Lav's Music Corner

Kristian Matsson AKA The Tallest Man On Earth is a Swedish folk singer who came to prominence in 2008 when his debut album Shallow Grave  took off in the indie scene given his tight similarities to Bob Dylan. But unlike a Greta Van Fleet approach Kristian did a great job replicating what Dylan did well and evolving it into the 21st century better than Dylan did himself. With a series of albums containing captivating performances and low-fi folk instrumentation he has been one of the most acclaimed artists in the true folk scene since he first arrived.  Review By Lavender: If there is one thing Tallest Man On Earth has achieved for the past decade plus it's consistency. Album after album he drops some excellent folk music with a pretty fantastic base of tunes that are always at least enjoyable while their on. Not every album is as good as 2010's The Wild Hunt  and not all the singles are as good as 1904  but he consistently delivers on solid full leng...

Your Old Droog is a New York rapper and predominant old head who rose to popularity across 2014 and 2015 when many believed his early mixtapes were Nas rapping under an alternate persona. After revealing himself to the public Droog dropped his first big breakout album Packs  in 2017 and has released a number of features and a set of looseys since then, as well as one single leading up to this album. Review By Lavender: Droog is truly an old head's rapper, more so now than ever before. Coming from New York he matches stylistically with the conscious and lyrical flavors of rap music that came out of the east coast in the 90's, carrying the torch for artists like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep and of course Nas. Packs  actually surprised me with its variety in sound and consistently sharp performances, this was the album that proved to me just how capable Droog was of blended the sounds of new and old into sharp and intelligent hip hop for the ages. But on It Wasn't Even Close ...

Cage The Elephant is a Kentucky based rock band that has released 5 albums to date employing different styles and approaches throughout their career. They scored two alt-rock radio hits in the late 2000's with Ain't No Rest For The Wicked  and Back Against The Wall  and continued this success into the 2010's with songs like Shake Me Down, Come A Little Closer  and Trouble .  Review By Lavender: I consider myself a pretty big fan of Cage The Elephant but even that doesn't mean I've exonerated the band from their hit or miss nature. Their first self-titled album is a jangly and jammy piece indebted to southern rock for it's sound and southern folk for it's lyrics. As big of a fan of it as I was at the time even I am willing to admit it sounded better then than it does now. The follow-up was one of the most disappointing releases I have had the displeasure of being around for. Thank You, Happy Birthday  was a turn for the low-fi that tried to adopt t...

1. FKA Twigs " Cellophane " FKA Twigs steals the #1 spot this week over another much anticipated return with a well documented social media campaign and viral music video making her long awaited return. 2.Flying Lotus " Spontaneous " Feat. Little Dragon Flying Lotus is back after much anticipation with his first official single from an upcoming project many are excited for. Featuring Little Dragon on vocals only works to build up hype for one of the most anticipated projects all year. 3.Taylor Swift " ME! " Feat Brendan Urie Even though expectations are low for Taylor Swift these days hype is still through the roof and with the start of a new era she has the eyes of many on her for this one. 4.Japanese Breakfast " Essentially " Michelle is back with a song that already had the attention of the indie world captured on namesake alone, given her fantastic 2017 album any new material from Japanese Breakfast is in high demand. 5.Ride ...

Beyonce is well, Beyonce. One of the biggest stars in the world and a pioneering force in pop music. After missing her original Coachella headlining set due to her pregnancy and being replaced by Lady Gaga she returned the next year and played one of the most electric and exciting headlining sets the festival has ever seen. Now just over a year later Homecoming  is the recorded performance of that very show as well as an accompanying concert video released on Netflix.  Review By Lavender: This is gonna be a quick review as this is a brilliant live album, but one I wouldn't recommend listening to right away. Beyonce delivers one explosive performance after another as she takes a deep dive through the biggest hits and fan favorites across her entire career. The performance features guests appearances from Jay-Z, Solange, Destiny's Child and J Balvin and is a brilliant collection of Beyonce tunes that will go down as one of the great live albums of modern music. But th...

Jesse Rutherford is the frontman of pop rock band The Neighborhood who blew up on the back of their breakout single Sweater Weather  in 2012. The band's first two albums we're moderately successful and met with mixed reviews as well as their hip hop inspired mixtape #000000 & #FFFFFF . In 2017 Jesse released his debut solo effort &  to mostly mixed reviews and underwhelming commercial performance before The Neighborhood returned in late 2017 and 2018 with a series of critically acclaimed EPs and their 3rd project The Neighborhood .  Review By Lavender: I was never really a die hard fan of The Neighborhood or Jesse Rutherford during their rise. Songs like Sweater Weather and R.I.P 2 My Youth  are great pop rock tracks but it didn't seem like there was much depth to what they were doing. This all changed after the band went on an absolute tear last year, Releasing numerous EPs and their 3rd album that all ultimately culminated in more great Neighborh...

