The Fat Angel Sings

Sharp Pins’ “Radio DDR” showed up on our list of great albums from late 2024 you might have missed. But given the lateness of the hour and a proper physical release this year,

Release dates are trivia, but Sharp Pins’ purely joyful and impeccably crafted lo-fi power pop is essentially timeless on arrival. Reminiscent of prime Guided by Voices, Big Star, Cleaners from Venus—pick whichever analog-recorded janglers show up on your radar “Radio DDR” is pop perfection by any other name. The project of Lifeguard’s Kai Slater , Sharp Pins capture a certain kind of vintage that sounds great no matter how or when it graces your headphones: 2024, 2025, 1974, 1993, it’s all good stuff.

Sharp Pins is the super solid lo-fi noise pop project of talented Chicago musician Kai Slater of the band Lifeguard and Dwaal Troupe. “Radio DDR” was originally released as a Hallogallo tape.

Let the old folks fight it out. Sharp Pins are too busy staying up late watching vampire movies. Fathers and Children of the Revolution. Sharp Pins are known for their pop guitar minuets that splay the ballet; they are the cosmos. Word on the street is Sharp Pins will touring the U.S.A. with the Hard Quartet, March, April, May, 2025.

Japanese Breakfast, the captivating musical project of Michelle Zauner, is set to enchant UK audiences once again in 2025! Known for shimmering tracks like “Be Sweet” and “Everybody Wants to Love You,” as well as their Grammy-nominated album “Jubilee” (2021), the band’s spellbinding blend of indie-pop and shoegaze promises an unforgettable live experience.

Having wowed fans with performances at Glastonbury and All Points East, and sharing stages with Florence + The Machine and Belle and Sebastian, Japanese Breakfast’s UK return will showcase their dynamic energy, lush production, and heartfelt storytelling.

The Indie pop band Japanese Breakfast return in 2025 with their fourth album, titled “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)”, In the first week of this year, the band released lead single “Orlando in Love”, and confirmed UK shows in London and Manchester this summer as part of the Melancholy Tour across the world.

More than three years since their previous album “Jubilee” was released, this new record is set to be darker, gloomier and, as per its title, melancholic. Produced by Blake Mills, best known for his works with Bob Dylan and Fiona Apple, “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)” is set to be one of the most exciting releases of this year.

“Orlando in Love” by Japanese Breakfast from ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)’, out March 21st on Dead Oceans.

“Lonely People With Power” is the metal band’s follow-up to 2021’s “Infinite Granite”, with Justin Meldal-Johnsen returning as producer. “Lonely People With Power” is out March 28th. It’s Deafheaven’s first album for Roadrunner Records; their previous albums arrived via Deathwish, Anti-, and Sargent House. Since their 2011 debut, “Roads to Judah”, Deafheaven have embraced an aesthetic palette that transcended heavy music itself, but black metal firmly remained the core of their sound. With 2021’s “Infinite Granite”, the band brought that idea into question for the first time, mostly casting aside the scream and scorch in favour of dreamier shoegaze textures.

Four years later, “Lonely People With Power” offers not just the reassurance that black metal remains essential to who Deafheaven are and what they do, but genuinely rivals any of their prior releases as their best. Still swirling in elements of dream pop, post-punk, noise rock and other sounds, Deafheaven sharpen their focus and go for the throat on more concise, finely honed rippers like “Magnolia” and “Doberman” while stretching their limits even further on versatile standouts such as “Heathen” and “Body Behaviour.” 

“Lonely People With Power” captures Deafheaven at their most beautiful and brutal, and an astonishing spectrum in between. 

The band—featuring vocalist George Clarke, guitarists Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra, bassist Christopher Johnson, and drummer Daniel Tracy—invited Interpol’s Paul Banks and Boy Harsher’s Jae Matthews to guest on the new album.

Psychedelic electronic duo Darkside returned after an extended hiatus back in 2021 with the release of “Spiral”, and since then, Dave Harrington and Nicolas Jaar have not only remained active, but expanded the group to a trio. With the addition of drummer Tlacael Esparza, Darkside are prepping the release of their third album, “Nothing”, which suggests an even groovier new direction for the band. The first two singles released thus far, “Graucha Max” and “S.N.C” both of which we named Essential Tracks to hear, showcase more influence from the funkier end of Can’s pioneering krautrock as well as early ‘80s mutant. Nothing is the third album from Darkside nine transmissions of negative space, telepathic seance, and spectral improvisation. 

