REVIEW: JOHN FORTE - VESSELS, ANGELS & ANCESTORS

3.5/5

Settling The Score.

Pure poetry from the introspective introduction (the Ram Dass searing 'Scene & Setting'), the spoken word like rapper, John Forté makes his latest album, 'Vessels, Angels and Ancestors' his ascension. Going forth with album number four, the Brownsville, Brooklyn brownstone, New York native once made his name with the same iconic group who just announced their reunion, The Fugees and their big breakthrough, 'The Score'. Being just as instrumental to that cult, classic rap production as the guitar of Wyclef Jean's right-hand man, Jerry Wonder. But after killing us softly like "ooh, la, la, la" with Ms. Hill and Pras, Forté served jail-time in 2000. Serving 14 years for accepting a briefcase containing $1.4 million of liquid cocaine. Charged with possession and the intent to distribute. Now the former reportoire executive at Rawkus Records (were the likes of Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Hi-Tek and more made their Black Star name), who is classical trained on violin and cites Vivaldi as inspiration is back. The Grammy winner who has even worked on crossover audio and visual projects with '50/50' actor Joesph Gordon-Levitt gives us an album of real depth amongst shallow vessels. One that even reaches to the angel wings of poetic muses in ancestry like the great Gil Scott-Heron. On his own opener 'Begin Again', he truly does. Stating, "in the presence of grace and grief/A sun rose again, we face the East/Take a breath, hold it in, release/You are precisely where you are meant to be." Right here. Right now. Ready or not. 

Fielding '88' with Fielded as his runner on the corner, Forté forges his craft, "(spending Winter in the woods with the beat machine/Just me, the echo box and the evergreens/I sat still on the top of the hill so I could get a little closer to whatever means/Watch for storm's and what the weather brings/Sipping my song/I do a rain dance on them and watch heaven perform/You got hot last summer, but the tea got warm." Damn! Let that brew, because as Erykah once said for her 'Baduizm', "would anybody like a cup of tea". "I will" like Kweli replied live at Dave Chappelle's 'Block Party' in NYC's BK. And then this symbolic album like a string instrument continues with the 'Shame, Shame' over some classic acoustic slapping. "The light in your eyes is where God resides/I am a man and I am civilised", he tells us. Empowering both us and his and our sense of self in turn. It's 'So Quiet Hereafter' with a hunting track that means more as dear John devotes his mind to wondering why there's nothing to say from those in power after rioters storm The Capitol and domestic terrorism wreaks havoc in a nation that's still afraid of everyone that doesn't look like them. "Floating/Get in your boat an go down the stream" he demands with Billy Woods for 'Good Money' over its dark designs that holds up his production canvas like a mirror to the world for "visions beyond the eyes" as his "position was compromised". Don't let yours be.

'Hungry' for more with Ben Taylor, Forté keeps eating away at his craft until out speakers are full, not famished. "Careful what you say/No more words for wastin'/Identites mistaken/Want to see your freedom taken", Ben sings on tailor made hook to "set the record straight" like the score. But coming out of the house of pain with Everlast for 'Gas', John is "at the precipice". Ignited like nitrus as keeps it real like "organic". Smoking smouldering lyrics like, "haters don't break me, the make fuel/Gas, gas, gas, gas." 'Ready On The One' with a posse of Spills, Five and Miss Brittany Reese sounds like something out of a western like 'Concrete Cowboy' Idris Elba's 'The Harder They Fall' gang in Netflix, as the bigger they come." I'm Gandhi in his prime/Malcolm at his peak/Martin making his last speech/Like Rosa taking her last seat/I'm Marcus making his last reach". Enough said. This aims higher than a quick draw in its own saloon. My lord, on 'Zugzwang' a forlorn Forté keeps in heart what matters, Black Lives. "Singing kumbaya, nah/More like stop shooting...us." "Tonight's nominee is an anomaly/I beg your pardon your honor, but I'm the honorary" he certifies as the 'Source Legit' with Rising Appalachia for all you lover boys who think you're 'Way Too Sexy'. This could subtly take your shirt off as he rips the game like no dice. Before the 'Ancestors' in closing with a book-ending Dass takes us away on this spiritual journey. "That which is not love will pale in comparison" Forté forewarns us as he disappears with the smoke of his own haze. Like fables from Aesop, learning us life lessons as he leaves. "Play hard, play fair, play your position/Walk good, be well, be the difference." Footprints set in the sand that should be like stone. What other way could you walk as we follow? TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Begin Again', 'So Quiet Thereafter', 'Ready On The One'. 

REVIEW: WALE - FOLARIN II

4/5

The Second Coming.

