Lav's Music Corner

For the first rapid fire review segment of 2025 I wanted to take a look at some hyperpop records that have been garnering a lot of attention, or that we've been covering over on Ringtone Magazine. saoirse dream  - saoirse dream Let's start with the easy one. I like this Saoirse Dream record quite a bit and you should listen to it. She combines the digital sounds of contemporary hyperpop with flavors of 90s rock like grunge and shoegaze into a genre she calls Wizard Sleaze. I know all of that because I interviewed Catherine, the girl behind Saoirse Dream about the album for Ringtone Magazine and caught a ripping live show from her the week the album dropped. For that reason I'm not going into detail to try and pick the record apart track by track, instead I'll just give it a certified Lavender seal of approval and encourage you to try the record out yourself. 7.5/10 Club Shy Room 2 EP - Shygirl Despite never being a massive fan of Shygirl's first few albums, I went ...

My review of my favorite artists complicated posthumous self-titled album is out right now in Ringtone Magazine <3 Read it here For more groundbreaking pop, check out my review of Charli XCX's  BRAT

Review by Lav: HOPEUROKAY is a hyperpop duo that I had the pleasure of stumbling upon through Twitter. Last year I got the chance to interview them for Ringtone Magazine and while I left that experience excited for what they were going to do next, even I didn't expect it to come this soon. But there's something else I didn't expect about this record, how emotional it gets.  Despite maintaining the occasionally bubbly demeanor and shimmering synth lines of their debut, You Are Killing Our Relationship  is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a much more dejected and self-reflective listening experience. Songs on the album like thousand x  and fittingly enough insight  work to inform a lot of the feelings and real life situations that inform the sound and themes of the record and they're neither light nor casual. The record gets off to a wonderful start that does a great job of showing how HOPEUROKAY balance their high-energy textural hyperpop style with their newfound emotional w...

Arca is a genre blending producer and vocalist who first made a name for herself with productions credits on albums like Kanye West's Yeezus , FKA Twigs LP1  and Bjork's Vulnicura . In the past few years she has risen to fame as a leading voice and frequent collaborator in the hyperpop movement, culminating in last years critically acclaimed KiCk i . Throughout the 2nd half of the year Arca dropped numerous singles from a trilogy of sequels and then released the projects one day after another in the week leading up to their originally scheduled release, followed by a surprise fifth entry into the series.  Review By Lav: While Arca may not be one of the most high profile voices in music anyone who has been paying attention knows that she's contributed as much as anybody in the past decade. At first it was largely in the shadows as a virtuoso producer, in recent years she has had a major coming out party not only with her own music, but her own personality. Given that Arca is...

A.G. Cook is a British songwriter and producer as well of the head of influential Hyper Pop label PC Music and frequent collaborator with Charli XCX. After years of producing for other artists he released the monster album 7G  last month with years of works compiled into 7 discs and he is here with a much slimmer and more conventional quick follow-up. Review By Lavender: 7G  wasn't personal but I did enjoy the record.  The highlights from the album were just as good as much of the music Cook has worked on over the years which had me excited for this album which felt like a more complete and personal statement from Cook as an artist. While he is certainly the star of the show this time around many of the deep cuts on Apple  don't quit elive up to the hype.  That hype was generated from a pretty good lead single in Oh Yeah . The song is a glistening pop ballad with heavy vocal processing that makes for a sweet and catchy way to dip your toes into the album. It doe...

A.G. Cook is a British songwriter, producer, and head of the highly influential PC Music label. Alongside influential PC Music acts like Hannah Diamond, GFOTY and umru as well as close collaborations with artists like SOPHIE, Charli XCX and 100 Gecs, Cook and his collaborators have been the driving force behind the meteoric rise of Hyperpop in the 2010's. Despite this 7G  is the first true solo album from Cook and is delivered in the form of a versatile 7 disc record.  Review By Lavender: If you've been reading my reviews for any significant length of time you'll know that I am a big fan of PC Music and pretty much all the artists listed in the bio above. I was excited for this record but also cautious as we had never heard much true solo music from him, and a nearly 3 hour record is a bold way to introduce yourself as a primary solo artist. As it turns out the quality of 7G  depends a lot on which section of the record you're in, as it is split into 7 discs each with a...