Lav's Music Corner

Lorde is a New Zealand based pop singer who became extraordinarily famous at a young age when her single Royals  became one of the biggest hits of the 2010's. Since then she has become an almost mythical pop figure who is prone to disappearing completely from the public eye for extended periods of time between album cycles. Adding to this mythos she emerged earlier this year with a lead single denouncing technological dependence accompanied by a music video featuring some slightly cult like imagery. Review By Lav: I'm a Lorde bitch. I was a Lorde bitch when I left middle school during Pure Heroine 's commercial domination. I was still a Lorde bitch when I graduated high school during a great critical renaissance surrounding her follow-up Melodrama . Now 4 years later I was still incredibly excited to get emails from Lorde about her trip to Antarctica and this was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. After a trio of singles that admittedly have massive meme potenti...

Producers are getting more and more credit in the modern music landscape. While that was already going on when I first started doing this list in 2016 the trend is accelerating with some of the most acclaimed names in contemporary music production receiving more attention than ever before. So with awards named after last years recipients we will once again jump through a handful of genres to highlight some of the biggest and best moments of great production this year.    The Charli XCX/A.G. Cook Award For Production In Pop - Album Grimes -  Miss Anthropocene Last year Charli XCX and A.G. Cook wowed everyone with their futuristic take on the world of pop music as a whole on Charli . This time around Grimes pushed the sound of pop music even further into the future with her dystopian electronic interpretation of the genre. With a dark and icy sound palette Grimes is effectively writing pop songs but they refuse to be as accessible as their hookiest moments. These tracks hav...

Taylor Swift is a pop artist who at this point needs no introduction. After racking up a decades worth of hits and massive commercial success in the late 2000's and 2010's Taylor finally reached a place of critical success earlier this year on her indie inspired Aaron Dessner produced 8th studio album folklore . Just a few months later Taylor is following this up with a second album in a similar vein. Much like it's predecessor evermore  is an indie folk inspired record with a similar set of collaborators that was also surprise announced and dropped with no singles. Review By Lav: I have never been a big fan of Taylor Swift, see my Lover  review here . While her first few records are just as utterly intolerable today as they were when they first came out she has had a few points where it felt like she was moving slightly in the right direction. 2012's Red  was easily her best album to date but she followed it up with the middling mediocre 1989 . 2017's Reputation  w...

Kid Cudi aka Scott Mescudi is an Ohio born R&B and hip hop artist who first made a name for himself on the druggy and psychedelic Man On The Moon  records in 2009 and 2010. Since then Kid Cudi has released some material that received widespread backlash from critics with 2012's WZRD  and 2013's Indicud  but reached a new peak of critical ire in 2015 when he released Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven an album that many consider to be one of the worst of the entire 2010's. After releasing a better received record in 2016 then collaborating with Kanye West as Kids See Ghosts  Cudi seems to have recouped some of his reputation as hype for Man On The Moon 3  was incredibly high despite it's lack of any singles.  Review By Lav: I certainly wouldn't consider myself a Kid Cudi fan. Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven  is mostly deserving of its reputation but I'm even more willing to pick a fight with one of my least favorite albums of the entire decade Indicud . The first...

The Avalanches are an Australian trio most well known for their heavy use of sampling and their critically acclaimed 2000 album Since I Left You . The band waited 16 years to follow the record up with the feature heavy Wildflower  in 2016 and have thankfully taken a shorter turnaround releasing this, their 3rd album, 20 years after Since I Left You . Review By Lav: I love The Avalanches. I have loved Since I Left You  since I first heard it sometime around 10 years ago and I was thrilled to see the band return on Wildflower  which I also thoroughly enjoyed.  Despite my love of the bands work I wasn't expecting quite as much from this record. The primary reasons being that it was less sample based than either of their first two projects and I thought the singles leading up to the album were a bit of a mixed bunch despite some major highlights. As it turns out there are still plenty of samples used perfectly all over the record, the original instrumentals are used...

Your Old Droog is a Brooklyn based Ukrainian American rapper who first emerged around the middle of the last decade drawing comparisons to Nas with many even believing he could be Nas rapping under a pseudonym. Since then he has released 6 records highlighted by 2017's critically acclaimed Packs . Droog released 3 full studio albums of material in 2019 alone and quickly turned around to release Dump YOD  which appears to address his Ukrainian history.  Review By Lav: I've been a pretty big fan of Droog since first hearing Packs  in 2017 and last year his Transportation  album proved to be a favorite of mine even though I didn't have time to review his third album of 2019 Jewels  before the year was out. Droog once again dropped a December album and I wasn't gonna let it get by me again, especially given that Dump  seems like Droogs most personal and conceptual record yet. As it turns out that concept extends much more to the instrumentals of the record than...

