Lav's Music Corner

September served as the follow-up to a pretty brilliant august, but despite having a few more duds on its calendar September did feature a number of great records, and my favorite album of the year so far. Norman Fucking Rockwell  - Lana Del Rey Serving as the first 10/10 review of the year Norman Fucking Rockwell  is yer another brilliant piece in one of the greatest pop discographies of all time, and it should be enjoyed by everyone from die hard Lana stans to those arrant listeners that have been avoiding her all these years. Review Fear Innoculum  - Tool While Tool may not have dropped a record that matches their legendary discography up to this point they did manage to release a pretty unique and captivating metal album that stands tall in 2019. Review Forever Turned Around  - Whitney Whitney follows up their indie darling debut with a second record full of charming and boyish indie tunes that sounds just as unique as ever in the indie landscape. Review Let Lov

Blink 182 is a California pop punk band who blew up in the late 90's with a breakout record Dude Ranch  in 1997 before dropping a smash hit with their 1999 record Enema Of The State . After dropping two more commercial hits over the next four years the band took an extended hiatus in 2004 after Tom DeLonge left the band before they reunited in 2011 to release the commercial and critical bomb Neighborhoods . After this Tom once again left the band in 2015 and they replaced him with Matt Skiba of Blink's often maligned pop punk contemporaries Alkaline Trio. This is the groups second release with Skiba as a member. Review By Lavender: Despite the fact that I wasn't the right age to truly enjoy Blink 182 at my most emotionally potent I have to say that a lot of their tunes, particularly on Enema Of The State  and Blink 182 , hold up incredibly well. Even tracks from some of their earlier releases such as Carousel  and Damnit really hit right some days. Unfortunately sinc

Liam Gallagher is a British singer and songwriter who was formerly co-frontman of legendary britpop band Oasis alongside his brother Noel. After Oasis broke up in 2009 Noel went on to form Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Liam went on to form Beady Eye. While High Flying Birds continue to release music to this day Beady Eye broke up in 2014 after two records and Liam released his solo debut As You Were  in 2017 and is now following it up with this album. Review By Lavender: There is no denying that I absolutely love Oasis. Their output in the 90's is legendary specifically their masterpiece 1995 record Whats The Story Morning Glory. I have even enjoyed most of the material Noel has dropped under his High Flying Birds act, but because of how disappointing Beady Eye was and how long it had been since I had really enjoyed music from Liam, I wasn't thrilled for his solo debut As You Were . Thankfully the record had some excellent singles and surpassed my expectatio

Tove Lo is a Swedish pop singer who blew up in 2014 off the back of a huge single Habits (Stay High)  but has grown to have a more specific audience of devoted conscious pop listeners. After dropping two records under her " Lady Wood " era she has turned over a new leaf and transformed her sound to a more conventional pop approach on Sunshine Kitty . Review By Lavender: I have always been a passive Tove Lo fan, each of her three records have scored a six or higher in my reviews, but none of them have reached an eight. She has a number of great singles and some excellent high profile features under her belt but has yet to come through with a truly breakout record. Despite the fact that none of the singles for this record were as great as Disco Tits  or Habits  I still had some hopes for it, while Sunshine Kitty  isn't that much of a let down it is the weakest full length project Tove Lo has released yet. The singles weren't necessarily bad either a few of them

Quarter three of 2019 has been the best by far and the months of July, August and September were absolutely packed with killer records that you should definitely hear. But just in case you missed the lists earlier in the year here is the Januray-March   list and the April-June  list to check out. So without further ado here are ten more records you can expect to see populating my year end lists. 10. Infest The Rats Nest  - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard After disappointing earlier this year with Fishing For Fishes  King Gizz came out of nowhere to drop one of the most genuinely enthralling  thrash metal records I've heard in years. With very strong influences from the genres godfathers the band sounds straight out of 1986 with fiery performances all around and an exciting and youthful energy that genre has been lacking. Review 9. All My Heroes Are Cornballs  - JPEGMAFIA Peggy quickly follows up his breakout project Veteran  from last year with a record that is e

M83 is the Electronic music project of French producer and songwriter Anthony Gonzalez that has been releasing music since the early 2000's to large critical acclaim. In 2007 M83 released Digital Shades Vol. 1  an album that took a much more ambient or soundtrack approach than any of the groups other work and DSVII  is the sequel to that record over a decade later. Review By Lavender: M83 is an amazing groups with a brilliant discography that you should absolutely dive into. Dead Cities Red Seas   & Lost Ghosts , Before The Dawn Heals Us  and Saturdays = Youth  are all essential listening fro the 2000's and 2011 Hurry Up We're Dreaming  is one of my favorite records of this entire decade. While I love M83 even I am willing to admit that Digital Shades  is not one of the moments I would recommend from the band as their approach is more background noise than any compositionally dense or uniquely textured ambient or drone music, and its only barely a step above some

Iglooghost is a British electronic music producer signed to Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder records who began making waves in 2015 with a series of unique EP's that pushed the boundary of experimental electronic music interpolating heavy sampling and drum and bass music. Iglooghost released his debut record Neo Wax Bloom  in 2017 and followed it up in 2018 with a pair of EP's that also received critical praise. He has settled down now to independently release this collaborative record with frequent collaborators Kai Whiston and Babii after releasing two singles earlier this year. Review By Lavender: Since I was first turned on to Iglooghosts 2015 EP Chinese Nu Year  I have really enjoyed just about everything he has done to date. His 2017 record Neo Wax Bloom  was such a captivating breath of life for electronic music that carried on the excellent artistic progression I was so looking forward to and landed a pretty solid spot on my albums of the year list. Just last year h