The group fill in the open spaces in their music with dirtier, nastier grooves, playing up the more physical aspects of their music rather than follow a more ethereal muse. Moments like highlight “Graucha Max” showcase Darkside at their most manic, where something like “American References” turn up the heat, pushing its humid grooves to where you can almost the beads of sweat trickle down the back of your neck. There remain sinister underpinnings to Darkside’s songs, but their method of navigation winds through much more hedonistic trails.

Release date February 28th released on MatadorRecords

This Cloakroom’s fourth album is bookended by the kind of dense, widescreen shoegaze that’s become their signature over the past decade. But in between those two endpoints is an even more vast spectrum of sound and image, more intimate stories and character sketches depicted through more immediate surges of power pop (“Cloverlooper”), new wave (“Unbelonging”), even dreamy, vintage surf-pop (“Bad Larry”). “Last Leg of the Human Table” is solid in its foundation, the kind of record where if you stripped away all the effects, you’d still have a spectacular set of songs. But when they do fire up the engines again on a song like “Story of the Egg,” it’s a blast to just watch them go.

Some of their heaviest riffage yet: the opener’s totally crushing. There are also lighter moments, such as “Bad Larry”, which sounds like a cosmic country Mexican surf track! It’s all underpinned with lots of sonic experimentation and lo-fi textures.

released February 28th, 2025

Bambara‘s brooding latest album “Birthmarks” is out on Bella Union It’s a thrilling, fever dream of a record with Reid, Blaze and William really upping the ante so buckle up for this one and listen loud 

Since we last heard from cinematic Brooklyn post-punks Bambara (2022’s “Love on My Mind” mini-LP), they signed to Simon Raymonde’s Bella Union label in the UK and, most significantly, have undergone a noticeable sonic overhaul. The bones are still the same — smouldering, high-drama rock that owes a lot to Johnny Cash, Nick Cave and Ennio Morricone, with Blaze Bateh’s thunderous drumming powering things and brother Reid Bateh’s smokey swagger in the spotlight — but this time it’s delivered with sleek synthesizers and layers of atmospheric sound design. The album was produced by Graham Sutton of British post-rock greats Bark Psychosis and he feels like a fourth member of the band alongside founding bassist William Brookshire.

Would they have put the ’80s-style orchestra hit samples on ripper “Letters to Sing Sing” without him? Maybe, but it feels new and exciting in this context, a fist pumping moment that is both a little humorous and exactly right. Then there’s “Face of Love,” the album’s best and most surprising song, that is part Cocteau Twins and part Massive Attack, with cascades of ethereal guitar wash, crashing slow funk drums, proggy keyboard arpeggiations, heavenly guest vocals from Madeline Johnston (Midwife) and Emma Acs (Crack Cloud), and Reid in growling sprechgesang mode that leans toward rapping.

Despite those two band reference points in the last overlong sentence, “Face of Love” does not sound like “Teardrop,” but it is pure Bambara. Whoever is responsible for this sonic renovation, huzzah, because “Birthmarks” sounds like a million bucks in all the right ways and the band’s essential Bambara-ness never gets lost in the gloss.

Fusing goth, post-punk, and Morricone with a spine-shattering sneer, “Birthmarks” showcases Bambara at the height of their powers. Their fifth album overflows with thick layers of hooks even as dense clouds of synth haze swirl around the mix. It’s equal parts moody malice, gloomy grit, and somber storytelling—but instead of being a dour downer, standout songs like “Hiss,” “Letters from Sing Sing,” “Face of Love,” and “Dive Shrine” burst at the seams with barely controlled fury. Driven by snarling guitars, brash drumming, and Reid Bateh’s brooding baritone, this album absolutely rips.

