REVIEW: HAIM - I QUIT

4/5

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Never quitting whilst they're ahead, the sisterhood of Haim is back! Recently, I was talking to a bassist friend about the bands and albums that got us through COVID. Mine was definitely Haim's magnum California opus, 'Women In Music Pt. III', which was locked down for almost as long as we were. Ever since hearing the iconic, Lou Reed-esque, "Du-du, du-du-du-du/Du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du-du's" of 'Summer Girl' and its Paul Thomas Anderson video for The Valley Girls, I knew we had a classic on our hands, even if that does make me sound a little like LeBron James. Helping me through the isolation of social distance, halfway across the world, just one month after starting a new job in Tokyo, I needed 'WIMPIII'. Now, after Alana Haim starred in PTA's 'Licorice Pizza', award favourite movie, not to mention a bonus 'Lost Track', we get 'I Quit' from the sisters. Dealing with Danielle's break-up, and Este's, before she got engaged and broke my heart. Not to mention, all those men from the magazine who refuse to acclaim them as the rock goddesses that they are. C###s!

Haim keep it Hollywood like only they can with Anderson's fresh, dry-clean store took photo album artwork, and neon sign. Not to mention the La La Land paparazzi promotional photos for their singles, like the latest 'All Over Me' (featuring Will Poulter and co for the sexiest video since Maggie Rogers 'In The Living Room'), or the 'Relationships' first single, inspired by Nicole Kidman walking away from divorce court, with more relief than when we left our homes after quarantine. That vivid video of the summer girls features 'Queer' actor Drew Starkey. And if that wasn't enough, the second single video, and best of the set, 'Down To Be Wrong', features Percy Jackson himself, Logan Lerman, being haunted in his hotel by three ghosts that make those of Christmas past look like humbug. Bah! This is just a great slew of singles. Like the grungy, 90s take of 'Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out' (co-written by Justin Vernon after Danielle appeared on Bon Iver's 'If Only I Could Wait'), that is just classic Haim. Or the Weezer like 'Memories' of 'Take Me Back', featuring a photo album music video that will take a s### in the back of your truck. No coke, or Molly!

A subtle, soft rock classic, that is as undeniable as it is understated, you'll hear it as soon as you're 'Gone' like the opener, that like the saxophone of 'Los Angeles' hits differently in its opening act. Sampling some of George Michael's 'Freedom'. This Colombia and Polydor album, and first in five years, is well worth the wait. Released exactly one month before my 40th (I'm just saying) and the beginnings of their tour that will see them play the Fuji Rock festival, here in Japan, alongside the likes of The Hives and headliner Vampire Weekend. Not only have they upped the ante of their definitive 'Days Are Gone' debut, and sweet spot follow-up 'Something To Tell You', they're also pushing the envelope of their signature sound that's now legacy in Cali' for all you Mamas and Papas, or Chili Peppers. The fact that they haven't played 'Everybody's Live (In LA) With John Mulaney' is a crime. 'The Farm' details these sisters having each other's backs during dark days. 'Million Years' sounds like nothing they've ever done before. Hollywood's own Alana takes the lead on '...Spinning'. Whilst the closing of 'Now It's Time' features a sick sample for your Shazams!

Remember when Haim solved a murder mystery with Este (how could anybody?) on Taylor Swift's 'No Body, No Crime', before Swiftie became the fourth sister on a deluxe edition remix of 'Gasoline'? Well, 'Blood On The Streets' has country tracks too, with its storytelling roots. Meanwhile, 'Cry' is epic and emotional. Whilst, 'Try To Feel My Pain' takes the church organs of Norah Jones' 'I Just Wanna Dance' up a notch for even more spirit. Another highlight is 'Lucky Stars', which counts on lyrics like, "I was on my own and finally/Trying to heal myself with all the/Roaring trains of change and doubt that/Pulled in the station/Your inner light beamed blue and green/Something 'bout it made you seem like/You could fill the seat next to me/Without complication." "I would take off the chain/But you wouldn't stop the rain/And now it's coming down/Flooding out this whole house", Danielle sings on 'Love You Right' as all three siblings found themselves single before making this cathartic, therapeutic album that has them ready to party now they're back in it. Quit?! Are you kidding me?! I will never quit on my best band. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Down To Be Wrong', 'The Farm', 'Lucky Stars'.

Spin This: Haim - 'Women In Music Pt. III'

REVIEW: SLICK RICK - VICTORY

4/5

Rick Flair

Ready for 'Another Great Adventure' of the one and only, Slick Rick? Because The Ruler's well and truly back behind these bars, for the first time in 26 years and 1999's, 'The Art Of Storytelling'. Call it a comeback, like LL Cool J's 'The Force', or MC Lyte's '1 Of 1', with more legends to come for this great day, no, year in hip-hop. A few calendars following its half-century celebration. As a matter of fact, call it a 'Victory' in black and white as the eye patch is back to reclaim his crown, like all those jewels that run with him. The greatest British rapper of all-time, who found a home in New York, brings it all back together with the likes of Giggs ('Stress'), Nas ('Documents') and actor/musician Idris Elba providing the visual album. From Mandy Aragones' spoken-word intro, to the 'I Did That dedication, and interludes dedicated to 'Mother Teresa' and the 'Matrix', Morpheus, Ricky D is still fresh like Doug E. A Slick Rick era begins again.

Y'all tucked in? Heeere we go! On 'Angelic', Rick raps, "Ladidadi, quick, daddy, come shipment/Another rumble in this b####, daddy, once hit chords/Do you want another hit, papi? Quick to stitch/Who told me I should quick, daddy? Bore me broad/Body starts to dip, daddy, holy s###, kid/Big time in this b####, daddy, hold the force/Who's sexier than a b####, daddy? Blast a bar/Angelic type of hit, daddy, crash me car" with a formidable flow over beautiful beats. And it goes on and on, on 'Foreign', as the British/Jamaican/American is no stranger to these shores, reworking his grandpa's old favourite to something you'll love...even if grandaddy don't. But hey, 'Come On Let's Go' and rock with rhymes like, "Sеxiness a crime, kid, what time is it?/Flying, Richard, I guеss 'bout/Gets next round 'fore we gets out/Steps out, cab route, gets 'bout/Now back to insult to intelli'/Yelling, any see the felon, shelling, killing run and tell him/What!/But there isn't, square isn't/Ya nerd!"

As real and raw as it gets, but the freshest since he got 'Irresistible Delicious' with Missy Elliott (thank you, Missy!), it gets even slicker on the "Well, it's the first of the month, my, where the time went? (Ding-dong)/Hello, you wanna give my rent? (Give me my rent)/You're three months behind, chick, I'm highly disappointed/Tired of huntin' you down like America's most wanted/Now hurry up, my car's in traffic/Oh, great, another excuse not to have it/"My poor kid's short, Rick," your excuses sure get sadder/But, chick, you're not paying my mortgage (My rent)" rhymes collected for 'Landlord' and the greatest storyteller hip-hop has ever had. It gets even deeper on 'Spirit To Cry' and down on 'So You're Having My Baby', which references Shyne, J-Lo and you know who. Hip-hop may have taken some hits lately (namely the evils of Diddy), but the best of the best still reign. 'Cux I'm Here', Ricky says with "So kid Slick Rick, here we go!/Walkin', sportin', New York, son!/Spot two chicks hop skip, ice blinging!" Victory is his! And 'We're No Losing' as "Champion еxcelsiors/Or dismantle myself is/Any opportunity/Sеnd me out to ruin these/End you, all are soon to see/Anyway, I'm bothering/Acting like a snob like something I can offer them/While on the flip side" attests. Crown it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Stress (Feat. Giggs)', 'Documents (Feat. NaS)', 'Spirit To Cry'

Spin This: Slick Rick - 'The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick'.

 

REVIEW: NEIL YOUNG AND THE CHROME HEARTS -TALKIN TO THE TREES

3.5/5

The Tree Of Life

Like a 1959 Cadillac sticking out the sand, 'On The Beach', Neil Young is back with some Chrome Hearts for you crazy horses, with power. But this time, you can find them planted in the forest for 'Talkin To The Trees', Young's 48th album on The Other Shoe and Reprise Records. Recorded in the legendary Shangri La studios of Malibu and produced by the legendary Lou Adler (The Mamas and the Papas, Carole King), a regular courtside fixture at Laker games, like Jack Nicholson. Opening with 'Family Life' in dedication, and 'Thankful' in tribute closing, this album like it's pencilled in, guitar holding cover is as real as it gets, taking it to "fascists" in "Teslas", coiling around the chords. Fearful of the 'Dark Mirage' in this upside down world, singing "Well I lost my little girl/To the darkness inside/Her mama's gone now/And there's nowhere to hide." Hoping to make it to the warmth of the 'First Fire Of Winter', where it's "time to gather wood and feeling/It's time to walk among the love."

"Time's ripe now for changin'" he laments like a lost Dylan. Flying on the same 'Silver Eagle' he ran to, through the title-track. Rocking in this world until it's free as 'Let's Roll Again' strums that notion into a devotion. "The climate is changing, why aren't you" a banner asks as Young beds peace in the sediment of the mother earth that really laid our roots. Calling Ford, GM, Chrysler and of course, America to "get in the race". Adding "China's way ahead, they're buildin' clean cars", as he lights a fire under the hood of those who need to know we can't take this same road forever. 'Big Change' is coming, like the ultimate protest song that sings, "Might be a politician/Tryna say something new/Might be your decision/Now you've got to see it through/Looks like a collision/Ain't the worst that you could do/Might be bad, might be good/Big change is coming to you." The man who took on Spotify isn't afraid of the President, as this Canadian knows you can't take his land, like Mike Myers on SNL with "elbows up!"

