SAKANACTION'S SAKANAQUARIUM just keeps getting bigger

The Age Of Aquarium

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

Until this time last week, Japan experienced 34 consecutive days of rain. And we're talking typhoons, not just mere drizzles. The longest streak since they started measuring this kind of thing, way back in 1886. Dampening a usual scorching summer that's way too hot and humid. That's not the only reign that can't be stopped. Top Japanese band Sakanaction, from Sapporo, Hokkaido, have been on a tear all year. Fresh off their Summer Sonic set, in Osaka and Tokyo, where they backed up the great Talking Head of David Byrne, they're burning down all sorts of houses like the Tom Cruise 'Digger' trailer.

Kaihin-Makuhari Station, the closest to the Summer Sonic festival stages in Tokyo, was covered in promotion for the 2026-2027 SAKANAQUARIUM tour. You couldn't even touch your Passmo or IC card on the ticket barrier reader without swiping some Sakanaction. The Sakanaquarium was setting all sorts of stages last year. Selling out two consecutive nights in Yokohama's K-Arena (the world's biggest arena solely dedicated to music). It will conclude next year, in 2027, marking Sakanaction's 20th anniversary since they were formed in Hokkaido with their current line-up. Ichiro Yamaguchi (vocals and guitar), Motoharu Iwadera (guitar), Ami Kusakari (bass guitar), Emi Okazaki (keyboards) and Keiichi Ejima (drums). And that's no crazy coincidence. It was written. Fine-tuned, like their studio to soundscape stage. 

This year, Sakanaction even won big at the Japan Music Awards thanks to their monster hit 'Kaiju'. Scooping up awards for all their hands. They may have missed out on the Best Artist Award, presented by Japanese acting legend Ken Watanabe ('The Last Samurai', 'Inception', 'Tokyo Vice'), as Mrs. Green Apple took home the fruits of their labour, but it's no biggie. The notorious, or should we say renowned, dance rockers of action fishing deserve their round of applause for so much more. Mrs. Green Apple may be the most popular band in Japan, right now, but Sakanaction are much more legendary. Whether it be Ichiro's inspired lead that has even given himself his very own outstandingly popular podcast, Motoharu's motoring guitar licks surrounded by pom-poms, Ami's always amazing bass, right in the pocket with perfection, Emi's shaded style, as iconic as the last notes on the 'Kaiju' keyboard, and Keiichi's kicking drum which rolls this all together. Just like his closing comments with Yamaguchi in a brother, and sisterhood, of beautiful bond banter.

This band are tight, like their sound, and as thick as thieves. Stealing your hearts and minds anytime you dive into the one aquarium you should never Celine Dion think twice about paying admission for. Especially when you can pick-up all sorts of sweet Sakanation merchandise. From rally towels, to iconic logo t-shirts, that are as original as the band's genre blending styles and signatures. They even have a throwback netted shopping bag for you to carry all this in, but I digress. When The Beatles first played the iconic Nippon Budokan, back in the summer of 1966 (a familiar one for the English), there was an uproar, as this traditional Tokyo 1964 Olympic venue was used for the sacredness of sports only. These days, everybody plays. I even saw Norah Jones and The Smashing Pumpkins here in the space of one week, this time last year. 

Yet, it was sixty years ago that the Fab Four took to the floor. Now, all these decades later, Sakanaction are making it their own. Especially with a sound even clearer than the d&b Soundscape they brought to bear, back in April, for their members only vote countdown show of classics at the renamed SGC Hall in Ariake. No one has played the beautiful Budokan like this. That's because of the bold and brilliant way Sakanaction, and their team and crew of t-shirt wearing workers who don't just promote, but emote this portmanteau of a band, work so hard to go further to the future each and every time. That's why, when you get to the seamless instrument to turntable (and Okazaki sunglasses) transition of the religiously felt 'Holy Dance', you're greeted with the three dimensions of a neon rectangle that borders the band. A cuboid of the perfect prism, laser hitting all of the lights you reach out for, like a dark side of the moon.

For the love of all that's holy, put those rectangles, you use to send texts and tweets, in your pocket, right away. Because this is an experience, like Jimi. From the 'Asa No Uta' opening surprise, that will have you hitting the arm of the person next to you, to the cheerleading ('Shin Takarajima') and roaring red skyscraper siren ('Kaiju') hits that are now joined by recent viral classics. The memoirs of a pair of geishas in 'Yoru No Odoriko', with perfect harmonies, and the 'Miami Vice' jackets of 'Wasurerarenaino', feel like new singles themselves. The latter has become a social media sensation of late thanks to Ichiro's dance and Ami's brilliant bass slapping solo. Everybody wants to try their hand and Instagram handle at the moves and strums. How the band brought it back to the stage, with palm trees in the video screen background (another classic component of the show) is the real winner, mind you. Simply sensational, there's nothing like a Sakanaction show. Dive in and swim.

Set-List Picks: 'Asa No Uta', 'Holy Dance', 'Wasurerarenaino'.

LEON BRIDGES offers the world 'HAPPINESS ANYTIME'

The Pursuit Of Happiness

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

Dark days might be consuming the world, right now, but here's a Bridge to happiness. Leon Bridges is a throwback. Not only that, the Wrangler, who makes records about a 'Texas Sun' with Khruangbin, is one of the most underrated modern-day greats in an industry that would do good with his inspiration and influence. The 'Coming Home' singer has been steadily chipping away at a classic career and catalogue ever since he took us to 'The River' just over a decade ago. 'Good Thing' (2018) and 'Gold-Diggers Sound' (2021) took us to different and diverse, soulful soundscapes. And his subtle protest record, akin to 'Happy Birthday's' from Stevie Wonder, or the greatest of Marvin, 'Sweeter' (featuring Terrace Martin on the horns), came at the right sobering time, during 2020's COVID-19 pandemic and the turning point of the Black Lives Matter movement. Most recently, he gave us his eponymous 'Leon' two years ago, and just like Miley last week (with her 'Bass Persuades' lane change), he's big enough, in our eyes, to go by just one name.

But why burn Bridges? Especially now. In a cruel, callous and cynical time we could all use a little love right now. Or at the very least, a pick me up. And that's what Leon Bridges is doing for us, taking us to an island in the sun, this summer, for 'Happiness Anytime'. A creed we should all aspire to and a release he wants us to feel "in (our) bones.". Bridges has been releasing a steady stream of this album over the last few months, four-tracks at a time, but now on this new day he gives us the full music Friday of his latest, and one of his greatest records to date. Because of the way he put this out, via mini-EP's, akin to an experiment Norah Jones (they made a great Christmas song together) had when she wanted to 'Begin Again' with how she released albums, everything feels like a single on this somewhat visual album. Right from the moment he rides on his bicycle, all the way through to 'Light The Way'.

Leon cries 'Tears Of Joy', the happiness gets so good, as he sings, "I hang my jacket up beside the willow tree/You know where the devils are, they don't belong with me/I hear water calling, it came and said to me/"Ten more years of glory/These arе our tears of joy"/Oh baby, tears of joy." And on a perfect 'Illusion' the drums can't stop, like his livin'. Making love to the rhythm this might be the most soulful expansion pack since Wyclef Jean's recent take on jazz. This lyric video, in grainy 80s like the new VHS version of season one of 'Stranger Things' on Netflix, is the perfect thing to sing-a-long to anytime, like the takes on Angus & Julia Stone's latest, 'Karaoke Bar'. Part one concluded with the standout 'Your Love Is Electric' that's David Gray lightning in veins. But CD2 got even better with the likes of the title-track and the so smooth, 'Talk It Over'. Collaborating 'All Day, All Night' with producer Lydia Kitto, the good times and this album just don't stop.

"Heavenly, I won't live a day without you next to me/Take me by the hand/I don't wanna let you walk away again/Darlin', honestly, even when it hurts, I'm not the one to leave/I won't let you go/Maybe you and I were always meant to be", Leon sings on 'Fly Baby' concluding the pre-album release eight wonders, offering a love so bright it might burn you, but will always soothe when it's got you. An everyday, forever love that feels like it has already always been here. Kind of like the soul and sound of this album that seeps into your subconscious until you're humming along and feeling all the better for it without even realizing. 'Watch You Dance' continues to move the crowd, down the line of "Wanna watch you dance/Get on your toes/A little romance/Only lightning knows." It's a hook that will have you, sinking through the speakers. That's just 'The Way It Goes' with Janet Jackson smoothness. As Leon says 'Take My Hand' all the way to the end, you'll feel the river again, by the sandy shore of so much more. Even when this record ends on the sea change beautiful ballad of a sombre note ('Please Don't Say Goodbye'), you know what it is. Joy always. The tide is high.

Playlist Picks: 'Your Love Is Electric', 'Fly Baby', 'Please Don't Say Goodbye'.

Spin This: Leon Bridges - 'Gold-Diggers Sound'.

MILEY'S 'BASS PERSUADES' us to dance

The Art Of Persuasion

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

Bass for your face. Mononym armed, Miley is back as you've never heard or read her before. But she really never left. As Miley Cyrus, this pop megastar was on a tear like no other. This queen went radio Gaga. Ever since those blonde pixie-cut 'Bangerz' came in like an iconic you know what. From 2020, when most people stopped, she's released a fantastic four. 'Little Plastic Hearts' (which this new album has the most in common with), the emancipation, and iconic artwork of an 'Endless Summer Vacation', and 'Something Beautiful', for her visual, final Columbia Records album before signing with Atlantic for this. Cinematic, classic, and a calendar and change ago. Now, a big-three, the previous pair coupled up with this, completes the next emancipation of Miley. 

