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. 

REVIEW: HAIM-WOMEN IN MUSIC PART III

4/5

Independent Women Pt. III.

'Summer Girl' your 'Women In Music' are back for Part III (or the awesomely abbreviated 'WIMPIII') like a child of destiny. A calendar after that iconic saxophone stalked the Hollywood Boulevard streets of Los Angeles to the "do, da, do, do, do's" that 'Walk On The Wild Side' with Lou Reed as hauntingly as the heartbreaking fact that Lana Del Rey (she has a new, last year, 'Norman F###### Rockwell' following album coming out this Summer too girl. Like this following the roots return of both Norah Jones' 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor' last week and Lady Gaga's pure pop art of 'Chromatica' last month) too late flew on a red eye to record 'Brooklyn Baby' with Lou Reed the night the late legend passed away. Which makes the almost identical, impersonating backing vocals of the said Black Keys produced track even more haunting now. Now if you thought that and the change clothes, hot in here video directed by family friend and 'Punch Drunk Love's' Paul Thomas Anderson was iconic than check this phantom thread out my magnolia's.  Just like the studio stripped down 'Valentine' special of 'Right Now', 'Nothing's Wrong' and 'Something To Tell You' off the album of the same name from 'The Master' director that shows the power of these women who can all chop and change (like their live show equal stage holding. Or even the in sync NPR 'Tiny Desk (Home) Concert', perfectly in time, quarantined in other houses...let alone living rooms like 'Forever') and play even more instruments than the men that got paid ten times as much as them on what should have been an equal billing festival bill, right now, right now. Just wait until you hear the rest or this anticipated album of the year a year and change after Maggie Rogers', 'Heard It In A Past Life' classic became 2019's right in January, despite King Princess and her 'Cheap Queen' fall challenge for a generation of girl power. One for these Spice Girls Stans that was already a California classic like every leaf brown when we first heard that horn for your grey skies my mamas and papas. The sax hasn't sounded this sexy since Michael Hutchence told us they could 'Never Tear Us Apart' with INXS in Prague. Six pre-release diverse and definitive tracks (on an album so good half of them now are as a bonus) have sealed this fate and P.T.A. has directed a fantastic four of these videos as Haim and the 'There Will Be Blood' director drink your milkshake (now look out for that Easter Egg movie buffs). Complete with that confident and knowing look from Danielle breaking all kinds of walls. At the car wash there was the waitress to black dress costume change, shades, pink telephone and stretcher faint recovery of the lonely club hopping and bed generations, 'Now I'm In It'. A clever camera trick 'Hallelujah' rope pulled you in, sitting in the air sans chair as hauntingly beautiful as Buckley. One that pointed to putting these Valley girls names in bright lights for this cinematic curtain call. But the sisterhood of Haim weren't done like, "three hearts, one mind" and returned with Mr. Anderson for this music matrix with 'The Steps' of an angsty blood and lipstick drum roll that pre-COVID spat toothpaste and the bitter taste of a toxic ex at the bathroom mirror. But then like crawling all over their bathroom sink, after throwing everything at this record including the kitchen one, COVID-19 happened to a heartbreaking 2020 that should have been roaring again like Gatsby, but instead was tragic like Kobe and GiGi and what's happening right now as we tweet and take to the street about how Black Lives Matter. But still even quarantined in concert and lockdown dance lessons, corona couldn't even stop these sisters as they offer Zoom classes in learning the steps of their greatest hits. Which even has this writer in the Far East of Japan dancing in his loving room at 4 in the morning in unison and wondering why he's still single. The first being their social isolation anthem 'I Know Alone' (actually wrote before the pandemic but perfectly placed now like Norah Jones' 'Pick Me Up' Target bonus bullseye, 'Tryin' To Keep It Together') and its brilliant and creative 'Don't Save Me' like Basketball court video in the backyard backed at a ballplayer six feet apart distance. Head in hands, almost homaging P.T.A's 'Anima' underground musical film with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Bored scrolling through phones like a zombified treadmill, before the pace picks up perfectly. And how about the bass for your face latest of the pure pop of 'Don't Wanna' from a big three as versatile and therefore criminally underrated as multiple bandsman across town, Ben Harper? Danielle believes if they didn't dance they would maybe get more respect from their male peers. I say f### all that. Their instrumental and iconic whilst those hating instead of BTS STANdoming are has beens already anyway. And whilst we're at it you can save it and face with those Este (like the Brits, call me?) memes and jokes. Anyone that puts that much muscular devotion into their instrument and sound because they love it so feels music much more than anyone taking it lightly does. Besides those people could probably never make anyone make that kind of face anyway if they really want to get that crass (does that answer your question misogynistic 'Man From The Magazine' for a track as making a point good as Lenny Kravitz's 'Mr. Cab Driver'?). Not that it's about that. Besides it actually looks as cool as f###. Forever in love with the faces she makes. "We've both woke up in strangers beds", Danielle Haim sings on the relationship on a rocks with a twist song as all sorts of loneliness is delved into on this album for the summertime sadness record. From quarantining, to finally coming back out at night like a once 'Mellon Collie' with the 'Infinite Sadness' Smashing Pumpkin for another shot. We're in it now. 