'Movin' Ahead', the man with almost as many bands as he has albums, keeps on trucking on chrome wheels and steel hearts. "Keep movin' ahead, wherever you go, movin' ahead/That's the way home, that's the way home/On in the future where the love is found/Where the love is found, where the love is found/Yeah, movin' ahead where the love is all 'round/That's the word, the word is good/Good for the soul to sing like it should/Movin' ahead, movin' ahead", he sings to anyone who feels they can believe again. Or wants too. Rolled up for a message in a 'Bottle Of Love'. "Open fields of heaven waiting/For that little girl, still in her eyes/Years of love we were creating/Taking the time to fly/All your tears are being saved/In a bottle of love. The man married to Darryl Hannah makes a beautiful splash as the trees sway. Musk, Trump. They can all get it, as they're falling out on Young's big and bold new album of chrome. But really, among all this mess, what he's looking for best, is peace and prosperity of this land, and the earth that makes it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Family Life', 'Big Change', 'Thankful'.

Spin This: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 'Early Daze'.

REVIEW: CYNTHIA ERIVO - I FORGIVE YOU

4/5

Wicked Wisdom 

Forgive me not, but Cynthia Erivo is wicked good. In the same week that the terrific trailer for her highly-anticipated sequel to her smash hit movie, with fellow pop princess Ariana Grande ('Wicked For Good'), comes out, we get a brand-new studio album from Stockwell, London's finest. All on the same New Music Friday that fellow actor Finn Wolfhard, of 'Stranger Things' fame, tries his hand at making an indie album ('Happy Birthday'). You'd be forgiven for forgetting all about Lil' Wayne's sequel to his own series, 'Tha Carter VI', when there's so much movie-making going on. Only a few months after she was off to duet with The Wizard of Oz himself, Jeff Goldblum, like Grande, on the jazzy Mildrid Snitzer Orchestra, 'Still Blooming'. Erivo's epic is her first solo set since 2021's 'Ch. 1 Vs. 1', which peaked at number Luka Dončić (77) on the Billboard Hot 100. Figure this one to do even better numbers after the 'Wicked' soundtrack became a number one hit like the movie it underscored.

Defying gravity, once again, Cynthia is as compelling as she was in playing everything from the real as it gets Harriet Tubman (sorry, Julia Roberts' publicist), to 'Pinocchio's' Blue Fairy. The 'Widows', 'Bad Times At The El Royale' and 'Luther: The Fallen Sun' star has always had a voice. And as soon as the atmospheric and classic 'More Than Twice' comes into play, you won't think twice, like the great Celine Dion's voice. Cynthia Erivo is just that much of a powerhouse singer on 'I Forgive You' as pop continues to be in the pure place of pride that recent albums from Miley Cyrus and fellow actress Selena Gomez (with production partner and hubby to be, Benny Blanco) have proven. Spreading her black swan wings, like her gorgeous and glamorous nails and baring all in black and white, the angelic, shaven head singer gives us songwriting at its most stripped down and beautiful in this script.

Singles that 'Replay' like 'The Worst Of Me' (or 'Best Of Me' beginning), take the lead on the Verve of this 20-track Republic record, all the way to the 'Grace' notes that call it a day. Inspired interludes, akin to what the likes of Carl Thomas used to do, punctuate this collection (Annie Lennox's 'Why', 'Until You Saw Me' and the title-track), feeling like songs themselves, like the cover of Marin Gaye's 'I Want You', done with yearning decadence. Building 'Brick By Brick' in the chamber of the heart, Cynthia asks, "I'll apologise, I swear I will/But you first/I'll bring back your smile, your joy to fill/But you first/I'll turn a blind eye while with your beauty you beguile/But you first/But you." Honed for two years with songwriter and producer Will Wells, this sensual and sexual album takes cues off everybody from Toni Braxton to Prince as it unbreaks your heart like the beautiful ones. Smashing any picture, that 'Wicked' would be her green day, typecast success, Erivo previewed the likes of 'She Said', 'Why' and 'I Choose Love' at a London listening event to rave reviews.

Embracing and expressing everything about herself, not to mention the grand genres of pop, R&B, folk and gospel music, this album of the week may also be the most personal and profound part of Cynthia's career. The 'Push And Pull' comes with the likes of 'Save Me From You' ("I saw how you saw me when I looked in your eyes/The hurt that you buried in the grave of your heart/And I still remember the tears that you left/They live like a scar on my mind") and 'Play The Woman' ("Do you wanna start a game where I guess where you are?/I'll close my eyes, hold my arms out and try to close the space between us/I could run these hands of mine down the map of your spine/Feel how your heat against my fingertips could make the blood in me rush"). Outstandingly operatic. Agonisingly atmospheric. This is 'What You Want' in all the devoted dedications that make pop more mature and not just a global genre. It's a 'Holy Refrain' that reaches for the Holy Ghost to tell you that you'll 'Be Okay'. We all have dark days and low points. On 'How Could I Fall', Cynthia is with us, singing in solidarity "Laughter, you feel like laughter/Rolling around in this rapture/You're a singular delight, and I'm captured." Sometimes when we fall again, it's because we fall in love...and that's when we soar. What's gravity when the wings of an angel sweep us away? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'More Than Twice', 'I Want You (Interlude)', 'Grace'.

Spin This: 'Wicked: The Soundtrack'.

REVIEW: FINN WOLFHARD - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

3.5/5

Birthday Boy

Different things are happening with 'Stranger Things' star Finn Wolfhard. It's a new day for the 'Ghostbusters' franchise face in this chapter two. In the same week that Eleven's Mike appeared on Netflix's Tudum promoting the fifth and final season of 'Stranger Things' coming this fall, rocking a buzz cut, the former floppy haired kid follows in the footsteps of Scoops Ahoy co-stars Maya Hawke and Joe Kerry in releasing a solo album. 'Happy Birthday' comes after his work with The Aubreys ('Karaoke Alone' and the EP, 'Soda & Pie') and features the singles 'Crown', 'Trailers After Dark' (with a beautifully created video), 'Choose The Latter' (with two videos to choose from, pre- and post-cut) and the outstanding 'Objection!' for his grandpa. "The snow is starting to fall, circling Waterloo/The coat that's soaked from the bar/The cursed witches' brew/The happiness of it all, set back by you", Finn sings for his geologist grandfather.

A lovely lyricist, who makes art with his studio canvas, like the amazing album cover, Finn Wolfhard's raw and ready 'Birthday' confirms him as a compelling indie darling with daring. Especially on 'Everytown There's A Darling', or the opening title-track as you blow the candles out. Think of him like a young Pete Yorn, who had a 'Break-Up' with a Black Widow, before appearing as an actor himself in Scorsese's 'Killers Of The Flower Moon'. But 'Wait', there's more on this nine-track when Wolfhard growls, "I can't sing anymore/How many more?/How many days?/Sinkin', speakin'/How many more I have to wait?/Just watch me fall into the deep/And the great beyond wraps around my feet/Ooo-ooo-oo-oo, oo-ooo-oo-oo/Ooo-ooo-oo-oo, oo-ooo-oo-oo/Ooo-ooo-oo-oo, oo-ooo-oo-oo", in closing. Lost in the woods with Bon Iver sensibilities and vivid vulnerability. In a crowded New Music Friday, from the 'Wicked' good Cynthia Erivo, to Lil' Wayne getting another 'Carter', this is one of the best. Let alone better than 90% of movie stars that turn into music ones. And that's no insult. From 'Jurassic World' star Scarlett Johansson, to 'Frankenstein's' Oscar Isaac, they all hold their own.

On 'Eat', he really knows how to as he reels us in with some beautiful bait, like, "You got me hooked, I'm a fish on a line/Steady hands, I know I roll in with the tide/You know, I know, I've waited all day/You know, I know, I've waited all day/My body's eating itself all day/My body's eating itself all day/Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh." The fan of the harmonies knows how to all make it flow together like, 3, 6, 9, as one, two, three, he gives us the eighth wonder of 'You' (and more "oohs", and we love it) and a perfectly penned dear devotion in a young songwriter that knows how to do more than just deliver a script written by somebody else. "Can't breathe when you talk to me/Loneliness says all the things that you mean/I'm not lost on you but you're staring at me/Comin' out to say the words and roll down my stream," is all his own, and it means much more as he crosses the streams to his own studio space. Sounding like a fresh breath, as he turns his career upside down before his directorial debut, Happy Birthday to you, Finn Wolfhard. Forget a mic drop, it's time to pick this up. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Crown', 'Objection!', 'Everytown There's A Darling'.

Spin This: Maya Hawke - 'Chaos Angel'

REVIEW: LIL' WAYNE - THA CARTER VI

3.5/5

Wayne's World

Get Carter. Because he's back. Lil' Tunechi. Lil' Wayne. Weezy F. Baby. Please say the "baby". And it may be the last time, for the first time since 'The Funeral' of 2020. Or 2023's collaborative album with 2 Chainz ('Welcome 2 Collegrove'). The sinister sixth instalment of 'Tha Carter' series, for the best one since Shawn, is one of the most stellar in a set which hit its peak in its trilogy, highlighted by a 'Lollipop' tour of the Las Vegas strip with the late, great Static Major (rest peacefully). Now for Dwayne Carter's fourteenth album, he brings out the big guns, as the block is hot again with skateboards and guitars for the rock star who is also not a human being. Seven years since 'Tha Carter V', this sixth sense seals the deal for one of the best rap runs for the record.

