SONG FOR THE MOMENT: PHARRELL WILLIAMS-ENTREPRENEUR Feat. JAY-Z

4/5

Black Power Matters.

TyAnthony Davis. Sounds like the 'brow of the Los Angeles Lakers Basketball player. Actually it's a teacher who reversed the fortunes of 20 schools in his district performing in the bottom 5%. Founding his own school like NBA LAL legend LeBron James with the promise of Vox Collegiate Junior High. "Your voice is power". Write that on the board like lines ten times. Pharrell said 'You Can Do It Too' on the Neptune's debut solo set 'In My Mind' complete with animated avatar. Can you have it like that? Let's do it. Tyler the Creator could. Doing it and creating his future that's still happening to this day. His honor list longer than a mixtape track one. Founding Honey's Kettle 20 years ago, Vincent and Arlene Williams expanded their family business with their children during this cruel COVID pandemic. Iddris Sandu at 23 has already wrote algorithms for apps like Snapchat, Uber and Instagram...now he's doing several for himself. Despite backlash Beatrice Dixon attribute the success of her feminine product line Honey Pot's to the success of other black women...but that backlash is the only thing that's toxic there. Here in Tokyo, Japan, brothers Arthell and Darnell Isom created the first black owned anime studio. Read that again. 'Insecure' actress Issa Rae began her Hollywood career filming a low budget web series in South L.A. Now on that same block she's building her own empire that's looking for the next star to shine in the city of them and angels.

It's only right now at this point too we take a moment of silence for Nipsey Hussle. And for Kobe Bryant. And for Chadwick Boseman.

Like Skateboard P with no skateboard shops in the hood, Neighbors Skateshop kicked and pushed like Lupe Fiasco. Now they cooooast. Running the city like Diddy, Alrick Augustine has followers like when Tom Hanks just felt like running as 'Forres Gump'. Designer. Rapper. Community activist. What more can you say like Jay-Z (he's here too)? Make sure you put some respect on Six Sev's name. And Chance Infinite. Who took the surname amount of money he earned in the music industry and brought Harun Coffee Shop to his community. Denise Woodward could have given up when 86 investors wouldn't Partake in her cookies of the same name,  but the 87th didn't. His name? Shawn Carter AKA Jay-Z. And if you want My Two Cents, check out Chef Alisa's vegan food that's good for the soul, the planet...and our four legged friends. Don't believe us? Why don't you ask one of their regular customers? His name is Barack. Working from home is the norm now, but Angela Richardson took some homemade cleaning supplies and turned them into a product line. Now sadly for something sobering. Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy related complications. What can we do about this? Debbie Allen is looking into it and out for us after her own childbirth experience. Creating a safe space to give birth outside the hospital in the comfort of mother's own homes. As the CEO of Tribe Midwifery. Like the CEO of Miss Bennett Fitness. The CEO's of Black and Mobile. The CEO of Trill Paws Dog Accessories. The CEO of Third Vault Yarns back in London. The first black Valedictorian of Princeton. Now tap your temple to this. Can't make another meme when you're too smart for all that. Broadway star Robert Hartwell dances in front of a plantation were his ancestors were enslaved. It recently went up for sale. 400K, cash. He just bought it. Talk about taking the power back.

Compton Cowboys of California. Hugh Augustine's of Los Angeles. The Simply Wholesome Health Food Markets, dot com. The Soul Food House of Tokyo, Japan. The Nail XPerience of Paris, France. M.I.O. prints of Dublin, Ireland. Caked and Baked of Tel-Aviv, Israel. Umoga Production in Dublin, Ireland. Avila Diana Art of London, England. The Artisan Grower in Aberdeenshire, Scotland (YES!). The Maison Chateau Rouge of Paris, France. All these black businesses owned by all these black entrepreneurs are honoured in the video for Pharrell Williams new single, 'Entrepreneur', whose video means so much more like Childish Gambino's, 'This Is America', but today for a much more positive way. In the same day South Korean pop juggernaut BTS' explosive, 'Dynamite' single broke YouTube records, Pharrell and Jay-Z weren't 'Frontin''. Last week the pair who have changed clothes on more tracks than catwalks released the most beautiful and best the same day we got new albums from King of New York, Nas ('King's Disease') and the Las Vegas heartland strip of The Killers ('Imploding The Mirage') straight out of Sin City. But as the two most famous faces in urban music didn't even appear in their blockbuster collaboration video we all knew it meant more. They let their words and the work of their subjects do the talking. And boy do they sing like a Pharrell's falsetto. The 'Happy' go lucky hit maker who sang for 'Freedom' now leads a chorus in a time we're we need it now more than ever. The worst year of our lives in the new decade of 2020 that began with the tragic loss of Kobe and GiGi and has only yesterday seen the loss of the Black Panther, Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall in the amazing actor himself, Chadwick Boseman. A symbol we need right now raising a fist like what should be an Olympic podium and forming a cross like Wakanda Forever, or another King in number 23, taking a knee and paying tribute. Because Black Lives Matter and in a year were COVID-19 is taking even more lives we will keep saying it like all the names the evil disease of racism has took. All until they arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor and people like George Floyd no longer have to die using their last words to say, 'I can't breathe'. Singing for 'Hidden Figures' again like all the 'Marilyn Monroe' and 'Lost Queen's' this 'G I R L' record makers has before. Pharrell gives everyone their moment in one that feels as epic and euphoric as that getting familiar time he showed me and you that he could rap along to OutKast's 'Elevators' for a 'Maybe' freestyle remix by Clinton Sparks before those guitars came back in. Now watch us all react like he and we the first time we were introduced to 'Alaska' and a young N.Y.U student by the name of Maggie. Turning all the pain into all our power, Pharrell sings, "I am black ambition/I am always whisperin'/They keep tellin' me I will not/But my will won't listen," reminding us to "let go" and "risk it all" in call and response chorus if we "want to fly". Chanting, "black man" again and again as Jay-Z adds his two cents and bars, "Serial entrepreneur, we on our own/Stop sittin' around waitin' for folks to throw you a bone/If you can't buy the building at least stock the shelf (Word)/Then keep on stackin' 'til you stockin' for yourself, uh/See, everything you place after black/Is too small a term to completely describe the act/Black nation, black builder, black entrepreneur/You in the presence of Black Excellence and I'm on the board/Lord." God knows you should heed these words and watch this work. If you've got an idea run with it. Because you can do it too and "mister entrepreneur", "you never know what's in store". This is black ambition. Witness...and testify. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