Order up like the "now serving 69", tongue in all sorts of cheeks, iconic Anderson delicatessen album artwork that almost turned into a tour of delis like Katz before COVID that's now going to go virtual. We haven't seen this many pre-album single hits like this for years. 'Falling', 'Forever', 'The Wire', 'Don't Save Me', 'My Song 5', 'Go Slow', 'Let Me Go', 'Running If You Call My Name' and the album-titled, 'Days Are Gone'. 'Want You Back', 'Nothing's Wrong', 'Little Of Your Love', 'Found It In Silence', 'Walking Away', 'Right Now', 'Night So Long' and the album-titled 'Something To Tell You' (look let's be real. We wanted to name all tracks off both albums. Whose setting off these fireworks with all these bangers?). 'Pray To God' like Calvin Harris for a Shania Twain cover that does impress us much, Haim's albums bring a powerhouse of perfect playlist picks longer than Paul Thomas Anderson's straw. But nothing drinks quite like this that will bring everyone to the yard or the Hollywood bowl and California desert once that and Cochella opens back up like don't dance so close to me. With L.A. on her mind and an LGBT cinema cap on Danielle sings, "Peer around the corner at you/From over my shoulder I need you/I need you to understand/These are the earthquake drills that we ran/Under the freeway overpasses/The tears behind your dark sunglasses/The fears inside your heart as deep as gashes/You walk beside me, not behind me/Feel my unconditional love," on the scorching 'Summer Girl'. Before going through the car wash of Saturday night to Sunday morning cleansing and singing, "Locking all the doors to my house/I'm alone in my head/But I wish you were in my bed/Can't get a read on myself/Gotta change this situation/Something in the way that I felt when I woke up/Told me that I shouldn't give in, give up hope/Told me that I shouldn't fight what I felt/Told me I should not let go," the depression recovery solidarity that will help you find your way even if it's been a minute. Just like 'The Steps' of telling someone, "everytime I think I've been taking the steps/you get mad at me for a mess/I can't understand/why you don't understand me." The hurt meets healing on 'Hallelujah' as Alana Haim laments the loss of, "a best friend but she has come to pass/One I wish I could see now/You always remind me that memories will last/These arms reach out/You were there to protect me like a shield/Long hair running with me through the field/Everywhere you've been with me all along", as these sisters keepers harmonize about meeting an "angel but in disguise," since '95. "Why me?" But for these 'Days Are Gone' siblings, "days get slow like counting cell towers on the road" as they are no stranger to solitude like the rest of us too, as Danielle Haim from her car and full glove compartment sings, "'Cause nights turn to days/They turn to grey/Keep turning over/Some things never grow/I know alone like no one else does." That's why sometimes you end up in the "strangers bed" of the last single, 'Don't Wanna' that talks about the all too familiar feeling of, "don't know what I mean to you/dont know what to say to you". You may not get the feelings of those that left you riding solo, but this holy trinity of a heaven sent big-three will help you understand the hurt as they too like shouting all the words to the Canyon girl Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' know alone. 