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts are Spooner Oldham (Farfisa organ), Micah Nelson (guitar and vocal), Corey McCormick (bass and vocal), and Anthony LoGerfo (drums). Young shared another new song. “Talkin’ To The Trees” marks Neil Young’s first studio recording with his new band, the Chrome Hearts . This record moves fluidly between intimate acoustic reflections and fervent rockers. Opening with the warm, personal ballad “Family Life” and the gritty garage-blues stomp of “Dark Mirage,” it then alternates heartfelt tunes like “First Fire of Winter” and ode-like “Silver Eagle” with the politically charged “Big Change” and the rally-cry of “Let’s Roll Again”.

At once a reflective, tender work and a pointed protest album, it finds Young as impassioned and vital as ever, with a message that leaves no doubt where Neil Young stands in these challenging times. 

Never one to waste previously used lyrics or old-guy activist sentiments, Young and his clanking, grungy new ensemble with guitarist Micah Nelson borrows the fervour that filled his post-9/11 track “Let’s Roll” and revisioned it for a new battle cry—one geared to take down Tesla owner Elon Musk while prodding American auto manufacturers to make safer electric vehicles.

Best lyric: “Don’t want no loud sounds coming from the back, spewing macho poison / It’s not a race track.” 

All songs were written by Neil Young, co-produced by Young and Lou Adler and recorded at Rick Rubin‘s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, Calif.

The Australian group’s third LP is out via ATO Records. “One of the most exhilarating bands in recent years, Australian band Civic reimagine proto-punk for an era of endless uncertainty. On their new album, “Chrome Dipped“, they push themselves and their sound even further. the first half of 2025 has surely made a record like Chrome Dipped a particularly welcomed sound for a broader demographic of ears. The melodically aggressive tones of CIVIC feel geared toward this moment of tension and frustration both here in the States and abroad, with the band’s lyrics vaguely addressing themes that conveniently match up with the conspiracy wormholes we’ve lost distant relatives to over recent years and a growing sense of AI supremacy some of us may soon be losing our livelihoods to, as well.

The title speaks to this desire to break down barriers. “I like the idea of “Chrome Dipped” being a mindset,” says frontman Jim McCullogh. “It’s like a casting of your character, or like an outer shell. One of the main objectives for this album was to make a drastic turn in our sound. Break the mould, melt the steel.”

The band mostly speaks in abstraction when discussing the 11 songs on “Chrome Dipped“, perhaps less as songwriters carefully guarding the true meanings of their work and more so due to the fact that the snarling vocals and wailing guitars behind them (to say nothing of the “disgusting” central riff on at least one of these tracks) do plenty of talking themselves. While their overarching sense of nihilism can be found in the lyrics if you’re searching for them, it’s hard to deny that the catharsis this mood permits provides more than a bit of the muscle behind each of these doomy post-punk cuts.

1. “The Fool”“The Fool” is about living in an illusion or lie that supports your own selfish narrative and lifestyle patterns. You think you’re sailing, but you’re actually drowning. [It’s] a nihilistic death march about dreamers and idiots. A jangly pagan punk song meant to provoke the senses. It recalls the story of the fool and what’s behind the thousand-yard stare.

2. “Chrome Dipped”A balancing act between human emotion in a world that’s hurtling toward complete reliance on the machine. 

3. “Gulls Way”Paints a picture of a rose expelling its seeds to create offspring. The garden is grown only to be tainted by a freezing storm. Your world freezes over. A farewell song to loved ones. 

4. “The Hogg”
Finding peace and gratitude in being out of your depth in a foreign place. The song is about staring into the abyss and seeing nothing but its pure beauty. Surface-level pleasure with sinister undertones. A porcelain dancer draped in flesh, pirouetting to the infinite beat. ‘The Hogg’ is my reality. ‘The Hogg’ is my destiny.

5. “Starting All the Dogs Off” I’m painting a picture of this character on a mission to nowhere, that’s leaving a trail of destruction behind him, but can’t deny his human emotions getting in the way. There’s a love story in there, there’s loss, there’s all this life stuff getting in the way of his journey to emotional freedom. The ending is kind of this ultimate form—it’s like the final blow. It’s about giving into who you are, and coming to that realization. 

6. “Trick Pony”Being stuck in the anxious brain. Fight-or-flight in full effect. The pinnacle of disaster. 

