Lav's Music Corner

Kanye West is an artist who really needs no introduction. One of the biggest and most controversial figures in popular music who has maintained a devoted fanbase and commercial success for nearly two decades. After a trio of stadium shows where unfinished versions of his 10th studio album were played to fans, Donda  finally dropped at the ever so unconventional time of 8 am on a Sunday morning.  Review By Lav: Well here it is, the record everyone has been talking about. For the better part of a month the general music community has been caught up in the tailspin of Donda  that Kanye's biggest fans have been toiling in for months if not even years going back to Yandhi . So what are my credentials. While I'm not a Kanye stan who defends his actions regardless of quality or context, I am a big fan of his music with records like College Dropout , My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  and The Life Of Pablo  being among the best high profile hip hop records of their era....

About once a month it is time to quickly clean up a series of EPs that come out and I don't have the time to specifically write full reviews of them, or they're so short that this format works better anyway. These are that, and they're also actually pretty good.  All In  - Skepta Since Skepta released his mixed reviewed 2019 record Ignorance Is Bliss  he has shown up on a few features, dropped a collaborative album last year that rolled up on the short side and then released this EP. It actually gets off to a pretty good start with the hard-hitting Bellator  but most of the talk surrounding the record were on the next two tracks which sport features from Kid Cudi and J Balvin respectively. Unfortunately Peace Of Mind  is an ugly mess with Cudi and Skepta competing for who can deliver the worst sung vocal and they're somehow both winning. The overbearing beat is the final ingredient of the annoying cocktail that spins into something absolutely rotten. Even though...

 Must hear new songs this weekend: 5.  So Mean  - Poppy Poppy stays the course of her new era on this new single which features much more pop punk influences than the heavy metal she's dabbled in recently. The song effectively fuses the sugary pop of her back catalog with some tight and catchy pop punk riffs and a Avril Lavigne attitude.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT40JmmtnY4 4.  Justice Go Genesis  - Sleigh Bells The minimalism of a new Sleigh Bells single is just as bewildering in 2021 as it was in 2010. This track delivers rapid fire percussion, distant blaring guitar riffs, rising synth arpeggios and loud incredibly infectious lead vocals. The combination is dizzying but in the exact way that they have always done so well.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS0bQ8rTc1M 3.  Orange  - Pinegrove After debuting the track a few weeks ago with a live version Pinegrove's new song landed on streaming this week in its proper studio form. The i...

If all goes well there should be a number of rapid fire review posts going out this weekend the first of which is merely a pair of records I've been meaning to review for a while and mirror each other in a way that I feel very clever and very smart and very good at my job for thinking of when nobody else did /s, mostly. These are mostly covers albums by artists who have a very specific sound to thank for some of their original tracks and took a spin doing their own versions of some of the classic tunes from those sounds, whether it be Mexican folk music or delta blues.  Un Canto Por Mexico, Vol. II  - Natalia Lafourcade Part two of Natalia's renditions of classic Mexican folk songs is a record that I've been flirting with off and on for a few months since it came out. Since I'm not a native speaker and not as familiar with the original versions of these tracks I took my time pulling apart the various creative decisions she makes on the record given how much I've enj...

Ka is a Brownsville, New York based rapper whose minimal and introspective brand of hip hop has become massively acclaimed across a series of highly conceptual albums which deliver narrative rich metaphors relating to topics like Japanese samurai, Greek mythology and Christian theology. A Martyr's Reward  was surprise released on Ka's personal website and carries the themes of Christian lyrical references over from last years  Descendants Of Cain . Review By Lav: I have been enamored by Ka's brand on introspective hip hop since years before I started reviewing music. Records like Honor Killed The Samurai  and Orpheus vs. The Sirens  were not only packed full of incredible wordplay but had overarching themes that were far more creative and literary than you'd typically expect from even the most high brow rap albums. I was pretty impressed by high dive into Christian metaphors on last years record and expected that it may be a while before we hear from him again ...

Deafheaven are a San Francisco based experimental rock band. In 2013 their sophomore album Sunbather  became a breakout success receiving massive critical acclaim for the bands fusion of black metal and shoegaze, fittingly referred to as Blackgaze. In records since then the band worked to expand into realms of post-rock as well, but the trio of singles leading up to  Infinite Granite  projected a shift into full on shoegaze sounds. Review By Lav: I know I start about 60% of reviews on this channel with the phrase "I love "artist"". But I love Deafheaven. Sunbather  completely blew me away when I first heard it and I was still on the hook for both of the bands follow-up records. 2018's Ordinary Corrupt Human Love  was my first opportunity to review the band and I was thrilled to absolutely love the record. It's fusion of blistering black metal, dramatic post-rock and hazy shoegaze totally blew me away once again. I had a feeling that the band would continue ...

Lorde is a New Zealand based pop singer who became extraordinarily famous at a young age when her single Royals  became one of the biggest hits of the 2010's. Since then she has become an almost mythical pop figure who is prone to disappearing completely from the public eye for extended periods of time between album cycles. Adding to this mythos she emerged earlier this year with a lead single denouncing technological dependence accompanied by a music video featuring some slightly cult like imagery. Review By Lav: I'm a Lorde bitch. I was a Lorde bitch when I left middle school during Pure Heroine 's commercial domination. I was still a Lorde bitch when I graduated high school during a great critical renaissance surrounding her follow-up Melodrama . Now 4 years later I was still incredibly excited to get emails from Lorde about her trip to Antarctica and this was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. After a trio of singles that admittedly have massive meme potenti...