HAIMsters what more could you expect from the threes most personal and prolific project yet? How can this not be a Californian classic like Best Coast and their latest greatest this year ('Always Tomorrow') when this album hip-hop drum snaring opener is called 'Los Angeles' like the Lakers, as Henry Solomon's signature 'Summer' sax returns like a reverse reprise? But caught in the smog of La La Land like a city of coughing stars it's not all Randy Newman in the City of Angels for these sisters are searching for a "miracle" like being stuck in the towns notorious gridlock as "sometimes I speed down Crescent Heights/I can hardly feel it runnin' every light". But still for these Valley sisters, "New York is cold/I tried the Winter there once (nope)". These L.A. women open the doors to even more 'Gasoline', igniting fender to bumper like the cinematic opening to Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling's said movie. And this is worthy of a great American soundtrack with bold as love, beautiful lyrics like,"we're watching the sunrise from the kitchen counter/when you lie in between my legs, it doesn't matter" (man I miss being in love). After the drill siren of an alarm wakes them 'Up From A Dream' for two back-to-back like Magic California chill tracks for your Venice boardwalk from these Queens that are still Chili Pepper hot by the way. Dreaming of Californication has never sounded so good, even zoning at '3AM'. Picking up the phone for you know what. But 'Another Try' answers the call for an album that is soaked in as much lamenting loneliness like the Hollywood city of angels when the wings turn in for night as it is sunshine amongst the stars. "You take care of us/When I make this tough/Because it takes all I got/Not to f### this up", Danielle sings on the beautifully honest 'Leaning On You'. Because records like the raw and beat served hard, 'I've Been Down' take depression head on and headstrong for these incredible young artists who have found their true selves and sound over years of compelling maturation in both style and substance for an act who have always sounded as real as it gets, yet nothing right now comes quite as close to this. 'All That Ever Mattered' is screamingly scary good, breaking into the best riff of the set. Whilst on the f##### up but true, 'FUBT' and its beautiful bass Danielle sings this lyric, "I spend my mornings overthinking all my old mistakes/But I would never judge your problems in the same way." Now have you ever heard a line that describes the anxiety of our modern day relationship with others and ourselves more plainly in an album that tells this generation of their audience that there is nothing wrong with vulnerability? No overthinking required on this one...even from a man like me. Even if the debate for the albums best riff just got amp reinvigorated. Just like the steps of what's your favourite track from these summer girls now we're in it again walking to that beat on Instagram like knowing alone. But right now at this very moment one thing has no contest. Best band alive. This is women in music wimps! After a dynamic debut and surviving and striving the sophomore slump, the third times the charm for these three. And judging from their discography catalogue it's only going to be more of a grower over time. California classic after California classic. Album of the Summer. Album of the year. Album of their career. "Now that's how you f###### do it!" TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Summer Girl', 'Now I'm In It', 'Hallelujah'. 

REVIEW: BOB DYLAN-ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS

4/5

The Times They Are A-Rowdy.

Quarantined in lockdown, coronavirus may have f##### us more than Trump this year, but whilst everything from cinema screens to sports arenas have been put on hold until we drive into Disney World, it seems some of the worlds most amazing artists have gone back to the safe, social isolation at six feet and more distance of the studio. In 2020 that has roared the wrong way we've had albums released by everyone but Gatsby (until now with this old sport). So far we've had albums from artists like Childish Gambino, The Weeknd, Drake, Tank, Jay Electronica (finally...and featuring Jay-Z), The Strokes, Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon, Jezabel Hayley Mary, Lo-Fang, Lady Gaga and the South Korean, K-Pop juggernaut that is BTS and all their maps of the soul. Last week we got a new album from legend Norah Jones ('Pick Me Up Off The Floor') and next week we may just have the album of the year with Haim ('Women In Music Pt. III'). Even on this day we have some 'Bigger Love' from modern soul sensation John Legend becoming more of his last namesake and the sensational sophomore set from indie stirring singer Phoebe Bridgers, 'Punisher' that fits to the bone like crime. So with all this and so much more to come. From more diamond 'Confessions' from Usher like Part II and a new album from Lana Del Rey who only just did, 'Norman F###### Rockwell' last Summer, we may aswell get a new album from the American songbook of the G.O.A.T. like M.J. a long way from his last dance (although you can watch his and 'Irishman' Scorsese's 'Rolling Thunder Revue' on Netflix now) in the 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' of the one and only Bob Dylan.

