Lav's Music Corner

As is so often the case I'm behind on albums I want to review this year and as we've done many times in the past on this blog, Music Festivals are a great way to knock some of those out. This week I will (hopefully) be dropping two review packs of some artists who spent the past two weekends performing at Coachella.  Underdressed at the Symphony  - Faye Webster After not loving Faye Webster during her breakthrough I really clicked with her 2021 album I know i'm funny haha  in a way I wasn't expecting. I always had my suspicions that her gentle demeanor and witty songwriting would translate into yet another album that good and I think my expectations were lowered even more by lukewarm reactions to nearly every single she dropped in advance of the record. I can give credit to the first two singles though. Lead single But Not Kiss  is easily the best song on the record and one of the only that could slot nicely into Faye's previous album. Its successor Lifetime  is...

5.  New Species  - Iglooghost Earlier this year Iglooghost released a song that I didn't exactly see the appeal of. In a sense, I can kind of identify a similar issue with this frenetic banger if I think about it for too long. But I consider thinking about this for too long to be a cardinal sin. The song is a high-tempo pummeling of wiry electronic that was always happy to hear in the moment. Listen 4.  Like I Say (I runaway)  - Nilufer Yanya It must just be a heavy week. Nilufer's album indulges with sound in a way many singer-songwriters don't want to and she managed to do it without getting the way of her poetry. Now the sounds are even louder and even at moments when it feels emotionally overpowering, it's magnetically aligned. She continues to sound not only unique, but vibrant.  Listen 3.  Mirage  - Gel Last year Gel used subtle interpolations of different genres and styles to add meaningful flavor to their brand of hardcore. The debut album that...

Review by Lav:  The moment Taylor Swift's new album The Tortured Poets Department hit, it was lauded by numerous major critical outlets who, let's face it, got a copy in advance and likely wanted to maintain their positive relationship with Swift and her team going forward. Ever since then though, it's been an absolute barrage. Some of the nicer publications have pointed out that the record is a little on the long side and that Jack Antonoff's contributions continue to spark absolutely no joy. More honest critics have torn the album virtually to shreds for its awful lyrics and deeply formulaic melodies. So stepping into an album getting this much hate from all corners is a difficult position to be in and one I approach with trepidation.  That's why it might surprise you to know, there were some things I liked about The Tortured Poets Department .  Let's start with the title track. It was already burdened by a viral lyric about Charlie Puth that circulated from a...

Yet another busy week with a lot of exciting contenders, let's get into it.  5.  Baddy On The Floor  - Jamie xx (feat. Honey Dijon) Even though Jamie xx's drops haven't hit with the most consistency in the years since his stellar solo debut album, his high potential makes them a must-hear moment the second they drop. While Baddy  once again failed to utterly knock my socks off I think this is one of his stronger cuts in the past few years with an irresistibly fun beat straight out of Daphni's Sizzling . It's a punchier and more direct dance cut than I expected but it didn't take much to fall into its whims. Listen 4.  Raat Ki Rani  - Arooj Aftab The announcement of Arooj Aftab's upcoming new album immediately shot it up near the top of my most-anticipated records of the year. That's both because I've enjoyed her output this decade so far, but also because I think this is a strong lead single and increased industry embrace of her music is well deserve...

Review by Lav: Crush Fund are a New York punk trio who have become a fixture of the East Coast queer and trans scene in the past few years. If you haven't heard of them yet, start asking around and I promise it won't take long. After a three-track EP in 2022 flashed what they were capable of and they built up a reputation for pummeling live performances, I've been incredibly excited for their next move. Now the trio's next move is here, a 5-track EP whose ferocity is capable of turning them from a curiosity into a full-on obsession.  New Fixation  was led off by the release of its final track W.W.Y.D  as a single and I absolutely loved it. The song shifts its speed faster and slower constantly while the vocals are passed back and forth making for a chaotic sonic experience of cognitive dissonance. That combined with the vicious repetition of "what would you do" feels like every member of Crush Fund is interrogating you all at once, and they're all three pl...

Review by Lav: WE DON'T TRUST YOU  is a victory lap a decade in the making. It's hard to think of a rapper and producer who have inspired the contemporary trap style that's dominated hip-hop for years more than Future and Metro Boomin. Both while working together and separately. the pair have defined a generation of artists and are among the most influential to the next. That's why it's surprising to say that I can't even say I'm a particularly huge fan of either artist. I certainly have plenty of moments I enjoy from both of them, but they're not the kind of superstars I could ever expect myself to LOVE. After a year-long series of teases towards this record, I was mostly expecting a lot of frosting with not much cake underneath. That's why I'm so happy to report that across the hour of material here, both Future and Metro are about as close to their A-game as I've ever heard.  The record comes out swinging right out of the gate with one ban...