REVIEW: THE KILLERS-IMPLODING THE MIRAGE

4/5

Casino Royale.

Exploding back on the Las Vegas strip like the Flamingo of Sin City, The Killers are back like somebody told you. Even if the glistening heartland neon lost in the 'Miss Atomic Bomb' deserts looks like a mirage. Imploding and losing more members than Ryan Adams is fans, The Killers are staring down the barrel, like Brandon Flowers was going solo again for 'The Desired Effect'. But you know this roulette town only really wins when your backs against the wall and you're rolling with your last hand. And what an ace in the hole this band can still play as the wheel turns. "Have all the songs been written?/Have all the truths been told?/Has all the gas been siphoned?/Do the banks still carry gold?" Flowers asked on the last track of the last album, the wonderful, 'Wonderful, Wonderful'. I guess not. As with "back to back with Springsteen" hope that was born to run from the sand to the sin of Nevada, he Tyson knockout gets back off the canvas with lasting lines like, "When the train returns to the rails/When the ship is back in the harbor/I will make you happy again/I can see it, I believe it," like making one last play for the one that got away. And in 'Imploding' and its mirage magnificent album artwork. From the opening heartland hallmark 'My Own Soul's Warning' track that is as traditional Killer as a knife and gun as the jacking guitar and vivid vocals burst out the chamber. To the classic closing title track epic after the perfect dreams dry precursor, that sounds so beautifully and goose pimpling 80's it could end a John Hughes movie, word to the freeze frame John Candy still. This is no death of a discography dynasty. Be still, The Killers are back and the 'Battle Born' boys still have chips and clips at their disposal in the Springsteen season of their songbook shelving classic career.

Glastonbury gassed up last year with all their direct hits with a shot at the Great British countryside night, Flowers and his Killers in bloom refused to wilt in the midsummer heat for a night's dream that showed he really was 'The Man' ("come round"). In a 'Hot Fuss' the band showed exactly why they can brag their bravado with singles from their showstopping set. What band aside maybe The Beatles can boast five of their most famous and biggest hits to open one album (aside maybe the 'Summer Girl', 'Now I'm In It', 'Hallelujah', 'The Steps' and 'Don't Wanna' of Haim if they put those singles in that order for their 'Women In Music Pt. III' album of the year) other than this former fab four? 'Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine' (like this writers idol sister will always be), the meme inducing 'Mr. Brightside', 'Smile Like You Mean It', 'Somebody Told Me' and 'All The Things That I've Done' for you soul soldiers. And don't forget, 'Andy, You're A Star'. Still, it's not like The Killers haven't had hits since then. They're only 'Human' in this 'Day and Age' ("or are they dancer"). There's the 'Bones' that read your mind in Tokyo, Japan, or 'Sam's Town'. Their Bowie age or solo 'Crossfire's'. And of course the whole 'Battle' reborn in the pull of the slots. But 'Souls Warning' is really Killer like their always classic clips for the post MTV, music video generation once it kicks in. The first of two minus the band like their actual line-up is hallowed Hollywood and Americana ground with a famous actor filling out the roll for this mini movie. But cut, print and wrap the lyrics like, "If you could see through the banner of the sun/Into eternity's eyes, like a vision reaching down to you/Would you turn away?/What if it knew you by your name?/What kind of words would cut through the clutter of the whirlwind of these days?" As constellations of American eagles and all the pretty horses as clear as the snow on this desert night stand on top of a pick-up like a stetson, you can see the rousing of their reputation come on up like the rising.