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Parklife  one of my favorite albums of all time a a huge defining moment for britpop and the 90s in general, I'm ranking all the Blur albums so far. It wasn't easy given how much I love this discography but after spending sometime on it I think I'm comfortable with my rankings. 8. Blur  - 1997 The self-titled album lands here at 8 as the least "Blur" album of the bunch. The attitude is here as sharp as ever but the mock grunge music and high octane pacing conflicts pretty hard with Blur's usual sound. There are some tracks here like Song 2  and Beetlebum  that can maybe help us reimagine Blur as an edgy american 90s rock band, but there's a reason that's not who they are.  7. Think Tank  - 2003 Despite being released 12 years apart Think Tank  was the trial run for Blu's next album and retrospectively it looks a little bit less meditative and veteran than it initially may have. Despite having s...

Stephen Wilkinson AKA Bibio is a British singer songwriter who developed a devoted indie fanbase while releasing numerous genre bending albums across the second half of the 2000's and into the 2010's. He has dabbled in folk, electronica, indie, pop and even ambient all the while developing a sharp and recognizable style that helped him stand out from his contemporaries.  Review By Lavender: I will be the first to admit I have never been a die-hard Bibio fan. He definitely has his moments especially early in his career experimenting with folk-tronica and some very abstract indie sounds but with the exception of 2009's Ambivalence Avenue I was never really thrilled by any of his projects. This was until 2017 when he dropped a project that initially flew under my radar but I very thankfully caught onto. Phantom Brickworks  was unlike most of Bibio's other projects, it was a venture into true to form ambient music and after being a month or so late to the party...

Broken Social Scene is a Canadian music collective that has come together to occasionally release music in numerous different spurts since the early 2000's. Their 2002 sophomore album You Forgot It In People is consistently considered one of the best indie rock albums of the 2000's and fans continue to flock towards and enjoy their work, most recently being 2017 Hug Of Thunder  album and part one of the Let's Try The After  series of EPs which was released earlier this year. Review By Lavender: In my review earlier this year I mentioned how much of a fan of Broken Social Scene I am and obviously nothing has changed. I continue to enjoy each of their five studio albums and the groups ability to cross genres and keep up with trends has continued to impress me all the way up to the Let's Try The After Vol. 1  EP they released earlier this year which I gave a positive review to. It felt like going into this EP that there would be nothing different waiting for ...

LSD is a collaborative effort consisting of British singer and rapper Labrinth, Australian pop singer Sia and american producer and Major Lazer member Diplo. The collaboration was announced last year with a critically acclaimed lead single and after more than a year of singles, delays and remixes the full album has finally arrived with less momentum behind it than many initially expected.  Review By Lavender: I had no idea what to do coming into this collaboration. Labrinth has never really impressed me with his work. I thought his solo album was just alright and most of his features and singles seem like nothing special. Sia on the other hand I'm still a very big fan of and she's consistently released loud and proud pop albums for the past decade that I enjoy like clockwork. Mixing this in with the even more volatile Diplo, who has to be one of the busiest guys in the music industry and has some soaring highs next to obnoxious lows in his discography.  Thankf...

Anderson .Paak is a multi-talented rapper and singer who has been thrust into the limelight in recent years following a series of critically acclaimed releases that helped the rapper build up a committed fanbase and score multiple crossover hits.  Review By Lavender: .Paak continues to surprise me. A few years after it came out I revisited his first album Venice  and while it was clearly not the project its follow-up was, I was shocked to find out just how good it was and that I hadn't heard it at the time. But after hearing Paak's excellent guest spots on Dr. Dre's Compton  and listening to his excellent 2016 project Malibu  I was already hooked on the multi-talented artist. Paak had a very memorable collaboration with Knxwledge as NxWorries on the album Yes Lawd !   and then took 2017 off of studio work for the most part in order to watch and wait as his fantastic music became more and more popular each day. 2018 was a busy year for Paak as early on...