Since the reunion with Nicki Minaj and Drake and the beef with Birdman, Weezy has been busy. He gave us 'Tha Fix Before Tha VI' as he continued to make monumental mixtapes, and he also reacted to a Superbowl snub in his hometown New Orleans with a commercial for his classic home run. Recently he's been trying to clear Billie Eilish samples, and move on from this album's production partner, Kanye West, due to his own controversies. Even without two of the biggest names in the industry, another one still does the business. BigXthaPlug and Jay Jones show they are 'Hip-Hop' on a track as such. Whilst the grillz jaws of Wayne get their teeth into a monster collaboration, swimming with the 'Sharks' of Jelly Roll and Big Sean. The 'Collegrove' connection with 2 Chainz is back again on the sweet, single made 'Cotton Candy', but there's a real reunion with Hot Boy Mannie Fresh on 'Bein Myself'. Meanwhile, Lil Novi arrives on 'Mula Komin In' and Kameron Carter shows he's one on 'Rari'. Like father, like son.

There may be 'No Love' on another great Eminem collaboration (we can't wait for those two to 'Drop The World' again), however 'Alone In The Studio With My Gun', there is one with MGK and Kodack Black for your snap. Still, from taking the crown as 'King Carter', to rocking the 'Bells' like LL, Wayne shows he is still a part of 'Written History' when it comes to rap's legacy. He doesn't need any help, he can release almost 20 track albums all by himself, like Celine Dion. His response record, 'Banned From NO', helps prove that as he 'Welcome(s) (us) To Tha Carter' once again. The rest is just 'Peanuts 2 N Elephant', as the tattooed child returns for 'Illmatic' like album art, even if ears would have Dumbo on this track. The biggest blockbuster collaborations come from outside the hip-hop sphere, for some of the best records on the LP. U2's Bono is back for 'The Days' after his work on DMX's posthumous album. Whilst Andrea Bocelli gives us the operatic love of 'Maria', along with Wyclef, who did that twice with a 'Supernatural' Santana. The Fugee giving us his best Wayne's world collaboration since the priceless mixtape gem 'Operate On Me'.

"I'm lit off the stove, you ain't gotta reheat it/I been getting dough, I just had to redeem it/I just talked to Hov and he told me he seen me/Funny, heard the same thing when I talked to Stevie, damn," Wayne raps on 'Flex Up' as he pushes rhymes like Ice Cube weight. Going against anybody, whatever the weather. Drizzy or not. The villain gets his 'Loki's Theme' revenge, as the God trickster has plenty of magic up his sleeve. Although a little off-key with his 'Island In The Sun' sample, Weezer F. Baby makes light work of 'Island Holiday's' harmony refrain on a green album classic, asking "What you drinkin', baby (sip, sip)". At this point, the rap God and rock star is playing with us as he ponders, 'If I Played Guitar'. Knowing, damn well ('Rebirth'), that he does. "She be playing mind games and I'm a master minder/I'm a sucker for love, but I ain't pacifier/But I can't deny ya, I'm a man on fire/She's a man-eater and I was just an appetizer/But if s### get out of hand, I keep sanitizer/She said, "I'm too hot for your ass," and now my pants on fire". Keeping those relationship records on point. We hope this isn't the break-up, like Young Thug releasing the name change of 'Barter 6' in his honour. But if this really is it, like 'The Days' being used in the NBA Finals too, Wayne still wins. Hitting big like Tyrese Haliburton. Now, he's the real MVP, OK? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Bells', 'The Days (Feat. Bono)', 'Maria (Feat. Wyclef & Andrea Bocelli)'.

Spin This: Lil'Wayne - 'Tha Carter IV'

REVIEW: MILEY CYRUS - SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

4/5

Beauty Behind The Madness

Tabloids may have tweaked on all that Thicke twerking, but over the last decade, Miley Cyrus has done so much more. How about a big-three? And we aren't even talking about the 'Charlie's Angels' theme tune with fellow generational greats Ariana Grande and Lana Del Rey, so don't call her "angel", no matter how amazing that was. The 'Wrecking Ball' singer came through with a beautiful rendition of 'Silent Night' for the festive feeling of Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray's 'Lost In Translation' reunion, 'A Very Murray Christmas'. She also played the perfect pop star on an episode of 'Black Mirror', right when her fame was going nuclear. But the best thing might have been her collabo with Godmother Dolly Parton on her country album ('Younger Now') for the all-encompassing love of 'Rainbowland'. Since that reconciliation album, she gave us 'Plastic Hearts' during COVID, for one of 2020s best, and then, only two years ago, on an 'Endless Summer Vacation', and vein of form for the still only 32, former Disney star, she gave herself her own 'Flowers' after her split with actor Liam Hemsworth.

Now, on a ninth wonder of an album, she gives us 'Something Beautiful'. Something even more beautiful. Not to mention the freshest and best pop album of the year since Selena Gomez and engaged producing partner Benny Blanco told each other 'I Said I Love You First'. Gaudy and glorious, like the diamond portrait of the album artwork, this is cinematic and classic. With inspired interludes across the board, big collaborations with Brittany Howard (the Hollywood 'Walk Of Fame') and supermodel Naomi Campbell (for 'Every Girl You've Ever Loved'), not to mention a showstopping single in the 'End Of The World'.  If Miley wasn't as big as contemporaries like Lady Gaga and such, you'd be crazy to think she wasn't now. From a perfect 'Prelude' to these ends after the title-track, and a 'Give Me Love' demand in devotion to curtain counter, this beautiful body of work really is something. Why 'Pretend To Be God' when she is HER?

Fresh neon soundscapes accompany this Tennessee kid to the LA studios of Bandrika and Subtle McNugget (any fries with that?) on an album released this New Music Friday, on May 30th (Happy Birthday, Sis!). With a musical film of the same name to come, June 6th, this visual, existential album, scores as the perfect soundtrack like a 'Purple Rain'. As long as the movie isn't meant to make you suffer (and that's a Lake Minnetonka reference, not diss). Healing from trauma and finding beauty in all the darkness, Miley is 'Reborn', sampling Davidson's 'Work It' and giving us music videos for 'More To Lose' and 'Easy Lover'. This classic Colombia record even features Kid Harpoon, The War On Drugs and Danielle Haim on electric guitar, after her Bon Iver duet, and before she says 'I Quit' with her sisters next month for the new Haim album. Just like when they both came out in 2020, these women in music are giving it to the wimps again, as I put my hand up.

Epic escapism in psychedelia is bright like a 'Golden Burning Sun'. Inspiring through the impermanence of life with 'More To Lose'. On the title track of this Shawn Everett produced engrossing work Cyrus sings, "Oh, flash, bang, spark/Send home the guards and lay down your arms/And da-da-da-da-da-da/The great golden bomb, bomb, bomb/Boy, I'm losing my breath, yes/Boy, you're marking up my necklace/Boy, I'm losing my breath/I'm undressing, I'm confessing that I'm so obsessed, yes." Just like on the closer, when she writes, "I imagine a place at the dawn of creation/A cityscape we paint in the dark/There's a castle between this obscene blue horizon/Where golden apples hang in the trees and a bare lady sings/Behind the curtain, heaven awaits." The words of these lasting, legacy making lyrics carry so much weight, but the intonation carries even more influence. This sweet style of experimental, homage music is the boldest and best since Halsey's last great pretender. Pop is still in that pure place with this popera. At her most beautiful. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'End Of The World', 'Walk Of Fame (Feat. Brittany Howard)', 'Every Girl You've Ever Loved (Feat Naomi Campbell)'.

Spin This: Miley Cyrus - 'Endless Summer Vacation'.

REVIEW: ESTELLE - STAY ALTA

3.5/5

British Woman

Nostalgia has got me in my fond feelings. Somewhere in the 2000s, and my twenties, watching every hip-hop gig I could change a shift to get to, from Manchester to London. All the Apollo Theatres. All the stars. Ja Rule, Nelly, Nas, Jay-Z. The Wu-Tang Clan. Most, if not all, opened by British singer/songwriter and rapper Estelle, fresh off of her dynamic debut, 'The 18th Day' (2004), behind singles like '1980', 'Free' and 'Go Gone'. I could have sworn she winked at me one time...but that's just me, getting to gigs early so I could stand at the front. From Beverley Knight to Amy Winehouse, London's own Estelle Fanta Swaray was a part of the British urban soul revolution. Giver her a MOBO Lifetime Achievement. Because she's forever a legend like Eternal. Even before the 'Shine' of her sophomore set and the Kanye West produced megahit 'American Boy'. Working with the likes of will.i.am, Akon, Tyler, The Creator, and the cast of 'Empire'. Since then, she's given us 'All Of Me', like a 'True Romance', and she doesn't care that everyone wants the next 'American Boy', as she takes it back to the musical roots she calls home. That may be her greatest hit, but we need another 'American Boy' about as much as we need another Kanye tweet. No matter how great a song, or genius artist that and he is.

Leaving them Hollywood types for the hills, yet still with that number one champion sound. Instead, Estelle tells us to 'Stay Alta' on her sixth LP and first album in seven years, following the 'Lovers Rock' of 2018. The 'Alta' artist in gold letters on an epic emerald green album artwork, with the hands of a free flowing dress to match, returns to form and an album that makes her as compelling and cohesive as luminaries like the great Brits Lianne La Havas and Corrine Bailey Rae. The album, coming just in time for another beautiful British summer, features the moving singles 'Fire' and 'Oh I', complete with their own dance videos to step to. Not to mention the 'New Direction' featuring new big names on the block LaRussell and Kevon Harrold. Check the slowed down live version of this single and the 'Love On Love' dedication for more heart to this soul. The tenacious talent inspired by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Mary J. Blige also features collaborations with some real movers and shakers for a record that doesn't stop dancing.