Meet Miley on a bold, new breakout that still can't be tamed like her 'Dead Petz'. This tenth album is top-tier and it's a return to the dancefloor, like her country strong 'Younger Now' (teaming up with her late, great godmother, the legendary Dolly Parton for the LGBTQ anthem 'Rainbowland') was a trip back to her Tennessean roots to be Franklin. Now, just weeks after losing her dearly departed family member, and dropping her surname from the billboards, Cyrus shows us she is the closest thing to part two of Madonna's 'Confessions' in the booth in this endless Summer. Gaga? Britney? B####, please. They're working hard, too. But only Taylor is bringing it like Miley, right now. Now, the cult pop art icon is giving us her latest album artwork, in black-and-white, with a white rose in her mouth for a classic cover. This princess getting symbolic with the one name. All on the same New Music Friday headlined by the fact that Beck is back.

'Bass Persuades', like 'Ride Lonesome' (from the 'Sea Change' and 'Morning Phase' album artist), begins with it's title-track and lead single. And boy is it a big one. From pop opera to nocturnal pop grunge, Miley moves the crowd with the words, "Glued your eyes to the telephone screen/But you missed the hit without MTV/Go analog (Yeah), make it cinema (Yeah)/Just look out the window and what do you see?/In the treetops, it's a clear shot/Yeah, chaos is king, but you know that you can't stop, won't stop/New fit is a monster/Love it so much, go and hang it on a poster." And to think they say "the kids don't wanna dance". They'll be alright now, thanks to Miley and this album produced by the likes of Kid Harpoon, from Harry styling fame. The one direction of this new record, is the floor. Thanks to Harpoon shots and guest features from Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow (not to mention the stellar sprinkling of a song called 'Snow' ("we shouldn't be in Kyoto/We've never been here before")) for the glare of 'Neon Signs' and Model/Actrix's 'Different Religion'.

Put your hands together for the Model/Actriz that also 'Remixx' 'Bass Persuades', and will open for Miley during her October two-night residency at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. The sweet persuasion continues, singing 'Let's Get Married', like R&B's very own Jagged Edge to new fiancé, Maxx Morando. In a different 'Orbit', this outstanding set beats to the rhymes and rhythms of love and life. Sonically surrendering in all its electronic elements to a night of disco and dance. A district of 'REDLIGHTS' in all-caps, that has nothing to do with selling, but instead, celebrating yourself. Forget your phone and find yourself in the 'Aftermath' of atmospheric hooks that sink into the speakers, singing, "Does it all come closer or just the sound?/I'm sick of poets and being profound/You bathe in the sweat, your mouth like a straw/You're callous, but soft, you trace every flaw." "You were mine", on repeat. "Grace comes with age, but don't tell her/Fall out from the fame, claim my mother's maiden name/Lips in crimson shades, how I love her," the 'Innocent Ways' of this mother's daughter sings. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Madonna. Miley. Sometimes icons can just go by their first name basis.

Playlist Picks: 'Bass Persuades', 'Let's Get Married', 'Snow'.

Spin This: Madonna - 'Confessions II'.

SEASICK STEVE laments 'THE LAST SEASON OF AMERICA'

The American Way

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

On the opening track of Steven Gene Wold, AKA, Seasick Steve's 2011 album 'You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks', featuring Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones (and a great tour I saw with Pop), the Sonic Soul Surfer gave us all his 'Treasures'. One of the most beautiful beginnings to any album. Here, with the opening title-track to his new and fourteenth album, 'The Last Season Of America', he tunes into a much bleaker picture with his signature homemade guitar you can't find at Fender. "It’s the last season of America/And we’ll never watch again/The show that we loved/And there’ll be no reruns/All the sponsors have gone home/They’re shutting the whole thing down/All that’s left is the theme song," Steve sings, as everything from Richard Nixon to 'The Jetsons' plays on the tube next to him in this lot of abandoned American automobiles, as a train runs through it.

The Man from Another Time doesn't let up with the second song of his first set since 2024's 'A Trip A Stumble A Fall Down On Your Knees'. 'Bad Things' details the time we're living in, right now and the fact that, "we got a criminal/running this place/he got lies/written all over his face/all he wants/is just to divide/he don’t care /if our country live or die/ as long as the money keeps rolling/up to the rich /a keep rolling/without a hitch/I’m gonna sing/bad things." The 'Dog House Music' singer from Oakland, California, at 75-years-young is putting the affairs of his country in the dog house. Some of his fans from far away parts may not be too fond of this, but this Seasick man has never been one to sell out. When he made it big after Jools Holland's annual New Years' Hootenanny and his breakout album, 'I Started Out With Nothin' And I Still Got Most Of It Left', Steve made one extravangant purchase. A John Deere tractor. Then the man who was just 'Happy (To Have A Job') wrote a song about it.

There's an ode to his drummer Dan Magnusson (pulling up his fellow road warrior by the 'Bootstraps') and a song for 'Matilda From Ottawa', but Steve doesn't shy away from the problems at hand. Even when he's giving us the 'Above Ground Boogie', or collaborating with Ricardo Arjona on 'El Camino'. 'Somebody' is another single that stirs, but on the bluesy 'Surf's Flat', he gets instrumental and inspired, with some "oohs" and "ahhs". But for a country that's running and screaming, like Jeff Goldblum once warned, this 'Free Man' asks us to "have mercy." Yet this is more a call to emancipation celebration, rather than the protest prose that plant this album's flag. "Had a manager and an agent/They did nothing but take the payment/Now I manage myself/At least I keep most my wealth." Wise words from the man who once had nothing (and still has most of it left) for all the young and restless artists looking for a break in a world on the take.

The self-dubbed "professional busker" of the blues made this album after he and his wife, Elizabeth, journeyed across America and were met with poverty and pain. "We drove across the country from Miami to LA," Steve says. "We thought we was gonna have an amazing time but we were mostly sad, so much homelessness and division." In a New Orleans bar, the record's title was coined. Now, he's giving it everything he's got. Closing up shop to 'Feel The Sun' on another Seasick signature, Steve sings "don't lose your hope/things gone get better/Yeah, they gotta get better/Don't lose your faith/Yeah, it's the night/but the dawn gotta come/Yeah, day gone come/When the truth will rise up/And again we'll see the sun." And what more do you need, in song, than that? All on this top ten track album from a man we should treasure forever. Just like those times in the tens, that made for the moment of a man like him to show us a better way. A way that can come back here and stay if we still have a little faith. And the hard work that goes into making everything around us better...together. Seasons change.

Playlist Picks: 'The Last Season Of America', 'Bad Things', 'Matilda From Ottawa'.

Spin This: Seasick Steve - 'You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks'

BECK 'RIDE'S LONESOME' once again

Lane Change

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

Bob Dylan's 2008 album, 'Together Through Life', features album artwork of beautiful black-and-white photography by the great Bruce Davidson. Previously used for American author Larry Brown's short story collection 'Big Bad Love', the still focuses on a young couple, tangled up in each other's embrace, in the back seat of some American muscle. Together. Through. Life. No such luck for Beck, on the road again for his fifteenth album, 'Ride Lonesome', and first since 2019's Japanese 'Hyperspace' (ハイパースペース), produced by Pharrell, in-front of the classic, red Toyota Celica ("you're breaking my heart"). The longest gap between his studio sets. 

Loneliness may look good on this 'Loser' singer, mind you, behind his own Dylan shades and blonde on blonde curls. The last time the man was this solitary it garnered him some Grammy's. The 'Morning Phase' of 2014, like the 'Sea Change' another dozen years before that. Twelve years later, consider 'Lonesome' the conclusion to this lonely trilogy, making for the magnum opus of this classic career and catalogue under the 'Devil's' Haircut' always on our minds. Beck has bordered genres before, from rock to rap and country to classic Americana. He's hit Bowie big ('Modern Guilt') courted a compelling canvas ('Colors') and released signature sets like 'Odelay' and 'Mutations', but nothing feels quite like this style of spacey, dreamy yet earthy Beck. Lamenting lost love and finding hope in the hallowed heartbreak. How else would you explain the clipped wings of an angelic sound that still soars to the stratosphere?

Coming off his amazing acoustic tour (we get 'Bleed' in France as a YouTube bonus), that took in here in Tokyo, and the rest of the watching world, this Capitol record is an exclamation point. Beck David Hansen told us he was working on an orchestral album after his residency at London's Royal Albert Hall. Earlier this year he already gave us the collection of covers (Elvis, Lennon etc) and rareities that was January's Valentine's Day themed 'Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime' and now he offers up this Room B, United Studios, Hollywood affair, as the wind comes through the veil of his wooden cabin, isolated home space. The lead single and title track features Sierra Ferrell, and the latest track to hit the charts is 'Disappearing Act'. Yet it's the music videos that feature the actors that really strike a chord, like Garrett Hedlund in Angus & Julia Stone's own title-track 'Karaoke Bar' off the album that was released a fortnight back.