Five must hear songs that came out this week: 5.  Bloody Future  - Kilo Kish Kilo's second single from her upcoming project is an improvement on all fronts with a shimmering club beat, infectious hook and charming lyrical angle. She continues to be one of the more underrated voices in modern electro pop but always feels like she's on the verge of a breakout with tracks like this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ihlRO_QeHQ 4.  Life Is Not The Same  - James Blake With contributions from trap mainstays Take A Daytrip as well as Joji on production James Blake delivers another intimate heartbreaker, this time over a slick trap inspired beat. The absolute belter of a hook reminisces on earlier eras of his career but the undeniably slick instrumentation continues to mirror his journey into more popular music styles.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3qRD0mYtPs 3.  More  - Low With their third and shortest teaser yet in lead up to their new record slowc...

Hopefully this is the first of a lot more rapid fire reviews in the coming weeks as I've got a lot of catching up to do. First things first. There have been a number of high profile records coming from the experimental and alternative realms of hip hop that I'm putting under the "outsider hip hop" umbrella even though the sounds don't necessarily have a ton of similarity.  Long Term Effects Of SUFFERING  - $uicideboy$ Any $uicideboy$ fan that's ever interacted with me on Twitter can tell you that I have a shaky relationship with Ruby and $crim as of recent. Even though I enjoyed their I Want To Die In New Orleans  album since then they've released a Travis Barker collaboration that missed me completely , as well as a mixtape that didn't leave much of an impact . If there is a silver lining to Long Term  when viewed from a big picture lens it's that the band clearly put more effort into this release. At the very least this collection of short songs ...

Boldy James & The Alchemist are a pairing of Detroit and California rapper and producer who first met up last year on the critically acclaimed The Price Of Tea In China . Both artists have proven to be quite prolific recently with Alchemist scoring critical successes last year alongside Freddie Gibbs and this year with Armand Hammer. Boldy dropped a number of projects in 2020 headlined by China  and the Sterling Toles collaboration Manger On McNichols .  Review By Lav: In the past 16 months Boldy James has gone from a rapper I had only ever heard mentioned in passing, to somebody whose every move I am anticipating in 2021. His brand of storytelling and lethal vocal delivery made for effective and often conceptual hip hop tracks and has already been attracting the attention of some legendary producers. Boldy and Alchemist's second collaboration in as many years has massive potential and while the record is quite good, neither of them does anything we haven't heard them do b...

The Killers are a Las Vegas based indie and heartland rock band who have undergone a bit of a transition in sonic approach as their songwriting matures. Pressure Machine  follows last years Imploding The Mirage  and sees Foxygen's Jonathan Rado returning on production for a set of tracks inspired by frontman Brandon Flowers childhood in Utah.  Review By Lav: It's no secret that I've been a fan of The Killers for a very long time and I've dished out positive praise to the band repeatedly since I started reviewing. Last years My Own Souls Warning  saw the band leaning into Springsteen aesthetics more than ever before and recruiting Jonathan Rado from another one of my favorite bands Foxygen to ham it up instrumentally to great effect. I was excited to see Rado unite again with the band on Pressure Machine , but this record is a very different beast from Soul's or really from anything else in the bands discography. Brandon Flowers and company pen their most folk inspir...

Best New Songs Of The Weekend: 5.  Fly Again  - Turnstile Turnstile continue to impress with what feels like their thousandth single this year. While they are taking away from much of the surprise on their upcoming album they have also managed to flex quite a bit of sonic versatility from their hardcore bassline with these singles and this one is no different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xHt98f5JxI  4.  Rumors  - Lizzo (Feat. Cardi B) Lizzo is back in action after having a major break-out in 2019 and is doing it with a charming and unabashed pop rap cut. She addresses many of her haters straight on with a raunchy lyrical outing and catchy hook. Cardi does tend to steal the show a bit with an excellent second verse but I think at this point you expect Cardi to attract quite a lot of attention when she's on your track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P9XUrniiK4 3.  Back To Oz  - Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine Sufjan and Angelo are back with...

An extremely busy time for me is finally settling down and I'll have time to focus on a lot of records I've wanted to review over the last month or two through rapid fire reviews. While there is still a ton of exciting indie music coming out on a weekly basis in 2021 it is also worth looking back at some of the staples of the genre whether in the 2010's or 2000's to see what they've been up to recently.  Draw Down The Moon  - Foxing I've always had a weird relationship with Foxing, seemingly be drawn to the albums that most people are least impressed by. While they're debut is certainly solid I though the follow-up Dealer  impressively embraced post-rock fusion in a way that felt more instrumentally impressive than most indie rock bands were capable of. This is why I was surprised to feel to meh about the bands previous record Nearer My God  in 2018. Regardless I was willing to engage with the band given the clear talent in their line-up and the fact that th...