Lav's Music Corner

Alexis Marshall is the frontman of noise rock/metal outfit Daughters who returned from an extended hiatus in 2018 and released their most acclaimed album to date. House of Lull  is the debut solo album from Alexis and comes off of a pair of singles released earlier this year.  Review By Lav: I actually didn't know that this record was coming until just a few weeks beforehand which didn't give me much time to get familiar with the singles or build up much expectation. I think that's for the better as despite how many people absolutely adore the last Daughters record I haven't seen much discussion for House Of Lull  online yet. I was really not sure what parts of the band's sound would translate into this solo work, but Alexis does a good job of establishing a sonic identity different from what I expect to hear from Daughters. While the execution of that sound can be inconsistent, overall I think it's a pretty good start.  The two singles from the album are a pret...

Darkside  the collaboration between micro house producer Nicolas Jaar and multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. The project has been on hiatus since 2014, one year after their massively acclaimed debut Psychic . Late last year the duo publicly announced their upcoming sophomore collaboration which features racks dating all the way back to 2018.  Review By Lav: Within the increasingly complex and musically spectacular canon of Nicolas Jaar Darkside's Psychic plays a very important role, but always felt like it was a one off event. Given how great that record is and how well it's aged I was always excited by the idea of a Darkside follow-up but for some reason it felt as though it would never happen. That made the duo's return almost a mythical like moment for me, especially following up a ridiculously great portion of Jaar's career. In the past few years he has released two stellar house records under his Against All Logic's moniker, two very solid solo records high...

If there is one genre that always had way more releases than I could possibly ever cover, its rap. But a close second is indie/singer-songwriter records which are easy to produce and there are a LOT of them. It is also one of the most homogenized genres out there with so much of it sounding functionally indistinguishable sonically and relying on the personality or story-telling of its artist to bear the entire weight of the project. This means that I typically don't enjoy these style of projects as much as most, but I still think it's appropriate to get my thoughts out there on some of the bigger ones.  Home Video  - Lucy Dacus While I haven't been head over heels for much of Lucy's work so far it's difficult to deny her talent as a vocalist and her infectious personality. When she's at her best as a soloist or member of boygenius she is capable of great things and after hearing a few good singles I was hoping that Home Video  would be her best outing yet. The r...

Pop Smoke was a New York drill rapper who was tragically murdered last year, and has since proven to be a force of commercial music. Faith  is Pop Smoke's 2nd posthumous album and likely to be his 2nd #1 album, following last years Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon . Just a few days before the record the tracklist and production credits for the album were revealed, showing off a myriad of talented features.  Review By Lav: It's always difficult to review a posthumous record, since it can often have so little creative input from the artist whose name it's released under. In the recent years, hip hop in particular has frequently been criticized for it's posthumous records which either release recordings that are clearly unfinished and shouldn't be heard by the masses, or packing the songs full of trendy features that the original artist would have never worked with. This record does both, but it isn't quite as bad as it seems like at the outset. The biggest pr...

Kai Whiston is a London based electronic music producer who has worked with a number of contemporary electronica's most interesting artists. Drayan!  is a mixtape that follows Kai's sophomore album in 2019. Also in 2019 Kai served as one third of the band Gloo with Iglooghost and BABii on their album XYZ . Review By Lav: My introduction to Kai Whiston was his Kai Whiston Bitch  album, but the first time I got to actually review his music was the next year on Gloo's XYZ  which I enjoyed. Given that we got projects from fellow Gloo albums Iglooghost and BABii earlier this year it felt fitting that Kai also got something out, and something pretty exciting at that. Drayan!  is a heavily thematic mixtape about Kai's alien son who is fittingly named Drayan. As weird as that sounds it is 100% the case and if you'd like to have Drayan give you your horoscope check it out here . Given that in the past one of my few complaints about Kai has bee a lack of truly defining feat...

Wavves is the San Diego based surf rock and punk rock band, most associated with longtime frontman Nathan Williams. After a run of 6 records in less than 10 years Wavves took 4 years off before dropping a series of singles leading up to Hideaway . Review By Lav: While Wavves may not be a universally accepted critics choice for one of the most essential punk bands of the 2010's their snarky attitude and matter of fact songwriting continued to engage me throughout my teens years, all the way up to 2017's You're Welcome . The combination of their sunny songwriting and rough production understandably gives some people reservations about the band, but alongside the snarling youthfulness of Nathan's attitude towards his songwriting and performances the assembly shines. Even with that being said we are a few years removed from the last time the band released anything, and over a decade removed from my personal favorite, and what is generally considered their most defining proj...