79. Still dancing and swinging, pushing 80 Bob is back. The times they have been a-changing in his America of late. But the more they change...the more they stay the same. "Racism is still alive. They just be concealing it," like Kanye West once profoundly said when he walked with Jesus (like he does now as 'King'), but now he sides with Trump in a MAGA hat like Delroy Lindo's Vietnam vet in Spike Lee's new Netflix movie, 'Da 5 Bloods'. But just like America and U.S., they all 'Contain Multitudes' like Dylan's definitive opening track that shows like his career redux classic 'Modern Times' (Alicia Keys also has a new album out this calendar...Alicia Keeeeeys) he can still teach new Shakespearian storytelling depths like the 'Tempest' album at sea. With that famous white picket sign, 'I Can't Sing' voice actually getting fine wine better with the age of every gravel drive return home. Night after night. Somehow as bitter and smooth as a whiskey Dylan is producing at his distillery by the bar like one for the road and you know who. Multitudes. "I'm just like Anne Frank, Indiana Jones/And them British bad boys, the Rolling Stones/I go right to the edge, I go right to the end/I go right where all things lost are made good again", he sings shouting out Beethoven and Chopin names of history like a rolling stone. "I drive fast cars and I eat fast foods. I contain multitudes." Triggered. And just when he gets back in his groove to the two stepping album artwork he keeps the jukebox turning like Happy Days with the 'False Prophet' single you just have to believe in like faith. "I search the world over/For the Holy Grail/I sing songs of love/I sing songs of a betrayal," he sings for the songbook which may as well be a history one the way he engraves poetic chapter and verse into music's subconscious.

On 'My Own Version Of You' Dylan says he'll "take the Scarface Pacino and The Godfather Brando/Mix 'em up in a tank, and get a robot commando." Whilst on the beautiful, 'I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You' like 'Together Through Life' entwined asleep in the back of a station wagon, or 'Sittin' On My Terrace, lost in the stars/Listening to the sounds of the sad guitars," he dedicates himself like, "I'm giving myself to you, yes I am/From Salt Lake City to Birmingham/From East L.A. to San Antone/I don't think I can bear to live my life alone." Emotion hasn't sounded this much like devotion since Springsteen (who has his own 'Western Stars' album...and movie this time last Summer) said for all the lyrics to go in Dylan's great American songbook like Sinatra standards, his greatest line was when he repeated 'I Want You' over and over again because of how he meant it..."so bad". The bold and beautiful brilliance of 'Black Rider' itself sounds like something straight out of a western from Clint Eastwood or Cohen neo. Whilst the tribute that says, 'Goodbye Jimmy Reed' could be found on a Seeger session at its upbeat best that moves like the portraits of people on this album artwork. An album that is rough ('Murder Most Foul') and rowdy ('Crossing The Rubicon'). But for all the beauty of 'Mother Of Muses' like the one who brought you into this beautiful world and the Floridian traditions of 'Key West (Philosophers Pirate)', its the 15 plus minute story of a 'Murder Most Foul' on JFK from behind the grassy knoll that really storms through this set like a 'Hurricane' or his ode to wrongfully accused and imprisoned boxer Rubin Carter, singing until the day he was set free. "Twas a dark day in Dallas, November '63/A day that will live on in infamy/President Kennedy was a-ridin' high/Good day to be livin'and a good day to die," Dylan reports this dark day in American history from the shadows of the bookshelf. Talking about the King and the Fab Four. Martin. John, Paul, George and Ring. Playing 'Merchant To Venice', or "merchants of death", whilst "I'm riding in a long, black Lincoln limousine/Riding in the backseat next to by wife/Heading straight on into the afterlife." All as he says, "I'm leaning to the left, got my head on our lap," in a moment none of us will forget...but wish we could. Oh what this man has done for his country. Ask somebody. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'I Contain Multitudes', 'False Prophet', 'Murder Most Foul'. 

REVIEW: PHOEBE BRIDGERS-PUNISHER

4/5

The Punisher. 

One batch. Two batch. Penny and dime. "Who is Phoebe f###### Bridgers" like her self-titled Spotify playlist? Well open up her atmospheric 'DVD Menu' opening, make a f###### selection and find out. The 'Motion Sickeness' of the haunting 'Stranger In The Alps' may have been the indie towering record of 2017. Just like the album artwork painted ghostly white sheet like independent film, 'A Ghost Story' starring Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, a sheet with two eye-holes and an 'Overwhelmed' Dark Rooms scoring soundtrack was the movie of the year. Showing that independence is often more inspired than the mess of the mainstream. Now after hiding under a white sheet we get to the jumpsuit, Jack Skeleton bones of Bridgers best work yet in the 'Punisher' album that like a Frank Castle skull gets deeper than a flesh and blood love. For something as awe, awesome inspiringly atmospheric as the opening book of 'Garden Song' and a flowering album that grows on the same stem. "I’ll plant a garden in the yard/Then I’ll glue in roses on a flatbed/You should see it, I mean thousands/I grew up here ’til it all went up in flames/Except the notches in the door frame," she sings. Evoking memories of a home life growing up like pencilling in your height every year that could never be lost in translation. All before taking us to the Far East of Japan.