On another lonesome day, 'In The Night' features distinctive French actor Denis Lavant, reminding you of Tom Waits. Yet from 'Tokyo!' to 'Shōgun' it's Golden Globe winner and '47 Ronin' and 'Thor' actor Tadanobu Asano who really shows the loneliness amongst the burning neon of Tokyo for the track 'Run Away'. From highlight 'For Your Love' to the black-and-white still of a 'Disappearing Act' seeping through the studio, Beck knows how to get slow, searching and sublime. All as quiet as kept, making music, not noise, in an age that wants to aggravate your attention. What Hansen says with subtlety, is held dear. The emotional texture of this set, with the same team behind 'Sea' and 'Phase', evolves into a sonic, orchestral album. The forlorn, 'Failed Words' telling us, "When the words they fail you/And truth is more than you can say/And the fear surrounds you/You can't walk away/There's no way to change it/Don't know what to say/In a total silence I saw you walk away."

A 'Slow Canyon' opens up more in its grand sense of scale. Yet 'It Ends Right Here' starts an acoustic strum that could string you along to the promise of a better future. 'Falling Through My Hands' holds onto the moment love felt special, before facing the clock made it history, like, "Time forgets what love remembers/So throw your ashes to the embers." 'If You Don't Know What Love Is', it exists in the margins here and the notebook of a great, American singer/songwriter who pens lyrics like, "Just a soldier on the line/Who's taking all the blows/No refuge from the battle in your ragged clothes/So come out from the darknеss/Sit down by the door/No one will condemn you/You don't havе to run anymore." Even mired in heartbreak, Beck sees the light and goes beyond that for the curtain ('Beyond The Light') of this dozen for a dozen. "In the praise of bеnediction/The secrеt of your name/Sends a shiver to my soul/With my heart hung out in vain/Sowing diamonds in the fallow ground/With your sacrament of ice/I've got nothing to believe/Just the distance in your eyes." There's a change at sea this morning, like a phase, and you don't have to be lonesome on this ride tonight.

Playlist Picks: 'Run Away, 'In The Night', 'For Your Love'.

Spin This: Beck - 'Morning Phase'

BRIAN FALLON & THE PAINKILLERS are 'NOT BAD FOR NEW JERSEY'

New Jersey Angel

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

By gaslight, I'm not trying to play New Jersey's devil's advocate. I love this f#####g city, like talking from across the way in Neew YAARK! The city I used to take an Amtrak train from to East Rutherford, just to watch the New Jersey Nets play. Back in my 20s, before Brooklyn and with more affordable air-fare, You just had to see Jason Kidd throw it up there to Vince Carter. Would have been there for the K-Mart days, too. I love Jersey, boy! Like I was Bruce, 'Born To Run' there. Besides, it's the home of Springsteen and the American dream, Jon Bon Jovi, and of course, The Gaslight Anthem.

Following the band's decade in the making, heartland reunion back in 2023 for the 'History Books', frontman Brian Fallon switches 'The '59 Sound' for an 80s one that the 'Sob Rock' of John Mayer, coming out of COVID, would be proud of. It's all Springsteen synths with a human touch and songs with the man that "went back-to-back" with The Boss, Brandon Flowers (who just released his own solo set, 'Thrasher' a few weeks back). All as the other NYC area adjacent Fallon tells us he's 'Not Bad For New Jersey' on his first individual album in four years. Featuring the self-titled single, 'Better Before', 'Love At The End Of The World' (featuring Flowers), 'On Good Terms' with Lori McKenna, 'Somewhere You Shouldn't Be' alongside Phil Collen, a 'Wolf By The River' and Mark Ribot, and the movie-making 'The Big Sleep', with Donovan Woods playing his part.

New romantics classic, all the way down to the 80s vibe pink neon cover like a summer sunset in Tokyo, this is Brian back to being Fallon, following his beautiful hymn sheet of a 'Night Divine'. His first traditional solo album of type since the 'Local Honey' of 2020. Not to mention his sixth set in total, ever since the band eponymous debut a decade ago. It's something to celebrate now The Horrible Crowes singer has matched his Gaslight output, album for album. Dropping 'Pearls' of wisdom on a Butch Walker produced song that sings, "Where the streets come alive/On the Lower East Side/And you're just like the city/You're just like a ghost/I still want you to have all the pretty things/Even if we're not close." 'Nobody Likes You In NYC' teases the same across bridges and boardwalks like, "Nobody likes you in New York City/They were sad, they were sad, they were sad/They got no use for no Animal boys/They were sad, they were sad, they wеre sad/Nobody likes you, but I love you/I wish I didn't, but I do."

'Fading On Me' riffs on a live 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out' for the real King of New Jersey, but the prince is close in off-purple. Yet it's deep in the Meadowlands were we find him 'Walkin' Through The Garden'. "Now, I searched along the rivers, and I searched among the stars/Looked out in California in the neighborhood bars/I kept my lantern burning so she would come back to me/But I think I saw the devil in her passenger seat." All for what might just be the best and most him album yet, pulling up his collar in a signature style and struck pose. A bruised and brooding Brian knows how to bring that heartland yearn across the shores, from the city all the way to the promised land. If Springsteen is the blue, bootcut jeans, Fallon is the leather jacket that goes over them. Not bad...and that's no gaslighting.

Playlist Picks: 'Pearls', 'Nobody Likes You In NYC', 'Love At The End Of The World (Feat. Brandon Flowers)'.

Spin This: John Mayer - 'Sob Rock'

 

Join ANGUS & JULIA STONE at the 'KARAOKE BAR'

Angus, Julia and Perfect Singing

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

What's your go-to karaoke song? For 'Tron: Legacy', 'Four Brothers' and 'Mudbound' star Garrett Hedlund, it may just be the lead single and title-track off 'Karaoke Bar', the new album from ruling Aussie double-act, Angus & Julia Stone. The singing sibling's first album in two years, following the warm and wonderful 'Cape Forestier'. The 'Friday Night Lights', 'Unbroken' and 'On The Road' actor appears in the music video for said single that has shades of Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn's 'Iguana Bird', off their 'Apart' EP. Not to mention, many a lonely, Las Vegas night Killers, or Brandon Flowers blooming video amongst the Sin City neons.

Coupled with the other-worldly atmosphere of these 'Celestial Bodies', this is the Stones back in their most accomplished age. Back when Australian friends were introducing me to their music in Manchester and in-sync, listening to the pair in Santa Monica was like a dream. This is the sweet spot of albums like 'Snow' and the fall of their self-titled third. With this sixth, for a collective that have been doing their thing, together and solo, since 2006, they mark their 20-year anniversary with an album that really ties their catalogue together. Just like the Lebowski rug they lie on for the amazing album artwork. The only thing that looks better is Angus' Mickey Mouse Daytona 500 jacket (want) over a Bruce Willis vest and Julia's orange on white Wordtec, Louisville, Kentucky tee (also want...I'll make it work).

So, it's time to sing along. As clever concept lyric videos for 'The Cherry Farm' and 'Monroe', for all you weekend with Marylin guys, actually look like grainy, classic karaoke ones from the 80s. You know when the words light up, that's your cue to flow. Of course, karaoke comes from here in Japan. That word is as Japanese as capsule hotels, vending machines and half a cup of ramen. So, what better way to celebrate all this then with the Nippon neon sounding 'Take Me Back To Japan'? Singing, "You like cigarettes in the cinema/There's only a few places left where you can/Roll the die out with a half played hand/Take me back to Japan." As atmospheric, as the land of the rising's sunsets, and fellow lost in translation and love tracks of Lianne La Havas ('Tokyo') and Phoebe Bridgers ('Kyoto').

This snack bar with the perfect hosts, goes all over the show, too. Right to the moving 'Mexico City' end of the line. This Virgin album was also conceived in Greece, France and their native home of the likes of INXS (before the tragedy) and The Jezabels (before the stupidity), Australia, with all the people they met in the places along the way. From 'The Start', this feels like the 'Brightest Place', as Julia sings, "I chase the city lights for somewhere fun to go/I'm hiding out in the brightest place I know/I'm not a liar/It takes me higher, than I could on my own/I'll get home/I'm at home on the dance floor/Don't call me if you didn't want to stay for more," with a vivid vocal distort, like an opening to a 'Lost Weekend', in an experimental age A.I. couldn't hold a note to.

'Strangely Strangely', a breakup record with bite, is one of the best, best. Whereas 'Cowgirls Lover Boi', certified anti-Drake, is something Neil Young and his crazy horses would love in the sand. As Angus accents, "Rattlesnake, he bite like a snow storm/Can't get the saddle on the back while the horse run/He my cowboy, 40-gallon oil drum/At high noon, he'll put you in the ground son." Yet it's the title-track and Neil Diamond classic that will have you Hedlund, head-over-heels singing along like you were sweet on someone named Caroline. "BA, BA, BA!" Diamond tributes haven't been mined this strong since Hugh Jackman and an Academy Award-nominated Kate Hudson channelled Mike and Claire Sardina for 'Song Sung Blue'. But this one still passes the bar. You're up! What song have you got in your back pocket?

Playlist Picks: 'Monroe', 'Take Me Back To Japan', 'Mexico City'.