Roses adorn the album artwork of Washington's very own Wale and his new set 'Folarin II' in Basquiat blue, like John Legend's 'Love In The Future'. All of him is going all in. The D.C. rapper claims he is "overlooked", although the capital talent is on some "legend (excrement)" with a steady stream of successful records for your Spotify channels. Playlist after Playlist, it's time to give this man his flowers with no thorns after he grew from concrete like Pac and his damaged petals. Olubowale Victor Akintimehin's classic debut 'Attention Defecit'-which even had Lady Gaga looking at him-kept ours. It was a Wale of a time. But pronounce his name right...it's not "whale". Then with Moby Dick energy the Washington lyrical wizard, sophomore soared and came back with 'Ambition', now a part of Miami Port owner Rick Ross's Maybach Music imprint. Being handed the keys to 'The Gifted' like blunts in 'Rotation' for a man that even had a bust made in his image for the ceremonial third album cover. But his fourth release was what we were all waiting for. 'The Album About Nothing' after all those "meaningless" mixtapes which broke the rapper and really made him something. The 'Seinfeld' set featuring the man Jerry himself. Sought after like all 180 episodes of the classic Larry David show, doing anything but curbing our enthusiasm now they are all on Netflix like 'Chappelle's Show'. I know what I'll be doing on the train to Tokyo every morning now...pretending to be on the phone to avoid eye contact with everyone and offending people I give up my seat for because that makes them think I think they're old. Seriously though, that bass guitar is starting to give me nightmares, three seasons in. After that classic Wale continued to 'Shine', but during lockdown it's been a minute (2019...okay, more like two years) since his last cut, 'Wow...That's Crazy' (truly). But now the man is back with 'Folarin' too like a sequel. 

This fluoride flow on 'Folarin II' feels like a fresh brush to the teeth. Or the game. Getting into it like Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard it all kicks off from the tip with the fresh 'New Balances' like Kawhi. "We still in a motherf#####g pandemic he warns a mask shedding nation before rifling into that familiar killer flow no one can be protected from. "Hol' up I'm in Miami the toes out/Shout out to Zoey, the zoes out/Bam Adebayo on courtside", he says, sideline sitting and spittin' with the rap references to the other game. Fresher than a new pair as he swaps the soul samples for a Middle Eastern sound for the 'Name Bell Ring'. "Rocking with the team, I done brought Hakeem out/Say I need my flowers, the cookies come to me now/Bring the DMV out, glad they think of me now/Love it or you hate it but say, "Thank you" when I be out, boy", the certified rapper we love blooms, as we thank him, not later in the time of Drake, but now, boy. Sampling Q-Tip like a 'Vivrant Thing', Wale gets vibrant as he 'Poke's It Out' with J. Cole as in 'The Off-Season' the real sideline story raps, "Evidently, the coach can't bench me/The franchise player, I don't know how to miss/And they can't buy a layup, I'm anti what they are", as your breathing stops on this pulsating track. But the smoothest sound is laced up on the best kick of this cut, 'Tiffany Nikes' that gives air back to the game like jumping from the free-throw line. Before the 'Caramel' kisses with tender loving care takes us back to the 80's like MC Lyte. "There's demons on my mind, they're on the way to my heart/There's people on my side, they're trying to beak me apart" he raps as he let's the love and hate 'Fluctuate' in some introspection over ivory that shows he really is one of the most perceptive in this genre. No matter their perception of hip-hop from the heads that nod to more than beats for the streets. 

Classic collaborations are also on order. 'Light Years' just sounds that much further in the stratosphere with the raaaaa Maybach backing of the Don himself, Rick Ross. Duo doubling-up dynamically like Batman and Superman over the J.U.S.T.I.C.E League beat that moves in too many billions for kryptonite. "I am light years ahead of these n####s/I'm thinkin' bigger, we can link up but we know the difference/Yeah, and I don't move like an industry n###/My life is under a microscope, my chemistry special", Wale rhymes. Before The Boss like Springsteen fires, "I'm in the mood to watch my son become a man/Colin Kaepernick scramblin' in the South of France/See the kids in the park, I pray your gun'll jam/Set examples for all the hustlers who holdin' hands/Consequences, at odds with all the older heads/New money, cigars, who really know the ledge?/Earth, Wind and Fire birthed my desire/Cheers to the hustlers, toast to the choir", for some of the best lines of his life. Then clicking with Chris Brown on 'Angels' he "puts infinity stones on all your fingers" like Thanos, for the soul, power and mind for all of time in his own space and reality. But acting like he's got some sense it's his 'Dearly Beloved' dedication with Oscar winner Jamie Foxx that really is the gold before things get seriously soulful with Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men on the Sauce Of Backyard Band backing for the dressing, 'More Love'. It's all heart in the second half, like coming out to court dunking after the break, but with finger-roll smoothness. This LP is a lay-up for one of the underrated, hidden gems of hip-hop that makes it all look so easy, despite being on a genius level whilst others reach for the bar like an apple in the tree. Yet they're Adam compared to the warlock Wale. On the 'Jump In' with Lil Chris of T.O.B. over a pogo stick beat that will T.O.S. like G-Unit. But this isn't 50. We told you like Soulja Boy, this is Wale. And even in this streaming age, this one from a man that makes full album is worth more than a few dollars. Going 'Down South' with Maxo Kream and Yella Breezy like the trap as he has the game in a snare. Getting 'Extra Special' and smooth with Ant Clemons like he's about to be the new king of rap AND R&B, or at least those crossover collaborations. Then igniting the 'Fire and Ice' brought to boil in a perfect combustible mix of all killer, no filler slow flow as Wale begins by saying, "they told me I've not wrote anything poetic in awhile". Well wait for this chapter and verse for all he deserves from the game in reply kind. "I do the s### that they've never done/I see the s### they could never see/Honestly I'm really one of one/Honestly I've got no company" he says in closing on his own lane and street in 'Beverly Blvd'. Putting the game to bed from his own domicile. Don't sleep. Wale is back after our year in defecit. May he have your attention please! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

 Playlist Picks: 'Poke It Out (Feat J. Cole)', 'Tiffany Nikes', 'Dearly Beloved (Feat Jamie Foxx)'. 

