Lav's Music Corner

Cola is a Canadian post-punk act that follows in the footsteps of one of the most critically acclaimed indie acts of the 2010's, Ought. The band features the lead vocalist and bass player from Ought teaming up with the drummer from indie band U.S Girls. Deep In View  is their debut album under the Cola name and follows five singles dating back to last year.  Review By Lav: I LOVE Ought. Across the 2010's they managed to drop three excellent albums which featured a number of the best indie songs you can find anywhere. I would have been extremely excited for a new Ought project and though they announced the project was no more as of last year, the fact that we got Cola in its place also really excited me. Unfortunately, the mixed bag of singles resulted in an inconsistent record, but I'm also happy to report there are still some excellent tracks here that follow in the footsteps of great Ought tunes. Let's talk highlights first because the record had a few singles that gr...

Given the sheer volume of highly anticipated material that came out this week, it's hard to not see the final product as slightly disappointing. Regardless these are the best new songs I heard this week and they likely aren't the ones you're anticipating. Enjoy <3 5.  Hideous  - Oliver Sim (Feat. Jimmy Somerville) This is quite an interesting track that I've been digesting upon repeat listens because it moves through some very distinct phases. Ultimately it's when Oliver Sim is at his most intimate that the song hits its emotional highs and when the Jamie xx produced instrumental hits its orchestrated peak that it finds the most impact. Unfortunately, I'm not crazy about Jimmy Somerville's addition to the track where he serves as a HUGE outlier. Honestly having another vocalist on the song at all feels like it takes away from what should be really gripping and raw intimacy.  Listen 4.  Freight Yard  - The Garden This is The Garden alright. From the wacko ...

The Smile are a new supergroup made up of longtime Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood as well as Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. A Light For Attracting Attention  is the project's first record and features production from frequent Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.  Review By Lav: Have you guys heard of this band Radiohead? Well as it turns out they're one of the most universally acclaimed and beloved acts on the entire earth and just about anything that any of their members do is likely to draw attention. Not to mention perhaps the two most visible creative forces in Radiohead history, Thom and Johnny, collaborating on a side project together. Enter The Smile a new project which has been teased since last year and featured six singles of varying but mostly pretty good quality. Like most music fans I was pretty excited for this record on namesake alone, not to mention once I heard some great singles. As it turns out that excitement was well placed because A Li...

Matmos are an experimental electronic duo who have spent decades making some of the most acclaimed experimental and underground electronica. They are well known for their highly conceptual projects including their recent run of acclaimed projects. Their past three records have included an album made entirely with samples from a washing machine, samples from various plastic objects and most recently a 3-hour album made with 99 different collaborators. Regards  is a tribute album to Polish composer Boguslaw Schaeffer where they were given access to his entire catalog to rearrange various sounds into the music on this record.  Review By Lav: I've loved Matmos for a long time. Their 2001 album A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure  is one of my favorite experimental music projects of all time and they've been on an incredible creative streak since 2016's Ultimate Care II . Because of this I was going to be excited for anything Matmos did next. While the singles for the record d...

Harry Styles is a British pop star and one of the biggest names in all of music in 2022. After rising to fame as a member of boyband One Direction he transitioned seamlessly into a massively successful solo career which has netted numerous commercially successful records and hit singles. Harry's House  is his third solo album and comes three years after Fine Line . Review By Lav: Oh Harry Styles. From the massive backlash generated by One Direction spearheading the second great wave of boybands to the complicated discussion surrounding his willingness to blur gender and sexuality lines in his fashion. Whether or not Harry is queerbaiting, or has any sense of style at all is a discussion I am NOT wading into, but musically his early legacy is just as complicated. Commercial success was always going to be in the cards for Harry as the most popular member of One Direction but critically speaking he's been on a tightrope. His lead singles so far have been excellent. Sign Of The Tim...

Flume is an Australian electronic music producer who has spent the last decade fusing mainstream EDM with various subgenres of electronic music. This has given him a wide-ranging fanbase of electronic music fans following his career. Palaces  is Flume's first full-length release since 2018's  Hi: This Is Flume  mixtape and his first album since 2016's Skin .  Review By Lav: This was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. Not only did I just call Flume's self-titled debut one of the best albums of 2012 a few months ago, but I also loved his previous project in 2019 and still feel like I underrated it in both my initial review and on my year-end list. Since then he's released a number of singles that I really enjoyed punctuated by the excellent Toro Y Moi collaboration The Difference  in 2020 and numerous singles from this record which I've dished out praise to this year. While the singles still worked for me and there are some very satisfying deep cuts in...

At the 11th hour, I returned home from vacation having only recently remembered I had to write and publish the best tracks of the week. Here they are. Enjoy <3. 5. 2001 - Foals While Foals have basically been in their dance-rock era for quite a while now they finally leaned heavily into the disco influence on this track and made their best single from this era. It's certainly not complicated and I wouldn't say it has much of the extravagant rush that you might expect from a good Foals track, but it's bouncy and charming in the way the good disco revival music has to be.  Listen 4. Funeral Solution  - Thee Oh Sees After not loving the last few Oh Sees records, this was a punch in the face that I was excited for. The band needs less than two minutes to absolutely pummel you with chugging riffs, short screamed vocal refrains and an absolutely filthy mix. This one is simple, it will crush you, you should let it. Listen 3. Through The Fires  - Angel Olsen Angel Olsen delive...