Priests are a D.C. post-punk band that broke through last year with their debut album Nothing Feels Natural  garnering praise from some indie fans and establishing a space for the group in the indie music environment. Review By Lavender: When I heard the sounds of Priests last year on their debut album it was clear to see that they had something here going for them. Their DIY aesthetic and willingness to experiment with their sound was something special but it didn't translate into much coherent songwriting as Nothing Feels Natural  came off as closer to a rehearsal tape than a debut album. But looking to the future I had a feeling Priests would improve and maybe even drop some essential indie material and while they have certainly improved, there are still some big steps to take.  There are two big takeaways from this album that are obvious in pretty much every song. The good thing to take away is that the bands lyrics are nearly always on point, whether the...

Khalid is a rising R&B singer who hit it off with some successful singles in 2017 and dropped a popular debut album later that same year with American Teen . After capitalizing on his success with numerous high profile features and collaborations Khalid dropped the much maligned Suncity  EP late in 2018 and followed it up with a few singles before the release of Free Spirit .  Review By Lavender: As embarrassing as it may seem today, there was actually a point in time when I told people to look out for Khalid to put together something good. This was on account of his excellent debut single Location  a song that landed on my singles of the year list in 2017 and that I still enjoy quite a bit. Unfortunately not only has Khalid not released another song as good as Location  across his discography so far, he hasn't even come close. When his debut album American Teen  arrived it had all the signs of a young artist thrust into the spotlight. Filled with c...

Weyes Blood is the pseudonym of Natalie Mering who has been releasing baroque and chamber pop music under the name for almost a year now. After receiving more acclaim and popularity with each release Titanic Rising  has a number of very well received singles leading up to its release and looks to be the most successful Weyes Blood project to date. Review By Lav: I can't say I've ever been a big fan of Weyes Blood up to this point, 2016's Front Row Seat To Earth was a step in the right direction but still an album that I found hard to remember even as I had just heard it. But given her switch to Sub Pop for the release of this album and a trilogy singles well received by her fans and critics alike there is all the more reason to believe that this will be the most complete and essential Weyes Blood project yet. Let's start with the singles, as they represent large categories of what appears across most of this album. Andromeda  is a huge spacey instrumental that...

Kitty Ray AKA Kitty, AKA ❤kitty❤, AKA Kitty Pryde is a rap/pop singer with a winding history of music in the 2010's. From the critical acclaim of major music outlets to the ire of old-head rap fans it can be hard to pin down retrospectively what exactly happened with the rise of Kitty but tracing it is essential to understand how we arrived at Rose Gold . Review By Lavender: Luckily I've been a Kitty fan for a long, long time. The Lizzie McGuire Experience came out when I was in 8th grade and as much as I was learning to admire the heroes of rap who built the rules of the genre I was equally intrigued by those willing to break those same rules. When Okay Cupid blew up in 2012 I was right there defending Kitty online and retrospectively I think this music holds up better than I would have imagined if you had made me really think about it back then. Haha I'm Sorry  and D.A.I.S.Y Rage  are unique, sign of the times internet rap albums that refuse to follow in line a...

The Drums is a New York indie and dream pop act that began as a four piece in 2009 and have slimmed down to a one man project, the work of Jonny Pierce, since 2017. The band blew up with their debut EP Summertime in 2009 and many predicted them to be one of the next big artists to blow up in indie. But due to the rise of drearier dream pop on the back of Beach House's success the band fell into more of an indie niche. After a break following a 2014 album met with mixed reviews the band returned in 2017 as a Jonny Pierce solo act and achieved newfound life with well received singles among fans. Review By Lavender: I was never that big of a fan of The Drums in their initial run, despite it being during a peak period of musical discovery for me. Retrospectively their 2010 self-titled debut record The Drums  is a pretty good one that didn't quite click with me at the time but I've grown to appreciate since. But my views changed on the group completely when the band re...

Billie Eilish is an american singer-songwriter that blew up at a young age with her 2016 smash hit single Ocean Eyes . She dropped an EP in 2017 entitled Don't Smile At Me  that was met with mixed reviews but contained a number of hits and set her up for a number of big singles leading up to the release of When We Fall Asleep . Review By Lavender: I've been pretty vocal about my feelings on Billie Eilish so far, with each new successful single and her mediocre EP last year pop at large was willing to accept her as one of their own. Simultaneously she was catching the ire of critics across the board for her often formless and trend chasing pop ballads. The truth is that there are far too few moments across this album when Billie's performance and the production surrounding it benefit each other in a positive way, No track is as good an example than the first full song on here bad guy . The instrumental has some very captivating moments during the verses and Billie...