The 'Q THEORY' of WYCLEF JEAN'S jazz age

The Ecleftic 

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

Ever since Wyclef Jean sang 'No Woman, No Cry' by iconic idol Bob Marley, serving as his music muse. Settling 'The Score' of quite possibly the best hip-hop album of all-time, by one of its greatest groups. Ever since then, you just knew Jean was more than a real rapper. I mean, here's a guy who once rhymed in multiple languages, leaving us Bill Murray in translation. Opening the Fugees 2005 reunion show at the then M.E.N. arena in Manchester, England. Telling the usher, " I used to do your job, give me your jacket." All before rocking out in that garishly legendary M.E.N. arena blazer yellow. Something previously embarrassing, but then instantly iconic, as everyone in attendance wanted their own like golf's green jacket for The Masters, or the Naismith's Basketball Hall of Fame orange. Wyclef wasn't playing before he introduced a 'Ghetto Superstar' and Ms. Hill.

Carnivals of 'Ecleftic' classics by the hip-hop number have given us further rhyme to this reason. But now, Wyclef Jean takes a real quantum leap, like Scott Bakula. Showing us, he's got the jazz, akin to tribes that go quest. This q-tip in your ear, in all its abstractions offers up the 'Q Theory- Quantum Leap Vol. 2'. "So smooth and sweet" according to a brilliant bassist I know, these sounds fill up the scape with yet another scope to Jean's range. Following the 'Clef Notes' of volume one and the time 'Wyclef (Went) Back To School' in 2019. Taking us all to it as this jazz project explores the history of his Haitian roots and the inspirations of the late, great Quincy Jones' improvisations. What results in this second chapter is something else. Something thrilling in the same N.M.F. weekend where we get new, posthumous Prince ('Timeless'), fellow dread-ditcher Busta Rhymes bringing the late, great J Dilla back for 'Dillagence II', and Erykah Badu and The Alchemist becoming Abi and Alan 'Before The World Blows'.

The Alchemist, like the restaurant in Manchester, just mixed a classic concoction to give us Badu's best yet. Jazz is doing the same for Jean. Two classic catalogues have just become all the more compelling for a culture that needs to be celebrated in all corners of the world it unites, lyrically and sonically. Jean used to get down with the great Jerry Wonda. Here, under the piano with an acoustic, like the black and white album artwork of a young boy with innocence and fire in his eyes...and a couple of record sleeves by his side, he brings forth some friends to the fore for his foray into the world of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Most notably, modern-day great Robert Glasper, Godwin Louis, Theo Croker and many, many more. The glasses on the table of the cover may be empty, but the hearts and musical minds are full. Right to the brim as you raise a glass in the 'French Quarter', or toast to those 'Harlem Nights' in a New York, 'Clef once called New Jerusalem on the iconic sequel to a classic, 'Carnival II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant'.

'Rocinha', with Glasper, Godwin and Patrick Pelissier just takes you there. Right into the heart of those beautiful Brazilian favelas. Sounding like a halfway house between Thelonious and the inspired intro to Spielberg's 'Catch Me If You Can'. 'Lady Havana' stamps even more passports in perfect percussion and poise, as Theo, Yiyi Sanchez and Axel Tosca. From 'Silk & Sand', featuring Jean Caze, Godwin Louis, Weedie Braimah and Axel Tosca, to 'Sugarcane & Watermelon', this Ecleftic epic encompasses it all, as Jean builds another band of brothers and sisters. Taking wing with Bradford Hayes on the God reaching 'Pegasus'. 'Farafina', alongside Robert Glasper, Elena Pinderhughes, Godwin Louis and Arden Altino, is so fresh you can touch it. And there are even some lyrics amongst all the licks here for this rolling stone, cold as ever. Alas, it's the curtain of a 'Toussaint Louverture' (feat. Mushy Widmaier, Dadi Beauburn, Jean Caze, Papa Jube, Emmanuel Laine and Weedie Braimah) that let the horns blow, like Gillespie, for his home. There's no place like it. Nothing sounds as good. Not even Andre 3000 with a flute, but we'd love to see this Fugee and that Outkast play together under a new blue sun. Get your blue notes ready.

Playlist Picks: 'French Quarter (Feat. Harvey Mason Jr., Niia, Robert Glasper & Theo Croker)', 'Sugarcane & Watermelon (Feat. Godwin Louis, Harvey Mason Jr. & Weedie Braimah)', 'Harlem Nights (Feat. Axel Tosca, Emmanuel Laine, Emmanuel Najee, Godwin Louis, Melky Jean & Patrick Pelissier)'.

Spin This: Wycelf Jean - 'J'ouvert'.

BUSTA RHYMES and J DILLA'S due 'DILLAGENCE II'

Do The Bus A Beat

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

If you've been reading the run of reviews (not really so much anymore, we're just talking about music we love) over this New Music weekend, don't take us the wrong way. We love to hear new music from Prince, and in that regard, are thankful to his estate. However, with that being said, we just want it to be all fair and done right by the man who once wrote "slave" across his face whilst performing and having more problems with Warner Bros. than Michael Jordan when Bugs Bunny and co sucked him down a golf hole for 'Space Jam'.

In a great weekend for hip-hop collaborations (as we have Erykah Badu and The Alchemist's Abi and Alan for 'Before The World Blows') and concepts (the 'Q Theory' of Wyclef Jean's jazz album), Busta Rhymes knows how to do it the right way with the late, great J Dilla. Paying homage just like when he was on his 'New York S###' in his Dr. Dre epic era. The legendary energy M.C., with the best hype man in the biz in Spliff Star, has flipped the Flipmode Squad script recently. Coming back in a big way, when everyone else was staying home, in 2020 with his superior sequel 'Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God'. But now, with government name Trevor Smith's first album since his 2023 'Blockbusta', he releases the sequel to his 2007 Mick Boogie mixtape 'Dillagence', with the official album 'Dillagence II'. Blessed with exclusive access to over 300 unreleased beats from J Dilla this sounds even bigger than the time he went sonic with Clinton Sparks for 'New Crack City'.

Busta Rhymes first collaborative LP since the Leader of the New School and the Flipmode Squad posse cut 'The Imperial', also gives us Dilla's first record since 'The Diary' entry of 2016 for the late, great, prolific producer who passed an unbelievable twenty years ago now, one year before the original 'Dillagence'. Not to mention, the 'Spazzz' single and the latest 'Talk Ya S###' with the one and only output of Lil' Wayne. That alien looking blue man group avatar in these twin videos has his mouth permanently dragging carpet in reaction to the rhymes that remain as raw and ready as ever. And just wait until you see 'This Woman', featuring another late, great in neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo, for the latest. With a vibe of the 'I Know What You Like' collaboration with Mariah Carey, music videos have never been this naturally beautiful. 

There are classic collaborations across the board for these tracks bordered by conversations with Ma Dukes. This album is so good even friend Tyrese Gibson is basically telling Busta to go f### himself on I.G. (now, that's one reel you don't want to have slid into your D.M's). La Reezy makes his 'Entry', whilst CIE and Trillian become 'Royalty'. C.S. Armstrong ('Drugs'), Watch The Duck ('Run Em Down') and T3 ('Lay Down') also make their mark alongside a legend who has always let others rock the mic, from the streets to the 'Great Day In Hip-Hop' icons, so long as they rock it right. The bigger names come later. Big Sean says he will 'Wait 4 U' with Bxby. And Talib Kweli, and Armstrong again, gets back with Busta for 'Love & War'. Yet it's the Oscar and Grammy collaboration of 'What We Got In Common' that sees that last word, and the great Grammy family of Jon Batiste lift the Rhymes name into bright lights that don't shine as bright as Busta's own style that steals that show. All before this 'Kingpin' knocks ya head off in a white suit for the daredevil. Alongside Anderson .Paak, and the only man who could ever match his grandiose guest feature, sick sixteens...Ludacris.

The green graffiti of this classic from The Conglomerate really rides the train of thought that's off the rails and right onto the charts here. Approved by the estate of J Dilla, and his mother, Maureen Yancey, these are the first Dilla beats to see the light of day since Raekwon was 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx' in his 2009 sequel. The long-standing professional relationship between Bus a Bus and Jay Dee goes all the way back to the original 'Extinction Level Event' of 2009, and this final world front still turns them up some. Being "extremely selective" with these three centuries of tracks, 'How The Boss Will Deliver' is different to his usual fast flow, giving you 'Back Pain, Chest Pain, Head Pain'. Until 'The Story Of The Old Man' is one you can't wait to hear by the hip-hop rocking throne.

'How You Want It', when it comes to this iconic wordsmith and one of his top-three producers, alongside Dre and A Tribe Called Quest icon Q-Tip who gave even more abstractions and light to 'The Big Bang Theory' of Smith's last second-wind. "Let me get them", he simply says. The real Rhymes come on the first single, 'Spazzz' when he spits, "Blunderin' fools that's wonderin' (Who's that?)/Bust Rhymes, reincarnatin' the boom-bap (B####)/Powerful blow, y'all should probably move back/Take notes, study my shit, school a new jack/Look, this what you do while I give you the new crack (Peep)/How I bang 'em and throw another loose stack/Bomb hard, you know it's the God when I spit, though." And that's not it. Your own diligence is due. Join and respect the conglomerate and throw a half-eaten donut up for James Dewitt Yancey. There's still nobody that could beat all Jay Dee, Dilla has left sprinkling across your speakers. Let those sirens ring out!

Playlist Picks: 'This Woman (Feat. D'Angelo)', 'Shoo', 'What We Got In Common (Feat. Common & Jon Batiste)'.

Spin This: Busta Rhymes - 'Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God'.

J Dilla - 'Donuts'.