1. Rushing Back  - Flume (Feat. Vera Blue) Flume takes the #1 spot on a light week with yet another single in a line of collaborations he has been dropping sporadically this year with varied results. His namesake is more than enough to get ears onto his songs, especially if a new project is in the works. 2. Down  - Hemlock Ernst and Kenny Segal Sam T. Herring, most commonly known as the frontman of indie pop band Future Islands is finally taking his underground rap moniker Hemlock Ernst to the next level and releasing a full length album that should be one of the most high profile indie and hip hop crossovers this year, 3. Into The Surf  - Foals Foals' second part of the album they released earlier this year is rapidly approaching and they have dropped a run of very solid singles leading up to it likely to release yet another indie favorite of 2019. 4. Good Luck  - Broken Bells The two time collaboration between James Mercer, frontman of The Shins and super-producer Dange

Ameer Vann is a Los Angeles based rapper and former member of West Coast hip hop collective/boy band Brockhampton, before being forced out of the group as a response to sexual assault allegations in 2018. He has been quiet since then before returning to social media out of the blue and dropping this surprise EP. Review By Lavender: I really had no idea what to expect going into this EP. Ameer delivered on some of the most cold blooded moments across the Saturation trilogy on tracks like Heat  and Boogie . But by the time the trilogy came to a close he had also developed a trademark cadence fans referred to as "The Ameer Flow" which became incredibly tired and was one of the elements that made Saturation III  the weakest of the trilogy as it appears on song after song. Ameer's complete musical silence since December of 2017 did have me worried, but Emmanuel  is proof that he is pretty much picking up right where he left off, for better or for worse. One thing I sh

Chelsea Wolfe is an American singer-songwriter who has been releasing music for almost a decade that interpolates folk, electronica, rock and even some metal into her sound over the years. She released one of her most acclaimed records to date in 2017 with Hiss Spun  and has been building up to Birth Of Violence  with more acoustic and atmospheric singles. Review By Lavender: Chelsea Wolfe has never really crossed my radar until I decided to check out her 2017 record Hiss Spun  as it received rave reviews from critics and fans alike. The record was a strange odyssey of genre crossovers and indulgent songwritng that I enjoyed and even one that grew on me after I first heard it. I figured Birth Of Violence  would be a good moment to dive into her history and listen to some of her older records I had missed and I have to say that I wasn't really overwhelmingly impressed. While Apokalypsis and Pain Is Beauty  were interesting listens that I enjoyed none of her discography was qu

Pixies are a legendary American experimental rock band who released a run of four records in the late 80's into the early 90's that is considered among the greatest runs in all of rock music history. After breaking up at the tail end of this run and the departure of one of their key members Kim Deal in 2013, they were set up for a disappointing return. In 2014 the band dropped their comeback 5th record Indie Cindy  to critical ire from across the board. Critics and fans alike were let down by the bands cheapened and forgettable attempt at continuing to push the envelope of rock but falling far short. They improved on their next record but just barely as 2016's Head Carrier  received only slightly less negative reviews. All of this led to expectations being low for Beneath The Eyrie  with Pixies yet to establish themselves since their reunion as anywhere near the band they were before. Review By Lavender: There's nothing I can say that hasn't been said before

1. Danny Brown - Best Life Danny Brown steals a slow week for his second #1 of the year just two weeks removed from his first, and with a highly anticipated new album right around the corner. 2. Have A Nice Life - Lords Of Transmission After a lead single that some saw as a misstep the legendary experimental rock band has seen fit to release a second track from their long awaited third record ahead of its release. 3. DIIV - Blankenship After scoring a #1 earlier this year DIIV continues to place strongly as they continue to deliver shoegaze tinged indie rock that sounds as refreshing as their style always has. 4. Gang Starr - Family and Loyalty  (Feat. J. Cole) Almost ten years after MC Guru's death Gang Starr producer DJ Premier is releasing new material under the moniker and recruited J. Cole for a guest verse on the track. 5. Wilco - Everyone Hides Wilco's new era is upon us and with the indie groups legendary pedigree they continue to be in the rotAfter releasi

Jenny Hval  is a Norwegian singer-songwriter who dropped her breakout record  Innocence Is Kinky  in 2013 to critical acclaim, citing her bold spoken word style and unrelenting female sexuality as refreshing qualities. Since then she has continued to receive critical acclaim for records like  Apocalypse, Girl  and Blood Bitch as well as a very well received EP last year. As her style continues to evolve musically and thematically from record to record it is difficult to predict what Jenny will do next, but expectations are high for her first studio album in three years. Review By Lavender: I am a huge fan of Jenny Hval and have been for about as long as she has been around. While I missed Viscera  in 2011 I was around for Innocence Is Kinky  and I liked it a whole lot, and still do to this day. 2015's Apocalypse, Girl  was one of her most popular and critically acclaimed records and while I enjoyed it quite a bit and was happy for her to receive some recognition I didn't