REVIEW: COLDPLAY - MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

3.5/5

Sphere Of A Pop Planet. 

Spotify selects similar sounds for your streams on a random shuffle once the album you are listening to finishes. No new news. We all know this. This is how I discovered Maggie Rogers with perhaps still my favourite song right now ('Say It' off her album of 2019 debut, 'Heard It In A Past Life') after listening to a 'Good Thing' by the gold-digging sound of Mr. Leon Bridges, making his own case right now for the greatest of 2021. Just like the best of British are doing to fall this calender. From the former biggest band in the world teaming up with the biggest pop act on the planet here, to our queen Adele announcing her new album this week (the only time I've looked forward to '30'). After the classic 'Coloratura' close to Coldplay's new 'Music Of The Spheres' set that looks to go on a musical 'Magical Mystery Tour' with more colour than a 'Yellow Submarine', as the band try to take it out of this world like a 'Dark Side Of The Moon' for Pink Floyd's spectrum, Spotify switched me to the U2 classic 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'. You know the iconic instrumental introduction as Bono stalked the neon sun streets of Las Vegas like Brandon Flowers killing it...or like he lost his glasses. Reminding me of being told to turn it down, "I can bloody hear Bono over what I'm listening to (Queen...what else?)" in the backseat of my parents car, driving to Paris for a fond family holiday. It made me think of something else too. In terms of popularity U2 have gone from a band that had Bono meeting and giving his iconic sunglasses to the Pope (and to think after he spent all that time looking for them), to people telling them to "piss off" when their free album 'Songs Of Innocence' started automatically downloading on people's iTunes (back then my laptop reduced to a typewriter was gutted of its Internet connection. I would have loved to have received it). Even his holiness was probably like, 'enough already ffs". Even I agree with that classic joke from the late, great Robin Williams about the time Bono at a charity concert said, "every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies of AIDS". To which someone in the crowd hilariously shouted in reply, "then stop clapping your f#####g hands!" Despite selling out stadiums like Bono and them, Chris Martin and Coldplay can catch hell from you too. A subject of memes that say "the best way to listen to Coldplay" as someone throws their headphones away like the classic Jose Mourinho meme. Even Chris knows they are about to catch flack like Roberta for their eco-friendly tour coming out of corona when it echos across social media. Even I used to get it from my mate from work back home who would play the intro to Coldplay's 'Fix You' every time I had problems with my girlfriend at the time (I must have heard that intro more times than the radio) like this was the climatic scene of the Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson movie, 'You, Me and Dupree'. But since Martin and his coldest play have gone from swinging lightbulbs in Wembley, to actually bringing a kaleidoscope of effervescent neon, their sound has gone from dishwater beautiful ballads to sonic in the speed of a digital hedgehog. It all used to be so 'Yellow'. Now like a permanent Holi festival of coloured powder in India, it's a pop palette of vibrance. 

Parachuting down to South Korea with a rush of blood to a head full of dreams, the guys who have gone live in living colour for going on a decade now since 2011's 'Mylo Xyloto' (aside from some 'Ghost Stories' and 'Everyday Life' side sojourns) arm up with those Bangtan boys BTS for what in 'My Universe' has instantly become one of the bands biggest streaming songs. Numbers like 'The Scientist', 'Paradise' and 'Clocks'. Soaring to new world relevance, 'Universe'  has after nary a month of release 101,235,748 streams at press time and counting. 101,235,749, 101,235,750. Where's it at now? That's what happens when you have a whole ARMY behind you. The same one that matched millions of Black Lives Matter donations and also marched Trump out of his own rally by reserving tickets and standing him up like a bad date...ones that "grab her by the (you know what)" always are. Coldplay go after another messy blonde haired "leader" closer to home on a latter track that sounds like their best Muse impression (which is never great imitating a band who as good as they are always wanted to be Radiohead). But this 'My' meeting of the minds is both acts own, beautifully blended together in sweet synchronicity. In a "Hov and Outkast, what you think about that" type of collaboration. The shades of this Dakota Johnson dedicated number feature Martin harmonising, "In the night, I lie and look up at you/When the morning comes, I watch you rise/There's a paradise they couldn't capture/That bright infinity inside your eyes." As J-Hope and Suga come together with loving lyrics like, "나를 밝혀주는 건/너란 사랑으로 수 놓아진 별/내 우주의 넌/또 다른 세상을 만들어 주는 걸/너는 내 별이자 나의 우주니까/지금 이 시련도 결국엔 잠시니까/너는 언제까지나 지금처럼 밝게만 빛나줘/우리는 너를 따라 이 긴 밤을 수놓을 거야". The emotion felt needs no translation. BTS finally recently hit the top of the billboard with last year's explosive 'Dynamite' English-singing single, but these Brits have them speaking in their mother tongue. Then the band who have collaborated with everyone from Rihanna ('Princess Of China') to Beyoncé ('Hymn For The Weekend' after giving retired Jay-Z's 'Kingdom Come' a 'Beach Chair') get down with Selena Gomez like a Korean BLACKPINK 'Ice Cream' for one of the best licks of the set in heart, 'Let Somebody Go'. The deepest cut that still bleeds the brightest. 

