Lav's Music Corner

Offset is an Atlanta rapper and one third of superstar trap trio Migos. The group blew up over the course of a few viral singles in the mid 2010's and have exploded into one of the most popular acts in the world, and as each member has ventured off into various collaborations and solo projects Offset is the last in line to release a solo album after poorly received projects from Quavo and then Takeoff preceded Father of 4. With only one promotional singles very close to the albums release it is hard to get a read on what exactly to expect from Offset this time around. Review By Lavender: When Migos dropped Culture in early 2017 it felt like the most important album in the entire world. After Childish Gambino shouted out the groups hit Bad & Boujee and it blew up to one of the biggest hits of the year they used the album as a platform to launch a full scale takeover of the music industry. 2017 also included a flurry of features for the trio and more imitators than anybody...

Lil Pump is a Florida rapper who came up on the SoundCloud wave with a series of viral low-fi bangers like Gucci Gang  and D Rose . He dropped a self-titled mixtape in 2017 that scratched a unique itch for senseless and hard hitting trap bangers with stunning consistency. Despite being one dimensional the tape impressed with sharp execution of a specific formula. Since then Pump has skyrocketed in popularity being named to XXL's Freshman list last year as well as dropping numerous singles. Many of those tracks land on this album and the very hit or miss track record he had over last year and early 2019 doesn't inspire much confidence for a project noticeably longer than his first.  Review By Lavender: I like many people wrote Pump off at first as a guy who wrote a decently catchy song that blew up by chance, and it turns out that I like many people, was completely wrong. He has proven to not only make solid appearances throughout his first two years of relevancy, but als...

Sir Babygirl is the pop pseudonym of LGBT pop singer and Father/Daughter records artist Kelsie Hogue. She spent 2018 dropping singles like Haunted House  and Heels leading up to the release of Crush On Me her debut album. Review By Lavender: LGBT culture and the world of bubblegum pop go hand in hand. I had high hopes for this project to be an unrelenting and unashamed dancy pop powerhouse but it falls short in so many ways, ultimately proving that a great style and attitude aren't enough to make it in the world of bubblegum pop. Let me start by saying that I truly did believe in the success of this project. young LGBT genre bands have been a wave of creativity but it has been noticably hard for them to stick both landings in regard to establishing themselves on the back of their good music (see PWR BTTM or G.L.O.S.S). So when I watched her music videos and read her interview to discover that Sir Babygirl was a hilarious and creative young person toppling labels and doin...

Avril Lavigne is a legendary rock and pop singer who made a name for herself with a trilogy of commercially successful albums throughout the 2000's and a number of huge singles including, Complicated, Sk8er Boi, Girlfriend and My Happy Ending . Over the course of her next two albums Goodbye Lullaby and Avril Lavigne she began a shift away from rock into a pop/vocalist approach to her music and Head Above Water represents her complete transformation from rebellious rock singer to mature pop songstress. Review By Lavender: I do not like Avril Lavigne's music, it's important I make that very clear. I grew up with all these songs and at no point in my life have I considered myself a fan. Complicated has become one of the most grating and poorly aged pop singles of my lifetime over the course of the nearly 20 years since it was first released. Even tracks that I could sing along to today like Sk8er Boi and Hello Kitty are far more in the realm of nostalgic meme music...

Broken Social Scene are a Toronto based indie collective featuring a rotating cast of musicians and notable indie names who have been dropping indie staples since their conception in the early 2000's. We last heard from the band in 2017 when they dropped their first record in 7 years Hug Of Thunder  to moderate critical acclaim. The singles All I Want  and Boyfriend  were released in the lead up to this EP. Review By Lavender: I have always been a moderate fan of Broken Social Scene. Their 2002 record You Forgot It In People is a piece of indie royalty that I enjoy a lot still to this day and in 2017 I gave a positive review to their first record released in my time doing these reviews, Hug Of Thunder . I also awarded a spot on my singles list to the fantastic indie pop tune Skyline . My expectations were still pretty tempered for this new EP having already heard two of the five songs going into it and coming away just alright from the tracks. Ultimately what the...