She's 'Grateful' to them, too, like this track with Teedra Moses and Russell Taylor. Whereas the studio version of 'Love On Love' features D-Nice. Another legend, in an explicit Joi brings 'Fire'. Whilst Channel Tres tunes into the title-track. As we 'Let It Drop' with Durand Bernarr. All before the sweet "Honey Honey" you'll move and sing along slowly too is 'On Time' with Aida Rodriguez and Nonchalant Savant. Yet from the 'Outside' opening, to the outro to 'Start Over' to, it's the lyric video of 'Roses (Now's The Time)' that finally gives this somewhat underrated superstar her flowers. "I had to let go of the pain/Had to let go of the things/That I was born with when I came/I was given with my name/And only I could do the chore/I leveled up the score/Breathed life into my core." If that isn't resolve that could never be sold, I don't know what to buy into any more. Just 'Like He Is'. The Lord or love. Or perhaps both. "I think I'll keep it like it is/I don't know which way that the sun's gon' shine/But, oh, I'll keep it like it is." Like 'Alta', until the altar, stay, Estelle, stay. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'New Direction (Feat. LaRussell & Keyon Harrold)', 'Oh I', 'Roses (Now's The Time').

Spin This: Estelle - 'Shine'

REVIEW: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND - LAND OF HOPE & DREAMS EP

4/5

Manchester United.

Only yesterday, with what looked like complicity, I talked about how we shouldn't judge Snoop Dogg's new album on the fact that he performed at Trump's inauguration. Part of me felt like a dirty dog doing it, but I can still like Snoop and not how he performs. Besides, reviews are supposed to be fair, balanced and without bias. With that being said, when you come against my Boss, that's another matter altogether. Springsteen said this, "In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration", at a recent concert (May 16th) in Manchester, England. To which Trump replied, "I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy - Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country."

Erm. First things first, Trump seems to have forgotten he used to play Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' at his rallies, before he was told to stop, like he never knew what the song was really about. Secondly, let's leave President Biden out of this, who we wish a healthy recovery. And don't get me started on the overrated nonsense. As Springsteen urged us to "rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring." Whereas all Trump had to say was, "This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!" THAT sounds like a threat. Not just to Bruce's civil rights, but the same freedom and democracy the great America we once knew and still do was built upon. And that comment about the skin, I said I wouldn't do this after my review of 'The Apprentice', but has he looked in the mirror? I know I have...and DAMN! He's just jealous, like I am in Japan, watching my best friend see this show in the city I did some summers ago. Bringing Santa Claus out for an early Christmas coming to town.

Jealous, like Donald's comments about Taylor Swift's "hotness" after he said he hated her. Here's an example of a man taking pride in making comments of hatred about a woman decades his junior. Even if she is much more competent. Neither Springsteen, nor Trump, is backing down in this battle for America's soul. Yesterday, a mere month before he's set to release his unreleased back catalogue for the mega 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums', Springsteen surprisingly released his 'Land Of Hope & Dreams EP' in black and white. Taking that song and his 'City Of Ruins' with some inspired interludes introducing the songs against Trump's influence. They're on the record now. All as Trump hits back with a stupid meme as they both double-down. Hitting him with a golf ball? Now, watch this drive. Just like Springsteen sings on 'Land Of Hope & Dreams', "I will provide for you/And I'll stand by your side/You'll need a good companion for/This part of the ride/Leave behind your sorrows/Let this day be the last/Tomorrow there'll be sunshine/And all this darkness past." That's what the real boss of all bosses and the working class hero has been doing for decades. Can the President really say that?

Springsteen even repurposes his 'Long Walk Home' ode to match the tone of his country, right now. A lot like when pop's perfect Pink made a real exclamation with her political 'What About Us', disguised as a song about broken hearts. Which it still was, in all earnest. The same could be said for 'My City Of Ruins', a song written for all of those who lost their lives in 9/11 as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street band rallied everyone in New York and the watching world to "RISE UP", like they do for their country again now. With these hands, Springsteen writes lines like, "Now the sweet bells of mercy drift through the evening trees/Young men on the corner, like scattered leaves/The boarded up windows, the empty streets/While my brother's down on his knees." Always speaking for the poor and downtrodden under the sneakers that Republicans buy too. Springsteen even brings his cover of Bob Dylan's 'Chimes Of Freedom' back, like the 90s EP of the same name, to finish this extended play, ringing the klaxon again. "Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind/Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind/And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time/And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin'", Bob, Bruce, and we all should sing. This land can dream of hope again. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Set-list Picks: 'Land Of Hope & Dreams', 'Long Walk Home', 'Chimes Of Freedom'.

Spin This: Bruce Springsteen - 'Chimes Of Freedom EP'.

REVIEW: CHUCK D PRESENTS ENEMY RADIO - RADIO ARMAGEDDON

4/5

Deep Impact

Like a Led Zeppelin Hindenburg, on his black and white album artwork, Chuck D is a Public Enemy once again. All in the same week that Snoop Dogg asks 'Iz It A Crime', giving evidence for this to be a great New Music Friday in hip-hop, especially out west with the 'Kingmaker' Xzibit giving us a comeback album to highlight the onslaught. Flavour Flav's P.E. brother's first solo set since 2023's 'We Wreck Stadium' (the last Enemy album was 2020's aptly titled, 'What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down'), feels more like a group project. As Chuck D Presents 'Enemy Radio' and the album 'Radio Armageddon', feeling like a 'Radio Nowhere' call to arms for rap's Springsteen.

"All things must die so they can live", the artwork of this Def Jam Recording tells us. And right out the gates, after the album self-titled intro, D rocks "Philosophy, politics, rebellion, recovery/Gimmicks, magic, inspiration, music/Fans, the road, drums, sexy/Racism/Rock and roll is the white version of rhythm and blues, okay?/No, I mean, this not no prejudice thing, so don't do that, alright?/I'm just tellin' you the real truth/Religion, industry, doom", over telling us 'What Rock Is'. All as this hall of famer and pure poet still has game like another Denzel and Spike Lee movie. 'Highest 2 Lowest', you can't touch him too. And even though there is no A$AP Rocky, or Rihanna, there is a cast collection of unique artists making their mark on this 808 canvas. All mattering as we proclaim 'Black Don't Dead', like DJ Too Tuff. These 'New Gens' ready for their moment with hip-hop's forefather in the forefront.

CM AKA Creative gives us a 'Station Break'. All as Phill Most Chill goes 'Rogue Runnin'' like an 'Andor' season. 1/2 Pint and Miranda Writes asks 'Is God She?' as Chuck attests, "My brother, my sister, my father, my mother Go deep past the sleep where God pulled back the cover/Let's get within inside the skin, blood runneth under/The ways of man ain't so kind, the blind stands to suffer/No compassion, crashin', testosterone sin/Exile, classified, we can't think again/Check a hero, don't confuse her with his masculine fix/Swear to God, she could never be no son of a b####." Now, what did we just tell you about that poetry? It's in motion still for the 'Station Identification'. Then The Impossebulls come charging in like Chicago for 'Here We Are Heard'. Lend your ears to the 'Superbagg' of Black Madeen, or what ULTRAMAG7 has here as 'Carry On', and you'll see that nothing is fumbled. Especially when D meets another one in Donald D and Jazzy J for the sweet 'Slight Story Style Sound'.

Yet before the Def Comedy Jam like 'Signing Off' with Schoolly D, Chuck D asks 'What Are We To You?' on a fresh and raw choice cut. "All over the place, I may not got no friends/I'm burnin' a damn candle at three ends/But I know myself, you might not know who I am/You probably pack right up, go home and say, "Damn" (Yeah)/If your mental got a problem with this rap instrumental/What's the color of time got to do with these rhymes?/Say the darker the berry, say the thicker the juice/New generation's hatin', that same old truth/Why the same shit be happenin' 'til we long in the tooth?/Pеople, people bе people, the red blood is the truth/The red pill will be taken in case you feel ill/You know the time to run, it's time to get ill." Real rhymes to go with the track's title question, over and over again in chorus, asking "who are we?" Chuck D and the rest of Public Enemy gave rap, black music and lives a voice when no one else did. And to this day, the microphone is not getting chucked, as D fights the power to his last. And man, oh, man is he lasting in this waged war. Turn on your radio, away from the bulls### that Dead Prez told you about. In this hip-hop world that's only getting bigger, the Armageddon is almost over. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'What Rock Is', 'Black Don't Dead (Feat. DJ Too Tuff)', 'What Are We To You?'

Spin This: Public Enemy - 'Fear Of A Black Planet'.

REVIEW: XZIBIT - KINGMAKER

4/5

Kingsman

King back. In the same weekend that Snoop Dogg releases 'Iz It A Crime' to the court of public opinion on Death Row, and we get an album from another Public Enemy (Chuck D for your 'Radio Armageddon'), Xzibit is back too. Riding and pimping his discography with his first solo set since 2012's 'Napalm'. Although he did release a record with B-Real of Cypress Hill, along with Demrick and Serial Killers in 2020's 'Summer Of Sam'. It really does feel like you're playing 'Def Jam Vendetta' on your Gamecube or PSP right now with this 'Kingmaker' and that title-track will do more than take you back as this talent pays it forward on his ninth wonder of an album. Reuniting with Dr. Dre, like Snoop did on 'Missionary', with the Ty Dollar $ign assisted 'Leave Me Alone'. Bringing more of the west to the party with the Ice Cube and Lorine Chia highlight 'For The Love'.

Forget what he did to cars. This is an MTV generation, unsung legend who had bars. And here he records with fellow luminaries, rewriting their own legacies with comeback trails. Whether it be Busta Rhymes ('The Moment' with JasonMartin), or Redman (getting 'Higher', as if he could, with B-Real of Cypress "I'm staring in your direction, like 'The Simpsons'" Hill). On the blue, California sky of the Hollywood sign 'Kingmaker', Xzibit also has a supporting cast headlined by Dem Jointz ('Everywhere I Go'), Jenn Em (for the sequel 'Been A Long Time Pt. 2'), JasonMartin again on 'Belly Of The Beast', Stalone (not that one) for a 'Perfect Alibi', USA's Symba as 'American Idols', a 'Crash' of K.A.A.N. and Royce Da 5'9", Butch Cassidy and Compton Av telling you to 'Shut Yo Mouth', a 'Notified' Cold 187um and King T, Daygo Fatts and Guapdad 400 asking 'What U Like', and the 'End Of Day' with Ade Bekoe, Domo Genesis and Tre Capital.