For this set of rapid reviews rather than have any kind of musical theme tying these records together I decided to revisit a trio of bands that I was either totally obsessed with or were relevant to the culture around me at one point or another in my life. I hadn't kept up with the groups and I'm sad their records initially slipped by me but I didn't want to end the year without talking about them.  Freezepop - Fantasizer Freezepop are a synth pop and electro pop band from Boston that I have been enjoying for just about as long as I can remember. I'm not sure where I was originally turned on to it but the bands 2007 record Future Future Future Perfect  has been in my rotation ever since and I was excited to learn that just a few months ago they had dropped a long awaited 5th album, their first in 10 years. Sonically Freezepop haven't missed a beat as they return to a bright synth pop sound with sweet synths and a rumbling grooves that feel like they're coming fr...

All year I've gotten requests to review new albums from Griselda records big three artists Benny the Butcher, Conway The Machine and Westside Gunn. Given the heads that the trio have turned in 2020 I didn't want to let the year slip away without talking about their projects. The difference between these projects can often be slight aside from which MC is taking point, they are all reminiscent of classic hip hop, they all dive into personal history of street life and they all feature Freddie Gibbs. But there's a surprising amount of variance between the Mc's styles that made some of the records far more enjoyable than others.  Westside Gunn - Pray For Paris This is the one Griselda record from this year that I'm already seeing pop up on year end lists from major outlets so I thought I would take it on first. It's easy to see why the record has stuck with people so much since it's release all the way back in April starting with the fantastic instrumentals. A s...

Rico Nasty is a Maryland based rapper who first rose to prominence in 2018 off of some hard-hitting trap singles fuzed with hard rock and metal music. In the years since she has expanded her profile, sound and range of collaborators specifically with a spot on the XXL Freshman list in 2019 and a collaborative mixtape with beat wiz Kenny Beats . With a number of mixtapes under her belt Rico released a number of singles in the lead up to Nightmare Vacation  which is serving as her debut album. Review By Lav: I expected to have this review out sooner but gathering my thoughts on the record has been surprisingly difficult. I should start by saying that this record is incredibly samey, at least 10 of its 15 tracks run along a nearly identical formula of short trap bangers with explosive beats and a mix of shouted and rapped vocals. There is also a similarly homogenized but smaller collection of tracks on the record that take a more R&B style approach and are rarely successful. What ...

Natalia Lafourcade - Un Canto por Mexico, Vol. 1 Natalia has been one of the leading voices in the world of Mexican folk revivalism with her pair of Musas  releases both of which received massive critical acclaim including from me. While UCPM isn't quite the same concept the sounds will be familiar to people who have been following Natalia recently and he executes it well. The set of tracks here are raw but extravagantly performed and lushly arranged which means that even when moments blend together the minute to minute sound of the record is exciting. While it clearly won't be for everyone if you've enjoyed her music prior to this then the album is yet another can't miss entry. 7/10 Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas This album completely slipped under my radar despite the fact that I was a fan of Lianne's debut Is Your Love Big Enough?  around the time it came out. Given that it was one of the records I was most excited to finally get a chance to listen to my expec...

Miley Cyrus is a singer, actress, former child star and one of the most talked about artists of the 2010's. Through the decade she transitioned from tame family friendly pop rock into the much more adult styles of her Bangerz  era before releasing an experimental psych pop record with The Flaming Lips and closing the decade off returning to her country roots on Younger Now . The progression of her musical career has unfolded very much in the private eye with as much discussion surrounding how Miley was evolving as an artist as the actual music itself.  Review By Lav: I consider myself a fan of Miley. She has maintained a rewarding career arc which so few child stars ever manage and her outspoken nature on social and music industry issues is always a refreshing break from some of her focus grouped contemporaries. Unfortunately most of my admiration for Miley has never actually come from her music. While she was moderately prolific in the 2000's I can't say there we're ma...

  Autechre - Plus Two months ago if you had told me that Autechre would drop two records of varying intensity I would confidently say I'll take the higher octane of the two, but after putting off the more reserved Plus  for a few weeks I found myself even more enamored with it than it's big brother Sign . This record too is over 60 minutes in length but trades out its predecessors shrill synths and jittery percussion for something more sustained and steady. The three tracks on the record that last over 10 minutes each bring not only a unique sonic palette but also a meaningful and ultimately worthwhile progression. While Plus  isn't completely devoid of up-tempo moments the mixing aims for a much calmer experience this time around and it pays off big time. Even many of the shorter tracks here let their pulsating percussion patterns unravel around  backing instrumentation designed more to calm than to confuse. With improved sonic cohesion and more effective use of a s...