Listen to ERYKAH BADU & THE ALCHEMIST 'BEFORE THE WORLD BLOWS'

About To Blow

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

Blown out of proportion. That's this week's New Music Friday for you. Headlined by the 'Timeless' nature of a Prince, very little promoted, but vault heavily raided, in what poses an ethical and moral dilemma. Yes, we still haven't heard music quite like this (even Celine Dion's version of 'With This Tear', can't quite match this), but should we? Prince is said to have not wanted any of his stored material to be released posthumously. So, should we even turn our ears to the 'Timeless' nature of his estates latest release? If you want something a little more respectful, Busta Rhymes gives us the sequel to his own due 'DILLAGENCE' with the late, great J. Dilla. And that's not the only creative collaboration pushing the envelope like Fugee Wyclef Jean's foray into jazz (the self-released 'Q Theory'). Abi and Alan are here, too.

Better known as neo-soul queen Erykah Badu and super-producer The Alchemist (Mobb Deep, Nas, and many, many more of rap's elite). 'Before The World Explodes (The Abi & Alan Experiment)' is finally here after years of high anticipation and long wait. Ready to explode across the world in all its experimental epic-ness. And this genius collaboration brings a few friends along for the ride, too. In this black and white film reel of shades and puckered up lips we have Creole Princess, Joi and Westside Gunn (also appearing on 'No I.D.') telling us 'I Just Play A Part'. Steve Lacy heading 'To The Moon' for a 'Plan C'. And the great Earl Sweatshirt putting his on for 'I Know That Man'. Not to mention, a pair of modern-day jazz greats in Thundercat ('They Ain't You') and Kamasi Washington for the closing 'Black Box' recording.

Yet on this sweet sixteen it's 'Valentine' (featuring DRAM) you'll fall for way before February. Reminding us of the Devin The Dude assisted 'Poisonous' by legendary underground hip-hop outfit, Dilated Peoples (also produced by Alch). All for an album that is a straight classic, not to mention one of the most cohesive and compelling of the calendar, from the moment the opening 'Echos' are heard. Baduzim making a stand and social statement about racism and sexism, saying "Ah, John Lennon said/They treat women like the n###s of the world, yes, he did." Now, read in-between those lines. Feeling like a trilogy conclusion to the 'New Amerykah' series that we last heard of a decade and a half ago with the classic and controversial (in the art of its amazing music video) 'Return Of The Ankh'. All as The Alchemist has been mixing creative concoctions with the genre and game's best of the best. But nothing, not even hearing Prince again, takes us higher than this. It's Erykah's earth once again.

A pair of apostles ('What The People Say', 'Hot BiBi') and a whole lot of magic ('Witch Doctor', 'Abracadabra'), this album amazes the senses it stirs. On 'Crossfade', Badu brings the beauty that comes with the art of storytelling and song-writing, singing, "It's like a cross between two animals/Two different breeds/He likes the sea/But that's just too cold for me/Don't go too deep (Ooh)/'Cause that's just too cold for me (Mm)." And that's just what Erica Abi Wright and Alan Daniel Maman are together. Forever in this always collabo. 'Next 2 U' holds you close like someone you'll have and se 'Next Lifetime'. Whilst 'Love Me Not' checks all the boxes, not merely picking at daisies. The chain is complete with the beautiful 'Breezy' that flows in with the wind of a changing season. "Her name was Breezy, she eats with chopsticks/She likes to party by herself/She drives a fast car and it's electric/She's at the red light, she's at the green light", Erica stops and goes. The experiment works, the two A's charge you up with something strong for a world on the brink of collapse. Nothing before, for the pair, has blown quite like this.

Playlist Picks: 'Echos', 'Witch Doctor', 'Valentine (Feat. DRAM)'.

Spin This: Erykah Badu - 'New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh'.

PRINCE is 'TIMELESS'

Time After Time

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

Sadly, Dolly Parton passed away this week. As did the great Pennywise and 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' of Tim Curry, Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen and the red bob of Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kasuma. May they all rest peacefully. Leaving a legendary legacy like no other. From artistry to philanthropy. Dolly worked more than '9 To 5', as she warned us of 'Jolene' and reminded us that when it comes to Whitney Houston, and her, 'I Will Always Love You'. What a way to make a living. In Dollywood there are also reports of a secret song buried in a time capsule. One that can't be opened until 2045. And you just know that it's going to be something. Just like all of the posthumous Prince material unearthed following his own sad passing a decade ago. Starting with the raw, but ready demo of 'Piano and a Microphone 1983', back in 2017. 

We just hope it's as ethical as Parton's prolific output. Because remember, here's an Artist who once recorded an album with fellow rock God Lenny Kravitz only to muse on its completion that it was just for them. According to legend, and the tao of the symbol, of course. With that being said, however, from outstanding 'Originals' to the return of 'Welcome 2 America', it's been real, but has it been respectful? As the amazing anniversary editions of some of his greatest classics ('Diamonds and Pearls', 'Sign O The Times') have heralded even more hits. But hits that he wanted? With or without this, the artist formerly known as, is absolutely 'Timeless', regardless. And the latest posthumous album, and the first since 2021, of the same name, doesn't need to prove that. Just like the purple haze left in his wake of his iconic shadow on the album artwork cover canvas. From highlights like 'I Wonder', to a live version of 'How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore' (from Oakland, back in 2016, right before he left us), a future Alicia Keys hit that Rogers Nelson takes back, these eleven tracks, for some, are worth the half-decade wait...in platinum.

'With This Tear', that was movingly release, with an affecting music video the same, on the ten-year anniversary of Prince Rogers Nelson's death is the posthumous hit that soars to 'Moonbeam Levels'. Recorded on Celine Dion's eponymous, first English-language, 1992 album, right before 'The Colour Of Love' was telling us to 'Think Twice' in regards to 'The Power Of Love'. This is another example of Prince manically, like Monday, making moving music for others. Yet with all due respect to the late, great Sinéad O'Connor, nothing compares to how the purple one does it. The reign continues on the instantly catchy chorus of 'Tick, Tick, Bang', that feels like another dynamite hit. "You're just a bombshell/If I ever get it, ever get it/There's no tellin', no tellin' how long I'd last/Before I tick, tick, tick, bang/All over you." BOOM! Even if these worked lyrics are not suitable for radio.

It's just all so Prince from the 'I Am You' outset to the studio outro ode of 'Bestest Friend' for Michael. So sweet, yet still the coolest man this planet ever housed, never giving in to saccharine sentiments. Exploring eras over the decades, from the jazz age of the classic 'Calabama' to the time when the icon just went by a loving guitar symbol (for a heart of 'Stone'), this all fits together so Sakanaction seamlessly for a man who blended genres effortlessly, as music itself encompasses it all. Still, from the revolution of 'Heaven', to 'The Guilty Ones' single, it might be the estate itself that is guilty of not paying attention to 'Heaven' as many fans have distanced themselves from an album that has received very little promotion. Would Prince really want this? Didn't he state he didn't want posthumous albums released, as his vault was raided in what was really mere moments after his death? The artistry is amazing, but the artist himself is what is worth so much more. Don't cash in on the beautiful one that never sold out.

Playlist Picks: 'I Wonder', 'With This Tear', 'How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore? (Live @ Oakland, 4 March 2016)'.

Spin This: Prince - 'Piano and a Microphone 1983'.

'THE GOLD ALBUM' by WEEZER sets the standard

Goldmembers

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

Mike Myers may looooove gooold. But he's got nothing on this. Rivers Cuomo appearing on Jimmy Fallon's late-night show with his legendary Weezer outfit. Not to mention, a touch of Goldfinger. Appearing like the Willy Wonka of gold members. All the way down to those geeky glasses that just look like the late, great Buddy Holly. Friends, Weezer are back, and they'll play Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka around St. Valentine's Day next year, too. Lovers, this is for you. In their spectrum, this platinum rock act has given us all the colours for their series of self-titled albums. Blue, green, red. Most recently, teal and black. It was only a matter of time that the band went gold. And how fitting to mark their 20th album, following the last full-length hard rock 'Van Weezer' and their four extended play 'SZSN's over 2022?

Their first album in four years doesn't betray their outrageous output. Eleven albums in the last decade since 'The White Album' for these nerdy Beatles with a Beach Boy twist. These California kings of alternative American rock give us 'The LA Sound' with their latest classic. A seventh-seal of self-titled bliss. Their first colour album since 2019. Even Ed Sheeran doesn't make mathematics quite like this. A cool, compelling and classic concept. We can't wait until Mister Rivers' Neighbourhood goes purple like Prince. The sweet single 'Shine' really glows like the latest 'C.E.O'. as Cuomo and Weezer have been inspired by working on a feature film together. All for the first "Weezer" Weezer album since 2021's 'OK Human' coming out of COVID. Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell and Scott Shriner are back working together again. And this time they bring Wednesday (the North Carolina band, not Jenna Ortega) along to this New Music Friday for the instant classic collaboration of 'We Might As Well Be Strangers'.

That should be enough to lift these legends next to fellow one Brandon Flowers, sans Killers, as these thrashers welcome a wonderful weekend with Leon Bridges giving us the second act of his forthcoming album 'Happiness Anytime', set for the fall. Box-sets and Broadway residencies may have been cancelled, but this is what we really want to see. Weezer doing what they do best. Even if, Rivers runs deep, saying it best, "Cranking out another nineties jam/Wish I could do something new/But nobody wants to hear that/They just want the classics/You can't blame 'em, really/There's something special about your early s###." 'The Show Must Go On' like that showstopper. And you'll 'Say Yes' the minute you let this Tower Records CD play. Because let's take it back to the good old days when albums were all about breaking out the booklet as you lifted the lid and heard that sound of pressing the disc into the tray. The red and yellow album.