Melody's Echo Chamber is the dream-pop project of singer and songwriter Melody Prochet. Emotional Eternal  is the project's 3rd album and comes after a 4-year gap from the previous, Bon Voyage . Review By Lav: I'm not sure I have all that much to say about Melody's Echo Chamber. A few months ago I threw the project's debut album on my Best Albums of 2012 list because it really is just an enjoyable run of dreamy synth-pop tracks. I enjoyed the long-awaited sophomore album and I fully anticipated enjoying this especially after hearing the single Alma , which has become one of my favorite Melody's Echo Chamber songs to date. While I wouldn't call this record mind-blowing or anything, I once again enjoy the project.  So let's talk about that very single that won me over so much because on the album it's expanded to nearly twice as long on a track called Alma_The Voyage . Thankfully everything that made me fall in love with the song in the first place is ...

Kendrick Lamar is a California rapper who spent the 2010's becoming one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful artists in all of music. 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly  was one of the most universally acclaimed albums in decades and the follow-up 2017's Damn.  served to break Kendrick directly into the mainstream. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers  comes 5 years later and was released as a double album with no singles and very little promotional material. Review By Lav: How do I even start a review like this? If you asked me what my favorite album of the 1960's was, the 70's, 80's, 90's, or 00's I could give you an answer but only after an agonizing amount of pouring through my favorite records trying to separate something from the pack. Two and a half years ago when I called Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly  the best album of the 2010's it felt like a formality, the OBVIOUS pick. How do you tackle someone who climbed the mou...

This was a tough week to be a single. With albums coming from Kendrick Lamar, The Smile, Florence + The Machine and more there was only so much listening time to go around. But a few brave souls still did try. Enjoy <3 5.  Roman Candles  - Death Cab For Cutie Before the new Death Cab For Cutie song even starts keen eyed fans will realize that the runtime clocks out at just over two minutes, which is unusual. What's even more unusual is how punchy the instrumental palette is. While the sentimentality and vocals are still very much in tact everything from the explosive drums to the fuzzed out guitars feels like a very direct and conscious choice to turn it up a notch. The band may not sound 100% comfortable in this environment particularly on the songs instrumental conclusion, but they also aren't completely out of their depth.  Listen 4.  Tired Of Taking It Out On You  - Wilco There's such a charming, songwritery bliss to Wilco's music that makes almost all of...

With the thousands of swarming fans both new and old that are devoted to every note of hip hop online I've given up ever being strikingly ahead of the curve. While I can maintain a pretty cutting edge demeanor in most genres I've just committed to playing from behind when it comes to rap. So here are a few popular releases from the last few weeks that I wanted to at least get some thoughts out on.  I Never Liked You  - Future While I've never been the biggest Future fan in the world and I'm nowhere near as positive towards his music as his most diehard followers there is something innovative about his style of rapping and singing as well as his production choices. Even though he's still operating under the same trap bubble that he helped inflate in the first place he is also capable of making subtle stylistic changes that take the sound in new directions. The unfortunate thing is that I much more often enjoy what artists who are inspired by Future do than Future him...

Warpaint is a California based indie rock act who settled into the scene nicely in the 2010's with back to back acclaimed records in 2010's The Fool  and 2014's Warpaint . Radiate Like This  is a comeback album of sorts for the band after having all worked on various other projects in the 6 years since their previous album as Warpaint. Review By Lav: While I've never been a die hard follower of Warpaint they are one of those bands who were there from the moment I first got into music and always seemed to be making great stuff. At least up until their third record which I thought was just okay and the very long delay we've had for a follow-up. But as soon as I heard the lead single for this record Champion  I was reeled all the way back in and had pretty high expectations going into it. While the band didn't blow me away or anything they proved my instincts correct delivering a mostly pretty solid tracklist that feels like they really haven't been gone for as...

Arcade Fire are a Canadian indie rock band, in fact they are likely THE Canadian indie rock band. They've released albums that were both massively acclaimed and massively successful like Funeral  and The Suburbs . Neither of the bands previous two releases reached that level of acclaim, with their last album, 2017's Everything Now , receiving a particular amount of backlash from fans.  Review By Lav: I have no Arcade Fire hot takes. The closest thing would be that I think Neon Bible  is slightly overrated and some of the deep cuts on Reflektor  are kind of underrated. But there's no doubt that Funeral  and The Suburbs  are indie era defining masterpieces and that the band was essential to introducing the sound of indie music into the mainstream. While I will make a concession here about the title track and I ended up putting Creature Comfort  on my year end singles list, there's no denying that Everything Now  was Arcade Fire's worst album by far....