Spellling is the progressive pop and art pop project of singer and songwriter Tia Cabral. She first turned heads with her independently released debut album in 2017 before signing to Sacred Bones records and wowing critics with her 2019 follow-up. Two years later she is back for an even grander third record on the back of three similarly acclaimed singles.  Review By Lav: This took me a while, my bad. Not only did this record come out on a busy week but there is also quite a lot to go over. I enjoyed the last Spellling record and I had a feeling I was going to enjoy this one even more after hearing the singles and seeing some pretty positive reception for the record, one reviewer in particular. And while I wish I had gotten my thoughts on the project out before Melon's review I still want to deliver. While I don't think this record is perfect I do like it quite a bit. If you are somehow interested in this kind of sound and haven't had the chance to indulge Spellling yet, do...

EPs have a knack for falling out of view. When bigger projects with more demand and discussion are out there I don't quite give EPs the attention they deserve. But after hearing a very solid short-form project from Tkay Maidza I thought it was time to once again pay a visit to a handful of EPs I meant to cover from earlier in the year. Unfortunately as a group, they didn't turn out so great.  Rebecca Black Was Here EP - Rebecca Black I think it was pretty much impossible to have any expectations for what direction Rebecca was going in prior to the release of this EPs singles. Given the unpredictable elements of her child sensation turned hyperpop badass career arc there were really all kinds of things that could happen here. As it turns out the results are pretty tame, a series of lovesick pop ballads with the occasional vocal effects or electronic twist, but nothing close to some of her recent key collaborators eccentricity. While none of these tracks are offensively bad Rebe...

Tkay Maidza is an Australian rapper and singer who first drew attention with her 2016 debut album on Interscope before transitioning to 4AD for the series of Last Year Was Weird EPs. Vol. 2 was released just last year to resounding critical acclaim, building up hype for this quick follow up. Review By Lav: While I haven't been the loudest supporter of Tkay in her career so far, I have been paying attention. What I've seen is an artist who is improving every single time I hear from her and I knew that it was time to properly review her work. This came after enjoying her EP last year and enjoying the trio of singles leading up to this EP even more. While this isn't quite the earth-stopper that Vol. 2 was for many people, Vol. 3 has some major highlights and a pretty consistent run of great songs at its core.  While we're here we should get the weak points of the EP out of the way not, which weirdly enough are the opening and closing tracks. Eden  is a pleasant opening tra...

Vince Staples is a California rapper who has been revitalizing the ethos of gangster rap for over a decade now since first emerging in the early 2010's. He has released two critically acclaimed studio albums as well as a number of equally loved EP's and mixtapes, but we hadn't heard from Vince since 2018 save for a few throwaway singles. The self-titled record is his first proper studio album since 2017's Big Fish Theory  and features wall to wall production from Kenny Beats. Review By Lav: I love Vince Staples. His debut album Summertime 06  has always been a personal favorite and landed prominently on my albums of the decade list last year. Even though I thought its follow-up was just okay when I first reviewed it all those years ago I think time has done it justice and I enjoy it more now than I did then. This being couples with a trio of wonderful short form projects in Hell Can Wait , Prima Donna  and FM!  and Vince has one of the more consistent and exciting di...

Okay I promise this is the last rapid fire review of the week before we jump into some actual new records. The last trio of tracks I wanted to cover are a bit difficult to categorize so they're ending up here in a slightly electronic slightly ambient haze of experimental music that I had to make sure I covered sooner rather than later.  Skitzofrenia Simulation  - Sewerslvt Sewerslvt is an experimental electronica project that I only just heard of last year on the back of the very solid Draining Love Story  which overcame its title to be quite an enjoyable experience. I was hoping that this record would achieve the same jump in quality from what you'd expect out of the title, but quite a bit has happened for the Sewerslvt brand in the past year, some of which can be very hard to collectivize. After old posts were dug up making insensitive jokes Sewerslvt apologized before seemingly leaving social media entirely, with communication via Bandcamp emails becoming the primary m...

While the connection between these records may be loose, they are pretty loose.  This is honestly just a couple of albums I want to talk about before the year is out and there doesn't seem to be any better time than now.  HARAM!  - Goldlink Goldlink is a DC area rapper who has immense talent and has shown it off more than a few times in his career so far. Unfortunately it hasn't translated into many great records as he consistently provides inconsistency as a singer rapper and songwriter. It's been 2 years since we last heard from him and in my review of his last album I mentioned that when he and his features are operating at their best the highlights are excellent. But just like is often the case those tracks were mixed in with underwritten and underperformed cuts. HARAM!  seemed to come out of nowhere shortly following Goldlink's return to Twitter and features a pretty busy and impressive selection of features among its tracklist. It also features a mixtape like c...