Lav's Music Corner

Jane Remover is hyperpop's answer to the singer-songwriter. Though she doesn't fit in with many of her more vibrant peers she's often been categorized as "digicore." Her previous album Frailty  dropped back in 2021 and was met with a slow unfolding of critical acclaim from the electronic and pop music underground.  Review by Lav:  Compared to  Frailty , which I was late to come around on and wasn't quite as big a fan of as some others, I felt all in on the hype for Census Designated . That began with a song Jane released last year that I liked quite a bit and it continued into immense enjoyment for everything she released this year in the lead-up to this project. Thankfully, those singles weren't a mirage. This album is actually as good as I hoped it would be, in fact, it's better.  This album opens and closes with merely fine moments. Cage Girl / Camgirl  is a great introduction to so many of the motifs the album will deploy. Jane's girlish vocals...

MWAH <3 5.  And Still  - Peter Gabriel In total the collection of new material Peter Gabriel has released hasn't exactly been consistently satisfying. But he's managed to shine through a handful of times and this song sounded better and better to me every time. I love the sweeping compositional style and consistently catchy refrains throughout. I still have no idea what to make of his upcoming new album though.  Listen 4.  Brick By Brick  - Conway The Machine & Wun Two Okay, consider me surprised. My expectations were not high for Conway crossing over with lo-fi hip-hop beats artist Wun Two. What seemed like nothing more than a reason to release new material is actually off to a great start with Conway delivering some of his characteristically hard-hitting lines in appropriately lethal fashion. They pair great with a vintage-sounding instrumental highlighted by fluttering keys.  Listen 3.  Why? - Matmos Leave it to Matmos to show up on this list...

Sampha is a British R&B singer whose distinctive voice has been deployed in collaborations with artists like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy, Solange, Travis Scott, and more. His critically acclaimed debut album Process  dropped back in 2017, Sampha took his time off pretty quietly really only emerging for the occasional feature until he began the rollout for this project earlier this year.  Review by Lav: I love Sampha. Process  was among the first albums I got to review for this blog and I gushed over it. That wasn't surprising as I loved the singles and was highly anticipating the project itself. That anticipation is arguably doubled, or more, for Lahai . Sampha has more than proved himself one of the most talented vocalists in all of music across the past decade or so. While Process  had remarkable consistency, I was hoping that Lahai would be an even more definitive statement for Sampha. It is, and it's spectacular.  Lahai  was led off by two great ...

Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter is the new pseudonym of Kristin Hayter, who formerly released three albums as Lingua Ignota. After announcing the retirement of the critically acclaimed neoclassical darkwave project earlier this year she returned with SAVED! . The album sees her continuing to dabble in religious imagery but with a shift more towards the direction of the religious music of the west and in particular the American South. Review by Lav:  You've heard Kristin Hayter go gothic , now hear her go southern gothic. That was the pitch I felt like was given by the singles, cover, and promotional material for this record. And believe me, I was hooked. After three fantastic albums as Lingua Ignota I would have followed Kristin anywhere she chose to wander artistically. And though this felt like a very comfortable fit, I was surprised and delighted to find that description doesn't really do SAVED!  justice. While the album certainly does dabble a lot in Southern Gothic aesthe...

5.  Te Mata  - Kali Uchis Kali's new Spanish-language album is off to a strong start with this Bolero cut. The style feels like a natural fit to her and while it lacks some of the purely infectious moments her best songs contain, the track is lush and dramatic in a way that feels larger than life. It's a song that's both exceedingly charming and exceedingly pretty.  Listen 4.  In The City  - Charli XCX (feat. Sam Smith) This song definitely took some time to grow on me but at the end of the day it's really the A.G. Cook production that wins me over. Like so many of their best songs together  In The City  manages to translate the grit of its jagged and rough around the edges production into supremely blissful pop sounds. This time in particular the motif of "The City" feels particularly well served by the sonic choices and it elevates an already solid songwriting foundation.  Listen 3.  Sleeper  - BADBADNOTGOOD (feat. Charlotte Day Wilson...

Troye Sivan is an Australian pop singer who made his major label transition nearly a full decade ago. His commercial breakthrough came alongside the song Youth  and various singles for his 2018 album Bloom . Though he's had a five-year drought of studio albums in the years since he also released the In A Dream  EP in 2021 . Earlier this year, Troye released the new single Rush  earlier this year which became his biggest solo hit since Youth . Review By Lav:  I've always enjoyed Troye Sivan. Even though his earliest material was too sappy teen pop for me he always felt like there was more to him and he proved it on Bloom . While the album didn't do much in its most reserved moments aside from a great duet with Ariana Grande, the poppiest tracks in the bunch were fantastic. That's why I was pretty excited for this record which led off and opens up with Sivan's best song to date, Rush . But beyond that track the album mostly sees Troye returning to his reserved and noc...

For my work outside of blogging, I have to listen to and pay a lot of attention to the Billboard Hot 100. For that reason, there are some albums I haven't properly reviewed that I've heard the entire tracklist of countless times through. So for this week's rapid-fire reviews we're covering some of those.  One Thing At A Time  - Morgan Wallen Yes, Morgan Wallen. In the before times he was actually a really compelling up-and-coming voice in country music that I was pretty interested in. He had some more stripped-down heartfelt songs of angst and heartbreak that really clicked with me, especially 7 Summers  which ended up on some of my year-end lists. He released a massive record that was inconsistent despite having its moments but I was banking on him being somebody whose music I enjoyed for a while. And then. Not only did he face one of the biggest controversies in all of music in recent years when he got caught saying numerous racial slurs on camera. Since then, I also ...