Czarface Meets Ghostface is a collaborative hip hop album between hip-hop supergroup Czarface, made up of producer 7L, MC Esoteric and former Wu-Tang member Inspectah Deck, with another former Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah. The project is a spiritual sequel to last years Czarface, Meets Metalface collaboration with MF DOOM. Given the classic rap pedigree of the MCs and the consistent success of all involved in recent years and collaborations there was no reason not to expect high quality performances across the board on this collaboration. Review By Lavender: Both of the Czarface albums are good, the MF DOOM collab album last year was good, Ghostface Killah is good, all of his collab albums are good, Wu-Tang is good. I expected this to be good. It is good. This review is gonna be redundant because I know this is a good album and so do you. Nothing you'll hear on here is new from the oldhead inspired lowkey beats and superhero themes to the tight lyricism and c...

Panda Bear is the alias for Noah Lennox, one of the principal members of Baltimore psych-pop revolutionaries Animal Collective. The group has had a steady output of fantastic experimental music for the entirety of the 2000's and into the 2010's featuring numerous mixtures of the groups four main members, a lot of the projects heavily featuring the creative input of Panda Bear. But as Animal Collective has recently run into a series of just so-so releases Panda Bear's consistency as a solo artist has shined. Through Person Pitch  the underrated Tomboy and most recently Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper  he executes with consistency under his own name.   Review By Lavender: Panda Bear's 2007 album Person Pitch  is an absolute masterpiece, the songwriting alone is nothing short of genius and its vicinity to the similarly fantastic Animal Collective album Strawberry Jam  makes it even more impressive. So after I enjoyed Tomboy  the underrated and o...

Xiu Xiu is a lot, and I mean that. The band blends genres from every reach of experimental music to make some extremely indulgent bastardizations of rock, electronica, goth and pop music. Despite collaborating with indie acts like Grouper and Michael Gira of Swans a surprising amount of indie fans never caught on to Xiu Xiu's presence until their 2010 album Dear God, I Hate Myself   a foray into video game based music using the Nintendo DS music maker app in their recording process. Getting a shoutout from The War On Drugs for their 2014 album Angel Guts: Red Classroom was the biggest stop on their way to 2016's Xiu Xiu Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks . A universally acclaimed covers album of the Twin Peaks soundtrack that set them up for a fantastic follow up in Forget and drew attention to frontman Jamie Stewart's solo instrumental project last year.  Review By Lav: I, like most people first heard of Xiu Xiu in 2010 and even then it was pretty clear to me that th...

LCD Soundystem is the James Murphy fronted legendary New York dance punk band that came to prominence in the mid 2000's in the scene of the same style which they helped to develop.  After dropping three fantastic albums between 2005 and 2010 the band announced that they we're retiring and would play one final show in New York's Madison Square Garden. This became what many believed to be the band final release, the live album taken from the event. One that was critically acclaimed upon release and was compared to LCD inspirations like Talking Heads and their fantastic live outputs. LCD reunited and dropped their 4th studio album American Cream  to critical acclaim in 2017 numerous songs from which land on this live project. Review By Lav: I absolutely LOVE LCD Soundsystem, lets get that out of the way immediately. I consider all 4 of their albums to be among the best of their respective decades and their sophomore effort Sounds Of Silver is one of my favorite albums...

Ariana Grande is an American pop singer and former child star who broke out long before her musical debut. After enjoying positive commercial success over three studio albums she skyrocketed to the top of the pop world on the back of Dangerous Woman single Side To Side . But her first taste of critical success came on the widely successful and highly praised Sweetener . Its trio of singles No Tears Left To Cry , God Is A Woman  and The Light Is Coming all became hits and led to her most critically acclaimed album to date. Since then this projects title track and lead single has become Ari's first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as a second widely praised hit in 7 Rings  setting the stage for a quick comeback album with a huge hit or miss potential. Review By Lav: Ari is a personality I've always loved, since before the music was even a factor. That's important to understand in order to quantify just how boring the first few years of pop singer Ari was, I wante...

FIDLAR is a California garage punk band who exploded onto the indie music scene in 2013 with a fantastic self-titled debut that blended punk musics hilarious cynicism with garage's blistering and low-fi rock aesthetic. They dropped numerous well received singles and developed a devoted fanbase before dropping Too  their second project in 2015. The album had some popular and well received singles but ultimately fell short of fans expectations for a follow-up. And now after the long wait for a third release and 3 singles released throughout 2018 FIDLAR gear up for another album. After some moderately good singles last year the band started 2019 off with the fantastic By Myself single, which did a lot to drum up hype for the project and was praised critically across the board. Review By Lav: I, like most people really enjoyed the debut FIDLAR  album when it came out back in 2013, the music reminded me of many of my favorite low-fi genres of the 80s and 90s and the snarky at...