strong like he did with tracks like the smash single 'Please Forgive Me' running like lightening through your veins, or the 'Draw The Line' exuberance of the 'Fugitive' that ran like Harrison Ford from Tommy Lee Jones through one Jools Holland showcase like it was his annual New Year's 'Hootenanny'...although that came 'Later'. Here, he gives us something 'After The Harvest' on these fifteen fantastic tracks that take a songwriter's hour all the way until 'The First Stone' is thrown for the closing cut. Yet it's his lead single, 'Plus & Minus', featuring breakthrough British artist Talia Rae, its red room music video, and its own Jools debut, that's a real addition. Singing, "You know the way desire is/Always wanting something that it just can't have/Turning love's picture to the wall/Next moment there's no turning back/The following report may contain scenes/That some might find upsetting/Look at me, read what's written here/This whole routine is getting old."

Rae replies, "You know the way the light is/Always painting someone else's windows gold/Fate sends a bottle spinning 'round/Eyes steal a glance that stops you cold" in chorus. Beautiful, brooding lyrics in a set full of them, like the terrific titles of 'Eyes Made Rain' like drops on the window's pane. Or the standout 'Sunlight On Water' that is a matrimony of the season's like the 'Future Bride' ode to the aisle of the life to come, or the next love to be sold, that won't last this year, for better or worse. 'Fighting Talk', sure, but Gray knows how to walk that walk and talk that talk with songs like 'Leave Taking' which takes all of him. On 'I Saw Love', the visionary artist paints a perfect picture of scripture with lines like, "My fate is in the hands of a total stranger/Whose only map is a blank sheet of paper." From 'Singing For The Pharaoh', to 'The Messenger', Gray still has something to say with this deep and decadent album. It's a love letter to life in all its twists ('The Day Must Surely Come') and turns ('Acceptance (It's Alright'). Bringing beats to his trademark acoustic and ivory. On the only one's he says, "At the edge of what is not/Turn the camera ’round and take a final shot/Of home, sweet home." The dearest life as we know it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Plus & Minus (Feat. Talia Rae)', 'Sunlight On Water', 'The First Stone'.

Spin This: David Gray - 'White Ladder'

REVIEW: RINGO STARR - LOOK UP

3.5/5

Country Starr 

A little bit of country from the rock and roll star. The Beatles' legendary drummer Ringo Starr asks you to take a 'Look Up' with his new LP. Just a calendar and change after his 'Rewind Forward' extended play that saw him reunite with Paul McCartney, like the new 'Now and Then' song from the entire Fab Four. This is Sir Richard Starkey's twenty-first solo album, and first full length since 2019's 'What's My Name', on the long and winding road of the eighty-four years young singer/songwriter and skin man for the three other lads from Liverpool.

Yet, going well across The Mersey, Ringo (which here in Japan means, "Apple", like that iconic green logo one, mister) gets by with a little bit of help from his friends in Nashville, Tennessee. Because, forget his 21st for a second, this is Starr's very first country album. Moving swiftly with a tip of the cowboy hat across genres as he truly becomes a country star, with 'Look Up' and the titular lead single to titillate all of those whose Lennon and McCartney is Waylon and Willie. Dear John once joked, that Ringo Starr wasn't even the best drummer in The Beatles, when asked if he was the best roller in the world, but now, he's definitely the best country and western singer of the fabulous four. All the way down to the rhinestone black and white album artwork that is instantly iconic like 'Photograph'. Choosing love and peace again, who cares if he sings out of tune? All you need is what he chooses. What else would you do?

Epic, like another record label. Especially with the somebodies like the head of the pack Molly Tuttle (the lead 'Look Up Single', standout statement 'I Live For Your Love', yearning ode 'Can't You Hear Me Call' and 'String Theory' with Larkin Poe), Billy Strings himself (on the 'Breathless' opening, beautiful ballad 'Never Let Me Go' and the stone-cold 'Rosetta' (also with Poe)), Lucius (pleading 'Come Back') and the legendary Alison Krauss, planting the 'Thankful' dedicated closer. Dialled to eleven tracks like Spinal Tap, even when the legend goes it alone with 'Time On My Hands' ("I turned my collar up/Kept my eyes turned down/I walked the empty streets/The blue side of town") and 'You Want Some' in this lavish landscape you really do, as Ringo shows and proves he has another note to him. Just like the time he stepped from the skin to lead the ship with the biggest song pumping out of the 'Yellow Submarine' not named after the oceanic vehicle itself.

Original tracks like the outstanding artist himself is, you'll find no records from the great American country songbook here...even though Starr adds a couple of his own himself. You won't find Ringo taking 'Jolene' from Dolly Parton, like that "b####" that Beyoncé threatened did the '9 to 5' singer's man. As a matter of fact, with a nod to 'Cowboy Carter', this first big name release of the New Year is the best country step since the 'Beyoncé Bowl' of Netflix and the NFL's Christmas Day gridiron games. Lassoing a cymbal crash of a cinematic campfire legend, co-written by the iconic T Bone Burnett, Starr puts the pedal to the metal, as he gazes up above at the stories told by the two sticks he rubs together. Alas, peace, love and understanding are never far from his mind, and what's wrong with that like fellow Liverpudlian Elvis Costello? We can all sing along to the lasting lyrics of, "Look up/In the midnight hour/Look up/Love is the higher power/Keep your eyes on the skies/Don't look down on the shadow town/Look up." Something we can all look up to and towards in 2025. Happy New Year! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Look Up (Feat. Molly Tuttle)', 'I Live For Your Love (Feat. Molly Tuttle)', 'Thankful (Feat. Alison Krauss)'.

