Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Perfume Genius  is the musical project of Mike Hadreas and one of the most beloved voices in the indie and art-pop scenes of the past 20 years. Since debuting in 2010, there has basically be an uninterrupted stream of critically acclaimed Perfume Genius records every few years leading up to the newly released 7th album Glory . In my opinion, the peak of the Perfume Genius catalog came in the form of 2017's masterpiece No Shape , which saw Mike beginning to work with producer and arranger Blake Mills, whose work is still present on Glory . For that reason and the fact that I've enjoyed every record he's ever released, I went into this album fully expecting great things.  I had no reason to think this album wouldn't be excellent based on the singles. "It's A Mirror" came first, and I think it's spectacular. I love the shift to more rustic instrumentation; you can really feel the physicality of it all, plus the refrains and vocals are ...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a New York indie rock trio who became one of the definitive indie acts of the 2000's with massively acclaimed records like It's Bliss  and Fever To Tell . The band released their 4th album Mosquito  in 2013 but it was met with shrugs from critics and disappointment from fans. After nearly 10 years the band has returned with a new project backed by a lead single collaboration with Perfume Genius.  Review by Lav: If you're the kind of person who is stupid you could look at my body of work and call me a Yeah Yeah Yeah's hater. While I am not quite as head over heels for the group as many who appreciate the era they came from, I still have a lot of love for their two best records. Given that I was pretty mild on Karen collaborative record with Danger Mouse a few years ago and I never want to hear the previous Yeah Yeah Yeah's album ever again, it's been a while since I really loved something that was YYY parallel. The closest thing probably being...

Perfume Genius is the musical project of Mike Hadreas who has been one of the most acclaimed artists in indie and art pop over the past decade. After making lo-fi indie music early in his career Mike teamed up with producer Blake Mills and has shifted to a much more instrumentally dense and immaculate style. Much of Ugly Season  has existed for a few years now including a pair of singles and the music from the record was used to soundtrack both a dance piece and accompanying short film.  Review By Lav: If you've been following me on the blog or on YouTube or really anywhere you likely know that I love Perfume Genius. I dished out tons of acclaim to the two most recent Perfume Genius records and for all his material before that, I'm granting praise through the 10 year retrospective series. Given how much I love Perfume Genius and how much I loved the original two singles released from this record a few years ago I was very excited for this record. It won't be a surprise to a...

This week had some pretty big releases, only some of them paid off. Let's explore. <3 5.  Training Montage  - The Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats have PLENTY of great ballads and slow songs, but after the last few years it's really nice to see them put some muscle behind this new single. The song absolutely jams with a hook that is made memorable by John Darnielle's unmistakably vocals and lyrics that are cute above what most indie acts are capable of, no surprise coming from a published author. Listen 4.  Marijuana's A Working Woman  - of Montreal Depending on who you ask it's either been a while, or a WHILE since they last loved an of Montreal record. While one good single doesn't promise much this track certainly reads as one of the bands most exciting and exploratory in years. The multi-faceted song bounces between murkier almost horror movie style passages with methodical vocals into snappy synth pop hooks and it's a combination that worked on me i...

Musically the album is king. While singles top charts and generate radio play it's the album that fans stay up all night waiting for and constantly ask for online. Everything about these collections of songs seems just as innocuous as well, a collection of songs. But what they mean to us and what they meant to us specifically in 2020 is immeasurable. I listened to just over 250 albums this year and reviewed almost 200 of them and as usual there were tons of records I just didn't have time to get to. As much as I wish I could have listened to absolutely everything, this list is the best of everything I actually could listen to this year. These records range from solid and slightly inconsistent experiments to some of the best and most groundbreaking music of the year, and is neatly arranged into a 100-1 list as best as I could do, enjoy. 100. Freezepop - Fantasizer One of the premiere synth pop bands of the 2000's returned in 2020 with Fantasizer . While it came completely ou...