Constant craving. At Glasto The Killers brought out the Pet Shop Boys, Johnny Marr big guns and now this band increase their legend by collaborating with 'Miss Chatelaine' herself, Canadian singer/songwriter K.D. Lang for the standout 'Lightning Fields' that sounding as 80's as her could bring thunder to this canyon like a nuclear test that left all those old Americans lining up on the strip with excitement to Geiger see how radioactive they were (ahh innocence. Ahh Americans). The coolest collaboration since they put Woody Harrelson at the start of a record reciting a Bible verse....cheers. Even former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham gets his chance to shine in the background, unlike he does on his SNL sketch starring the funniest man alive, Bill Hader. What's up with that? But it's OK. Whilst "puts out a cigarette and gets on the bus", 'Blowback' is one of the strongest second songs on any album you've heard in ages from a band that knows that you can't just get out the gates early, you have to maintain the run. Like for one example U2's 'Elevation' off 'All You Can't Leave Behind' being followed by 'Stuck In A Moment That You Can't Get Out Of' for late INXS, greatest frontman of all-time, Michael Hutchence. One these Las Vegas aces like the WNBA team have been honing for almost twenty years. Two decades later and they're still the one. The last of a 'Dying Breed' like the Black Keys-esque beginning track that got this band of brothers is all Killer, no filler. The strong single along with the 'Caution' ("let me introduce you to the featherweight queen.") warning first one and the brimstone beat of 'Fire In The Bone' that is just too funky, is the flesh and blood of this band. "It's the most romantic song I've ever written", Flowers says of the ode to his 'Dying Breed' wife. "if you're looking for strong and steady/Well, baby, you found it/We'll weather the coldest night/Baby, we're a dying breed/When everyone's compromising/I'll be your diehard/I'll be there when water's rising/I'll be your lifeguard/We're cut from a stained glass mountain/Baby, we're a dying breed." This one wins the race for a man who loves fast and furious American muscle as much as bandana born Bruce biopic. The pace picks up even more as we're 'Running Towards A Place' we don't know as Flowers religiously sings, "give me the eyes so I can see." Weyes Blood infuses 'My God' with even more holy spirit, "crawling back to your arms" for a lead singer and his leather clad and hair cream outfit like a Presley throwback that has never been afraid to storm the gates of Graceland with their hearts on their rolled up Billy Fury sleeves. There's a resonate power in vulnerability, that's not insecurity but strength. Even 'When The Dreams Run Dry' like 'Have All The Songs Been Written' in closing for the last note "beating the birds to Acapulco Bay". Take it from me for the record, I don't know who needs to hear this but The Killers are still one of the greatest bands of our generation, or all time...and that's no mirage. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'My Own Souls Warning', 'Lightning Fields (Feat. K. D. Lang)', 'Imploding The Mirage'. 

REVIEW: NAS-KING'S DISEASE

4/5

Kingmatic. 

COVID-19 has crippled 2020 as the coronavirus still has ahold of our year. With cinemas closed and NBA games bubbled in quarantine, many artists are taking it back to locking themselves down in the studio. And 'Illmatic' rap legend Nas who is 'Stillmatic' with it has a 'King's Disease' like Laker LeBron James watching the throne like former rival Jay-Z. The G.O.A.T. who used to, "take Summers off because (he) loves winter beef" is back in this scorching season like '10 Points', as he scores like Mike from the free throw line with everyone holding up double digit cards. "King/Michael Jordan gives back and you didn't know it/Like LeBron does but it's just seldom they show it." The man who "started saying "Peace King" on (his) song 'The Flyest'" is back to write a book on his life...and do you think anyone will read it?! No f###### doubt! Loved like the great Malik Sealy, the one the players hate dearly is here for us in a time where life really is a bitch...but they're AZ's lines right?! More on that later. Its been a minute since we got a long play from Nas. Two years back he released the classic 'Nasir' in a seven track album series produced by Kanye West in an album of its times that still resonate now like the call to arms protest of, 'Cops Shot The Kid'. All from the voice of a generation we need right now in the Black Lives Matter movement as much as we need to arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor. Last year Nas also reeled off his long awaited 'The Lost Tapes 2' sequel. But if we're talking full length like a 'Live At The BBQ' verse it's been a long time since 2012's, 'Life Is Good'.

New York, New York, 'The Don' Nastradamus returns like it was all written in a new decade no one could have seen coming. He pays rest in peace respect to a man he once dissed in the late Laker great Kobe, aswell as the Los Angeles rapper who followed his inspirational take on the hip-hop genre like Tupac in Nipsey Hussle on 'The Cure' of an album that has so much to unpack like it's religious album artwork for a man who used to portrait his streets and the shelves with pictures of himself as a kid or Tutankhamen. The 'Streets Disciple' and 'God Son' is needed more than ever right now like when hip hop was dead. Because this resurrection is the King and disease or not, that will never be untitled like the album he tried to call the N word with attitude to make a social statement that matters like the back of NBA players jerseys right now. The crown is his too even on a Friday were we get new music from the heartland Vegas city sinners of The Killers for the 'Imploding The Mirage' record. Not to mention a new YouTube record breaking 'Dynamite' single from South Korean pop juggernaut BTS and a groundbreaking music video from 'Entrepreneur' Pharrell celebrating Black excellence featuring the man who was making 'Dead Presidents' back in the day with Nasir, Mr. Shawn Carter. Cue the, "is that everybody", "you wanted more" Doctor Strange and Wong, 'Avengers: Endgame' meme. But once the big beat of the opening title track comes into play we know whose going to be on repeat all the way until the same next week he knocks his opponents into. "I made the fade famous, the chain famous/QB on my chest match the stainless/Amazing Grace, I'm gracefully aging/Without masonry, I made more paper to play with/No rap in my playlist, sold dimes on my day shift (King)/So, can I breathe? Can I walk? Can I speak? Can I talk?/Can I floss without you wanting me outlined in chalk?" Can I live? Police and racist white America take note. This is one raised fist you can't unclench.