Playing choruses for Kanye ('Homecoming'), being covered by Brandy (her version of 'Magic' one-upping is truly that), Coldplay have done and had it all done before. They even try to lift off to 'A Space Odyssey' like Kubrick's '2001' for their own epic into to star command on this galactic journey traversing planets. The saturn shaped song which unofficially serves as the 'Music Of Spheres' album title intro actually shows up as one of those unrecognisable block emojis like your phone doesn't support it. Tracks like the for the world '🌎', the star sparkle of '✨', the infinity symbol of 8 like a Black Mamba (forever), '♾️' and the heart of matter that you have to love with We Are KING and human music box Jacob Collier ('❤️', a sound that Bon Iver would be proud of, unless Justin Vernon wants to draw up legal papers. He won't. This isn't plagiarism and besides he's too nice a guy), actually paint a picture. But you know me, I'm not a fan of emoticons. Even though I regulary reference the hash-tag of things that trend with pictures on Twitter. The Wombats once sang, "all these emoticons and words/Try to make it better, but they only make it worse" on a song literally called 'Emoticons' that I feel was composed for me, because I was triggered like a 🔫 (but we're not really supposed to use that emoji anymore. Someone try and tell Ice Cube in '22 Jump Street'). All this would almost be annoying, but Coldplay somehow get away with it. Just like the ear candy melody of 'Biutyful' that just like a 'Lonely' Akon will go from aggravating to addictive. All in the space of time it takes you to put it on repeat, because sometimes what you feel like are the most irritating songs turn out to be the most venereal catchy in this "first they love you, then they hate you, then they love you again" world. This song will go through cycles, like us around the sun, but you can't deny the bright side of its Killer like hook that will have you smiling like you mean it. Reaching for a 'Higher Power', Coldplay find this in soaring synths for 'Humankind' as Martin sings for all the colours of this world's rainbow, "Before I was dyin'/I feel it inside, now I'm flyin'". Counting down in mirror text language for the Z smartphone generation. This album is an application that really applies itself today, even if those think these grown folks are trying to be too down with the in crowd kids. 'People Of The Pride' is another rousing march for the LGBT community in a time that really needs it with the fallout of Netflix's Dave Chappelle comedy special 'The Closer' (which again I must stress there are issues with, but I believe his intentions weren't malicious in nature as he ultimately tried to use comedy to bring people together to a more mutual understanding. We all read into things differently. I just want to try some positivity). "We're no longer goin' to fight for/Some old crook and all his crimes/There's a sewin' up of rags/Into revolution flags/Got to stand up to be counted/Be an anthem for your times/It's just work", they sing in unison for "people on the left/people on the right" who "have a lion inside" as, "We'll all be free to fall in love/With who we want and say". It's Coldplay at their most profound and powerful in years. All in a time a few hands past theirs for something that's a little short of a Coldplay classic (sometimes I guess the earth is flat), but is still one of the event albums of the year with Jon Hopkins production, 'Star Wars' inspiration and nebula themes for these guardians of their own galaxy like Gaga on the dawn of 'Chromatica'. The whole world has been waiting. 'Sphere' is here. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'My Universe (Feat. BTS)', '🌎', 'Coloratura'. 

REVIEW: HEATHER SHANNON - MIDNIGHT SUN

4/5

The Midnight Sky.

Sydney Opera House, Australia, 2014, between 'The Brink' (touring that very beautiful album) and the synth of the last, legacy making album 'Synthia'. My favourite band not named INXS (my favourite BAND, not my favourite "Aussie band"), The Jezabels are rocking. The full, almost two hour set is on the legendary landmark's official YouTube channel for your necessary watching consideration. You know how it goes. The incomparable Hayley Mary holding the stage like no other but Michael Hutchence before her. The whole city and country behind her booming like Sam Lockwood's great guitar and the skin of Nik Kaloper's drums. But before all that as we looked upstairs to the heavens, keyboardist Heather Shannon took us to church. Playing around on the house organ like they were about to pass around the collection plate. Praise be and glory to I would have emptied my pockets for this classically trained sound. Tooling around and toying with us. My crush on her back then just got heavier as I thought she was about to bring the pedal down like the hammer for the opening, almost Hans Zimmer epic "BWAH" like sound of 'Prisoner'. The organ opening track off the album of the same name that last month just celebrated its ten year anniversary (thank you Music Feeds from Down Under for the band introduction and writing opportunity). Now that would have been really something...like this. As we eagerly await a Jezabels reunion and lead singer Hayley Mary follows last year's EP 'The Piss, The Perfume' with an even better extended play in 'The Drip' and its soaring single 'The Chain'. Heather Shannon heads off to Iceland to craft her own classic collection of ivory inspired musical pieces of artwork. 