I couldn't quite finish this on time yesterday. I have a great excuse but I can't tell you about it so you'll have to take my word for it. 5.  Rag  - Porches Consider me surprised. It's been a while since I REALLY enjoyed a Porches single but I found myself hooked on this one pretty quickly. I love the slurring indie rock style and some of the incredibly evocative lyrics. For a song so intense it's also impressively catchy and has been stuck in my head basically all week.  Listen 4.  Differ  - KMRU, Kevin Richard Martin Normally ambient singles don't really have the kind of pull to stand out on their own the way they do when compellingly assembled into a full album, unless you're Tim Hecker. But the most I listened to this song the more I was impressed by its gentle washes of sound and how impactful they were despite the minimalism. After becoming a big fan of KMRU in the past few years, seeing him collaborate with Kevin Richard Martin of The Bug fame is a c...

These are some collaborative EPs that have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other aside from being two different artists working together.  genre: sadboy  EP - Trippie Redd/Machine Gun Kelly This project is probably gonna land among the most hated musical releases of 2024. These two artists enter the game as victims of some of the most severe over-hate in all of music, especially Trippie. While he's released his fair share of lame-duck projects he's also got some absolute banger singles under his belt and a few genuinely strong records in his catalog. MGK is even more divisive. While I've never been a fan of his catalog I appreciate some of the intensity he's brought to an otherwise extremely sleepy era of contemporary pop rock, even if the quality of songs aren't really there. At the very least anyone who thinks he's a better rapper than he is a punk-rocker needs a deep re-analyzing of their priorities.  With the venom that exists for these two artists genre:...

These are three electronic music projects that I have a lot of respect and admiration for. Had I not been so sick and busy I would have definitely covered these albums in full but I still want to get my feelings out there on all of them.  Three  - Four Tet Even though I've been a Four Tet fan for a long time it's been a while since I was truly blown away by something he released. He's pretty consistent, but I find myself always hoping for more high-end material. That seemed like it would continue to be the case when I came away from the record's singles feeling just okay. That was made even worse when I realized that my favorite Four Tet single in years, Mango Feedback , also wasn't appearing on the album, though it seems like elements of it were reworked into the single Daydream Repeat, although I'm not positive.  After beginning with a dancier cut in Loved  the album shifts its focus towards ambient. That's not a complaint as I've enjoyed quite a bit o...

Review by Lav: Jesus Christ this album is so good it's ridiculous. Wait a minute, let me start over. Vampire Weekend are a New York indie rock outfit who have been putting out music since the 2000s, though their production has slowed quite a bit in recent years. After nearly 20 years as a band Only God Was Above Us  is their 5th album and it comes four years after their highly-anticipated return album Father Of The Bride . I reviewed that album when it came out and said a lot of positive things about it, but in the back of my mind, I kind of knew that while it was good it wasn't absolutely everything I wanted it to be. Well, Only God  is everything I want it to be and more. It might be my favorite Vampire Weekend album to date and I have fucking loved this band since I first became an active music listener, plus last year I dropped a video calling Modern Vampires Of The City  the best album of 2013. That's just how good Only God  is.  It started with the single...

Another late-night best new tracks from your nocturnal angel girl. Enjoy <3 5.  Silence  - Cloud Nothings Once again I think this single will fall short of blasting fans of early Cloud Nothings punky bombast away. But I think the band has settled into a punchy indie style that still carries more weight than most of their contemporaries. The combination of crashing drums and sticky refrains isn't rewriting anything but it's a formula I still find compelling.  Listen 4.  B2b  - Charli XCX When Charli claimed that her new album was going to be for the clubs, she wasn't kidding. In the absolute most literal interpretation of that promise possible, she delivered two singles this week tributing the genre's classics and one of its most beloved styles of performance. For this song, she recruits Gesaffelstein a combination the feels almost too good to be true. His pulsating contributions make this the darkest and murkiest club vibe Charli has served up yet even in spi...

Review by Lav: COWBOY CARTER  is the HIGHLY-anticipated follow-up to Beyonce's 2022 album Renaissance , an album that I was a pretty big fan of like everybody else. What's so interesting about COWBOY CARTER  is that it was billed through its marketing and promotion as an embrace of country music. And make no mistake, Beyonce does spend part of this record embracing a measure of country that is FAR more authentic than most of her contemporaries are capable of. But that sells the ambition of this album short. Bey genre hops a LOT throughout the nearly 90 minutes of this album and while its ambition can occasionally swallow it whole, for the most part this is pretty damn good.  COWBOY CARTER  starts out INCREDIBLY strong. You have to get a full third of the way through the album before it serves up anything I don't absolutely love. That includes the records two singles 16 Carriages  and Texas Hold Em . Those songs were definitely picked deliberately to help market ...

I'm behind on everything so far this year let's face it. But while I try and catchy up on the biggest new records with full reviews I also want to clean up some releases worth getting my thoughts out on. These are three rap records that have turned enough heads so far in 2024.  I've Never Been Here Before  - Erick The Architect I was interested in this project for a few reasons. The first being that James Blake appears in the production credits. which is always a key to my heart. But more importantly, I've enjoyed Flatbush Zombies for a full decade now. Erick himself impressed me quite a bit as a solo artist with his 2021 Future Proof  EP. So even though the singles from this record didn't exactly floor me as a full bunch, I still wanted to give the record a fair shot.  Unfortunately, I was surprised by just how much of this record either glossed over me entirely or even hit sour notes on repeat listens. While much of Erick's topical focus is intact occasionally...