Lucky 13 for Mr. Jones. The big hitting Hit Boy production keeps knocking like these guys were rolling dice with Brandon Flowers in Sam's Town this weekend. 'Blue Benz' will have you top down riding on repeat, circling the block, it's so hot. Whilst 'Car #85' with Snoop Dogg's go-to soul chorus legend like crushed velvet, Uncle Charlie Wilson washes as one of the freshest things Nas has ever recorded. Hit Boy even makes a feature for the record on 'Ultra Black', rapping "We goin' ultra black/Raiders, Oakland hat, I smoke to that/Pre-rolls and 'gnac, what's the results to that?/C-notes and bags (Uh)/She knows I'm classy like I'm Billy Dee Williams/(Smooth)", landing like Lando in this solo star like Gambino's millennium falcon. It gets even hotter on' 27 Summers' like Jay-Z writing a letter to that season in retirement on Memphis Bleek's '534' for a record that will hopefully make the Rocafella giant dust off his mic and it can all be Ali and Frazier, Lakers and Celtics again for these Black Republicans taking over the government. Big guns in the form of Big Sean and Don Toliver are brought out on 'Replace Me', Brucie B on 'The Definition' and the amazing Anderson Paak on 'All Bad' that is all good. Showing Nas has been keeping his ear to the street and the times a'changin' as raps Dylan worked on his great American book of rhymes. But it's the soulful sample of 'Til The War Is Won' featuring Lil Durk that is the most inspiring and influential streaming stroke from the iconic artist in calendars. As the 'Daughters' poet illustrates everything from his fallout with Kelis to the community as a whole saying, "Let's see where the black family at/We need each other, with bad tempers, we defeat each other/Single mothers, my heart's bleeding for you/These coward men, that were beating on you (Never me)/Let's silence them, with a silencer/For the violence of relationships/Hold your head up, don't take that shit, run away from it/I shoulda ran away myself, the amount of pain I was dealt/And I'm a man, my job is to help." Say no more. This says it all. Still on an album of big moves and collabos like the A$AP Rocky and Fivio Foreign, 'Spicy' bonus, our Firm favourite concerns the fiasco of another reunion we hope leads to another comeback album in collaboration...even if the good doctor says the first one was a flop. Once everything comes 'Full Circle' with what we said was coming in AZ and Cormega you really know what's on the way for a pivotal hip-hop moment. The second Foxy Brown breaths on the mic you know it's on like an old Lil' Kim beef for all you Nicki and Cardi's. And just wait until you hear who comes after. Moments like this are what make hip-hop and now Nas is coming we hope this one lasts forever. Tap your phones because the God M.C. has answered the call. King back, cutting a hell of a deal, this is one disease were we don't want the cure. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Blue Benz', 'Til The War Is Won (Feat. Lil' Durk), 'Full Circle (Feat. The Firm)'. 

REVIEW: TAYLOR SWIFT-FOLKLORE

4/5

Into The Woods. 

Grown folk, 'Man Of The Woods', Justin Timberlake took it to the trees, but still danced in a pair of Timbaland's for his last country inspired album in 2017 for his rep. Now the country come diamond pop superstar like legend Shania Twain, Taylor Swift is going back to her roots for her grounded and most groundbreaking album...let alone her most personal project to date (and she took it to the tabloids for her 'Reputation' to gossip folks in 2017 too), in the amazingly atmospheric 'Folklore'. We're not out of the woods yet like COVID-19 in this terrible 2020 that began with the tragic death of her friend Kobe Bryant (who presented Swift with her own STAPLES banner for most sold out live shows in the building that Mamba rocked. She has that prolific project mentality too) and his daughter GiGi and their friends and teammates, but Tay Tay is back to save the day. Not even a full calendar since her last album (the pure pop of last years 'Lover' smash that took her back to the top of the charts like '1989' or 'Red' for one of her best that showed her and the billboard will always, forever and ever get back together). Quarantined and locked down, staying safe at home in the studio at a social distance in the wilderness. Surprise motherf##### like Dave Chappelle said, when others are bum rushing the world's internet stage announcing their running for President (but please someone look out for Kanye...we're not making this a tired thing here), Swift is dropping, "unexpectedly like bird s###." Doing it B.I.G. like the Notorious one. In a year dominated by 'Women In Music' from Norah Jones to Lianne La Havas and so much rock and soul in-between (and we still have new ones from Alicia Keys and Lana Del Rey to come) this is Part III after Lady Gaga's age of 'Chromatica' space pop, interplanetary neon roots and the best album of the year in the sisterhood of Haim's California Summer classic that now has some competition like the Lakers and Clippers in the Florida Disney World Bubble 'till it all bursts.

"In isolation my mind has run wild and this album is the result", she took to Twitter as on the eve of its released she announced exactly that, just like that. "I've told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder and whimsy they deserve. Now it's up to you to pass them down." And oh how we will. It's all they deserve and the least we can do streaming like the tears that probably watered these creations. For all the 'Red' and 'Reputation' big-sellers my Swift lovers this is her classic cut like her '89 birthright. Welcome to her new world...it's been waiting for you. Let her along with The National and Justin Vernon be your tour guide lost in the woods like building a sill. Oh and you want to slow down time? The awesomely atmospheric Bon Iver is in the cabin for this album. Taylor Swift and Bob Iver on the same track what do you think about that? That's worthy of the price of hype admission in itself and this 'Exile' is one of the best tracks to date...of either artist as they sing, "I think I've seen this film before." But there's nothing quite like this as Vernon's verse sings, "I can see you standing, honey/With his arms around your body/Laughin', but the joke's not funny at all/And it took you five whole minutes/To pack us up and leave me with it/Holdin' all this love out here in the hall," as Swift counters, "I can see you starin' honey/Like he's just your understudy." Or how about the thread of the lead single 'Cardigan' and one of her best cuts yet as she iconically pushes a piano down a Springsteen river with a hungry heart like the ties that bind on a waterlogged piece of heavy knitwear. Feeling "like an old cardigan under someone's bed", this will have you, "dancin' in your Levis" Like Strauss as Tay's wordplay is back swiftly. But for all the, "heartbreak on the Highline," and verses of value like, "vintage tee, brand new phone/High heels on cobblestones/When you are young, they assume you know nothing/Sequined smile, black lipstick/Sensual politics/When you are young, they assume you know nothing", for the best garment song since we pulled the thread on Weezer's blue 'Sweater' as they walked away. It's the lasting lines of, "you drew stars around my scars/But now I'm bleeding", that will remain in her personal great American country notebook for many generations of songwriting to come like Dolly or Miley, as the pop icon of pop stars comes in and returns like a wrecking ball like the stadiums that can't hold gigs right now in concert. Save the music venue.

