Lav's Music Corner

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...

5.  Same Problems?  - A$AP Rocky While Rocky has been far from silent over the past few years. this song's live debut last month and the serious nature of its subject matter feels like the biggest sign of future endeavors since Rocky dropped 2018's Testing . That's exciting enough on its own, making the song's meditative style an interesting choice, but one that grew on me as the week went on. Ultimately, how much I enjoyed the messaging of the track and how well it fits the presentation won me over.  Listen 4.  brrr  - Kim Petras Like a lot of recent Kim Petras singles there are things I don't like about the track, they're just overpowered by the things I do. The instrumental here is basically a "we have SOPHIE at home" type beat, though if I wasn't so familiar with Sophie's work I might be a bit more interested in the beat because it really does match the song's icy demeanor. What really sells me on the song as usual is Kim's confiden...

King's Disease III  - Nas Unlike the bar on the opening track where Nas says he "doesn't drop often", this is the third album in the KD series in as many years. The combination of Nas and Hit-Boy has been pumping out songs recently and while I thought the first King's Disease  was just okay, the second one really did impress me . So if Nas took another step forward on the third edition it has the potential to be one of his best albums since Illmatic . At the very least Nas pulls off the level of lyrical proficiency you'd expect, as does Hit-Boy with the beats. Even when this record isn't operating at its best it does at least sound good. One of the primary issues I have with the album gets back to the recent over-exposure of Nas as this record sounds extremely familiar. From the beats to the hooks to the subject matter Nas is rapping about there's just a lot here that feels closer to routine. Thankfully, I still find the music here pretty exciting, and...

Black Thought & Danger Mouse are a pair of veteran producer and even more veteran MC who have had their hands in dozens of classic records respectfully. After teasing a collaboration for years the pair have finally delivered a proper full length record and brought many high profile friends along with them.  Review by Lav: I love these two. From Danger Mouse's versatile and impressive catalog of production which is nearing two decades of work to Black Thought's time with The Roots and his continued success as a soloist. It's through this lens that the title of this record Cheat Codes  starts to make a lot of sense. The level of professionalism in the delivery and creation of these lo-fi and jazz inspired hip hop tracks really is a cheat code and the pair live up to it.  I was pretty sure this was gonna be good based solely on who made it, but the trio of singles certainly helped. No Gold Teeth  left my rotation at some point in the past few months and I don't know...

Hey Besties, it's time for the list that's usually the most popular among the shorter bunch, almost entirely due to how much buzz anything hip hop related can attract online. Features are still a pretty big deal and they are normally one of the first pieces of promotional material leading to a new album or single. The shortlist this year wasn't as long as in years past but make no mistake, there were literally thousands of featured verses that people out there may consider when making a list like this. I certainly don't claim to have heard every single rap record released this year but I heard a LOT of them, and these were my favorite featured artists who gave memorable performances on someone else's song.  10. 21 Savage on J. Cole's my life A few years ago J. Cole jumped on 21 Savage's song a lot  for a standout feature on what became one of his most acclaimed and well known songs to date. So when it came time for Cole's newest album the pair linked up ...

Brockhampton are a California via Texas rap group/boy band whose youthful fusion of rap, pop and R&B has become sort of a trademark in the years since their Saturation  trilogy first caught fire in 2017. The last time we heard from the group in 2019 they were exploring a much more somber approach to their sound, but from the singles to this record they projected a return to their idiosyncratic brand of hip hop.  Review By Lav: I've had pretty positive reception to most of what Brockhampton have done. They kicked off their career with Saturation 1 and 2  which scored a 9 and 10 respectively in my reviews and the acclaim returned when Ginger  turned out to be one of my favorite albums of 2019. I was excited to see what the band was going to do next even before I heard the incredible lead single from this album. Now that it's been released in its entirety I'm impressed by both the versatility of the execution on the record, as well as its consistency.  BUZZCUT ...

Slowthai is a British rapper who turned heads in 2019 with his explosive debut album Nothing Great About Britain . He crafted provocative and politically charged songs with a unique and hard-hitting take on grime and synonymous British rap genres. In the two years since he has massively expanded the scope of his collaborations appearing on tracks with Flume, Brockhampton, Denzel Curry, Amine and Gorillaz.  Review By Lav: I really enjoyed Slowthai's debut album. While he certainly had a sound he was comfortable with he consistently executed it and made for one explosive track after another. Since then he has shown up across a number of tracks showing off his versatility. Versatility has proven to be the word defining this era of Slowthai's music as the record is split into two halves. The first half is made up of tracks that would mostly fit in with his first record, in your face, hard-hitting bangers. The second half however shows a much more vulnerable and emotional side of Sl...