'Don't Make It Weird', Goldie says as he sings "I was walking down Montana/When I bumped into a lady that I know/I tried to make small talk/And then it got weird, yo." 'Hoops' is balling for your ears as it rings out. Whilst 'Nowhere' goes everywhere like the storm drains. Flowing with lyrics like, "I just wanna sit with you/If the grass is green and the sky is blue/It's enough for me/I just wanna sit with you/If the grass is green and the sky is blue/It's enough for me/Is it enough for you?" Because that, ladies and gentlemen, is love and life itself. The kind of California dreamin' for all you mamas and papas that has you 'Up In The Clouds' like, "dissolving into the night." Because even after all, "every Adam will pass away/No matter how hard you pray." Maybe it's about "getting lost in thе stratosphere/While еverybody is fake sincere." As Cali' as the Chili's, Weezer are about to go Hollywood with Keanu Reeves, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Johnny Knoxville for our generation. They've already been living in Beverly Hills, but in these LA times, there's no place like home. And for Weezer, that's back together. That's the gold. What a rush! As good as.

Playlist Picks: 'Shine Again', 'We Might As Well Be Strangers (Featuring Wednesday)', 'The LA Sound'.

Spin This: Weezer - 'Weezer (The White Album)'

'THRASHER' BRANDON FLOWERS continues to bloom with killer solo career

Welcome To Fabulous...Nashville

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

Sin City to Music City, U.S.A. In-between scoring 'Direct Hits' with The Killers ('Read My Mind', 'Human', literally the first half of their 'Hot Fuss' debut album), Brandon Flowers has given us some successful solo sojourns. Back in 2010, 'Flamingo', named after the road in Brandon's Las Vegas hometown that also houses the infamous Sam's Town Casino (you know the name), was a compelling, credible classic. A darker, killer turn featuring the singles 'Crossfire', 'Only The Young', 'Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts'. Not to mention serious standouts, including 'Hard Enough' (featuring Jenny Lewis), 'Playing With Fire' and 'On The Floor'.

A half-decade later, the style was switched up for this new romantic with 'The Desired Effect' of rolled-up suit-sleeves, like a Miami Vice beat cop waving Morrisey flowers. 'Lonely Town', 'I Can Change', 'Still Want You' and 'Can't Deny My Love' hit the jukebox. Whereas 'Between Me & You', 'Never Get You Right' and 'Diggin' Up The Heart' had yours. Now, over a decade later, with 'Tiger Blood' in his veins, shadowboxing in black and white for some album artwork that looks halfway between the desert and Music Row, Brandon is back by himself as a 'Thrasher'. But don't let that name or photo box you silly, this is no hard as nails album. Instead, the soft rock king, this side of Springsteen, returns to the country roots of American music. 

The opening track of his debut album was a sign. 'Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas'. And there are mirages of that here in a lost 'Paradise'. Otherwise he has 'Plans' on hitting the road, like the awe-inspiring lyric video of a real, great America. On this top ten closer, 'An American Dream', Flowers takes you further into the groundwork of those Americana aspirations, but it's on 'Miss Americana', that is not about Taylor Swift, even if this is Nashville, where things take a darker turn. "You know the messed up thing/If the truth be told/Grown men have noticed me/Since I was 12 years old/It always made me feel/Like some kind of prize/I guess I saw my worth/Through their porno eyes/If Jesus really suffered/And paid for all this sin/Then why do we still feel it/Again and again?" The 'Battle Born' prize-fighter scrapping for those who didn't have a voice...until they heard it in song, like scripture.

From the influence introduced on 'Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?', Brandon has a holy one to bear as his arms reach out for something more. Richer and deeper in his own solo career which he could have started all by himself. We love The Killer inside him. It's actually been another half-decade since the 'Pressure Machine' came in hot off the heels of 'Imploding The Mirage'. And we can't believe it's just been shy of a decade since 'Wonderful Wonderful'. Yet The Killers have had so many members come and go, it's almost like a solo story now. Nevada's own goes it alone on 'One Of Us', but has a whole legion of fans across the strip following him to a different Broadway from the one you know in the Big Apple.

Flowers already gave us the tale of 'Tyson vs. Douglas' and he continues that sport synergy on 'Angel' about a big hitter on the diamond. "Angel took the cross hanging 'round his neck/Pressed it against his lips/He’s batting over .500 this year/And there’s talk of scouts making trips/There's a girl who just moved in down the street/From deeper in the southwest/His uncles all warned him about messing with white girls/But he always liked them the best." The storytelling is as sublime as the Bruce who he knows best, as in these Badlands, Brandon finds 'The Red Ground' and a love that's ashes to ashes with the way it's starting to treat you good. Singing "When you done built a wall/Clear around your heart/The echoes of the past ring out/And ricochet/But you’re shooting like a star/So far from your home/Should’vе cut yourself loose/A long time ago" to the dust.

On the same New Music Friday where Weezer finally give us 'The Gold Album' for their standards, and Leon Bridges offers up part two of his forthcoming 'Happiness Anytime' album pursuit next month, this wrangler is one you'll put your bootcut jeans on for 'In A Heartbeat'. Those unmistakable vocals choking back the tears we hear with lines like "Me and Katie, we go all the way back to 1993/She was stubborn as a bull, she was beautiful to me/When you’re that age all you want is for to be women and men/But opened eyes get a front row glimpse into the end/She showed me the untouchable world/In the still of my backseat." Flowers' pop has always known how to sing about sin, but now this Mormon is in another part of the country, the terrain remains the same. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness we can only find in love. Whether that's for your brother or for yourself. Brandon has always known how to kill it. But he's never been this alive.

Playlist Picks: 'Paradise', 'Miss Americana', 'An American Dream'.

Spin This: Brandon Flowers - 'Flamingo'.

PHOEBE BRIDGERS finds new ground in a 'LOST WEEKEND'

The Weekend

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

May Pang had a professional and personal relationship with John Lennon, between 1973 and 1975, during the working-class hero's brief break from artist Yoko Ono. The fellow Plastic Ono Band leader dubbed this departure their "lost weekend".

This also serves as the same name of  'Stranger In The Alps', indie folk rocker Phoebe Bridgers' third album. And her first in six years (just three if you count 'The Record', and 'The Rest', for her Boygenius supergroup with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker) since she turned into 'The Punisher' like Jon Bernthal. And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that her former fiancée, ('Normal People' and 'Gladiator II' star Paul Mescal) is about to play Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes' Beatles biopics. Sure, there are lyrics to go here about the breakdown of that relationship, referencing the 'Aftersun' and 'All Of Us Strangers' actor's new love in singer/songwriter Gracie Abrams (whose own album came out a few weeks back). Yet these are the artist's own personal and powerful brushstrokes of beauty in the break. Sure, she's putting them out into the world, but they are still her business. Swifties, back down! Besides, Jack Antonoff is on this.

What critics and fans alike should really look at, in this magnificent new record that now Bridgers the gap with a big-three, is the new Americana ground Phoebe finds in this ambient folktronica age that is all hers. From the alps, to screaming 'I Know The End', whilst making out with a senior in her perfect 'Punisher' conclusion. Wearing the bones of her own black, superhero costume, this ghost works the machine on this Dead Oceans album. One that really swims in another year of 'Arirang' BTS domination. All you have to hear is the distorted opening vocal of 'The Outside' to see that Phoebe Bridgers is not playing around. "Crying in a suit and tie/But you should see the other guy/One more time for old time's sake/I’ll watch him get carried away/Fist through the drywall/I'm frozen in place/But not afraid." What more can you say?

Same song for the 'Lost Boys' lead single for all you Peter Pans. No Kiefer vampire, but an Elfin Bridgers role playing in the park, like Shakespeare (cue Robert Downey's "doth mother know"), with new 'Superman' Jimmy Olsen, Skyler Gisondo, all the way to the forest building of a 'Minecraft' like video game. Not to mention the 8-bit beat for the 'Kyoto' singer. "On a motorbike, doing 90 in a 55/To another life/Where they make you cut your hair/Impatient with a rifle and your papers/Weightless but not scared." Knights and roundtables, it's one of her chainmail strongest yet. You'll be singing along like all the other singles that flow as perfectly as riding around your local area in a suit and tie on a scooter.

Driving through alien rays in classic American muscle, Phoebe continues to strum acoustic for all her friends on some of the best cuts you'll hear in years...from any artist. Navigating love and loss, not to mention the perils of fame, this is Phoebe's most personal and profound project yet. Dealing with the death of her father Tony Bridgers. You can hear his voice on a voicemail for the moving 'Never Going Back!" backed by a banjo. But it's on the best of the album, 'Still Standing' were Tony really gets his dedication. "I wasn't too young to understand/I just didn't think it was so bad/And it wasn't, in a way/And now there is nothing/You're back to the ocean, burning red/I can't imagine you dead/But you are every day/Thank you for everything." Pain, purity, and the absolute beauty of family that lives on in the spirit of soul. And the art of this album.