Piano and I like Alicia, it's just Heather and the keys as she brings us a snow white shining 'Midnight Sun' from a European retreat, with above her only sky. A sharp Shannon honed her sound during a different type of quarantine. Locked down and socially isolated. Back in 2016 just before the successful release of The Jezabels best album yet 'Synthia' that dealt with some dark themes (the death of Mary's mother and an infectious lead single called 'My Love Is My Disease' that featured a Japanese salary man bruised, bloodied and battered being stalked in the night neon streets of Tokyo by shirtless men that ran like dogs), tragedy struck. Heather's ovarian cancer that was originally diagnosed in 2013 whilst the band recorded 'The Brink' returned and fans like her family and herself felt like as she told the British newspaper The Guardian this week, "someone had pumped cement in (my) veins." The 'Synthia' tour was cancelled for what Shannon describes as collectively the "worst day of our (the band's) lives", but more importantly everyone feared the worst as Heather underwent chemotherapy. In the face of all this and the resulting cabin fever at a distant at home, the pianist reconnected with the roots of her instrument and soujourned to the Icelandic fjords to make this inspired instrumental album of classical compositions in all its nine track wonders. One that taking us from the mainstream to the 'Mother Love' like Vernon Spring's of modern cult classics in turn reminds us of Prince's raw 'Piano and a Microphone' posthumous release and the influences of jazz legend Thelonious Monk on this genre bender that shifts like snow beneath your feet. All for an album whose artwork and art inspirations are straight out the songwriting playbook and career craft of Justin Vernon's Bon Iver. Word to 'Perth'. 

Achingly beautiful and recorded during a residency in Ísafjörður in 2017. Shannon's stirring, compelling collection is sublime and about time, comes when we really need it in our self imposed isolation for the good health of everybody. It opens with the 'Fragments' that will break your heart like her bad news and ends with the yellow house of 'Engi' where she found solace in to toil away at her craft as she fought cancer in recovery. It's a far cry from Sydney with just the Harbour House's sails as sharp as ice only remotely representing the mountainous regions that surrounded her sound for the perfect acoustics. Shannon says the "strangeness" of her surroundings "seeped into the music" that at a turn sounds like "resolution and uncertainty". As surely anyone who has been through what she has can only understand as she evokes this tone in her raw and reflective music that is never dark, but is always trying to shine a light even in the caverns and caves of a mind dealing with matters like these on this canvas. Tracks like the back and forth of the rough, but still ready 'Ricochet' and the landmark 'Fossavatn', not to mention 'Midnight Sun's' title track shine a light on the brutal beauty of this recording process. One that was made on computers and of course synthesisers like my favourite album of the last half of the 10's, before being sheet music transcribed and recorded on a Fazioli grand piano in the Sydney Conservatory of Music's Verbrugghen Hall (handy as Heather is studying a masters in composition here (geniuses grow)). From remote locations to an operatic studio sound this back to basics approach is the kind of Jack and Meg White Stripes influence that made everything rocking out of the modern mainstream sound so authentic. It really takes you there like 'A Place To Go' as we can feel the stimulating cold of Iceland even rerecorded in Australia like the cold breath of winter in front of your face that people on the Gold Coast never see. This 'Hidden' gem of twenty-twenty one holds you like the beautiful hands on the composition 'Cradle'. In an year were all the big stars are going Gaga back to the studio over and over with Swift percussion, this independent release is for 'The Others' like a classic Jezabel track. It may have been a long time since that band brought it back, but another solo project from the group just connects us to more parts of this collective that we are interested in. Pushing the envelope of creativity and the boundaries of her abilities both as a musician and the humanity of what she had to endure, Heather comes out stronger and this Icelandic retreat is a destination inside we can all take solace in too. By midnight of one of the hardest years of our lives, with the reflection of hers, Shannon shows us the sun. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Fragments', 'Ricochet', 'Engi'. 

REVIEW: LADY GAGA & TONY BENNETT - LOVE FOR SALE

4/5

Back To Cheek

2009. I hadn't been away in four years (we're all starting to know the feeling right?). Me and my best man had an American dream in the City That Never Sleeps. Times Square bright lights. Big Apple big city. Our itinerary? The Mecca of Madison Square Garden to see legendary now Laker Carmelo Anthony's Knicks in the "World's Most Famous Arena". The Empire State to the Top of the Rock. All overlooking the vast green of Central Park. New York, New York. So good we had to do it twice in the same year. We even scored some Late Night tickets with David Letterman. Hosting one of the Chilean miners and legendary '30 Rock' comedian Tracy Morgan. We did everything except Breakfast at Tiffany's. If you can make it back here, WE can make it back anywhere. But the big ticket was on Broadway. Shining a light at the Beacon Theatre. A benefit for the troops to help our heroes. Our President Barack Obama live via satellite years before we all Zoomed like Commodores to our Teams. This was a night like no other. So much so we got fleeced on Stub Hub for hundreds of dollars. Who was making money off this benefit should have been ashamed of themselves and maybe we looked like we condoned that, but at least most of our money was going to the soldiers. That was already worth the price of admission. What came next was the icing for your cherry. Jerry Seinfeld (maybe even Bill Burr if my getting old memory serves). My hero Bruce Springsteen auctioning off his acoustic guitar ("I got 10 dollars"), Daily Show (made it there too) host Jon Stewart as the presenter. The one and only, unforgettable Tony Bennett. Now THAT'S New York City. Once in a lifetime. I think I left my heart here before we actually flew to San Francisco of all places. Now a decade and change later, sadly the classic crooner is calling it curtains on a live career that was truly the best show in town. Now going 'Cheek To Cheek' with Lady Gaga and 'Love For Sale'. The follow-up to their duet album exactly a decade gone is the perfect swan song. Play it again Tony. Thanks for the memories.