On 2001's 'Man vs. Machine' with an operatic Dr. Dre of 'Symphony In X Major ("we the s###"), Xzibit released one of his deepest cuts. His 'Missin' U' dedication to his dear mama, featuring Andre Wilson. Now, he regards his own mortality in a music video for a single where he's wearing a black suit with matching shades, like the Man in Black, Johnny Cash. You remember in that Joaquin Phoenix 'Walk The Line' biopic, directed by James Mangold of Dylan's 'A Complete Unknown' (Boyd Holdbrook has a great Cash in, too), where they say to Johnny, "you look like you're going to a funeral", and he coolly responds, "maybe I am". Well, X to Z is, too. The one of Alvin Nathaniel Joiner. His own one. Well...not yet, we sure hope, but "I put together my suit of armor like Tony Stark's/I seen dynasties come together, but never start/N####s ain't with me right now 'cause they ain't had a heart/They get emotional, hold grudges, and fall apart/I am the Alpha, Omega, I am the Holy Grail (Damn)", off of 'Play This At My Funeral' is one hell of a delivered eulogy.

Strong singles like 'Everywhere I Go', 'Shut Yo Mouth' and 'Been A Long Time Pt 2' complete this decade plus comeback, but his legend has been here for years. This is just exhibit I. Or Xzibit, A+, with quite possibly his best album yet. Just listen to the concept of 'Success', his 'Genesis', 'History', or his warning that needs to be heeded that 'Earth Is Over'. The title track in closing will really put you on game as Joiner joins it all together and gives you that new car smell with some shine on the hood, and much more tinkering below. "Your money tight, feeling like you ain't living right/You lost sight of your goals and the spirit to fight/Can you humble your pride, ego, and sacrifice?/Need some motivation at life? Listen to Kingmaker." Pop your collar, this King of LA, like James' version, has just given you another makeover. And this one will have you looking like your best self as you drive off the lot. Hey now, no more mean muggin', you're an all-star again. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Play This At My Funeral', 'The Moment (Feat. Busta Rhymes & JasonMartin)', 'Success'.

Spin This: Xzibit - 'Man Vs. Machine'.

REVIEW: SNOOP DOGG - IZ IT A CRIME?

4/5

The Green Mile

Bow WOW! In the last couple of years, legendary rapper Snoop Dogg has become a hip-hop mogul by acquiring his former label, Death Row Records, reunited with his homie Dr. Dre, for last year's 'Missionary' chart position, and even performed at the inauguration of a president. Too bad it was Trump. But in this era of cancel culture, can we really just disregard everyone for their different opinions? If that was the case, you'd also have to stop listening to Lil' Wayne. Not to mention, stop watching Sly Stallone and Vince Vaughn movies. Mel Gibson and Jon Voight kind of already showed their character year's ago. Maybe he was just accepting a rich payday, like he needs the money. Call him a sellout, but this guy's been in everything before, from 'Starsky & Hutch' to 'Futurama'. There are much worse rappers you should stop listening to right now. Diddy. Possibly (probably) Drake. Opinions are like a##holes, but as long as he ain't s###ing on people, then we should do our best as reviewers and give him a fair and balanced judgement on his work. We can't always separate the art from the artist, with people out here still putting R. Kelly on their Mount Rushmore, but let's give Snoop the benefit of the doubt. Unless he goes full Kanye.

The Doggfather addresses all of this on his new album, 'Iz It A Crime' (kind of). His 21st, not six months after 'Missionary' was unwrapped at Christmastime. Releasing around six albums in that many years, the Willie Nelson of rap, who had rolled records and blunts with the real American songbook, brings everyone to the party like his family on the album artwork in familiar shirt and bandana styling. On the same NMF (New Music Friday) where we got albums from fellow contemporaries (Xzibit's 'Kingmaker') and legends (Chuck D's 'Radio Armageddon'), Calvin Broadus brings October London to the title-track. LaRussell to 'Can't Wait'. JANE HANDCOCK to 'Can't Get Enough'. Charlie Bereal ('What's Hattinin') and Stresmatic ('ShutYoB####A##Up') to 'Keep It Movin''. J-Black (no, not that one, but how good would that be?) and Wiz Khalifa to 'Just The Way It Iz'. Akeem Ali to 'You Want My All'. 'Beautiful' and 'Drop It Like It's Hot' collaborator Pharrell Williams and Tonio Armani to the 'Spot'. Denauan ('My Friend') to the hot 'Cold Summer'. Blaqthoven to 'Life's Journey'. And Sexyy Red to 'Me N OG Snoop'. Now, that's quite the mouthful of dog treats.

Snoop's singles 'Unsung Heroes' (an absolute gem) and 'Let Me Love You' (ain't nothing to do with Mario, but you'll love Snoop doing the white guy voice again) are joined by visualizer videos for 'Joy', 'Snoop Will Make You Dance' and 'West Up', not to mention, a whole movie for this album. On the DJ Battlecat produced 'Sophisticated Crippin', the Dogg raps, "Back in the kitchen/Intuition, sophisticated cripping/This s### different/Still, top billing/The Dogg is chilling/What more can I say? I made a living/Big dipping, we ain't set tripping/This is how they turn superheroes into villains", on an album that is pure Cali' G-Funk, rhythm and gangster, despite Warren G recently revealing he felt left out by Snoop and step-brother Dr. Dre. Get it together, fellas. That's what Nate Dogg would have wanted. On 'My Friend' we see Calvin get real emotional, over one he's lost, crying at church. But on this 21-track set for his 21st (album, dude's 53), Broadus urges us all to 'Live Life' like, "It's us against the world, strap on your Nike's, girl/It's time to show these n####s you ain't just an icy girl/Don't let them get inside your head/Get your paper, making sweet love to the bread/I think I need a baker." DAMN! Now that's something we can all agree on before the 'Rapture'. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Iz It A Crime (Feat. October London)', 'Spot (Feat. Pharrell Williams & Tonio Armani)', 'My Friend (Feat. Denaun)'.

Spin This: Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre - 'Missionary'

REVIEW: JIN - ECHO E.P.

4/5

Echo Chamber

'Echo' in the headphones. Blue steps descend the speaker, like Penrose, for the record of this album artwork that circles back to the groove. One 'Happy' go lucky E.P., released last fall, deserves another (like Andre 3000's '7 Piano Sketches' last New Music Friday) as the summer is on its way. Most of "Worldwide Handsome" Jin's BTS brethren have already released two solo sets after their hiatus. Now it's his turn up to bat for the Big Hitters of HYBE hype, matching their also temporarily disbanded BLACKPINK K-Pop legendary contemporaries. The army of BTS soldiers, after Jin was the first to enlist in his mandatory military duty, are releasing records like Marvel movies with avengeance. And they're all greeted with fanboy and girl (ARMY) enthusiasm like the M.C.U. No doomsday. There's even an 'Echo' like a titular anti-hero from 'Hawkeye' fame.

Shooting straight, Jin's 'Echo' and accompanying M.V., sees him get cinematic as the bad boy, in his punk rock fashion era. Hair, that no longer needs to be buzzed for the South Korean army, flowing free. It gets even more Hollywood on the lead single 'Don't Say You Love Me', and its movie like music video featuring acclaimed actress Shin Se Kyung ('Rookie Historian', 'Run On'). The actress and the singer who could sure star in films and K-Drama (hey, they're all doing it in 'Squid Game', collecting roles like Thanos does stones) play long-lost lovers reunited with an undeniable yearn. All as Jin sings, in English, "Faking a smile while we're breaking apart/Oh, I never, never, never meant to take it this far/Too late to save me, so don't even start/Oh, you never meant to hurt me, but you're making it hard." We feel you, bro! Jin also duets on 'Loser' with Yena, a singer (the former member of Iz*One) and actress. A track, even the king of 'Losers', Beck would be proud of.

This extended play that will be headlined in Jin's first solo world tour, RunSeokjin Ep. Tour, is highlighted by tracks that will definitely make that set-list. The bittersweet and blissful 'Nothing Without Your Love' ("I'm thinking 'bout you/I'm thinking 'bout me/끝없는 이 긴 밤 속에서/밝은 빛이 되어줘/I'm nothing without your love/You are my life/You're all of me/빛나는 추억 속에서/영원토록 남아줘"). Or the cowboy lasso of 'Rope It' that 'Boy With Luv' collaborator Halsey would have adored in her 'You Should Be Sad', 'Maniac' era. Meanwhile, 'A Journey With The Clouds" (구름과 떠나는 여행)'  is a musical one. Twisting and turning as it goes all over the place like a beautiful 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. But we're not saying it's as good as the best record of all-time, you hysterical Queens. There's only room for one.

