Lav's Music Corner

My short review of the new 100 Gecs album is available alongside a number of others as part of a Ringtone Magazine feature about the album here <3

Just barely a month into the year, I've somehow already missed three pop records I planned on talking about for various reasons. Let's remedy that. Gloria  - Sam Smith Normally I wouldn't even be paying attention to a Sam Smith release, much less reviewing it. But then of course, Unholy  happened, not only the best single I've ever heard from them, but also their most interesting song to date. That meant I was obviously going to pay attention to this album to see if it was some kind of sea change for Sam Smith or at least a point where they would be offering more stylistic risks than on any of their previous efforts. Given the scant tracklist of just 11 full songs, almost all of which are quite short, I was hoping there would be some major swings at different styles one after another. But the actual result is a record that's still pretty tame and also pretty scant on top of it.  Thematically the album has a general tide of accepting yourself, coming to terms with yo...

I've said a few times this year that it's been a kind of interesting year for albums. While there wasn't the same pile of records absolutely blowing me away this year that there had been in years past, I was pleasantly surprised by how deep the field was. There were definitely albums cut from this year's list that could have comfortably made it onto one of the last two years' editions. Ultimately, I think that's a good thing. If I had to choose between the two I would take more good albums. But if the praise seems particularly quick compared to other lists and other years, there's a reason. Enjoy <3 ( This list was originally posted on January 1st, 2023 but was remade due to formatting errors) 100. Rina Sawayama - Hold The Girl While Rina failed to impress me with some of the songwriting and in particular the hooks on her new record, the production of Clarence Clarity and her imposing personality are enough to carry this record through with its memorable ...