Going Gaga, only Michelle Zauner AKA Japanese Breakfast is working harder in another year of 'Women In Music' going Haim. 'Crying In H Mart' with her New York Times bestselling memoir that's about to be turned into a movie for the director. All whilst having a 'Jubilee' of classic album drops like the video game 'Sable' soundtrack last week. Lady Gaga herself just last month remixed her classic 'Chromatica' album from last years out of this world calendar in quarantine for the 'Dawn Of'. And this fall the born star is going to take on Bradley Cooper and all his movies (GDT's 'Nightmare Alley' and PTA's 'Licorice Pizza' (speaking of Haim for all you Streis-hands) with her 'House Of Gucci' with Adam Driver, Salma Hayek, Tom Ford, Jared Leto and Al Pacino. We're far from the shallow now. As a decade later Gaga and Tony reunite after their Grammy for more gold that deep dives with a dozen delightful tracks to the time movie like music soundtrack sounded like Sinatra...or Nancy. All to get a kick out of you like these boots were made for walking. It's all 'De-Lovely' as the opening number kicks in for the perfect pair who last time out had a spell on us with 'Bang, Bang', ring-a-ding-ding soaring standards of the great American songbook. 'I Get A Kick Out Of You', the sensational single 'I've Got You Under My Skin' (that will nostalgically with a new lift seep so sweetly into yours), they all get a classic cover from the two distinct talents that 'Night and Day' couldn't be more different, but at the same dusk 'til dawn complimentary time are a perfect fit like a suit and tie and best dress the same. The King of Long Island and the Queen of the Upper West Side, New York. Born for each other like they were born this way on some sentimental evening. Giving a shadow to our smile in this boulevard of broken dreams like a stranger in paradise. 

So suit up with 'No Time To Die' when we finally get to see 007 back on the big screen for Daniel Craig's last dance as James Bond. Bennett, Tony Bennett, there's no one quite like him left. With all due respect to the bubbling Michael Bublé. He playfully flirts with us and his charismatic chemistry with our Lady in Gaga, wearing a black dress that looks like she's about to walk the red carpet to another Oscar win (she is...amongst more). The born star who can play Streisand whilst others can't pronounce her name (see Bradley Cooper (is that Barry Gibb?) teaching the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman's son Cooper how to say her name right in the trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Licorice Pizza'), scores and soars here. Especially with her velvet vocal range on the stellar standout 'Do I Love You' (yes) that even makes her iconic 'Shallow' whoa, whoa's that literally spearheaded that movies hype from the trailer sound like it's merely treading water. Anything goes as Bennett devotes, "Whenever skies look grey to me/And trouble begins to brew/Whenever the winter winds/Become too strong/I concentrate on you," on the beautiful ballad and timeless love song 'I Concentrate On You' that demands your full attention. All from a man that could just speak on a record and have you 'Dream Dancing'. But boy when he sings like it's 'Just One Of Those Things', oh how he vocally matches his musical marriage even in his career's Winter this fall. One that like a warm embrace wrapped around you like a scarf will have you 'So In Love' with him...and her and the stage they set, even quarantined at a distance. So 'Let's Do It' as said song gets the party started like a trumpet blare as finally these 20's may roar again like a Gatsby. All I'm a way modern music wish it could as this sound now norm becomes as contemporary as it is classic. All as these two that are the big band best of the best like that chairman of the board tell you 'You're The Top' in closing. 'Love For Sale' like the album titled lead single pitches you lyrics like this, "When the only sound in the empty street/Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet/That belong to a lonesome cop/She opens shop/When the moon so long has been gazing down/On the wayward ways of this wayward town/That her smile becomes a smirk/She goes to work". And it all sounds like the storybook history pages of a legendary legacy. "Old love/New love/Every love but true love for sale/Appetising young love for sale/If you want to buy her wares/Follow me and climb the stairs." We will. Here we come stepping and not by half. SOLD! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Love For Sale', 'Do I Love You', 'I've Got You Under My Skin'. 

REVIEW: JAPANESE BREAKFAST - SABLE

 

4/5

Gaming In H Mart.