The 'Background' of these sevens seals tells us, in translation, "I still live there/In the season when your whole world was me/The words I repeat alone/If I could go back, what would I say?/Even if I call you/It echoes back and hurts me again". Referencing the E.P's name and the love that echoes in the chambers of the heart. Alas, it's the perfectly penned 'To Today's Me" (오늘의 나에게)' that gets really profound. Jin writes to himself, "떠나자 하늘 저 위로/나를 믿고/I fly, 맘 이끄는 곳에/I fly, 나를 던져/단 한 번 뿐인 이 순간/내 마음을 열어/오늘의 난 (The one), 날개를 펴 (The one)/Now I fly to where my heart beats." Or in English, "Let's leave, up above the sky/Trusting myself/I fly, to where my heart leads/I fly, throwing myself/This once-in-a-lifetime moment/Open my heart/Today's me (The one), spread my wings (The one)/Now I fly to where my heart beats." Echoing like a message passed down through generations. Or a song we'll play on repeat. And just to think, we've still been 'Happy' since his last play. This one, too, is here to stay. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Don't Say You Love Me', 'Loser (Feat. Yena)', 'A Journey With The Clouds" (구름과 떠나는 여행)'  

Spin This:  Jin - 'Happy' EP

REVIEW: COUNTING CROWS - BUTTER MIRACLE, THE COMPLETE SWEETS

3.5/5

Butter Days

How sweet it is! Zach Galifiankis may have the best line when it comes to how old Jerry Seinfeld is getting 'Between Two Ferns' ("counting crow's feet"), but Adam Duritz and his band are by all means no joke. And they're back for all those who dropped off them and forgot classics like 'August and Everything After', 'Recovering The Satellites' and 'This Desert Life' (what a big-three to start a career). As a matter of fact, they've been back. In 2021, they gave us the 'Butter Miracle, Suite One' EP, and this was originally meant to be, 'Suite Two'.  Spearheaded by super singles 'Spaceman In Tulsa' and 'Under The Aurora' complete with COVID music videos, featuring band studio sessions and Durtiz zoomed in, all by himself (what a time, what a time). Now, on the same New Music Friday that Outkast's Andre 3000 follows his 'New Blue Sun' flute album with a '7 Piano Sketches' EP, we get the full LP of Counting's 'Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets'.

Backed up at the end, the previously released, 'The Tall Grass', 'Elevator Boots', 'Angel Of 14th Street' and 'Bobby and the Rat-Kings' all make it back for this nine-track album that spreads the butter further on the toast. Like a 'Still Blooming' Jeff Goldblum and his Mildrid Snitzer Orchestra said to Sarah Silverman about leaving it out of the fridge overnight to soften for the perfect spread. Yes, for our umpteenth reference, we can't get enough of all that. Just like we adore this album artwork and our muse, lying across the buttercups, with a face of heavily buttered bread (my kind of woman), like the Japanese superhero for kids, Anpanman. For those who don't know, this is a guy whose face is bread. And if you thought that was weird, his friends eat said face when they need a power up (wait...WHAT?!). That needs a parental advisory, this album, on the other hand, should probably come with a cholesterol warning. Yet you'll have your fill when you come to the 'Virginia Through The Rain' album pick that is classic Counting Crows. So much so, you might just hear it on the forthcoming fourth season of 'The Bear'.

San Francisco's Bay Area's very own, who we're sure inspired the classic show Counting Cars, roll back into town 'With Love, From A-Z', to the 'Boxcars' that keep this new material tuned into your car radio. They have enough sessions here, not to mention the classics (like 'Shrek') for the tour they're about to embark on, across America, supported by the reunion of the one and only Jersey boys, Brian Fallon and his Gaslight Anthem. Here, Duritz, David Bryson, Charlie Gillingham, Dan Vickrey, David Immerglück, Jim Bogios and Millard Powers make good on a real extended play, for their first album in a decade and a year (after 2014's 'Somewhere Under Wonderland'). It's been a long time, but this butter to have loved, complete suite is what you've been waiting for. The eighth wonder of this roots rock spreads. Just like Adam sings on 'Spaceman', "I'm a painkiller, and I'm a caterpillar/They can't break you, man (Yeah, they can't break you apart)/Another well-nigh butterfly found on a bus out of town/Turning into a motherf#####g rock and roll star." There's nothing like them stone the crows lyrics from Duritz. And after all this time, round here. All the Saturday nights and Sunday mornings under sunshine, Adam is still a rock and roll legend, you mothers. Now, how's that for a miracle? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Spaceman In Tulsa', 'Virginia Through The Rain', 'Angel Of 14th Street'.

Spread This: Counting Crows - 'Hard Candy'

REVIEW: ANDRE 3000 - 7 PIANO SKETCHES

4/5

3 Sketches

Someone tell LL Cool J that the great musical OutKast that is Andre 3000 has traded in his flute. Although, the Cool James who Ladies Love may not like this one (see LeBron James and Maverick Carter's Uninterrupted episode of 'The Shop' for more information). We can't get enough of it, though. Following his Grammy-nominated Best Alternative AND Album Of The Year (the offbeat jazz piece 'New Blue Sun'), his tour (which we were lucky enough to catch in Tokyo's Blue Note in November) and the 'Moving Day' EP, 3 Stacks has another extended play for us this New Music Friday. And it's big, boy!

For all the marvellous and outrages outfits that hit the Met Gala this week, Andre Benjamin definitely pulled off the best one. Outside of the 'Metropolis' that is Janelle Monáe, with a little 'Clockwork Orange', we hope those two standing together, side-by-side are dreaming up a classic collaboration. Even ex Erykah Badu had to give it up for 'Dre lugging around the grandest of pianos strapped to his back. And that's not all the talented wordsmith, who hasn't dropped a bar in years, had in his back pocket. He also revealed a surprise EP by the name of '7 Piano Sketches' for us. And I  bet you can guess, there's no rapping. The only time you hear him speak beyond the keys he plays is when he introduces the tracks he plays, sometimes in duet or distortion. After 'Blue Sun's classic chapter titles ('The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue with Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina .Do You Agree? (you already know it)), '7 Sketches' in album artwork, beautiful blue scrawls gives us more of the same ('when you’re a ant and you wake up in an awesome mood, about to drive your son to school, only to discover that you left the lights on in the car last night so your battery is drained'). Don't you just hate that?

Open and pure, from 'bluffing in the snow', to the 'i spend all day waiting for the night' haunting highlight, this album shows that the flutes were no bluff, Andre 3000 really is a revolutionary in esteemed company. Sure, this isn't 'Sketches Of Spain', but he isn't as miles away from Davis as you think. As a matter of fact, pair this with last months 'Still Blooming' blossom of accented actor Jeff Goldblum and The Mildrid Snitzer Orchestra, and we just may have a new jazz revolution on our hands. These 'blueberry mansions' built off the grounds of 'My Blueberry Nights' star Norah Jones after she told Andre, baby, 'Take Off Your Cool', following 'The Love Below' of the OutKast dual album pairing off. Me sipping on Norah's 'Day Breaks' cocktail at the Blue Note whilst Stacks freestyled on the flute. Whether he's messing around on 'hotel lobby pianos', or bringing the joy like Rosario Dawson's 'She Lives In My Lap' cackles on some 'off rhythm laughter', this is another classic e-mailed directly to you. Spontaneous improvisations inspired from everyone from Thelonious Monk, to Stephen Sondheim, the collection of iPhone recorded songs was originally meant to be called 'The Best Worst Rap Album In History', but he'll get to that LL. Want to know more? 'And then one day you'll...' TIM DAVID HARVEY.

 

Playlist Picks: 'blueberry mansions', 'off rhythm laughter', 'i spend all day waiting for the night'.

Play This: Andre 3000 - 'New Blue Sun'

REVIEW: JEFF GOLDBLUM & THE MILDRED SNITZER ORCHESTRA - STILL BLOOMING

4/5

Grandmaster Jeff

Between Star Wars and Marvel, who this artist in question is the Grandmaster ('Thor: Ragnarok' and more) of, Disney Plus is one of the best streaming services on your smartphone and smart T.V. Yet they dropped the ball when they cost cut a couple of shows a few years back. You already know 'Willow' fans were mad, and basketball ones like me were after another series of 'Big Shot' John Stamos, although Kate Hudson's 'Running Point' on Netflix does just fine. Yet, getting shut of 'The World According To Jeff Goldblum' was a straight crime. This was the most charismatic man on the planet, touring the globe for sneakers, ice cream and so much more, as he marched with bands and even danced with a sea lion (the most joy inspiring thing you'll ever see). Alas, Mickey Mouse's loss is music's gain, as Goldbum enters a whole new world again with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra for his fourth album with the company after 'The Capitol Studio Sessions', 'I Shouldn't Be Telling You This' and 'Plays Well With Others'. Which he really does. This is no secret.

Spring may be about done like the falling cherry blossom, but Goldblum is 'Still Blooming' with Mildred for nine lucky for us tracks. The forever young seventy-something returns with the kind of blue of an album that is as beautiful as its springtime orchestrated album artwork above the keys he plays. As free as the dove that flies above it all, Jeff gets to show us what his name really is. Only a handful of years after voicing the central character in the amazing animation of 'They Shot The Piano Player' and its search for justice for Tenório Jr., whose mysterious disappearance is still not solved. The gregarious megastar of blockbusters like 'Jurassic Park' ("crazy in the dark") and 'Independence Day', may be better known for his occasional work with Wes Anderson, but this offbeat take on the maestro is one that holds as true as his 'Capitol Sessions' mid-song advice with comedian come singer Sarah Silverman to leave the butter out of the fridge overnight for a better spread.

The most charismatic thing to sit behind the ivory since Liberace, this is a beautiful bloom. And Jeff Goldblum is already reuniting with his 'Wicked' co-stars Cynthia Erivo (truly 'We'll Meet Again') and Ariana Grande ('I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)'), for good. Those two amazing actors already showed us they have the chops for singing (of course when it comes to Ariana, and vice versa on the stage of acting). Whereas the wizard they were off to see, shows he is wonderful. Whether lighting up 'The Grease Patrol', or giving us songs in a kind of 'Blue Minor'. They say actors shouldn't sing and make albums. Tell that to fellow 'Jurassic World' luminary Scarlett Johansson, who has been making Tom Waits cover albums and 'Break Up' records with Pete Yorn ('Killers Of The Flower Moon') for years. Here she shows us 'The Best Is Yet To Come', like the greatest of the set. But even after a collaboration with Maiya Sykes (the 'Stella By Starlight' standard) and 'Bouncing With Bud', as Jeff says 'Bye-Ya', he shows us the best is when he gets on the mic. 'Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye', we are dying for a little more. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'I Don't Know Why (I Just Do) (Feat. Ariana Grande)', 'The Best Is Yet To Come (Feat. Scarlett Johansson)', 'Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye'.