Nas is a New York rapper who made hip hop history with his 1994 debut album Illmatic  which is still considered among the greatest of all time. It has been a turbulent road since then as Nas has tried to reach a similar level of success with mixed results. Following up his 7 track Nasir  produced entirely by Kanye West in 2018 King's Disease  features front to back production from Hit Boy.  Review By Lavender: I like Illmatic  as much as anyone but with 25 years between then and now it is safe to say that Nas has not had a very consistent career. Though most of his albums at least have points where they show off his immense talent it is often just that, moments. The last record we heard from Nas definitely had those moments particularly the excellent Cops Shot The Kid . While there isn't a song as good as that one to be found here, King's Disease  is definitely an improvement as an album. The record is 13 tracks and under 40 minutes but the brevity manages ...

Lil Yachty is an Atlanta trap rapper who first emerged in 2016 with his own very unique personality in his breakout Lil Boai The Mixtape . Since blowing up much of Yahcty's unique characteristics have been replaced with more conventional trapisms. Lil Boat 3  follows Yachty's critically panned 3rd studio album Nuthin To Prove  in 2018.  Review By Lavender: I have been pretty vocal in my insistence that Lil Boat The Mixtape  is one of the most unique and charming stylistic interpretations of modern trap music and has continued to be a favorite for me. Since then it has been kind of a mixed bag culminating in his worst release yet the generic and underwritten Nuthin To Prove . Yachty took a long time off in the greater scheme of trap music before returning with this record which I had hoped would be another good one in the line of Lil Boat mixtapes, But while the record has good fundamentals it is way too long and very little of Yachty's charming and unique personality...

1. Have A Nice Life - Sea Of Worry Legendary post-punk band Have A Nice Life has returned with their first single since 2014 and the announcement of their incredibly highly anticipated third studio album, frankly this weeks #1 was a runaway. 2. A$AP Rocky - Babushka Boy Fresh out of his highly publicized prison stay in Sweeden Rocky has returned to drop a song and video that mark his first solo single of 2019. 3. Pusha T - Coming Home (Feat. Lauryn Hill) King Push recruits The Fugees own Lauryn Hill for a spot on his new Kanye produced track while announcing that a second entirely Kanye produced album is likely to come by the end of 2019. 4. Pinegrove - Moment Pinegrove gear up to put their past behind them and release some of the unique brand of indie rock just in time for fall season. 5. Iglooghost - Lamb  (Feat. Kai Winston & Babii) Iglooghost follows up a wild single earlier this year with yet another collaborative track that is sure to show us a glimpse into t...

A$AP Ferg is a New York rapper and member of the A$AP Mob hip hop collective that rose to prominence in the early 2000's. Ferg separated himself from the rest of the non-Rocky members of the collective in 2013 with his debut studio album Trap Lord  and the breakout single Shabba . Since then Ferg has released a handful of projects that have failed to reach the same critical peak including a universally maligned second studio record Always Strive And Prosper before dropping nearly half of this EP as singles in the lead up to its release. Review By Lavender: My general distaste for A$AP Ferg's music has been known to get me into hot water. Whether it was calling Trap Lord  average or calling Always Strive And Prosper  one of the worst rap albums of the decade I have not been shy about my feelings towards Ferg, and his fans have not been shy back. So after I gave his last record yet another mediocre review I declared that it may be the final Ferg project I was willing...

Jaden Smith is an actor, rapper and fashion icon who is the son of another famed multi-talented figure Will Smith. After releasing a number of songs as a child and an increasing output of singles Jaden saw fit to release his commercial debut record SYRE  in 2017.  He followed that very thematic concept album with the looser collection of tracks on the critically panned Sunset Tapes  last year. Now with little notice Jaden is releasing his second true studio album and companion piece to SYRE , ERYS . Review By Lavender: I was worried going into ERYS for a number of reasons and I was kind of hoping Jaden would move on from this approach going forward. SYRE  was a decent album with some high points in it's tracklist but one that ran far, far too long and featured plenty of misguided songs that served no purpose on the records themes or were sonic misses. Pair this with the painfully breezy brevity of Jaden's follow-up The Sunset Tapes  and the fact that...

1. Flying Lotus - More (Feat. Anderson .Paak) FlyLo scores the #1 single that FKA Twigs sniped a few weeks ago with the 3rd single in promotion of his new project. Topping a busy week the producer recruited an already legendary feature artist in Anderson Paak to drop a track that truly capitalized on the hype behind his namesake. 2. Denzel Curry - Ricky  Denzel Curry shows up with a bang for his first single in 2019 and barely falls short of #1 in a busy week but there is no reason to think he won't be back. 3. IDLES - Mercedes Marxist IDLES continue their prolific output with the attention grabbing title of the groups first single of 2019. 4. Carly Rae Jepsen - Too Much Carly gifts fans again with yet another single in the lead up to her first project in 4 years and after Julien  scored 3 weeks in the chart, expect to see Carly back here next week. 5. A$AP Ferg = Pups (Feat. A$AP Rocky) Ferg recruits Rocky for one of his most hyped up singles in years as fans hop...