Lav's Music Corner

1. Jay-Z - 4:44 Jay-Z has taken his time recovering from the blunder that was Magna Carta Holy Grail and maybe that time is exactly what he needed to put together a great new album. There's been no singles and little info leading up to the album which makes it all the harder to pin this thing down. But there's always the hope that the man who gave us "Reasonable Doubt" can assemble a great rap project. 2. Beach House - B-Sides & Rarities If there is one thing you can't deny Beach House has been, it's consistent. 6 Albums in they all meet a quality standard of deep and passionate dream pop. Even their most recent Amnesiac like follow up to Depression Cherry was fantastic and spawned fan favorite Elegy To The Void. There's no reason to expect this to be album of the year, it's just B Sides but if Untitled Unmastered tought us anything it's that the best artists have more good songs than just what we hear on the album. 3. Mark Kozelek...

1. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory The rap industry darling is back after his 2015 studio debut Summertime '06. Last years Prima Donna EP didn't exactly blow anyone away but with the single BagBak Vince seemed to prove he was back on track. The two singles since have had questionable features on the hook, but Vince's versus have dominated all the same. With Kendrick Lamar, Damon Albarn, A$AP Rocky, Bon Iver, Flume, SOPHIE and of course Kilo Kish credited on the album there's a lot of talent here to put together an unmissable album. 2. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Murder Of The Universe Regardless of how you felt about the underwhelming Flying Microtonal Banana the singles towards Murder Of The Universe have been excellent and from a band that takes quantity over quality dude are to be expected. That's why you can expect them to bounce back from their dud to make their second album of the year a great one.

5. Coldplay - "All I Can Think About Is You" The Kaleidoscope EP won't be where Coldplay turns it all around and returns to the quality of their first 4 albums I'd the Chainsmokers feature is any indication. But this song proves thay they're not as one sided as the indie heads would like you to believe. It's not full on Rush Of Blood To The Head but for the first time in a while Coldplay takes a step back from the pop charts and delivers a genuinely well crafted song. 4. Queens Of The Stone Age - "The Way You Used To Do" QOTSA has one of their most impressive outings ever in 2013 with Like Clockwork but they're seemingly returning to a late 2000's radio rock band form with this new single. It's not ambitious, or explosive, or game changing. It's just rock and it should please long time fans. 3. Arcade Fire - "Creature Comfort" If you weren't big on "Everything Now" and the move towards full on disc...

Had a rough Thursday night? There's new music for you. 7. The Drums - Abysmal Thoughts The Drums have been counting down members since their inception and breakthrough in the late 2000's and it hasn't resulted in higher quality music. Abysmal Thoughts may be the last chance for Jonathan Pierce to save his band from obscurity, maybe expect some risks on the album. 6. Big Boi - Boomiverse With almost every single released for Boomiverse Big Boi feels even further from his OutKast origins. Setting aside "Kill Jill" the singles have been rough around the edges and over all lackluster attempts to capture the modern rap audience using old school flow and production. It's hard to expect much out of this project but with a diverse list of features and the potential for throwback sound around every corner every rap fan should be able to find something they like here. 5. Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls If we've learned anything from Barter 6 and ...

10. Sia - Free Me In support of the #endhiv Sia dropped "Free Me" a power ballad that doesn't hit quite as hard as som of her other songs but goes full in on the vocal strain as Sia lets out powerful and passionate touching lyrics. A can't miss for fans that will likely be swept under the pop radar. 9. Manchester Orchestra - The Gold Manchester Orchestra has some ground to recover after the dissipointing Cope and Hope, but let's not forget the bands great trilogy of albums their career opened up with. They don't storm back but crawl back into a familiar form. The song is enough to satisfy after a three year drought but an attempt at an album is going to have to pack a little more punch to recover their reputation. 8. Torres - Skim Torres is nothing if not interesting, and the cover, snappy production choices and lyrics of the song represent this in full. Don't expect this to be a perfect song but it demands to be listened to. 7. Roy...

4. Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, James McAlister - Planetarium These days anything with the word Sufjan attracts attention and hype but I'm not sold on this one yet. A conceptual space album channeling Spiritualized the ceiling for this project is phenomenally high. But everything I've heard from and about the project seems to point to a more moderate level of success. 3. Katy Perry - Witness If there's one thing Katy Perry wants to show off on Witness, it's that shes changed. And that's an exciting prospect for fans and anyone involved in music as an artist with her status is bound to influence following acts with whatever she does thats successful. Witness could prove that Katy Perry is on the cutting edge of pop music every time, or that she has lost her touch since Teenage Dream. 2. Phoenix - Ti Amo Even though the singles have been hit or miss Phoenix has a quality standard. And it's not unrealistic to expect a solid effort from th...

Kicking it up a notch. 10. Joywave - Shutdown Coming off a series of alright singles this is one of the best so far. They're not rewriting their formula but this is one of their better attempts at it. There's no reason to expect them to break out with an incredible new album but the singles at least give a reason to be excited about it. 9. Susanne Sundfør - Undercover Ten Love Songs finally brought Sundfør the credit she deserved in 2015 but since then shes been quiet for solo work. Undercover returns with nuance rather than force and as always it left everyone excited for what direction she would take next. 8. Ice Cube - Good Cop Bad Cop, Only One Me Ice Cube returned with two songs this week, Only One Me is a nostalgia drenched boastful banger about how Ice Cube not only still has it, but it neva left (see Snoop Dogg). Good Cop Bad Cop is a N.W.A era political rap throwdown. Cube takes no prisoners and says what he wants to say when he wants to say it. The song ...

Six albums that you should be excited for this week. Singles are coming from Lorde, The War On Drugs, Radiohead and Arcade Fire so don't let these projects slip past you. 1. Alt-J - Relaxer Alt-J have two good albums under their belt and after three different sounding singles there's no way to tell how this thing will sound. But there's one thing thats to be expected, it'll sound good. And it'll be the first album I'm playing at midnight this friday. 2. Roger Waters - Is This The Life We Really Want Waters Pink Floyd legacy or past solo work didn't get him to this position. I'm surprised anyone is talking about it excited for a Roger Waters album in 2017 but here we are. Singles "The Last Refugee", "Deja Vu" and "Smell The Roses" are where all the excitement comes from. They're a varied and interesting trilogy of political and passionate songs. If the rest of the album can maintain this quality then we're i...