Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Richard Dawson is an esoteric and idiosyncratic English folk singer who's been on a critically acclaimed span of records dating back to 2017's Peasant . End Of The Middle  follows 2022's The Ruby Chord  and is a SIZEABLE downsizing in terms of scope. As some of the more nebulous and indulgent elements of that record were definitely an issue for me enjoying it as much as an album like 2020 , I went into Richard's new record hoping for a course correction, and that's kind of what I got.  The singles dropped in reverse order of quality, meaning I wasn't thrilled by the lead single "polytunnel." It has this slinky style of refrains that has always bothered me on Richard songs because it's so hard to take seriously. The way Richard also plays loose and fast with the structure of the refrains also makes the song even less enjoyable.  Next up came "Boxing day sales" which is definitely an improvement. I appreciate the way the...

Review by Lavender: Venturing is one of several side projects of singer-songwriter Jane Remover. It's been around since at least 2023 and focuses on a vintage shoegaze style. It's a sound that's analogous to the dissonant instrumentals on her landmark 2023 album Census Designated , one of my favorite rock records of the entire 2020s so far. Fittingly, I was excited to see what Jane had to offer drilling more directly into the sound and the results are pretty solid.  Let's get some of the tracks I didn't care for as much out of the way first. The opener "Play My Guitar" is striking at first but the more times I re-listened to the album the less impressed I was by it. That's mostly because it builds to a very dramatic finale but the vocal performance kind of falls apart completely right when it's hitting its stride. There are even worse singing issues on my least favorite track on the record "We Don't Exist" which seems like it needed a...

Review by Lavender: Drake,  what to say about Drake. The Canadian rapper and singer has been one of the biggest stars in music for well over a decade. But in case you're living under a rock, you probably know that he's coming off of one of the biggest defeats of his entire career in a beef with Kendrick Lamar that just resulted in an instantly iconic Super Bowl performance. Of course, Drake doesn't fall like the rest of us. The beef spawned multiple huge hit songs for him as well and he's continued successfully touring the entire time, but he just released his first new music since the beef concluded, a Valentine's Day record in collaboration with label mate PartyNextDoor.  If you're approaching $ome $exy $ongs 4 U  hoping for a the next cultural development in Drake's arc you're going to be disappointed. Save for a few passing mentions the album largely exists outside that sphere, focusing mainly on returning to a similar kind of songwriting about rich ...

Review by Lavender: Sharon Van Etten is a singer-songwriter who has been operating since the late 2000s. She eventually rounded into a full-on critical darling with her 3rd and 4th albums Tramp and Are We There  a few years later. Following those, she took a full 5-year break from studio albums to focus on passions outside of music. While the two records she's released since then weren't met with quite as much acclaim, I've still enjoyed them both, which had me excited for this new project. This album, her seventh, is a shift towards a more rock-oriented sound for which she recruited the services of a three-piece band called The Attachment Theory.  There's two singles that had me pretty excited for this record and they both pop up in the first 4 songs. "Afterlife" was the lead single and I like it quite a bit. I love the way the full array of instrumentation is hidden until just the right moment, highlighting just how great the chorus is. I also really enjoyed...

Review by Lavender: Squid are a UK post-punk outfit who debuted earlier this decade alongside contemporaries Black Country New Road, Black Midi and Shame in a movement dubbed by some (and I hate this term for the record) as "post-Brexit core." Despite that awful title the music has been astoundingly good and the band's often get off to a quick start. Squid was included in that as I loved and still really love their 2021 debut album Bright Green Field . Even though their 2023 follow-up was a slightly sophomore slump, there was still plenty I liked about the album and combined with some solid singles I was looking forward to Cowards  a lot.  Two of those singles come right at the start of the record and it's a great way to begin. "Crispy Skin" was the first and still my favorite of the bunch feeling like a throwback to the vibes of some of the wandering compositions and oddball vocalizations of the band's first record. "Building 650" is more stra...

Review by Lavender: Ada Rook first rose to prominence earlier this decade as one-half of the difficult-to-define band Black Dresses. The pair's output was absolutely beloved by certain circles of internet music lovers, as were some of Ava's other ventures, most notably her Angel Electronics side project in 2023. Throughout that time she's also put several solo albums under her belt, though UNKILLABLE ANGEL  is notable for being her first following the explosive public breakup of Black Dresses last year.  Not to dig myself a hole RIGHT at the start of the review but I should confess. Yes, I am a trans girl and yes I enjoy the music of everyone from Underscores, to Weatherday, to Backxwash, to Deli Girls. So Black Dresses was always a band I was surprised to not like as much as it seemed like I should. And don't get me wrong there are MANY Black Dresses songs I enjoy from both before and after their 2020 breakthrough album Peaceful As Hell , but I'm not sure they were...

Review by Lavender: The Weeknd is a superstar of the highest order. After breaking through as a critical darling of underground R&B he launched into fame in 2015 and has had a consistent string of absolutely massive hits ever since. That culminated in 2020's After Hours  an album that features his biggest hit to date "Blinding Lights" and was both a critical and commercial landmark. He followed such a monumental project up strangely, with the divisive oddball concept album Dawn FM , which I personally liked even if it's the weaker of the two. Now he's back with the massive 22-track 84-minute conclusion to that trilogy Hurry Up Tomorrow . One thing I want to get out of the way immediately is that this album isn't as good as it could have been. What I thought at the time would be its lead single "Dancing In The Flames" was ultimately left off the record, likely due to its underperforming on the chart,  which is a shame because it very likely would ...