Lav's Music Corner

Zach Bryan is an Oklahoma-based country singer who had somewhat of a breakthrough 2022. After building up momentum for years he released his first top 10 album American Heartbreak  last year which also contained his first massive hit song Something In The Orange . Now just a year later, he's following that extremely long album up with a more scant collection of songs that see him leaning into his folk influence and raw stylings.  Review by Lav: Ever falling short of being the definitive music influencer, I didn't really hear about Zach Bryan until everybody else did. Late last year I called his breakthrough mainstream hit Something In The Orange  one of my favorite hit songs of the year and it also landed on my singles of the year list. I completely stand by both of those choices. While his album American Heartbreak  was far too long and inconsistent for me, I was really excited to see what Zach had to offer with this shift to more conventional full-length, and he di...

Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist are two well-respected legends of the hip-hop underground whose paths have crossed before. Now for the first time, they're releasing a collaborative album, though many won't hear it as it dropped exclusively on the Gala music streaming platform.  Review by Lav: No, I did not pay any money to listen to this album or to buy whatever NFT ass shit they're selling the individual tracks as. Was it slightly inconvenient for me, sure. Was I going to do it for Earl? Definitely. I've been a big fan of both for a while and when operating at or even near their peak they have the potential to thrill. Does this album feature them at their peak? A few times. But it's pretty solid even without that perfect consistency throughout.  That peak pops up a few times. All The Small Things  is a fascinating track with vintage key blips and slow drums that feel almost vaporwave-inspired. Earl is pretty damn lethal on the track delivering some of the album...

I've been doing quite a few rapid fire reviews in the past few days as I wait for more substantial new album to drop. This is probably the last one for a bit as a BUNCH of new records are on the horizon. I Inside The Old Year Dying  - PJ Harvey I've always enjoyed PJ Harvey's music even if I've never been absolutely HEAD OVER HEELS for one of her albums the way many people are. I love classics like Stories From The Sea  and even though I wasn't crazy about her previous album there is definitely something to say for its predecessor Let England Shake . So I didn't go into the project with astronomical expectations, but after really enjoying the eerie single I Inside The Old I Dying, I did at least see plenty of potential in the project. As you'd expect this album is eerie, naturalistic, often introspective, and yes, singer-songwritery. It's really the winteryness of the album that I appreciate the most. Beyond the bright naturalism of something like Spelll...

This was a very stacked week for new singles and while I do keep the list proper to just five I also want to recommend the new Eartheater song Pure Smile Snake Venom , Stillblue's Wait For Me - Reprise , Bombay Bicycle Club's I Want To be Your Only Pet, and Ichiko Aoba's meringue doll . 5.  Victorious  - Yung Lean & Bladee Okay consider me surprised. It's no secret that I'm not the biggest drain gang fan in the whole world but Lean and Bladee really came through with something so soaked in their cute boyish charm that I just can't resist it. Nothing here is necessarily new for them but the gentle vocal performances and icy sonic palette really work for me. Despite the hater allegations, I'm always amused and pleased to see them come through with something great.  Listen 4.  Moving On  - Explosions In The Sky While I wasn't blown away by the first new single from post-rock greats Explosions In The Sky this one is much more indicative of the group'...

These are just three functionally unaffiliated bands who all are technically under the exceedingly large umbrella of "rock" that I wanted to cover.  In Times New Roman...  - Queens Of The Stone Age With a full decade between the release of Queens Of The Stone Age's excellent album Like Clockwork  and now, I'm comfortable saying that I don't like this band as much as everyone else does. I appreciate the one-two punch of Rated R  and Songs For The Deaf , and Like Clockwork  sees the band sounding better than they had any right to in their career. But now 8 albums into their career I still consider myself a picky fan and I wasn't crazy about the singles from this album. One thing I can say in favor of this record is that it sees the band taking risks they weren't willing to on their previous album. By that metric alone this project is an improvement on the safe sounds of Villains  or Era Vulgaris . But despite that experimentation, much of the corny blues roc...

5.  Isolette  - The Drums While this single hasn't blown me away in quite the same way as others I know better than to count out The Drums. I will say that most of my issues are hung-up on the pre-chorus because I think the hook itself is solid even if it isn't one of their strongest. The instrumentation surrounding it is also vibrant and shimmering as usual. This may not be a standout moment on the forthcoming album but it's a solid addition to the singles. Listen 4.  Erotic Electronic  - Slayyyter The song I've seen a million grainy twitter videos of from various livesets for what feels like forever is finally here. Even though it was pretty much exactly what I was anticipating I'm still happy to get it. The style of hypnotic club-thumping electronica is something that's always felt right for Slayyyter and this is her most direct embrace of it yet. Listen 3.  City Girl  - Metagirl & Laptop Funeral The first new song from Metagirl since the release of ...