Breakfast is the most important artist of the year. How could Michelle Zauner not be? We've spent hours like her, 'Crying In H Mart'. Pouring over the details of the Korean-America's personal and profound autobiography that is just different for the American K-mart and Japanese 'Convenience Store Woman' line. Finish your breakfast. Like proclaiming 'Black Lives Matter', in a year were we will do anything to Stop Asian Hate like 'The Chair' of 'Killing Eve' and 'Greys Anatomy' star Sandra Oh with a bullhorn, or the Linsanity of global basketball superstar Jeremy Lin writing in TIME, Zuaner has given us a memoir that humanizes those who some still discriminate against, even after all these years of trying to peace, love and understanding (what's so bad about it?) make love take over hate. Dealing with the loss of her mother and the embrace of her culture, anyone going through ANYTHING ought to pick up this book as solidarity and solace in a world constantly trying to put us down like it is turning and scrolling. After a year in social isolated lockdown quarantine it came out of the gates of 2021, but it's still easily the memoir of the year...and we're about to see Will Smith's 'Will'. Or the 'Tales Of Life and Music' from 'The Storyteller', Dave Grohl. Not to mention fellow multi-talented celebrity Jamie Foxx's fatherly advice. 'Act Like You Got Some Sense' behind that coffee shop prison like plexiglass for the year of Barnes and Noble. If that wasn't enough, Zauner weeks later 'Posing In Bondage' with 'Parprika' released an orange 'Jubilee' for her front and center Bon Iver similair, Japanese Breakfast band. Following grief with joy for her third-album and 'Soft Sounds From Another Planet' follow-up. Cleaning up with a Spring in her step and also one of the albums of the calendar that was as sought after as hanami in the morning at that time of year in her bands first namesake country. It was clear there was nothing Zauner could not do. She could probably release another album this year if she wanted to. The director could probably even score with her own soundtrack. Oh wait, she actually has! 

Curation's for your selection process, this is not. Michelle has actually crafted this compelling conceptual set herself like Hans Zimmer or Max Richter. Self-proclaimed as "different from anything (she's) done before", nothing sounds like this. This video game soundtrack from the console that will have you double-tapping, even in the times joysticks have been replaced with keyboard warriors. The soundscape of this score is just so other-world building and encompassing. Just like the digitally atmospheric massive multilayer world of EVE Online that kept us in community with a brave new world during corona's dark and as empty as space isolation. Beyond the days of "not actual in-game footage" video games these days make more money than movies and feel even more like an expansion pack of storytelling. You only have to look at how everything's connected in the 'Visions' of the 'Star Wars' world-even down to the trading cards-to see how much this all has an effect. And on the stable cover of 'Sable' by breakfast, the pop art indigo sky and Salt Lake like desert below is laser pen trail pierced by something that looks like a Rey of light, pod racing through the sand. They say video games are a new art form and just like this album artwork they really are and as a matter of fact the soundtrack of this piece serving as modern classical music for your space odyssey like 2001 is too. Get lost in it. Sprawling for all our able time masked from the outside world until we're vaxxed, 'Sable' is a game that features a young protagonist crossing the sand to try and get home to their family. If that's something we all can't relate to right now (like this Englishman in Japan a far cry from his own), then what can we, or do we have, as we all feel like these nomad characters?

Multihyphenated talents from indie rock to the cult gamer world, Zauner is on one for the big-three of her best year. This is her jubilee, gaming and crying. H Mart should sponsor her, or at least give her her own stand off the shelf. Here she excels in encompassing a world, legions away from ours. Giving personal and profound sonic touches and even out of this world vocals to a nomads life in need of a voice like us all right now. Right from the 'Main Menu' opening that sounds so relaxing in healing that you will pause with it on repeat until the demo starts playing. Press start, or should we say play however on the 'Glider' theme and we're really off to the races for an album whose themes and tones even hint at world advice in the here and now ('Better The Mask'). The 'Day' and 'Night' alternative takes of tracks like 'The Ewer', 'Eccria', 'Hakoa' and 'Sansee' really stir, but it's when Zauner sets up an 'Inbexxi Camp' over those two periods, that we really feel it like lit 'Campfires'. Taking us into the 'Badlands' like Springsteen or the 'Thunderheart' of a Val Kilmer movie, this 'Burnt Oak Station' of 'Abandoned Grounds' in closing really paints a digital picture that could be seen in real life, even if we haven't stayed home and logged into its safe solidarity yet. We live in a new world and the 'Machinists Theme' plays it as we live our lives through someone else in avatar. All like 'Mischevious Children' wanting another five minutes with their game that we all know will really be five hours! The age of addiction in digital fields may be killing our creativity, but not Breakfast's. Japanese from the 'Mask Caster' to the 'Cartographer's' theme really plays with all these elements and stories to still tell hers. Whether it's the 'Ships', 'Ruins', or 'Nature' 'Exploration', or a 'Beetles Nest' of a 'Glow Worm Cave' this lights the way like neon from Shinjuku to Shibuya, Tokyo in crossing. This 'Beetle Detour' is a 'Wash' of 'Redsee' in this 'Chum Lair'. All the way to a 'Pyraustas Ruin'. And yes, we had to acknowledge and name every one of these 30 plus tracks, because they all play their part in over an hour and a half of a soundscape that is as vividly long as most movies are. This really feels like one too in the third act of a year scripted by Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner by her own book. Playing to the tune of her own game. And it's not over. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Glider', 'Badlands (Night)', 'Ibexxi Camp (Night)'. 