7. “Amisuss” Serendipitous events around the loss of my mother. Noticing/experiencing her spirit in a non-tangent way. It was almost like watching the transformation of her leaving her physical body behind and becoming something that still resides in and around me. 

8. “Poison”
Ultimately a song about a relationship/friendship becoming toxic. 

9. “Fragrant Rice” The change of hand in kinship and the fear around that becoming your reality. Humanity is the rice. We are all the same. We will all have loss. 

10. “Kingdom Come”“Kingdom Come” is a ballad about people who live with longterm addiction and manage a life through a chaotic and turbulent existence. Somehow functional and always on the edge of collapse, but also wanting nothing else.

11. “Swing of the Noose” Finding freedom in nihilism and embracing the demise.

Laura Jane Grace in the Trauma Tropes—the songwriter’s newly minted band with vocalist Paris Campbell Grace, bassist Jacopo “Jack” Fokas, and drummer Orestis Lagadinos— have shared the new single “Wearing Black,” which will be featured on their forthcoming album “Adventure Club“. On the hard-charging punk-pop cut, Grace sings: “Wearing black to the punk parade / ACAB but the gays are OK!” The singer tosses in some cultural criticism, too, cooking up a heater of a bar with: “Jojo Siwa is playing at two / She’s got that karma and some Tito’s, too.”

Additionally, Grace will be touring throughout 2025 across North America and Latin America with Murder by Death, Rodeo Boys, Trapper Schoepp, and Team Nonexistent in select markets.

“Wearing Black” is taken from the upcoming album, “Adventure Club” – out July 18th, 2025 via Polyvinyl Records . Laura Jane Grace: Vocals, Guitar Paris Campbell Grace: Vocals Jacopo “Jack” Fokas: Bass Guitar, Vocals Orestis Lagadinos: Drums, Vocals Additional backing vocals by Chiristina Blioumpa & Georgia Kollyra

Sly Stone, who has sadly passed away aged 82,  The creation of his second masterpiece was still a couple of years away when, in 1969, Sly Stone launched into the pivotal year of his career, the 12 months in which his great leap forward gestated. Led by the mercurial Sly Stone, Sly & The Family Stone were a highlight at Woodstock and Monterrey Pop and an influence on generations of musicians

“After a prolonged battle with COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family,” the statement reads. “While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come.

Born in Denton, Texas, in 1943, Stone formed Sly & The Family Stone in 1966. Arguably the first truly interracial major rock group, they mixed rock, gospel, funk, pop, jazz and psychedelia into a heavy-duty mix that was as influential as it was innovative.

“Sly was a monumental figure, a groundbreaking innovator, and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk, and rock music. His iconic songs have left an indelible mark on the world, and his influence remains undeniable. In a testament to his enduring creative spirit, Sly recently completed the screenplay for his life story, a project we are eager to share with the world in due course, which follows a memoir published in 2024.”

During those 12 months he released his fourth studio album, and first masterpiece, “Stand!” That five-star summation of the multiracial, male-female Family Stone’s style mixed celebrations of life with songs whose sociopolitical thrust came in soul, R&B, rock, pop and jazz arrangements and the funk he’d given a hipped West Coast twist. It all seemed a glorious affirmation of the hopes held out by the decade just closing.

Sly topped that in August when the Family Stone’s set was one of the high points at the Woodstock Festival. Yet by December his sound-shifting, shape-changing single “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” had intuited the darker days to come. Sly had discovered the Maestro Rhythm King drum machine which gave him greater control of the Family Stone sound and would gradually nudge the musicians to the peripheries, stoking up resentments and paranoia as the band slowly fragmented.

Thereafter, the exuberance of the late-’60s music would give way to a muddier sound, and the lyrics were less open and inclusive. Moreover, his live appearances became persistently and provocatively unreliable as drugs sapped his creative juices. While he was making great records, he could just about get away with the contempt he seemed to be showing to paying customers; but when the recorded music lost its moxie, the audiences at his concerts slowly came to comprise eternal optimists and car-crash chasers.

