Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lav: Idles' first two albums get better every time I hear them. They were capable of conjuring a sheer blunt force intensity that felt completely unmatched and I got hooked on the adrenaline rush that came along with listening to their music. It's probably no coincidence that my favorite songs from their following two albums Model Village  and Car Crash , are the ones that most resemble that initial sound. To be fair to the band I don't think their 3rd or 4th albums are bad but too often it felt like their quest to expand their sound came up empty and the best moments saw the band relying on old staples. After coming away from the singles on this record pretty mixed I wasn't really sure what to expect from this new batch of tracks. Unfortunately, even though the potential they always flash is still there, this isn't exactly an improvement from the band. The trio of singles from this record left me pretty confused. Dancer  features James and Nancy from LCD ...

5.  The Dream Of Delphi  - Bat For Lashes I was already a Bat For Lashes fan and even I wasn't prepared for this. Hearing her step further than ever before into this specious opulent dreamy landscape is very compelling and her vocals are ready to meet the moment. By the time reaches it's eerie shimmer of electronic instrumentation and the fluttering nature sounds on its way out it feels entirely beyond what I thought Bat For Lashes Was capable of.  Listen 4.  All The Same  - The Voidz Never accuse The Voidz of being predictable. After releasing a hard-hitting, blistering hard rock jam last year of course the band would shift focus to an electronic-tinged autotune ballad for All The Same . In a new era that's bizarre even by their standards, this might be the strangest song yet. Even though it doesn't blast you away with any truly random sounds is does seem to jangle it's way through a number of seemingly easy listens that get fed through The Voidz filter and com...

I've had people ask me in the past why some of the biggest rap albums around always get lumped into rapid fire reviews. The main reason is that most of them are supremely boring and trying to conjure full reviews on almost any of them would be impossible. An even better reason is that they are so god damn long it's fucking ridiculous. And unlike some of the good long albums I've covered in recent years so many of these records trail over the same territory over and over. So once again, here are some reviews of big rap albums that I don't have the time or patience to cover in full. INSANO  - Kid Cudi I haven't liked anything Kid Cudi has done in a LONG time. There's a spare track or two off of his 2016 album Passion Pain & Demon Slayin  that I thought were pretty good as well as a few Kids See Ghosts songs I think are okay. But for the most part I haven't come away from a Cudi record with positive feelings since literally the first Man On The Moon . I tho...

*mwah* 5.  I'm A Man  - Kim Gordon It seems like the uncompromising nature of the first single from this new Kim Gordon album was no accident. This second single is arguably just as intent to grab you by the throat and hold on tight. The instrumental once again featured rattling drums and rumbling bass but it's even more brash in its presentation. While the refrains here aren't quite as catchy as its predecessor they arguably set up for even more intense moments.  Listen 4.  Brown Paper Bag - DIIV In a world where a lot of music fans were excited for other things. I was hyped for the return of one of my favorite shoegaze outfits of the 2010s. DIIV's new lead single certainly fits in with the sound and style I was expecting to hear, but in a sense, that's why I'm not head over heels for it. While the slowed down and heavier demeanor is welcome, sonically parts of this song still feel like the band leaning into what they know they can do well. It's hard to see...

Prelude To Ecstasy  - The Last Dinner Party Last year, one of the most talked about debut albums of the year was Chappell Roan's The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess . While I wasn't nearly as crazy about the record as most fans. seemingly all of those fans have immediately shifted directly into The Last Dinner Party this year. Because the appeal seems to have translated so vividly into yet another new artist I didn't want to miss the chance to cover this one in better time. One thing that translates over from Rise And Fall  is the sheer drama of absolutely everything. The baroque pop instrumentation across the opening intro and even the early stages Burn Alive  are reminiscent of The Anchoress at her most expansive or Marina at her most melodramatic. Moments like that are contrasted hard by songs like Caesar On A TV Screen  which begins like an Angel Olsen ballad before bouncing into something much dancier. But even though I like the song it's an example of ...

Review by Lav: Chelsea Wolfe is an artist whose music I've enjoyed for a long time, though I feel like I haven't gotten to review her at her best yet. I thought her 2019 album Birth Of Violence  was just okay and though I enjoyed her Converge collaboration more it featured less of the hallmarks of Chelsea's music than her own material. That's why I was so excited for She Reaches Out  which featured some of my favorite of her singles to date. The album that resulted is cohesive but still impressively distinct and the best thing Chelsea Wolfe has dropped in a long time.  Describing the singles from this record as "good" honestly kind of feels like an understatement, they're fantastic. Lead single Dusk  serves as the closing track and it's still remarkably good. I can't think of many other tracks that manage to be this chilling and occasionally obtuse while also being so irresistible and well-written. The album opens with another single I loved Whispe...