Alone in 'Kyoto' like Air or the soundtrack of Scarlett Johansson taking a Shinkansen there in bullet time to Sofia Coppola's compelling classic, Bridgers bridges the gap of another relationship failing to change with the times there, like traditional temples to nocturnal neon in the most beautiful place in the world. All to an old DVD like music video for this singers menu as she flies around the city and one's like Osaka and Tokyo in a Madonna 'Ray Of Light'. "Day off in Kyoto, got bored at the temple/Looked around at the 7-11/The band took the speed train, went to the arcade," she sings in the land of the rising sun, Conbini's and Pachinko slots. Then getting her Castle on with the album-titled 'Punisher', Phoebe shoots more from the hip with the "drugstores open all night" as she sings, "when the speed kicks in/I go to the store for nothing/And walk right by/The house where you lived with Snow White/I wonder if she ever thought/The storybook tiles on the wall were too much." Continuing to haunt on 'Halloween' the boygenius singer is scary good already in costume. But with no cover up to the yearning vulnerability she marks all her tracks with to the marrow. "I hate living by the hospital/The sirens go all night/I used to joke if they woke you up/Somebody better be dying," she rawly recalls before taking down her muses not so brilliant disguise as she says, "But I can count on you to tell me the truth/When you've been drinking and wear a mask". All too sobering we all know this kind of relationship hangover, love is hell, all too well. Calling more on 'Chinese Satellite' on the other side of the world, the artist from Los Angeles, California sends up a lantern, lamenting, "sometimes when I can't sleep/It's just a matter of time before I'm hearing things/Swore I could feel you through the walls/But that's impossible." Yet it always feels like that. If only.

'Moon Song' takes us out of this world and into her atmosphere again gone 4AM in the morning, zoning like K Pop's KATIE, echoing thinking about the one we love. "You asked to walk me home/But I had to carry you/And you pushed me in/And now my feet can't touch the bottom of you." Singing about hating Tears In Heaven and fighting about John Lennon, Bridgers broods over a punch drunk lover who won't sober up to her love. Waiting "like a dog with a bird at your door," when he could have "stuck (your) tongue down the throat of somebody who loves you more" at the nautical themed party. But as much as Phoebe wants the one she loves, she doesn't want to deal with a 'Saviour Complex' anymore. She's, "too tired to have a pissing contest". As, "emotional affair/Overly sincere/Smoking in the car/Windows up/Crocodile tears/Run the tap 'till it's clear," she's driving "around again". "One hand on the wheel. One in your mouth." And we see her like 'I See You', no celebrity avatar. But the independent real thing on her own two with her second solo set. The King, Presley would be proud like 'Graceland Too' or the 'Near Other Worlds' of fellow forest atmospheric artist Lo-Fang whose latest greatest came out last month and his astronaut out of this world cover or 'Don't Be Cruel' and Elvis soundbite of loneliness. Storming the gates of Graceland like a killing Brandon Flowers 'Wonderful, Wonderful,' going "back-to-back with Springsteen, as Bridgers sings, "so she picks a direction, it's nintey to Memphis/Turns up the music so thoughts don't intrude/Predictably winds up thinking about Elvis." But in the end, 'I Know The End' is the most epic track in classic closing with feral breathing for the bones of someone lost in the woods. But this punisher is predator, not prey. "Somewhere in Germany but I can't place it/Man I hate this part of Texas," she sings as following in the footsteps of friend Maggie Rogers', 'Heard It In A Past Life' and King Princess' 'Cheap Queen' best of last year, dynamic duo, dynamite debuts, Phoebe Bridgers sensational sophomore set and classic collection makes her a star like her native Hollywood's walk of fame. Although in this Best Coast year of California classics like 'Always Tomorrow', this woman in music is further from the hills like those Valley Girl sisters of Haim coming with part three next week. But between them and legend Norah Jones picking us up off the floor with her latest jazz greatest last week, Bridgers is making her own legacy. Punishment has never sounded so good. To not listen to this 'Punisher's' hit would be a crime. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Garden Song', 'Kyoto', 'Punisher'.