It was a tragic, protracted coda to a decade-long imperial phase of dazzling brilliance. But when he shone, Sly Stone shone brighter than almost anyone. Formerly Sylvester Stewart, raised on gospel, fed a diet of doo wop, jazz, blues and R&B, as a DJ, songwriter, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist, Sly’s unmatched grasp of soul, funk, pop and rock created a revolutionary cross pollination of sounds, drawing in both black and white audiences in a way that no other performer at the time managed. His seismic impact can be felt reverberating through funk, disco, house, R&B, hip hop, rock and pop to this day.

Various Artists – The Autumn Records Story (Edsel, 1986)

Included on this compilation of tracks from a San Francisco label, owned by local DJ Tom Donahue, are several mid-’60s productions by Sly Stewart, aka Sylvester Stewart, who was also a Frisco DJ back then. The tracks that announce his arrival capture the energy of the era and range from The Mojo Men’s raucous, garagey She’s My Baby to Bobby Freeman’s Cmon And Swim (Part 1) and S-W-I-M. Although only dance-craze cash-ins, Sly finds the best in Freeman’s tone – a little like the twistin’ Sam Cooke, in fact. Elsewhere, Sly makes an appearance as an artist, again under the Sly Stewart moniker, “Buttermilk”, an organ-led instrumental with a strong bass line and mouth-harp solo, being the best.

Sly And The Family Stone – A Whole New Thing (Epic, 1967)

It’s doubtful if Epic realised quite what they were unleashing on this debut “A Whole New Thing”. Even now, the Family Stone sounds an impressively tight and well-drilled unit, standing at the crossroads of funk, rock and soul, ready to head off in all musical directions at once. From the war dance drums-and-horns riff of “If This Room Could Talk” to the pop catchiness of “Run, Run, Run” and the frantic soul revue tribute of “Turn Me Loose“, there are constant changes of tone and tempo – Larry Graham’s bass, and bass vocal, anchors the ballad “Let Me Hear It From You” and less successful hard hitter “Bad Risk. Advice” is good, but the weirdness and paranoia of later is apparent in “I Hate To Love Her, Bad Risk and “Dog”

I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower – (Light In The Attic, 2014)

A rare plant that bloomed for just two years, Stone Flower Records launched in 1969 and grew out of the production company Sly and his manager David Kapralik had set up two years earlier. It featured four singles, all here, by three acts – Little Sister, including his sibling Vaetta, the strong soul singer Joe Hicks and multi-racial sextet 6ix – to which this CD adds 10 previously unreleased tracks. Sly’s fingerprints are all over the music – Little Sister B-side “Stanga” hits the groove; 6ix sound looser on “You Can, We Can; Hicks’s Life & Death In G & A finds him in “There’s A Riot…” territory and Sly’s stoned funk, pop and soul productions here clearly parallel his concurrent work on that album.

Sly And The Family Stone – Small Talk (Epic, 1974)

Kathleen Silva, briefly Sly’s wife, and son Sylvester Jr, are pictured on the sleeve of an LP that mixes ruminations on family (title tracks, “Mother Beautiful“) with superior tracks of Stone power – notably the driving start to side two, in old vinyl money, “Loose Booty” and “Holdin’ On”, and a later, frantic, “Livin’ While I’m Livin’. But gentler vibes are the norm “Wishful Thinkin’; a lovely doo wop closer “This Is Love“. “Time for changin’, rearrangin’,” Sly sings in his final US Top 40 hit single “Time For Livin’. Sadly, there is no new direction. A track like “Can’t Strain My Brain”, despite its jauntiness, suggests the artistic lassitude that would, after 1975’s so-so solo album “High On You“, consume the next 40 years.

Sly And The Family Stone – Higher! (Sony/Legacy, 2013)

Of several available ‘best ofs’, “Higher!” is the classiest and comes in two sizes. First, a 17-track digest with three unreleased songs “What’s That Got To Do With Me”, “I Remember”, and “You’re The One“, taped live on Don Kirshner’s Rock Show), plus singles edits, mono mixes and another live track from the Isle Of Wight (1971). If that merely whets your appetite rather than satisfying it, there’s a fascinating 77-track 4-CD/8-LP box with 13 more previously unreleased songs, plus more of the other type extras. You’ll be reminded why you dug Sly in the first place and, indeed, taken higher. Of other comps, “Spaced Cowboy” (2009, 2 discs) and “Dynamite!”, (2011, 22 songs) are Sony/Camden budget CDs.