Spin This: Ringo Starr - 'Rewind Forward (EP)'

REVIEW: REDMAN - MUDDY WATERS TOO

4/5

Still Muddy Waters Run Deep 

Dumb and dumber, too? Nah! Never that. "I flip modes and rampage your zip codes", Redman raps on 'Da F### Goin' On' after his 'MW2 Welcome'. Referencing Busta Rhymes' Flipmode Squad and its Rampage member, as the Funk Doc' goes on his own one to begin the sequel to his 1996 classic named after a blues legend. 'Muddy Waters Too' is Reggie Noble's first album since 2015's 'Mudface' a decade ago. And it really is a noble effort. The best classic sequel, slash comeback album since Busta's (his 'Dragon Season' is upon us) 'ELE 2', AKA 'Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God', in 2020 of all years. Now, sitting at the classic cover's desk again, Redman is not caked in muddy overalls. Instead, that iconic scowl in the room, under the beanie and same sunglasses, is joined by a much better television set and bags of money and papers on the floor. Kicking it under his Timbs, as he leans on that desk with the flower in a pot, like the wallpaper that surrounds him.

Christmas may have come late, this New Year, with this review of an album that came out on the night before Christmas, when everyone else was worrying about Eve's festive photo (I was killing it, watching 'Squid Game 2'), but the sequel to 'Muddy Waters' has plenty to unwrap like your Spotify playlist and dig up. Even feeling like the diirty 'Malpractice' that really smashed something, with the way these intros and short tracks give way to skits (a hilarious Barack Obama impression by Affion Crockett ("FACTS!") replacing his 'Jerry Swinger Stickup') and the best superhero alive. The dualling parts to 'Soopaman Lover 7' featuring Mélanie Rutherford and a fictional Michelle Obama becoming his Lois Lane. This 32-track affair also features some of the biggest names in the business. Putting the heart paddles to hip-hop when the genre sorely needs it. Reuniting with 'How High' partner Method Man, after their own 'Blackout! 2' sequel, for one of the best tracks and samples on the album, 'Lalala'. Not to mention the best posse cut you've heard in years, and MC Lyte's own return had a monster one, last year, on 'Lite It Up'.

Smoking with fellow rap legends Naughty By Nature and sweet sixteen's from Artifacts, Channel Live, Heather B., Lady Luck, Lords of the Underground, Nikki D and Flipmode's own Rah Digga. Not to mention the return of the queen and great 'Equalizer', Queen Latifah, and NBA, Los Angeles Lakers legend, who can actually rap (and that wasn't a slight at the late, great Kobe Bryant), Shaquille O'Neal, still carrying on his own beef with fellow Superman, Dwight Howard, tugging his cape on what was Twitter. Legendary DJ Kid Capri and the one and only Faith Evans help Red become a 'Hoodstar'. Whilst the Boogie Down Productions of the iconic KRS-One say 'Looka Here'. Elsewhere, a 'Dynomite', like J.J. (word to Chappelle, and a cool Rhymefest shout out), Sheek Louch locks it down. And Snoop Dogg, on his own classic comeback this Christmas with the Dr. Dre 'Missionary' (no, not like that) condom wrapper (seriously), rolls up 'Kush' with the Diggy Doc, like the Doggfather and Dre's own single with Akon.

Oran "Juice" Jones II lights up both 'Whuts Hot', 'Gheddo Motivation' and more need for Grammarly than my reviews demselves. And Ke Turner gets just as 'Goofy' until '1 O'Clock'. Mr. Cream and Runt Dawg also show up on 'Why U Mad'. For an album from an outcast that is so fresh and so clean, going hard all the way to the epic end of 'Smoke With Me', with no tail-off as it clears. All for the man defying age at 54. Coming out of the gates for Brick City, with straight smash singles like 'Jersey', 'Don't Wanna C Me Rich', in bathtubs of moolah, and the new anthem 'I'm On Dat Bullsh!t' in all its exclamation. New Jersey's best boss since Springsteen, is in the hood house like his classic episode of MTV Cribs (which he references), has a vendetta, like his classic video game character, with all these def jams. 'Ignant', 'Uncle Quilly' and 'Pop Da Trunk'. 'Don't You Miss' him? 'Aye!'. The old 'Wave' is back as new rappers mumble on stranger things like the Diddy case. And all of those punks are now 'Stung' like Redman's classic hidden camera prank show with Method Man (we still can't forget how they frog marched Ludacris). Lick a 'Booyaka Shot' for the man who raps "Sawed off shotgun, now you see 'em havin' a blast" over Rockwilder beats, like his hands were still on the pump, puffing on a blunt. 'Wudeytauknbout', Willis? A sequel to a classic that feels like one itself. Get back in the mud. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Da F### Goin' On', 'Lalala (Feat. Method Man),' 'I'm On Dat Bullsh!t'.

Spin This: Redman - 'Muddy Waters'