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

Welcome To Fabulous...Nashville

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spin This: Brandon Flowers - 'Flamingo'.

PHOEBE BRIDGERS finds new ground in a 'LOST WEEKEND'

The Weekend

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spin This: Boygenius - 'The Record'.

A stunning and scorching SAKANACTION Saturday at SUMMER SONIC

Sonic The Headliners

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'THE THREAD' of WILLOW'S wicked wisdom

Weeping Willow

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reality Beats

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time For Some SAKANACTION

Credit: @Sakanaction on X

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

By TIM DAVID HARVEY

There's nothing like fishing in Spring.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go fish!

DUAL REVIEW: BTS - THE COMEBACK - LIVE/THE RETURN - A DOCUMENTARY

4/5 (The Comeback)

4/5 (The Return)

Back To Seoul

62 Mins (The Comeback) / 93 Mins (The Return). Starring: RM, Jin, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, Jung Kook & V. Directors: Hamish Hamilton & Cameron Whitelaw (The Comeback) / Bao Nyguen (The Return). On: Netflix.

Switcheroo. Last week, Flea, candid and compelling, offered moving stories about his late, great guitarist bandmate in the Netflix documentary 'The Rise Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel'. The same time RM, Jin, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, Jung Kook and V of South Korea's very own leading K-Pop act BTS made their long-awaited after their mandatory military service. All for 'Arirang', their highly-anticipated, brilliant, brand-new album, featuring the streaming single 'Swim' and the 'Body To Body' opening dancefloor number. Giving us 'The Comeback' live on Netflix in the same weekend. Much like how fellow boy band phenomenon Harry Styles gave the streaming service 'One Night In Manchester' to coincide with his solo release, 'Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally'. This New Music Friday, Flea blew the trumpet on his first ever solo album, 'Honora', in honour of the bassist's family. All on the same day we got ready for 'The Return' of BTS again, in their new Netflix documentary film. Don't call it a comeback...that was so last week.

Netflix may have lost out to Paramount when it came to the acquisition of Warner Bros. (thanks a lot, Trump), but look what else they've picked up. Most recently, not only being the only streaming provider to televise this year's World Baseball Classic, they also gave us the MLB opening night between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants. But it's the N x BTS deal that may just get an ARMY of new subscribers following. Disney used to be the Kingdom of BTS. From the 'Monuments: Beyond A Star' series detailing their hiatus, alongside the 'Permission To Dance' swan song live in LA, to all the documentaries about the solo work of J-Hope ('J-Hope In The Box') and Suga ('Road To D-Day'). Not to mention the hugely popular 'Are You Sure?!' travel series by Jimin and Jung Kook, which just sky-dived its second season in Switzerland. Yet that was the past and the best to come that was promised. And kept, as we see the future now, live on everybody's favourite streaming service that belongs to their best friend.

Now, what better way to debut their return record than with a homecoming in Seoul, South Korea, like no other...live? How about in the heart of the city, live from Gwanghwamun Square? The iconic temple that feels like a gate to the city featuring brushstrokes of projection mapping, added on to it for the effect at night, similar to what the digitally iconic TeamLab Borderless did to Kanazawa Castle and more, here in Japan. Classic, like the traditional dress of women singing the album title name's folk song as they sway in love, sorrow and endurance. Yet when the silhouettes of the magnificent seven appear on the map of the heart of Seoul, you just know it's on, like one of their biggest hits. Performing powerhouse records like 'Mic Dop', 'Dynamite', and other smooth like 'Butter' numbers, to go along with instant classic choice cuts off the new album. "Swim...swim." All as RM coolly took a seat, like this was a 'Yet To Come' performance, thanks to his going hard in rehearsals leaving him down on one knee, in matrimony with the Boyz II Men ballad seat.

In the engaging 'The Return', a documentary directed by Boa Nguyen ('Live From New York!', 'Be Water', 'The Greatest Night In Pop'), BTS debate whether they are using too long a sample of 'Arirang' in their album lead off track 'Body'. But as they sing, "my beloved/Who leaves me behind and departs/Your feet will tire/Before mine ever do," it's clear to hear that in-yun in 8,000 past lives, these boys would still be together. Most break...not this bulletproof squad. Candour and conviction are matched with a camaraderie that shows even the military couldn't tear apart what was already an army. And when they reunite on a beach, live online for their legions of fans, BTS behind the scenes like when Jimin asked Jung Kook if he was sure, you just know this one is more than just seven strong. Sealed with viral moments and a labour of love and trust of the process in a studio setting in Los Angeles, California. All the way back home across the shore and a live, studio plugged version of 'Swim'. A new lap for a group that has already taken its victory one and is about to run, run, run together again. The return has come all the way back. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'BTS - Monuments: Beyond The Star', 'BTS - Permission To Dance: On Stage - LA', 'Are You Sure?!'