REVIEW: SUFJAN STEVENS & ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE - A BEGINNER'S MIND

4/5

We Are Augustines. 

Beginner's luck is on mind for Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine as they begin again with their first collaborative album 'A Beginner's Mind', coming in a crowded week were we get new albums from modern soul legend Anthony Hamilton ('Love Is The New Black') and Japanese Breakfast's second of the year (the video game 'Sable' soundtrack). Paired together in painted album artwork along with a curious cover of rainbow and waterfalls and a half naked woman coming out the depths with angel wings and a butterfly below her Medusa head, that's now set in stone like the pregnant emojis of Drake's 'Certified Lover Boy'. That would be the kind of thing that would scare me to death as a kid. I was so afraid of the Goddess of Greek Mythology with serpents as strands of hair that I would look away everytime she was on TV (which was apparently a lot...we were a Titan of a household), like I would actually be left for granite if I gazed upon what I didn't see as a snake seductress (you've swiped right for worse). The only things scarier right now is what could have happened to Timothee Chalamet if we was left too long with 'Call Me By Your Name' co-star Armie Hammer. Now we will never listen to Steven's simple beauty of majesty, 'Mystery Of Love' the same way ever again, like there probably won't be a 'Call Me By Your Name' (again) sequel anymore. Either way Andre Aciman's book is a classic you can't top like Michael Stuhlbarg's sage fatherly speech of advice. Don't fight it. It's a good job Sufjan can find solace in an Augustine like a Brooklyn band. The Thousand Oaks, California singer Angelo De who used to open for Stevens on gigs and now joins him in collaboration concert. The 'Spirals Of Silence' singer and the 'Carrie and Lowell' one sounding as sweet as Simon and Garfunkel for all your Mrs Robinson's.

So here's to them. Jesus will love this indie darling from the Asthmatic Kitty label that will take your breath away now the cats out the bag. Created in a cabin in the woods of upstate New York whilst watching movies for inspiration, this feels like the ideal setting and the perfect muse. On the opening acoustic that reaches out the pair lament, "home is where you've called me/I've gone as far as the eye can blame/You say love may have lost its way." But it's 'Lady Macbeth In Chains' that unlocks more for some lyrical Shakespeare in all its toil and trouble. Fear and foreboding comes like the black and white of a fall forthcoming Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand 'Macbeth' movie. "Open on Broadway, you're a star/Just an opportunist at heart/Evil hid in glitz and glamour/Drunk like a potion harvester/All About Eve, cat up a tree/Margo Channing, listen to me/Don't believe what she says/When she sleeps in your head/Now the two allegories of pity and terror/One for the money, for trial and error/Telling the story anointing its pleasure/Lady Macbeth in chains." Before heading down the yellow brick road 'Back To Oz' like Dorothy, singing, "All my life was calling/All my dreams were buried away/You love me, but you don't know me/In due time you'll throw it away" and clicking their heels together in harmony.  It's enough to pain take us to an ivory 'Pillar Of Souls' that stands proud for the 'Olympus' singers together on the podium in the corona delayed Summer of Tokyo 2020. Forget Bon Jovi, 'You Give Death A Bad Name'. But these shots will heal your heart during this hurt time. Like the atmospheric album self-titled song that's definitely for beginners. Keep it in mind for this 45 over 45. 

'Murder and Crime' plauge this world on fire as we try and put out this apocalypse. But the sweet sound can soothe, even quarantined in crushing loneliness. Juxtaposing lyrics like "My boy, I don't know why this life/Is so cruel and unkind, but it weighs on my heart/All joys were taken from your eyes/As the law would abide in murder and crime/Hard lines as the fossil defines/It's own shadow in lime and reveals how it dies." In this conflicted world of confusion, '(This Is) The Thing' is the thing we want to (and need to) hear. Whilst 'It's Your Own Body and Mind' genuinely embraces equality in this age of the social. "Shall we all talk paternal?/Shall we all talk of the sun?/Everything runs in circles/Everything comes undone/One hand holds the mantel/The other one holds the key/Your body is a sanctuary/And your body is about to be free," the pair emote as they move in melody. Finding a new way that may co-exist together in a studio social distanced future, coming together. 'Lost In The World' but found with a new way to carry on. "A voice of air's mellifluence/Draconian will, superstition/Now go arise, awake your dead/An angel fell, one heaven sent/The Beaufort scale measured the gales/I saw the world between two sails/The water climbed over the sky/As miracles demystify." Couplets from this collaboratory couple of pure poetry. It's enough to write a "Now, Whittier arrived in fictional California/We're gonna bring it on again/Bring it on to you hard/Our school spirit was defined by dance and drama/The lord above will be my guide/The light into my heart," script for 'Fictional California'. Whilst the cool 'Cimmerian Shade' will keep us warm during the last days of this falling Summer that leaves the earth like fallen foliage come Winter. All before the 'Lacrimae' closer ties a bow taking bow round everything perfectly to close. On Daniel Anum Jasper's amazing album artwork, everything is painted from 'The Wizard Of OZ' to Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, but when it comes to the beginning of something new like lambs, you'll love this sound of silence. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Lady Macbeth In Chains', 'Back To OZ', 'Olympus'.