Tall trees to the bark beneath your feet, this album in black and white is all about themes explored like the great beyond. Past the natural order of things like a self-tiled portrait of 'Lianne La Havas' getting over a 'Bittersweet' break-up. "It started with imagery," she added with character to Twitter. "Visuals that popped into my mind and piqued my curiosity." Just like, "a cardigan that still bears the scent of loss twenty years later." Can't wash that out of wool. "Battleships sinking into the ocean, down, down, down", like a Tom Hanks 'Greyhound' or how 'My Tears Richochet', as Swift sinks ours singing, "I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace / And so the battleships will sink beneath the waves / You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same." "The tree swing in the woods of my childhood", were no longer feeling 22 or 'Seventeen', Swift peaks at 'Seven', "with Pennsylvania under me." "Hushed tones of," let's run away" and never actually doing it". For in your defense, not having one for, "never leaving well enough alone" (*hands up* GUILTY) looking for 'The 1'. "The sun drenched month of 'August', sipped away like a bottle of wine". Or 10 out of 10 like Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast ('Always Tomorrow' Cali' classic like a hotel in that state starting the year off as right as it could be) tweeted for this entanglement. "A mirrored disco ball hovering above a dance floor", for 'Mirrorball', the most shimmering track. It just 'Back To The Future' feels like a prom...watch out! That might be your Mum, Mary! "A whiskey bottle beckoning" like "pouring my heart out to a stranger" on 'This Is Me Trying'. "They told all my cages were mental/So I got wasted like all my potential," could be the words to a millennial anthem of lost dreams and broken promise. "Hands held through plastic", like being perspex phone guilty of being imprisoned in 'Illicit Affairs'. Or, "a single thread that, for better or for worse ties you to your fate," like the beautiful 'Invisible String' that's there like the epic 'Epiphany', no 'Hoax' ("you know I left a part of me in New York" she sings, showing what's left is her best), of all this perfect 'Peace'. But it's when Taylor gets her countryside storytelling on like the 'Mad Woman' or 'Betty' (bamalam) that she gets her most personal and profound like 'The Last Great American Dynasty' like Getty as Swift chases down Dylan's 17 minute take on the JFK assassination for his 'Murder Most Foul' closer he wrote like Lansbury on his latest 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' last month with a story about a girl called Rebekha. "A tale that becomes folklore is one that is passed down and whispered around. Sometimes sung about." Like she said on the album announcements prologue introduction, "before this year I probably would've overthought when to release this music at the 'perfect' time, but the times we're living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed. My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world. That's the side of uncertainty I can get on board with." Amen to that. Now that's a message we can and should really take to heart in a disheartening to say the very least 2020. We've still got time left. Time to make it better. Taylor Swift album releases are always epic events-I remember someone getting sacked for playing 'Reputation' too early-but none have ever been as special-especially in these times-as this. And none quite as great. 'Folklore' is law. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'The Last Great American Dynasty', 'Exile (Feat. Bon Iver)', 'August'. 

REVIEW: BTS-MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 - THE JOURNEY (Japanese Edition)

4/5

Journey To Japan. 

(This is an edited and expanded edition of our review of BTS' album 'Map Of The Soul: 7' earlier this year for this weeks release of their Japanese version, 'The Journey')

Map your way to Seoul, South Korea (by way of Japan) to go to the source of K-Pop juggernaut BTS and you will find the soul of this idol generation persona. Mania hasn't been this manic since The Beatles made one direction to the Ed Sullivan Show (or these guys genius 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' homage in black and white, don't adjust your sets) and left more U.S. teenagers screaming than 'American Horror Story'. In the middle of a trendy thrift store downtown last year in Seoul, Korea I heard one of their earliest, greatest hits 'Spring Day' playing sometime in September like it was the sunrise start of the season for the start of my adventure in the Far East. That's just how atmospheric it was and not just for me. With the energy of the public vibing to this record in-store like it was a live show. Beautiful. Like the fact that from The Graham Norton Show in my jolly old England, to Fallon, to Ellen. To a Time magazine cover and stirring, uplifting speeches at the U.N. lead by R.M., these boys have been inspiring a whole new generation they lead from the new school exchange to love themselves like the idols that they and we all are. It's a message that timely is as beautiful as it is powerful and one we all need now. From the soul of South Korea where suicide in young people famous and alike has reached epidemic levels, to the watching world struggling just as much as they are surviving with inspiration like this. But right now South Korea is more than on the map. No matter what the North or a dictator like Trump have said. He doesn't like the Oscar winning 'Best Picture' and international one 'Parasite'? But it sounds like a biography about him (word to Bette Midler for the joke inspo) and like the 'Parasite' production Twitter said, he's probably salty because he can't read the one-inch subtitles. But from Oscars to Grammy families and Best Picture's to Best International Acts, even in Korean, none of BTS legendary lyrics and moving message is lost in translation. The future is in Seoul.