Spin This: 'Wicked: The Soundtrack'

REVIEW: WILLIE NELSON - OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WORLD

4/5

Beautiful Day

It may be bleak as you look out your window, draw your curtains and say, "hello walls", but it's still a world worth fighting for. Word to Morgan Freeman quoting Ernest Hemingway in David Fincher's 'Se7en'. As a matter of fact, like the fresh feeling of the Holy Spirit and the birds singing on a Sunday morning, 'Oh What A Beautiful World' it is, as Willie Nelson harmonizes on his new album, not even six months after his 'Last Leaf On The Tree'. Mark it down now as 77 albums for 91 years on this planet. The math isn't just solid, it adds up to a generational great whose output isn't even matched by those who drop mixtapes or dig through vinyl crates. In the richest veins of forms, this is Willie's best since 'The Border' 0f 2024, his third album in the last almost 365 days.

Circle your New Music Friday calendars on the same day that actor/jazz maestro Jeff Goldblum shows us he's 'Still Blooming' with classic rascal tongue in cheek. Willie is far from wilting in these years where half of us rounding the bases of middle-age can't even get it u...well, I digress. 'Beautiful World' is a Legacy Recording from Nelson and super producer Buddy Cannon, who works with Willie as well as he does Kenny Chesney. These songs performed with power are all penned by songwriter Rodney Crowell. And this country star also features on the lead single and album title-track, reaffirming his talent and how wonderful the world Sam Cooke told us about, is. One week after Julien Baker formed a rhinestone dynamic country duo with TORRES, like her supergroup Boygenius, and asked us to 'Send A Prayer My Way', the legend comes back with another album for the great American country songbook. And the genre has never sounded so fresh and in a perfect place.

Recorded at Nashville's Blackbird and East Iris, the black and white album artwork of 'Oh What A Beautiful World' features a lone rider looking out over the plains like a lord of them. Showing us the America that remains beautiful. Like 'The Border' (his best in decades), these are all Crowell classics. From the 'What Kind Of Love' opener (co-written by Will Jennings and the late, great Roy Orbison), to the 'Open Season On My Heart' best in show and the farewell of 'Stuff That Works' on this delightful dozen that is anything but dirty. Willie first recorded one of Rodney's songs over 40 years ago, back in 1983 with ''Til I Gain Control Again' off of the Waylon Jennings album 'Take It To The Limit'. Although he had previously played and recorded it live for the album 'Willie and the Family Live' in 1978. And he hasn't looked back since. Cashing in on this all like the 'Banks Of The Old Bandera' reservoir.

Beautiful broods evoke a mesmerizing mood on 'Oh What A'. 'The Flyboy & The Kid' rolls like Butch Cassidy and Sundance. All the way to 'Forty Miles From Nowhere', singing, "It rained today, the clouds rolled up at dawn/All hell burst wide open and just like that was gone/Your little lap dog chased a fox tailed squirrel 'cross the main road through the wood/Some ninja on a dirt bike nearly ran him down for good." 'I Wouldn't Be Me Without You' is the dearest devotion, like the Dino-esque 'Making Memories Of Us'. Whilst the sweet sounds of 'Shame On The Moon' stay with us until we're staring at one like the wolf. "And when she's gone, I keep my head/I sleep alone, in that ol' big empty bed/I go to lengths, to savе my strength", Willie adds and advises as he tells us, 'She's Back In Town'. But even after all these decades in the game and albums to his name, Willie Nelson is 'Still Learning How To Fly'. Yet as the country icon and American legend laments,"Life's been good, I guess/My ragged old heart's been blessed/With so much more than meets the eye/I've got a past I won't soon forget/You ain't seen nothing yet", he still spreads his wings like an American eagle. Oh hey, young world. Isn't that beautiful? TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'What Kind Of Love', 'Oh What A Beautiful World (Feat. Rodney Crowell)', 'Open Season On My Heart'.

Spin This: Willie Nelson - 'The Border'.

REVIEW: JULIEN BAKER & TORRES - SEND A PRAYER MY WAY

4/5

Say A Little Prayer

It's only been a fortnight since 'Forever Is A Feeling' by Julien Baker's Boygenius bandmate and girlfriend Lucy Dacus came out. Not to mention, just over a year since 'The Record' of their supergroup was released. Yet Julien Baker already has another album out. Does that mean we're due a follow-up to Phoebe Bridgers' 'The Punisher'? Returning, like Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle in 'Daredevil: Born Again', this week? We sure hope so. Either way, Baker's first LP since the 'Little Oblivions' of 2022 (or the 'genius and their extended play of 'The Rest') is another collaborative affair, like Forrister. As the 'Tokyo' singer (to Bridgers' 'Kyoto') links up with TORRES (Mackenzie Scott) for a classic country album, 'Send A Prayer My Way' and Scott's first since last year's 'What An Enormous Room'.

And it's only going to get bigger with this delightful dirty dozen tracks on an orange and black and white album with artwork and typography that could ride a crazy horse, like Neil Young. He, of course, also has a new album out this New Music Friday. When doesn't he, and when wouldn't we listen? Yet for your NPR, this is the album of the week and maybe month, as lover to lover Baker and Dacus go head-to-head, or instead, haters looking to pit everything and everyone against each other, side-by-side. Just like the recently released members of BLACKPINK, Jennie, Lisa and Rose celebrating each other's wins at Coachella. It's only maddening masculinity that makes all this a toxic competition. Instead, Julien bakes up another perfect group project. Barrelling through this wild west in black and white like the freight train of Young's 'Coastal' live soundtrack to his wife's Daryl Hannah directed documentary of the same name. With the Stetsons to match.

This Matador alternative album, produced in part by the pair and Sarah Tudzin, comes almost a decade after the pair performed together at the Lincoln Hall in Chicago, Illinois. A couple of years later, texts were sent about possibly making this a country thing, before more tours saw TORRES open for Julien and then rock some songs together. It all became official for everyone to hear at the Big Ears Festival. Then there really was 'Sugar In The Tank', like the lead single, as our prayers were answered. This January, the sweet 'Sylvia' accompanied the album announcement. And now we have singles like my favourite 'Tuesday', the 'Dirt' of this long, open road opener and the 'Bottom Of A Bottle' you might find at a roadside bar. This LP hits, all the way to the 'Goodbye Baby' farewell that has Mackenzie and Julien talking about preservatives the way amazing actor (and the wizard himself) Jeff Goldblum talked about the benefits of buttering your toast (I promise you, it's no innuendo), by leaving it out overnight (I promise) with Sarah Silverman on his own album of jazz styling.

Tune this into your car radio, like 'The Only Marble I've Got Left'. You'll lose yours over all of this. This is your "steady companion" until the 'Tape Runs Out'. No matter if it's all going 'Downhill Both Ways'. On 'No Desert Flower', TORRES yearns "You said, "You wouldn't move so I moved you"/I'm not bruised, but I'm confused/I mistook your fear for rage/You couldn't wait to get away/From me." Whereas on 'Off The Wagon', Baker broods "Drivin' the block to put off getting home/It's a whole lot of work to get a little bit stoned/I'm threading the needle, changing the dose/'Til I'm immune to the cure/When you have not a thing else left to look forward to/Outside of hitting the road/And burning one after your shift at the restaurant/Getting a ride to the show." Not afraid in this day and age of shame to show the vulnerabilities, some may see as weaknesses, but really remain strengths. It all comes together on the 'Showdown' of singing, "Fireworks are goin' off all night around my house/And I can't find a single thing to be happy about/Everything I begged of you comes bouncing off the clouds/Now I just hear my own voice saying "Help me" twice as loud." Courage in the struggle. They said they should make a country album together, and you know what? They did. This is their way. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Sylvia', 'Tuesday', 'Goodbye Baby'.

Spin This: Boygenius - 'The Record'.

Julien Baker - 'Turn Out The Lights'

TORRES - 'Three Futures'

REVIEW: THE MARS VOLTA - LUCRO SUCIO: LOS OJOS DEL VACIO

 

4/5

Hi VOLTAge

Every calendar, we get a song of the year. Whether a Grammy Award, or a Spotify tries to tell us, what it is, or not. But every time another 365 days passes, we take stock on our own playlist picks and what our favourite tracks of the year were. Last year, for me, it belonged to 'If I'm Gonna Go Anywhere' by EELS off the 'Novocaine For The Soul' and 'Susan's House' band's 'Eels Time!' comeback special. Especially when it came to the "love, what else is there but love" refrain from Mark Oliver Everett, recovering from almost losing his life. In 2022, it belonged to the 'Vigil' of The Mars Volta, returning themselves with their self-titled comeback classic that was like a debut of sorts. The moment that snake charmer beat came into black and white play, over a music video swaying to the new style and compelling dancer. Since then, The Mars Volta have attacked the back with more releases. A year later came the silver lining of, 'Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazón', which was an acoustic reworking of their previous year's and aforementioned album. And now, on the same New Music Friday that Justin Vernon and Bon Iver turn their 'Sable EP' from October into a 'SABLE fABLE' LP, Volta give us 'Lucro Sucio: Los Ojos Del Vacio'.