So, focus on that, and hug your own like coach Doc Rivers said in last weekend's Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement speech. Whilst everyone else is picking apart the grace of 'The Governor's Waltz' and shining a light on that "hiding in the bathroom like Shelley Duvall" lyric. We all have those moments...not matter who we are. And in the same week where we failed to save more heroes, we should save more face, theirs and our own. Especially in this day and age of lukewarm "takes" and internet takedowns. So, put away those phones, like the in concert protocols that are about to happen on 'The Lost Tour'. I can attest, after seeing her in Tokyo's Zepp a few weeks shy of the Boygenius release in 2023, that it's a show like no other. Taking it to churches in London, like Hozier, the 'Panorama' LA storm drain lyric video (featuring Jake Minch 'Twice' interpolations) and the bright but brittle 'Liberty Tree' will look (yes, look) and sound amazing in this horn 'Haunted' house.

From 'Bobby' dedications ("Now I sleep in your shirts and you live in my house/You sing in the shower, I talk to myself"), to album title-tracks that sample Phil Lansky's idle chatter, this 'Lost Weekend' should be found on your turntables (with a 'Best Dressed' bonus) and playlists. All the way to the raw reprise in curtain concluding closing. 'Kill Me' will floor you. 'Lost Parade' is signature and sublime. Whilst new single 'I Can't Wait' and the made for a movie, moving 'Other Plans' should really put yours on hold, because this can't. 'As Above' and so below in all its atmospheric beauty helps bring this album home. "Trying not to look down/Making faces at a kid on the plane/Trying not to freak out/About bein' a couple days late/Started watchin' a movie/One where they go back in time/And it got to me/I don't know why." You know when you're airborne for so long and, in-between red eyes and that damn dry mouth that just can't help stomach airplane food, those fleeting moments that feel like forever up there help you become free from everything beneath you? Yeah? Well, this album is just like that. And you won't want to come down. So, don't look.

Ladies and gentlemen...the 'Lost Weekend'.

Playlist Picks: 'Lost Boys', 'The Governor's Waltz', 'Still Standing'.

Spin This: Boygenius - 'The Record'.

A stunning and scorching SAKANACTION Saturday at SUMMER SONIC

Sonic The Headliners

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

What do Tokyo's Summer Sonic music festival and their Disney Sea theme park a few train stops over have in common?

Well, for one, they're not actually in Tokyo. More like the neighbouring prefecture of Chiba. A beautiful place, but I guess it doesn't have the same ring to it as Japan's capital and most famous city in the Land of The Rising Sun.

The other thing Disney Sea and Summer Sonic have in common is that here in 2026, they are both celebrating their 25th anniversaries. Here's to 2001, like a Dr. Dre album.

A certain name-sharing hedgehog, still in his prime, is also celebrating his 35th in Japan.

And what a quarter century it's been for two places that draw everyone, especially in the Summer, to Tokyo Station. Not just for the beautiful building and views of it across the way, but the train change that takes most Tokyoites and people from Yokohama next door (hands up) to Chiba's nose. 

Heading up court like the special Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers like, Summer Sonic, 26 basketball jerseys, showing love to the NBA.

The only thing that rivals the musically diverse Summer Sonic is the Fuji Rock festival that really amps up proceedings. We were there last year to check out Haim and Vampire Weekend, but this year Massive Attack and The xx rocked out in the Naeba ski resort. 

A month after July's hotter than ever Fuji rock, comes the outstanding Obon week headliner, Summer Sonic. You can watch sets by the beach and in a stadium, but if your skin is still peeling from the sunburn onslaught in the mountainous Fuji, then you can take some respite indoors for some convention centre like stages that are only mountain in name. And what's this? Cheap vending machines aplenty? Please...for the love of everything that's hydrated, please bring water with you (although food is not allowed), but when that's done, there as many vending machines as there are acts on the bill. And it's normal, and not high-priced either, like when you, say, ascend Mount Fuji. This is what I've heard, mind you. You think these legs are really scaling a mountain?

Saturday at the Mountain Stage was where it was at for us in a long weekend, headlined by The Strokes, that saw everyone from Jamiroquai to Jennie from BLACKPINK GO! The virtual insanity came from me, not realizing that this was an indoor affair, as I left it until late to make my way. Still, I did take in a big-three worth of acts that amazed. 

Remember Suede? Well, they've still got it, unlike that coat you should have never worn out in the rain, Seinfeld. Bringing their iconic album imagery and that 90s indie rocker oasis of a feeling, gone in a blur of summer haze, back. Cycling through the classics and cuts deeper than the darkness of the sweat soaked shirt. And when they closed with the 'Beautiful Ones', like Prince smashing a picture, man, it was over!

Talking heads remembered the time in warmth nostalgia. Especially when this crowd found themselves in a beautiful arena, with a beautiful (husband or) wife. Thinking "how did (they) get here" as they were being serenaded by a seventy-something, decked out in all orange, like his Broadway band. A man who simply wanted to show his travel photos to the crowd. And that man was none other than the great David Byrne in all his American utopia. Amazing like his latest album ('Who Is The Sky?'), Byrne, baby, Byrne, there is nothing like this David. Part Broadway, part TV show, you have to see this man at least once in your life. Once in a lifetime.

Sandwiched between Suede and David Byrne was top Japanese rock act Sakanaction, fresh off scooping up all the hardware at Japan's Music Awards for their Godzilla giant hit 'Kaiju' (which elicited roars from the crowd here). The bold and brilliant band that beautifully blends genres and homage like the Prince's and LCD Soundsystem's before them were in their element. The dual guitarists banging on single drums like a Haim 'Valentine'. And get this, the rush of the crowd filled out the arena even more than a Talking Head. Truth. I've got the little room for dancing to prove it. Although I still busted out the 'Pulp Fiction' homage 'Inari', latest single, moves. 

Ichiro Yamaguchi, Ami Kusakari, Motoharu Iwadera, Emi Okazaki and Keiichi Ejima rolled through some of their greatest hits and best set-pieces, as lasers and 'Blade Runner' like projections of geishas scanned through the merchandise draped crowd, throwing up the diamond, like Jay-Z. With a new soundscape brought to bear, it got so hot for Sakanaction that there was enough perspiration to get a couple more bottles of Pocari Sweat. Maybe enough to fill an aquarium. 

Speaking of which, upon arrival at the nearby Kaihin-Makuhari station you could see the shadow of singer Ichiro behind a plastic screen, poster promoting the Sakanaquarium that's coming back this fall after selling out the K-Arena, two nights in a row, and other stadiums last year. So much so, surely Fuji Rock is calling next. The banners where everywhere in the station. Even where you touch your IC, Suica, or Pasmo pass at the ticket barrier. Sakanaction are taking over Tokyo like a kaiju. Screaming like a monster. Blooming in more than a whisper.

'THE THREAD' of WILLOW'S wicked wisdom

Weeping Willow

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

As per, there is plenty of music out this New Music Friday from her peers. The headliner Charli XCX's 'Music, Fashion, Film'. The legend Shania Twain's 'Little Miss Twain'. And The Strokes recording the new 'Reality Awaits' of autotune with super producer Rick Rubin out in Costa Rica. Yet, nothing, Sinead playing Prince, compares to the wicked wisdom of Willow Smith, right now. Word to her mother Jada's heavy metal act.

Pops may have got jiggy wit it, as the most famous member of the family. As successful as they come, from Bel-Air and rap's first Grammy, to multimillion-dollar movies that survived the slap. Not to mention, the "only reason your a## went to Miami." Whilst her older brother, Jaden, may have got their first on his own 'Pursuit of Happyness'. But the tear, or should we say 'The Thread', of what Willow has been on is like nothing, or nobody else, right now. Even outside of her growing artistic family tree. 

The same singer, who shaved her head at the age of ten so she didn't have to keep performing her monster hit 'Whip My Hair' for Jay-Z, on tour with Justin Bieber, so she could be a kid again, has almost released ten albums. And she's only just a quarter of a century young. Imagine what she'll have at 50. Or even just 30. Her latest ('The Thread') is more than an eight wonder. It's her second this year, after February's formidable 'Petal Rock Black' in black and white, with arms and hands held together. Not to mention, her fifth since 2021's 'Lately I Feel Everything'. Most don't have this much in ten years. Let alone half a decade.

Coming out of corona with her 'Coping Mechanism' the following year and 2024's epic 'Empathogen' the extra trick up Smith's sleeve, is that none of them sound the same. It's been like this for 'Willow' ever since the amazing artwork of the 'Ardipthecus' debut on Roc Nation and 'The 1st' second album. And now, this 'Thread' returns to her roots and the veil of some vivid visualizers, following the NPR NMF favourite 'Talk On The Hill' and it's iconic music video.

Blending progressive R&B, jazz and a meditative feeling, 'She's My Religion' is the high note however and where the iconography gets really legendary. Especially in the lyrics, "She's adorned in constellations/Kissing her skin, oh, woah/Each star, a quiet warning/Nature always wins/Her grace is a river raging straight towards the sea, oh/I am not worried 'bout a raft/Her voicе is inside of me and I know." No wonder pops is proud as punch on Instagram.

Creating its own musical language, the purple haze and reign of the album artwork intrigues. As does the title track and the 'Hell To Pay' if you miss out on this heaven sent talent, just because you wrote off the family name of hair whipping fame. This 'Tall Baby' stands higher than all that in 'The Present Moment' of an original sound that pushes the envelope of every genre in an artificial time in need of more, real intelligence and elements in the art form that needs to offically drop the "ficial" responsibility. 'Bone Collecting' like Denzel, the 'Unconditional' love sings, "I wanna be a part of your family/I wanna laugh and drink whiskey with your mother/I want to live in the in-between/Where this love is not about you or me/You or me, oh" in simple, signature odes to match the outstanding grooves.