The Drums  are the musical project of California singer and songwriter Jonny Pierce. Following their first three albums as a full band the following three have been a solo project for Pierce. The shift also saw their transition away from surf rock stylings into an equally sunny indie pop style. Review by Lav:  Jonny  had album-of-the-year potential for me. If you're only a casual observer of the band that may seem surprising as they aren't exactly the type of high-brow critical bait I tend to fall for sometimes. But I became a big fan of the band during the rollout for their 2017 album Abysmal Thoughts. I became a flat out super fan just a few years later when Jonny shared Brutalism   a terminally underrated album that turned up in the top 10 of my albums of the year list in 2019. If anything, I like the album even more now than I did at the time. When combined with the parade of absolutely excellent singles the band released in the lead-up to the album I was extrem...

Boys Of Faith  EP - Zach Bryan Zach Bryan dropped his self-titled album a few months ago, which I think is one of the best country projects of 2023. He fully lived up to his potential as a songwriter with rootsy folk-style capabilities and a definitive country swagger to go with. The album also broke him into the mainstream as a commercial music force with his name still popping up in the top 10 of both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200. I think that this EP was released so shortly after for two reasons. The first appears to be that he had leftover material, which is nothing out of the ordinary but normally causes me to temper my expectations. But once I saw the two features on the project it changed my perception. The project also recruits one of 2023's breakout stars Noah Kahan and the always-reliable Bon Iver as features. While the EP hasn't necessarily resulted in a mega-hit or anything, I think it's obviously an attempt to settle Zach Bryan onto the charts indefinitely. Bu...

Another big week of new releases, let's get it. <3 5.  Let Them Live  - Death's Dynamic Shroud DDS release about 9 albums and 200 songs a year and generally, I'm pretty iffy on them but this single really works for me. I love the versatility of vocal samples throughout. I also love the very vibrant and futuristic beat which builds and builds and eventually gets these wiry guitars right at the end it's a very focused and well-executed rendition of their sound.  Listen 4.  N/Y  - The Haxan Cloak It has been 10 god damn years since this masterful dark ambient project last released new material. What he returned with is sonically very different, but honestly I'd be more surprised after all this time if it sounded the same. With stuttering drums and distant booming electronica this feels closer to something Prurient was doing around the last time we got new Haxan Cloak music. It trades out nuance in between the cracks for pummeling intensity and comes out the othe...

Sufjan Stevens  is an indie darling if there ever was one. The singer-songwriter has received massive critical acclaim throughout his career for projects like Illinois  and Carrie & Lowell . Though his last studio album came out in 2020 he's been releasing music prolifically ever since with a series of piano compositions and a pair of collaborations.  Review by Lav: I cover almost everything Sufjan Stevens releases, within reason. Why I do that is pretty simple, he's remarkably talented in a variety of ways. While I don't worship his entire discography in the way that some are known to I do think his highs are as high as anybody. There aren't many artists I would follow through all of the various side projects Sufjan has undertaken, but with the exception of a misconceived ambient project a few years ago, everything he's done has at least offered something compelling in return. His last conventional lyrical album was a collaboration with Angelo De Augustine i...

Today we're taking quick looks at 4 debut albums from this year. The first two are projects I heard much earlier this year that intrigued me, but I didn't get the chance to talk about until now. The latter two are albums I just felt the need to comment on for reasons that will be clear.  Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?  - Kara Jackson Kara Jackson is an Illinois singer-songwriter who actually debuted as a published poet 4 years before releasing this debut album. She got quite a bit of buzz for this project earlier this year that I couldn't ignore and her writing background is what immediately spoke to me about the project. The record dabbles in the aesthetics of folk and indie in a manner that's honestly often more lo-fi than I anticipated. They often feature these very linear compositions which do good to highlight her as a songwriter even if they don't always create the most compelling journeys possible. Despite the vintage sound of the record and the o...

Drake needs no introduction, come on guys. Review by Lav:  Drake hate is so corny in 2023. Much like every single new album cycle people who probably didn't listen to For All The Dogs  came out of their caves to bash it relentlessly. Thankfully this is so routine at this point that the tactic gets easier and easier to ignore every time. The best I can do to contribute to the discourse is actually try and digest the material he's releasing and give an honest reflection about it. As if it wasn't already the most obvious thing on earth, the truth about the album lies somewhere in between Drake's devoted haters and his biggest fans. I won't break down every single moment of For All The Dogs  as like many Drake albums it is TOO long. Drake is limited artistically and his songwriting lacks the scope and ambition to make an 80-minute album feel fresh throughout. I think he realizes that because this album is absolutely stacked with talented collaborators. Normally that h...

This was meant to be posted last night but I was eepy. 5.  Munitions  - Forest Swords The new Forest Swords songs have been getting creepier and creepier with each new release. This haunting piece of disturbing but not discordant electronica makes use of space and metallic distortion to really fry my brain. The feeling that everything is being blasted at you from a dark tunnel you can't see the end of is just icing on the cake.  Listen 4.  Out Of Luck  - Tkay Maidza (feat. Lolo Zouai & Amber Mark) This song had me pretty excited on promise alone. I've enjoyed music from both Tkay and Amber a LOT in the past few years and the crossover has immense potential. While it doesn't exactly knock my socks off like some of Tkay's best R&B moves, the song is still pretty solid. I think the styles of everyone involved come together well even beyond just their vocal chemistry. The song has a warm undertone that feels a lot like Amber Mark's debut album from last year...