Seventh year. Seven members. Seventh seal. Seventh album. 'Map Of The Soul 7'. "All seven and we'll watch them fall", these young prince's smoke 'em all. Now nothing will stand in their 'Love Yourself' way. From YouTube movies to Spotify interactive albums. They own the playlist of the streaming digital age like the core of Korea does. And this landmark album lands just at the right time with the Best Picture painting a portrait of Asia being the continent on the map with the 2020 Olympic Games being held in Tokyo, Japan next year. This time last year the 'Map Of The Soul' was all about 'Persona' on an extended play. And some of those tracks that floored us make the final cut here like a greatest hits package for this interactive album. From the idols biggest hit yet 'Boy With Luv' featuring a Stan like Haim or Matthew McConaughey (or myself. I love BTS more than I should love myself), Halsey hallmark, to the cool grooves of 'Make It Right'. All the Summer vibrant 'Lights' and 'Fake Love'. It's 'On' like a dance floor formation for these Seoul soldiers. Or how about the Army roll call of 'Dionysus' and the beautiful 'Black Swan' as powerful as Portman with its classic chereography and theatrical video, feathered in all black suits that set the stage for this album promotion portfolio photography you can see all around Tokyo like conbinis or the word Supreme. Concise cut classics for these IDOLS like the signature song of the same name as they take off on an 'Airplane' to the land of the rising sun to face themselves, rerecord and rap in Japanese like Rhymester legends. All in a 2020 where only BTS and the orginal fandom mania of  the Fab Four, The Beatles have only sold 1 million albums across the world they rule like fears and all these tears. But the blossoming flowers of this Japanese 'Journey' version shows there's lots more in bloom.

'Calling' on an atmospheric intro to their reworked and rerouted 'Map Of The Soul: 7' for their neighbours in the Japanese Market, BTS' 'Journey' in the roughest terrain of 2020 is almost complete. Following the 'Daechwita' of the traditional temple strong huge hit from Suga's Agust D and his definitive 'D-2' mixtape a few months back that broke records and new ground this year. The squad should be rocking stadiums right now with their whole ARMY 'On' and behind them in unison. Knocking it out the ballpark in the Saitama Super Arena or Tokyo Dome just like the capital city should be playing host track and field host to every Olympic event right now instead of being locked down in a quarantined and socially isolated bubble. But we all know what happened this year with coronavirus. And whilst we are all for the most part staying home and staying safe, taking to the podium BTS remind us to 'Stay Gold' with yet another hit from their artillery and probably their sharpest cut yet as steel sharpens steel in these hard times that don't seem to leave us. But like BTS donating $1 million to Black Lives Matter charities and their army of fans upping the ante by matching the same donation, these guys who know everything from struggle to discrimination are standing up in solidarity for us again. Reminding us that we can still love ourselves, even in a year we hate like losing Kobe and GiGi in January. "In a world where you feel cold/you gotta stay gold," they remind us. As "relying on the moonlight" they tell us that, "the eyes are diamonds/more beautiful than any jewel." But it's the beautiful ballad of 'Your Eyes Tell' that looks for more. "A future without you is a world without colour/Filled with monochrome coldness," they sing celebrating colour in all its light and not the grey or shadowy areas of what we thought was just black and white. But "even the darkness we see is so beautiful," they compellingly conclude showing there's joy after pain. There's no sun without rain and here in Japan we are going through the stormiest season right now of forever rain like RM. Redemption returning from the darkness of depression to a brand new day. "Please believe me." Knowing that what we are going through will be alright, because we are going through it together, as Suga sings, "Whatever lies in our way/Look far into the distance/The place you gave me is still/Where my heart entrust." Just like the 'Journey' of the iconic instrumentation and inspiration of the outstanding outro or our own one, there's still places to go when borders are open like the ones these boys broke beyond. With intuition, mysticism, inner wisdom, and a deep inward knowing, number 7 might get you to heaven like Chanel. This awakening and enlightening digit seven like strength and spiritual awakening is divine. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Stay Gold', 'Lights', 'Your Eyes Tell'. 

REVIEW: LIANNE LA HAVAS-LIANNE LA HAVAS

4/5

Green and Bold. 

Prince before he took the elevator to heaven and the world went crazy, bringing us down, "oh no, let's go" announced his guerrilla 'Hit N Run' tour live from Lianne La Havas' living room. Now what else do you need to know? Even without the crowning of the purple one, the best British singer since Adele, Amy Winehouse or Corinne Bailey Rae is in a queen, world class of her own reserved for the soulful likes of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu or Maxwell...she's just that good. Pardon me, great and one of the greats too. Just check her cover saying 'A Little Prayer' like Aretha for you. After asking 'Is Your Love Big Enough' with classics like 'No Room For Doubt', 'Forget', 'Lost and Found' (you want a love show? Grind through her ramping up a local Liverpool skate park. Or walking around the romantic evening streets of Paris, restaurant to restaurant. With a guitar pack strapped to her back), 'Au Cinema', 'Elusive' and 'Age' on her dynamic debut, her sophomore set was stunning, no slump. 'Blood' was a flesh and bone classic. Running like a Lionel Richie night through the arteries of our British Summer like Wimbledon or London's Kew Gardens with the Jamaican root (and how about the flag she flew for the countries colours in her live streamed concert, wardrobe change last night?) 'Green and Gold' classics like 'Tokyo', 'What You Don't Do', 'Midnight', 'Grow' and 'Good Goodbye'. We could, 'Never Get Enough'. La Havas is simply 'Unstoppable' like that unanimous, outstanding opener. And now photoshopped over the iron of Mike Tyson for her 'Can't Fight' music video in Haim 'I Know Alone' like creative quarantine (or her NPR Tiny Desk at home concert series) following her beautiful 'Bittersweet' blues and the red COLORS of its extended cut (as she sings, "Please stop asking, "Do you still love me?/Don't have much to say, let's speak in the morning/Please don't do this, I'm too far away/Don't know what to tell you, babe.") and the, "Paper thin/God only knows the pain you're in/But the future's bright/You've got God on your side/He's listening/Love yourself/Or else you can't love no one else/I know your pain is real", 'Paper Thin' strong second single, this is fine like a burning down kitchen dog meme. We may be corona locked down in end of the world social isolation, but at least we have Lianne with us through the speakers. Singing, "It seems that I won't be warned/And certainly, I saw a sign/I raged like a woman scorned."