Refusing to 'Shrink To Fantasy' ("I told you the truth from the start/Not a joke, not a game/Just the shape of this heart"), the most talented member of a terrifically so family is a star in her own right. NPR's New Music Friday album consideration tells us RIYL (recommended if you like) Frank Ocean. But to be frank, as outrageously talented as he is, his output has nothing on us. We recommend him, if you like HER. A 'Crush On Eternity' and the forever push of music that comes with Mei Semones harmonizing "I've kissed desire and called it grace (Mm)/You wrotе your name across my face (Yours always). This is what mainstream music really yearns to be. This thread will go on forever more.

Playlist Picks: 'She's My Religion', 'Shrink To Fantasy', 'Bone Collector'.

THE STROKES use of autotune on 'REALITY AWAITS' is a stroke of genius

Reality Beats

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

Back in 2009, Jay-Z declared the 'Death of Auto-Tune' on his smash single 'D.O.A.' from his trilogy conclusion album, 'The Blueprint 3' (still not getting why this cover's prime colour was red, but let's digress). An artificial singing style popularized by the legendary likes of T-Pain. Who since that G.O.A.T. crucifixion has put out some lovely Motown albums, showcasing his vocal skill sans the digital lifts. 

He wasn't the only one, back then. Not to mention, this high-note lob pass goes as far back as Blackstreet singing into plastic straws for hits like 'Don't Leave Me' and 'No Diggity' off the 'Another Level' album. And let's not forget, the late, great Roger Troutman of Zapp (and a hilarious Chris Rock skit) hooking 2Pac and DR. Dre's 'California Love' remix, either. And check the original, where, as my college friend once pointed out, "he goes sick." "Computer. COMPUTER!" Absolute genius.

Another stroke of genius, pun intended (twice), comes with Julian Casablancas and The Strokes new album 'Reality Awaits'. Produced by the creative act of God producer, Rick Rubin, and their first album since 2020's 'The New Abnormal' during COVID times. This seventh seal of a nine-track wonder is another great to add to a classic catalogue ('Room On Fire', 'Angels'). Back in 2001, when The Strokes asked 'Is This It', like a leather glove on the hip, The Strokes, like Rock N Roll Hall of Fame White Stripes, alongside them took it back to the good ole, simpler times and recording techniques. Just like the 'Elephant' in the room of London's Maida Vale studios.

This RCA and Cult record, dubbed "even sexier" like the 1980s Nissan 300ZX in the band's Instagram teaser video, focussed forward however. Despite the reality of the 'Awaits' album artwork and its Richard Prince Marlboro man like 'Cowboy'. And it's a master move, like putting 'The White Lotus' favourite actor Walton Goggins in the 'Going Shopping' music video, alongside the sci-fi needle drop of the 'Falling Out Of Love' second string single. 

Lip-syncing (how apt in all this) Casablancas' "Like a tiger, they will chase you down/With words instead of claws/They will seduce you 'til you reach the point/To let yourself get mauled, oh/The worse reality gets, the less you wanna hear about it/Solidarity can be difficult/When you got cool stuff to lose" lyrics, like Saturn's rings laced around a cherry, Goggins shows he really is a rock star Decked out in a 'Miami Vice' city story proud suit. Although, anyone whose seen him 'Dreamin' Wild' with Casey Affleck in the true story of Donnie and Joe Emerson's 1978 debut album finally coming to light, knows this is already all too true.

That same song was distributed on promotional cassette tapes to promote this album recorded in Costa Rica with Rubin. One that features standout tracks like 'Lonely In The Future', 'Liar's Remorse' (what a title) and 'The Fruits Of Conquest'. But from the ode outset of some 'Psych S###' to the storybook end of 'Tyrants Of The Mellow Moon', it's the use of autotune that really amazes and sets the tempo for this new reality that's anything, but abnormal. Just await it, as Julian harmonizes "Forget the things that they did, yeah/Obey the words that they say, yeah/Get it on my desk on time, yeah/Got plans, I'm going online." The 'Dine N'Dash' of this album is anything but a dime a dozen. The rap game may have left the autotune's ring on the bedside table, but here, it rocks. 

Playlist Picks: 'Going Shopping', 'Lonely In The Future', 'The Fruits Of Conquest'.

Time For Some SAKANACTION

Credit: @Sakanaction on X

How Sapporo's finest are reeling in the prize of Japan's best live band...

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

There's nothing like fishing in Spring.

Last month, Japanese rock band Sakanaction (a portmanteau of the Japanese word for "fish" and the "action" they always bring to arenas) played a fan club only member show in Tokyo to mark the awe-inspiring Ariake Arena being renamed to the SGC Hall. Counting down their fan favourite voted for songs (let's hear it for 'SORATO'), before breaking into their biggest hits 'Shintakarajima', 'wasurerarenaino' and 'Kaiju'. They also debuted a d&b Soundscape that could even give the Dolby Atmos, that last year's 'SAKANAQUARIUM' live shows and accompanying DVD were filmed with, a run for its speakers.

Speaking of fan favourites, their classic, like a yukata or kimono in the music video, 'Yoru no Odoriko' just went viral, re-entering the Japanese Top 50 at number one. Now being joined by the charting 'New Treasure Island' and the monster 'Kaiju'. One of Japan's most revered bands are well and truly back. But they really never left. A top ten in Japanese music, five if you just look at rock, Hokkaido's very own have been touring and soaring like a fishing line cast out to water. What's next is to get a bite from overseas. But before all that, Ichiro Yamaguchi (vocals and guitar), Motoharu Iwadera (guitar), Ami Kusakari (bass guitar), Emi Okazaki (keyboards) and Keiichi Ejima (drums) are set to light up the Land of the Rising Sun with summer sunrises in the Far East beauty.

If last year's Shinkansen speeding and touring trip through towns, and last month's fan club in Ariake weren't enough, Sakanaction will play Japan's Summer Sonic festival in Tokyo and Osaka this August. Headlined by the likes of The Strokes, David Byrne, Jennie of BLACKPINK, FKA Twigs, Jamiroquai, fellow Japanese acts BABYMETAL and Bump Of Chicken, and of course, themselves. 

Not only that, bassist Ami Kusakari will be performing at another festival this coming Saturday (May 23rd) in Gamagori, Aichi. The Mori Michi Ichiba festival at Laguna Beach and Laguna Shia, following Kusakari's performance with eclectic and electronic artist Kyoka last November for the MUTEK JP 10 festival at Shibuya's Spotify O-East, will see Ami play her personal passion project, last year's amazing album 'Garden Studies', which still blooms beautifully to this day, like a Ginkgo tree.

Speaking of nature, then there's the SAKANAQUARIUM that had everyone in Japan looking through the glass last year. It returns for the fall. Playing multiple dates in September and October, in Osaka, Kobe and Tokyo's Nippon Budokan. A former martial arts hall of the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, first played to rave and controversial reviews by some local lads called The Beatles, and most recently housing legendary acts like Norah Jones, The Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters. Iconic. Just as Sakanaction are in Japan, with a legacy the rest of the watching world outside of Asia needs to see. Anime soundtracks and such will help with that, but once the tank of their aquarium rocks and rolls over you, you'll be fishing for more.

Incredible set pieces, classic choreography, and laser shows that light up the night like neon crossing Shibuya's streams of tourists. You'll wish you could hold your phones up, but for the love of all that still exists in a live show...please don't. There's nothing like a Sakanaction set. Especially when it comes to the amazing Sakanaquarium. Ichiro's (who started the year with his own solo set) inspired vocals hit the high notes and seats, whilst the great guitar of Iwadera influences more to come. The brilliant bass of Kusakari, and all the elements of the rest of the instruments she plays, are backed by Okazaki's incredible keys (the end of 'Kaiju' is iconic). All as Ejima gets epic on the skins. 

The music, their music, is more than enough, but with a show that stops everything else in their tracks, some of their songs are joined by special Sakanaquarium music videos, starring dynamic dancer and actor Runa Miura and directed definitively by Yusuke Tanaka. Moviemaking moments of magic. Lights, camera, Sakanaction. Surely a new Sakanaction album will come soon, following the amazing 'Adapt' in 2022. But it's not like this band isn't busy, with more concerts than the Tokyo Dome, knocking it out of the park. 

In March they came forward with their latest single 'IRANAI', and it's incredible and playful, neon 80s like music video, featuring avant-garde dancer, model and actress Aoi Yamada with a blonde Bob. Wearing Yamaguchi's Talking Head like suit, akin to a second skin. You'll be wanting to play their hands on eating game with your friends, more than a Nintendo Switch 2, as you dance like John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. The call and response of the "Iranai iranai/Iranai iranai/Na no ni kanjiteru" chorus that Ichiro Yamaguchi improvised with the fans on the spot at last month's SGC show was inspired, and something you'll probably see in concert at forthcoming shows that go to the future. 

One that is Sakanaction's. Selling out the K-Arena, the largest venue dedicated to music, two nights in a row last summer, in Yokohama Bay. Get your cheerleading pom poms ready. They're number one.

Need any more proof that Sakanaction are the best live act in Japan?

Go fish!