Translated as just your "dirty luck", "the eyes of emptiness" have it. This album is a trip. Especially when you listen to it whilst burning the reverie of the midnite oil. Long-leaked like that sink you should fix, 'Lucro Sucio' confirms that the red planet band is well and truly back. Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala revisit their roots once again on an atmospheric album that surely sets the mood off right. The innovative pair continues to rip out of envelopes with their elemental electronic mixes with classic jazz standards. The fall calls for a North American tour to support this set too, but after performing this amazing album in its entirety whilst supporting Deftones on their own US gig, you might wonder to why it has already been shared so much. It may have something to do with the fact that Cedric graciously gifted an early press of this album to a delivery driver who brought food to their hotel, by burning a CD-R like the good old days. But seriously, we're not insinuating this driver Uber ate this album, door-to-door around town, but what a special delivery.

From the 'Fin' beginning, to the self-titled close of this eighteen track day, this is a powerful psychedelic prog rock progression. The grey concrete of this CD lined jewel case gifts us with the earth grow of 'The Iron Rose' and the new day of 'Cue The Sun' and its lovely reprise. There are dedications for better or worse ('Morgana', 'Reina Tormenta'), deep cuts ('Voice In My Knives') and epics like 'Enlazan las Tineblas' and 'Possedora de Mi Sombra'. On 'Mictlán' Bixler-Zavala sings "Tell me when I'm gone/Tell me all the things you thought you could not say/From now until doomsday/I'll be the albatross that hangs/So let it hang/Ten thousand phantoms underneath/Can you feel my hands?/They're keepin' me safe when I can't see/Through a dead parliament of watchful eyes." Whereas on 'Alba Del Orate' he harmonizes, "A lake of love can wash it all/Unread notes in floatin' bottles/I fix the breaks, but blame myself/These numbing pools have lost their touch." 

This week, if Bon Iver give us the most beautiful and deepest lyrics, The Mars Volta give us the most outstanding and otherworldly. 'Celaje' ("Sipping, fading, hating that the sun would shine/It's cold/Will sell my weight in gold/Like an unsuspecting death/Shifting, hoarding, holding pattern stains of glass") and 'Vociferó' take us higher. 'Mito de lios Trece Cielos' is the myth of the thirteen heavens and the Spanish of 'Un Disparo al Vacío'  translates to "A Vacuum Shot" and you can feel God through this gunned filter. The instrumental 'Detrás de la Puerta Dorada' produced perfectly, like this LP, by Omar Rodríguez-López inspires further. Yet it's the 'Maullidos' that bears the most fruit. Such a cry from these cats, "Can you hear her? Not plagiarizing symptoms/Tell her the angels that you needed never gave up on you/Exposin' all the wires cut, she sinks it in the current's trap/Teardrops in the voltage turn to me/Turn to me and sing", as The Volta turn up the voltage on this track. Nothing is empty about this lucky day that hits pay dirt. All eyes can see that. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Reina Tormenta', 'The Iron Rose', 'Cue The Sun'.

Spin This: The Mars Volta - 'The Mars Volta'

REVIEW: BON IVER - SABLE, fABLE

4/5

Vernon's Fables

October's very own, 'Sable EP' from Justin Vernon and his Eau Claire, Wisconsin, U.S. folk project Bon Iver has evolved into this New Music Friday's 'Sable, Fable' LP, like a black/pink square. The biggest album of the week, in the same seven days we see The Mars Volta finally release their long-leaked 'Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacío', after the incredible comeback run they've been on ('Vigil' off their self-titled return to form is still one of the best songs I've heard in years). Bon Iver, the best group in the world, are no stranger to a rich vein of form and classic tracks. 'Things Behind Things behind Things' has been playing over and over and over again, since its fall release with the Autumn leaves. Alongside the continuing '...' intro, 'Speyside' single and 'Awards Season' Grammy ready hit, last year's 'Sable' extended play leads the start of this album, before the 'Fable' takes over.

It's from there that the 'Short Story' like Aesop continues on Disc 2 of this Jagjaguwar label gem from the April Base of Fall Creek. The single, 'Everything Is Peaceful Love' is absolutely beyond beautiful, my dear. Ditto for the long and grand 'Walk Home'. These indie folk take you on a trip for forty formidable minutes on the stylized 'SABLE fABLE'...and they bring along some friends too. The first Iver album since 2019's 'I, I', and the band's fifth, also offers a warm welcome to Dijon and Flock Of Dimes from 'Day One' and Danielle Haim on 'If Only I Could Wait'. Echoing a Bon Justin's own 'Folklore', 'Exile' with Danielle's friend Taylor Swift, this sweet song and home studio, music video, lost and quarantined out in the woods, is a calendar highlight for both parties. Even with Danielle and her sisterhood of Haim back to the party with their own 'Relationships' record and their real 'Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out', taking it to press photos. "If only you could wait/I ain't up at your pace yet/I take the steps to stage/And they hit me with the rays now/But if I could only pray/In the blaze of a northern bar/I'd bend another straight/We'll decay in other ways now", Haim harmonizes.

Jim-E Stack digs and stacks more vinyl crates with Vernon after producing prolific non-album singles for Bon Iver like 'PDLIF' and 'AUATC' for your AUX, during the COVID-19 quarantined 2020. The already acclaimed album that debuted at the Terasaki Budokan in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles is one to take great inspiration 'From', like "When I called you from the hotel/You said you were doing well/But I could tell/Just last May there was confetti in the car/And now, it seems we're far apart/But I'm ready/Don't you feel me?/Don't you feel compelled?/Oh, you how can't just be yourself?/From now on." Legendary lines from a songwriting genius, with plenty more in his back pocket ('I'll Be There') before the final 'Au Revoir'. 'There's A Rhythm' to this that plays, "I've had one home that I've known/And maybe it's the time to go/I could leave behind the snow/For a land of palm and gold." 'Sable, Fable' is a new chapter and journey into the unknown of vulnerability and solitude. But never fear, togetherness and love usually comes from this. And as you open yourself up to this, that fable and life lesson is the truth. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Things Behind Things Behind Things', 'Everything Is Peaceful Love', 'If Only I Could Wait (Feat. Danielle Haim)'.

Spin This: Bon Iver - 'Sable EP'

REVIEW: ELTON JOHN & BRANDI CARLILE - WHO BELIEVES IN ANGELS?

4/5

Angels In Americana

Reginald, we thought you were retired?! Think again. After saying farewell to the yellow brick road, like Dorothy, with a movie, documentary, autobiography and one final victory lap of a wicked world tour, Elton John always vowed to continue making music. You only have to hear the masked up 'Lockdown Sessions' to see that the b#### is back...and never really left. Those sessions yielded the 'Simple Things' single with top American heartland singer Brandi Carlile, who also had her own post-COVID album out that year, 'In These Silent Days'. Now, four years later, they've given us even more. 'Who Believes In Angels'? Well, maybe those who also have faith in the best of both worlds (not Jay-Z and R. Kelly...sheesh!) of classic collaborative LP's. Just a fortnight after young lovers Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco did it for 'I Said I Love You First'.

Now it's time for Sir Elton and Brandi Carlile (not Belinda Carlisle, fellow 90s kids!), to get their 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart', KiKi Dee on. And they're really trying as they 'Swing For The Fences' with big-hitting singles like that and the title track. Not to mention the 'Never Too Late' theme to the Disney documentary of the same name, for the life of John. After his 'Duets' and 'The Lockdown Sessions' collaborative compilations, this is another group project for Elton, following work with Leon Russell ('The Union') and Pnau ('Good Morning To The Night'). It's also his first album since 'Lockdown' or the release of 'Regimental Sgt. Zippo' (which was originally meant to be his debut album back in the 70s) in 2021. Before that, his most recent original, solo studio album was the 'Wonderful Crazy Night' of 2016. Brandi's first album since those 'Silent Days' is also another great, like 'By The Way, I Forgive You'. Forget this not.

As gaudy and as great as the candy-coated album artwork that accompanies this record, and it's self-titled lead single's music video, coming to life, 'Who Believes In Angels?' restores your faith in the pop album. From the epic, cinematic opening of 'The Rose Of Laura Nyro' (for a man who has scored movies from 'The Lion King' to 'Gnomeo and Juliet'), to the Lord have mercy bluster of 'Little Richard's Bible', passing a plate around the congregation whilst the keys heat up like great balls of fire for this maverick top gun and his American woman. Recorded in Hollywood's Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles with prolific producer Andrew Watt. He, and of course, the legendary Bernie Taupin help pen the new hits. Starting from scratch and recording a brand-new album in just twenty days, the perfect pair "pushed each other out of their comfort zones" and the result is not only "one of the toughest" albums Elton John has made, but also "one of the greatest musical experiences" of his life.

English man. American woman. The across the pond collaboration is also joined by Red Hot Chili Pepper drummer Will Fer... Chad Smith, and former Pepper Josh Klinghoffer. Making it a band, almost like when Norah Jones and Jack White joined Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi in 'Rome'. 'A Little Light' really shines on this neon, vibrant LP. Even when the new dynamic duo go it alone, it still works cohesively. Whether it be Carlile's best take on the album (the beautiful ballad 'You Without Me'), or John's own 'My Way' in the curtain's 'When This Old World Is Done With Me'. On 'The River Man', which would make Springsteen proud, they sing together "All the weekend warriors touching down/Leaving a black stain on the sacred ground/Ready and willing to feel wild/Even the traffic sings in tune and perfect time", in sync and harmony. But it's when they harmonize the words of "Your voice is ringing in my mind/You are tattooed on my soul/From the never-ending highway/To the strings of my piano", that you really realize there is 'Someone To Belong To'. Each other. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Swing For The Fences', 'You Without Me', 'When This Old World Is Done With Me'.

Spin This: Elton John - 'The Lockdown Sessions' / Brandi Carlile - 'In These Silent Days'