Sly And The Family Stone – Life (Epic, 1968)

Released in the slipstream of “Dance To The Music”, the Family Stone’s third album is often overlooked in the story but has plenty of surprises and is a strong stepping stone (no pun etc) to “Stand!” Sure, opening track “Dynamite!” quotes from Dance and Plastic Jim reworks Eleanor Rigby’s “all the lonely people” refrain rather baldly, but “Chicken” clucks and pecks its funk around the yard, while the contrasting grooves of “Fun” (fast) and “Into My Own Thing” (midtempo) show off the band’s tight interplay. An exuberant “M’Lady” and title track, the album’s two US Top 100 hits, are solid pathways from “Dance To The Music” to “I Want To Take You Higher”; “Jane Is A Groupee” is the caustic, cautionary closer.

Sly And The Family Stone – Dance To The Music (Epic, 1968)

As a DJ in San Francisco, Sly knew how to programme a radio show and responded to Epic’s request for a more commercial record for the second Family Stone album with this first classic in the catalogue. “All the squares go home!” the title track shouts, a theme expanded on in the 12-minute three-part “Dance To The Medley”, full of multi-instrumental dexterity, vocal variety from doo wop and scat to James Brown get-down riffing. The track “Higher” has the prototype of the chorus to “I Want To Take You Higher; Music Lover,” part three of the Medley, sends the “Higher” idea into outer space; strong ensemble playing throughout.Sly And The Family Stone – Fresh (Epic, 1973)

Sly And The Family Stone – Fresh (Epic, 1973)

The Larry Graham/Greg Errico rhythm section had left in the fall-out from the heavy drug scene coalescing around Sly, and this broadly self-referential set of songs that followed is an honest portrait of the state he’s in. “Put a little tickle on the jones’s head/Turn off the light and go to bed,” he sings in “Frisky”. There may be hope in “Thankful ’N’ Thoughtful”, but a Doris Day cover, “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“, and “If You Want Me To Say” suggest Sylvester Stewart had his hat and coat on and was ready to turn off the studio lights after making this final essential LP. Richard Avedon’s cover shot of Sly’s energetic ‘leap’ is misleading. He was actually prone, laying down flat on a glass table. All the signs were there.

Sly And The Family Stone – Stand! (Epic, 1969)

The first five-star album in Sly’s briefly productive, starkly parabolic career. Highlighted by its anthemic hits which emphasise the multiracial, men-women nature of the band – the drive of “I Want To Take You Higher”, the Number 1 hit “Everyday People, Sing A Simple Song” and the uprightly defiant title track – “Stand!” also boasted successful experimental tracks, notably two which lean on treated vocals – “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey”, a fine funk workout, and the 13-minute “Sex Machine”, essentially a band instrumental.

On stage, the band were phenomenal, with appearances at both Woodstock and Monterey Pop giving them instant credibility, but by the mid-70s a litany of cancelled shows, disrupted tours and terminal drug abuse had rendered the band all but unemployable, with an erratic Stone battling both addiction and mental health issues.

Sly And The Family Stone – There’s A Riot Goin’ On (Epic, 1971)

Where have all the good times gone? Recorded during reclusive, obsessive and drug-fuelled sessions in a Bel Air mansion, Sly’s riposte to his own hi-energy successes, “Stand!”, Woodstock triumph, Number 1 hit “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf)” – was this masterpiece. It has some of his catchiest melodies “Family Affair”, “Just Like A Baby”, “Runnin’ Away”, but muddier, grittier rhythm tracks bubble on a mesh of guitar-bass-keyboards-synths under which lurks muted anger “Africa Talks To You”, defiance “Brave & Strong” and drug paranoia “You Caught Me) Smilin”. ”I’m a songwriter, a poet,” he sings in “Poet”, not a spokesman for a nation’s generation despite a Stars And Stripes cover.

The last interview Stone gave was in 2007, although he surprised many by publishing a memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), in 2023. And this year, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), a movie directed by the Roots drummer and Tonight Show bandleader Questlove, was released to great acclaim. It was a film he deserved.