Noname is a Chicago rapper whose blend of political wordplay and reserved demeanor made her a critical darling in the 2010s. Her two studio albums Telefone  and Room 25  were both met with massive acclaim and now her third album Sundial  is arriving 5 years after her previous. Review by Lav: This one took some time. I've been a huge fan of Noname for a long time which makes things complicated for me as a critic. Her relationship with her fans, particularly her white fans, has always been turbulent. That turbulence became even more difficult to process when Noname found herself in quite a bit of controversy for including Jay Electronica on the album, let's go right ahead to there.  balloons  is one of the best songs on this album. Both Noname and Jay Electronica crush their verses and the hook is absolutely wonderful too. The issue, is the content of Jay Elec's verse on both this song and almost all of his performances. His signature anti-semitism is of course on...

5.  the slab  - Slowdive The often-teased third single from Slowdive's new album opens with an arrangement of glittery jangly guitars that fans of shoegaze acts molded in their original image will be familiar with. While the instrumental of the song is wonderfully cloudy I will say I think the vocals could be improved. "Impact" often isn't the point of the singing on a shoegaze song and yet on this track is takes a while for them to have any real presence in the song either.  Listen 4.  Wait For Me  - Stillblue I haven't talked about Stillblue since last years Flora  EP but that hasn't stopped the band from continuing to export their melancholic indie folk. Even now on a single which has a newfound and quite definitive jangle to it, the haze of sweet guitar tones and romantic desperation in the lyrics give the song a distinctly somber presentation. In a week dominated by good new indie folk songs they couldn't be left out. Listen 3.  Summer Windows ...

Become  EP - Beach House I enjoyed Beach House's new album Once Twice Melody  quite a bit last year so I was excited to get an extra helping of it. Previous times that Beach House has dug into the B-Side well, most notably the wonderful song Chariot , have been exceedingly pleasing. While these tracks are by no means bad, I can kind of see why they were left off of the already dense tracklist of the band's last album. The first two tracks in the project do have all the hallmarks of Beach House but lack some of the heart and feel like they would just blend in really innocuously into any of their best albums. Holiday House  follows and it's much closer to the band's best material. Even then while I think it does an amazing job of building up to the chorus, that chorus doesn't have the punch that I would necessarily hope for. I've also come around to the beautiful textures of Black Magic  whose instrumentation is truly some of the prettiest I've ever heard on a...

The Loveliest Time  - Carly Rae Jepsen After releasing two of the best pop albums of the 2010s Carly Rae Jepsen established herself as the best and one of the most underrated songwriters in all of pop music. Her most recent project, last year's The Loneliest Time,  was the first time in a decade that I wasn't blown away by her material either studio albums or B-sides. Despite having a few incredibly good moments it was surprisingly inconsistent for an artist who felt like they just never ran out of good songs. Now, that album is getting a quick follow-up in companion album The Loveliest Time . While it's easy to reflexively call this a B-Side project, it also kind of feels like a more romantic answer to its predecessor. Given that has historically been right up Carly's alley and that I thought the lead single Shy Boy  was pretty good I was excited about this.  Unfortunately, the four songs proceeding Shy Boy  on the album don't add up to a ton of intrigue. The o...

This was a strange week of subverted expectations and curious returns, none of it really assembled into anything rational. Let's break it down.  5.  Evicted  - Wilco This sure is a Wilco song. While it doesn't necessarily have any of the compositional or instrumental adventuring that has kept the band fresh at points deep into their career, they still do what they do. This gentle bouncy indie-folk tale of love lost is simple but memorable.  Listen 4.  Angel In The Marble  - Stormzy After loving Stormzy's new album last year I haven't been as crazy about some of his new singles. This one is definitely my favorite so far and I think it sees Stormzy returning to a style that worked for him earlier in his career. He delivers a series of bars that bounce between ridiculous opulence and occasional flashes of honesty that add up to something really compelling. Paired with the thumping beat and wild vocal samples this is kind of a banger. Listen 3.  Munekita ...

Travis Scott is one of the biggest rap superstars in the world. He's managed to be both a massive hitmaker and a critical darling relative to his peers. UTOPIA  comes two years after Travis Scott found himself at the center of the Astroworld  music festival tragedy. Despite the festival's shortcomings and his maligned public reaction to it, fans were extremely excited for UTOPIA . The album was released with an impressive collection of featured artists and producers and has spawned extensive discussion among rap fans online. Review by Lav: It's hard for me to put into words how excited I was for Astroworld . After Rodeo  turned me into a big Travis Scott fan and the years he spent building up to its actual sequel generated so much hype, how could I not be excited. I stayed up till midnight to listen to the album with my friends and unpack all the features and credits that were initially hidden. But here's the thing, Astroworld  lived up to every bit of the hype. I st...

PetroDragonic Apocalypse  - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard For a while, I was a BIG King Gizz fan. The group managed to genuinely re-invent themselves with each new project and do such in such an impressively short time. I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, Paper Mache Dream Balloon, Nonagon Infinity, Murder Of The Universe, and Infest The Rats Nest  are all still favorites of mine. But starting in 2020, something changed with the band. My first issue was their continued indulgence in microtonal desert rock, which might be their least compelling sound ever and made for some of their weakest records. But even once they left that phase and began to return to other styles from their past I just didn't feel the same connection to their new work as I used to. This came to a head when four new albums last year, all of which I felt similarly disengaged with. It was the first time since I started this blog that they had released new studio albums that I just didn't cover in any capacity, bec...