Review by Lav: Little Simz has EASILY been one of my favorite artists of the 2020s so far. The intense and lyrically sharp rapper kicked the decade off with her impressive Drop 6  EP which I liked a good bit and landed on my EPs of the year list at the end of 2020. But following that project she kicked it into another gear. In 2021 she dropped her masterpiece Sometimes I Might Be Introvert which would easily land among my favorite albums of the decade so far. She followed it up with the more direct and also pretty impressive No Thank You  just over a year later. Now she's returning to the EP format for a series of shorter songs that see her working out some impressive new directions. The most defining shift on the album is a turn towards darker beats and stiff drum machine. That starts right out of the gate with Mood Swings  which sees Simz matching that sonic palette with a quieter but still intense delivery. It frequently erupts out of that sonic style only to return to...

This was an all-time strange week where some of the big releases left me very underwhelmed. Here's my best attempt to make clarity out of the mess. 5.  Deeper Well  - Kacey Musgraves This was probably the new single I was most excited for this week but I just can't quite say I'm in love with it. I do like the novelty of Kacey essentially offering to pass you the blunt for a few minutes. But the song also doesn't really evolve in any way that's satisfying and. I also think her attempts at vulnerability in the lyrics kind of come up short even if she is being honest in her writing and delivery, it just doesn't feel like it's actually revealing anything.  Listen 4.  Auset  - Jlin Even though this kind of grinding metallic electronica will be familiar to Jlin fans I still like this song. It has a much more direct house and dance influence than much of her EP last year with stuttering hand claps and tight drum looks worked into certain parts of the song. Even if ...

Review by Lav: A few years ago when I did my deep dive into Griselda the member who most impressed me was Westside Gunn, who was fresh off his excellent Pray For Paris  at the time. Since then Conway The Machine has indulged on an incredibly prolific run of music sporting massive highlights of his own like his 2022 effort God Don't Make Mistakes , likely my favorite project from any of the trio yet. Despite being arguably the most consistent of the bunch, I've still been waiting for the DEFINITIVE Benny The Butcher album. And even though Benny spent the last year hyping up this project, it still doesn't feel like the best work he's capable of.  Sonically I can say Everybody Can't Go  has more variety than I was anticipating, but it all still exists within the tight spectrum of Benny's comfort zone. Opener Jermaine's Graduation  has a glistening piano beat that feels like The Alchemist doing his best Madlib impression with strong results. The production on TM...

Review by Lav:  I've been a Future Islands fan for a long time. The band has crafted a distinct sound in the world of blissful dramatic synth-pop that nobody else can do better. Despite that, they have also developed a reputation for dropping incredible singles that fail to translate into truly great albums. Though I think the band has come close in the past, it still felt like going into their seventh album we still didn't have a definitive release from Future Islands. While People Who Aren't There Anymore  may suffer from some long-standing issues with Future Islands records occasionally, it's not THAT far from what a definitive album from the band might sound like.  In terms of those common Future Islands issues there are some songs here that really just feel like middling imitations of others. Give Me The Ghost Back  is the first example. Even though it does try and introduce some wiry guitar into the mix on the bridge it doesn't really do much for me. I feel si...

This week was headlined by a major new release in the electronica world. See where it laded among a series of promising indie singles.  5.  Point Him Out  - That Mexican OT (feat. DaBaby) I was late coming around to That Mexican OT's big hit Johnny Dang  last year but eventually, the song grew on me a lot as I continued to hear it on the charts. So far this year he's shifted away from the faster and more slick flows that made the track so unique into something harder-hitting. I wasn't crazy about it on his first new single but it works better here with an assist from DaBaby who fits right into this style.  Listen 4.  Sideways  - JT On her second solo single JT continues to experiment with a colder and less expressive demeanor than much of her City Girls music. On Sideways  it's even more of an embrace without some of the confident interludes and attention-grabbing jokes involved.  But what results may be an even more focused and impressive di...

Review by Lav: Torres is the singer-songwriter project of Mackenzie Scott, who I've been listening to for a long time. Across her 5 studio albums so far she managed to make herself distinctive with both a variety of unique sonic eras and an entrancing lyricism. The last time we heard from Torres on Thirstier  in 2021 she delivered her hardest rocking album yet which righteously dove into unflinching love songs one after another. But as the singles projected, What an enormous room  is a transition back to a much colder and more specious sound she played with earlier in her career.  What an enormous room  had three singles and I like all of them, though they each had to grow on me with repeat listens. The best of them is the lead single Collect , a song I've completely fallen in love with that now feels like a thesis for how chilling the album itself would turn out. The methodical repetition on the hook just reinforced how confrontational it is and the way the song dev...

Review by Lav: Washington punk outfit Sleater-Kinney has been around for three full decades now. The band is responsible for some classic albums I absolutely love like The Woods  and Dig Me Out.  After some time away the band reunited in 2014 and returned with a great comeback record in No Cities To Love . But since then I haven't been crazy about their output. While 2021's The Path Of Wellness was more forgettable than anything else its predecessor The Center Won't Hold  might be the only Sleater-Kinney project I outright dislike. Following some singles I enjoyed and positive buzz towards this new album I was hoping for a second comeback of sorts from the band, which didn't exactly come to fruition.  My favorite of the singles was the third Untidy Creature , which ends the album. It's one of the only songs here that really feels like it carries the weight of Sleater-Kinney's impressive career with a hook that rushes through a soaring vocal performance and stick...