"Mum's hooked." That's what my Dad said as Far East to back home we were exchanging live Lianne videos via YouTube with me alone in 'Tokyo' like one of her best songs for the record, lost in translation. Bringing us all together, Lianne is back like that. Just like the studio sessions music video of her Radiohead cover 'Weird Fishes' that weave through the flow of water like the natural healing that comes after heartbreak for this break-up album that makes up some of La Havas' best work for arguably her most personal project yet. "Yeah I hit the bottom/the bottom and then I escape," she sings from the rock to out the hard place. "Turn me into phantoms/I follow to the edge of the earth/And I fall off/Oh yeah, everybody leaves/if they get the chance," she adds mixing the real and the raw. "And this is my chance." Still the take on one of the best British bands classic records for a great Brit singer making her award of a career mark shows she is more than just us reviewers dropping the big name like the aforementioned, article beginning, Prince crowing (but you know he's listening...and smiling that smile). She is her own big name in her own right and shining star, bright light. Like Bailey Rae's beautiful slow take on classic rock act Led Zeppellin's 'Since I've Been Loving You', she's more than just one track...even if she does reinvent it with her signature sound and style. She's a definitive discography in her own wonderful work. On the killer track, 'Read My Mind', the sweet soul could bring life back to any broken heart as she sings, "I'm so into you/Oh I hope God is listening/The pure joy/When a girl meets a boy," singing about that "natural chemistry" and that excitement of the first few steps of love as we dance around the living room, cutting a rug, like her with a celebratory beer in the studio the moment 'Bittersweet' dropped like tears. Toast! On the refreshing guitar licks of 'Green Papaya', she laments "this river of doubt/help me to swim my way out." Talking about, "I'm greedy with love/But my hunger to give is strong enough," as we all relate to that love we can't get enough of...even if we don't think we're enough for. At least like a vow we, "promise to be pure in true", when we meet that one "partner in crime" were we "find heaven in you," making real love. Coming home in this album age sometimes you can get Spotify stuck on tracks for days...these are the two. If her debut was her 'Big Enough' coming of age and 'Blood' her best, her latest named after her name is the greatest when it comes to songwriting in its simplest and uncut, formidable form. The third time out still the charm.

Now with a trinity of albums big-three enough to fill a CD changer (if anyone still rocks those in 2020) or the perfect playlist to lay back in blues to groove to as your soul stirs at home, no need to be climbing the walls anymore like Radio head. The last two minutes of her 'Weird Fishes' cover is as classic and soulful as her guitars signature style. This one will soothe you, feeling it in your tapping fingertips to feet, laid back on your couch in quarantine waiting for a new day in the worst year. Soul music was always sung through the hard times, like everything was all good. Because after all life is a beautiful struggle. And sometime you have to find art in the scars. Just let the beautiful ad-lib harmonies of the 'Out Of Your Mind' interlude that feels like it's own terrific track that you could listen to on repeat for hours take you away into the hot night like an Isley Brothers gust of wind this season of bittersweet Summer rain, hoping to be born again. Her vivid vocals seem so unmistakably familiar and warm in this time were we all need a friend as much as it's unbelievable that she has been around in the mainstream now for closing in on a decade. We still remember that first Later With Jools Holland performance like it was yesterday...not an 'Age'. Now 'Please Don't Make Me Cry' (oh the memories) like said tack with that guitar that the moment you hear it, know that it's in tune with Lianne, but oh how it haunts in closing. Following Maggie Rogers and King Princess' dynamic debuts and best of 2019 albums it has been another incredible year for women in music. From Haim's 'Part III' best and greatest of the calendar, to best in the world artists like Lady Gaga ('Chromatica') and Norah Jones ('Pick Me Up Off The Floor') taking it back to their respective dance floor and smoky jazz roots for some of their best work yet. But next to Phoebe Bridgers 'Punisher' this amazing artist who (don't call it a comeback) has been here for years with her first album in a half decade gives us one of the best this week, month, year and probably decade in a 20's that should have roared like Gatsby, but has given us much more than a quiet storm blowing in. Still as we rise and get up 8 (for Kobe) like 'Seven Times' as "all night and day/I cry and pray." As Lianne says, "that's a good intro" and a way to get started again. Time to turn the calender over and give the second half another shot. All it takes is a closing 'Courage' and maybe this 'Sour Flower' can grow like the tone of this artists most beautiful brush stroke, with notes hit taking us as high as Aretha. "As hard as it may be." Like flying 100,000 miles, "just to get back to Brixton". Lianne is back home if you need her, "waiting for the fog to drift away/Letting the light in". "Getting stronger everyday/Keeping my heart clean/Working out/Just have to find my way," as the iconic instrumental end drum rolls us away. That's it...it's done. Let the black and white, personal, perfect portrait, amazing album artwork tell it with no grey areas. Just pure, stripped down soul power of these beautiful, bare, essential tracks. Even without the title adorned on it because what more do you need to say? This is Lianne La Havas. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Bittersweet', 'Paper Thin', 'Read My Mind.'

#TheStream THE ART OF THE QUARANTINED MUSIC VIDEO

I Know Home Alone. 

'There Will Be Blood' and 'Phantom Thread'. They're not just among icon Daniel Day-Lewis' best work. 'The Master' and 'Inherent Vice'. They aren't just among legend Joaquin Phoenix's. But Hollywood, Cannes winning director Paul Thomas Anderson's too. Like 'Magnolia' and 'Punch Drunk Love'. Or 'Summer Girl' and 'Now I'm In It.' 'Boogie Nights' and Radiohead's 'Anima' on Netflix. 'Hallelujah' and 'The Steps'. See P.T.A. for your P.S.A. isn't just one of the movie industries most iconic directors. But the music ones too when it comes to MTV videos with more hype than hip-hop legend Williams. From saxophone streets strewn with clothes, to stretchers running down the hot 'Los Angeles' pavement to the car wash and theatrical filming techniques in a closed down cinema, to bathroom mirror staying at home reflections written in blood red lipstick and toothpaste spit. The same man who photographed the portrait of Haim's best album and the summertime sadness classic of the year in 'Women In Music Pt. III' helped the three sisters of Haim like a 'Valentine' studio session film the most groundbreaking clips of their generations time. And this family friend partnership like their living room 'Forever' looked like it was made to last like waking up from the hangover of being punch drunk and in love and everything still comes up smelling like magnolia.

But then COVID-19 marched in the third month of the worst year of 2020 and everything locked down like it still should be. From the NBA straight away to movies in cinemas. But now like opening Disney World too early after trying to flatten the curve it looks like everything is going to burst like the Florida Bubble. Even if things like the economy must start up again it can surely wait a few more months? As we romantically drive in to movies (I don't have a license shamefully...can I Larry David, 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' drive thru walk?) like it was the 50's and finally realize Twitching isn't as weird as it looks. One of the only thing that has thrived whilst we've (for some part and some of us) stayed safe and stayed home apart from Netflix movies (from Spike Lee's 'Da 5 Bloods' to...erm Will Ferrell's 'Eurovision Song Contest') is music for your Spotify streams. From Lady Gaga's age of 'Chromatica' to Norah Jones picking us up off the floor. Or Childish Gambino's '03.15.20' coming out of nowhere when quarantine hit. Or the double-up 'While You Wait' and 'Worth The Wait' pre and post (even though in all reality we still should be in it) quarantine EP's from R&B footsoldier Tank. From John Legend ('Bigger Love') to Bob Dylan ('Rough and Rowdy Ways'). To one of the biggest selling albums of the year in the 'After Hours' of The Weeknd, the best in the 'Women In Music' WIMPs and the indie one in Phoebe Bridgers' 'Punisher'. Music has held us down whilst we are in lockdown and artists have tried to find new ways to paint pictures for their projects.

Especially the go Haim's staying home but still going hard who Danielle tells us know alone, "like no one else does". "Been a couple of days since I've been out/Calling all my friends but they won't pick up/Found another room in a different place/Sleeping through the day and I dream the same," they sing as nights turn into days that are gone like their debut. And as these Valley Girls stay quarantined in what looks as safe as houses in the Hollywood Hills performing for your NPR Tiny Desk in perfect sync for your iPhone's or Zooming across Instagram to a virtual deli tour like "Now Serving 69", they still find a way to make music videos (this time with Jake Schreier) and invent quarantine cherography like the lessons they offer online for fans. Dancing through head in their hands boredom and treadmill scrolling phones like zombies, before turning up the speedometer in perfect time. All on a backyard Basketball court like 'Don't Save Me' that maintains a six feet social distance like a stepping over Allen Iverson laying out the Lakers Lue. And how about these Los Angeles girls picking up the camera and rolling to the Ingelwood old Forum stomping grounds of the Lakers for a foot race? All stepping for the music video for the harmony of their fifth formidable single 'Don't Wanna' that circles the coliseum like arenas marble pillars like a classic 80's Showtime Forum night that is true Magic. A fast break that leads to pulled hammy's like a ball fake and a classic car finish line pip for your photo. Music videos in quarantine have never been so inventive like Norah Jones' at home piano sessions, or Leon Bridges making video call 'Inside Friends' with John Mayer. This is a time from GQ to Esquire were Hollywood celebrities are filming their own magazine cover shoots (thank goodness for smart phones). And how about Phoebe Bridgers' flying around 'Kyoto', Japan like a Madonna 'Ray Of Light'? Or the alone in 'Tokyo', forthcoming big love album of best Brit Lianne La Havas showing she can fight back after her 'Paper Thin' professional looking home video with a social isolation one that takes on everything from Mike Tyson photoshops (someone call Jamie Foxx, he may have some biopic competition) to flame emoji worthy memes like, "this is fine". It isn't. But at least with all this music we have something to dance to whilst taking to the living room floor and finding life climbing the four walls that feel as safe as the houses we call home like where the beating heart is. TIM DAVID HARVEY.