Lav's Music Corner

Slowdive is one of the most legendary shoegaze bands of all time. The group's 1993 sophomore album Souvlaki  is seen by many as the definitive album in the genre and considered one of shoegaze's "big three" alongside Ride's Nowhere  and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless . The band returned in 2017 after a 22 year hiatus with their 4th album, the self-titled Slowdive . The project was met with heaps of critical acclaim and now 6 years later they've returned with a 5th album. Review by Lav:  I love shoegaze, that's no secret. But even among the many shoegaze acts I covet Slowdive stands above them all. That obviously has a lot to do with their pioneering work across their first three albums painting dreamy layered motifs of sonic bliss on one song after another. But the band is no longer just a legacy act. In 2017 they returned with a stroke of absolute beauty on their comeback album Slowdive . The project featured creativity and beauty far beyond what you...

5.  the slab  - Slowdive The often-teased third single from Slowdive's new album opens with an arrangement of glittery jangly guitars that fans of shoegaze acts molded in their original image will be familiar with. While the instrumental of the song is wonderfully cloudy I will say I think the vocals could be improved. "Impact" often isn't the point of the singing on a shoegaze song and yet on this track is takes a while for them to have any real presence in the song either.  Listen 4.  Wait For Me  - Stillblue I haven't talked about Stillblue since last years Flora  EP but that hasn't stopped the band from continuing to export their melancholic indie folk. Even now on a single which has a newfound and quite definitive jangle to it, the haze of sweet guitar tones and romantic desperation in the lyrics give the song a distinctly somber presentation. In a week dominated by good new indie folk songs they couldn't be left out. Listen 3.  Summer Windows ...

5.  Ruins - Lost Girls Jenny Hval's Lost Girls project is back with a seeming shift in focus both sonically and compositionally. The track is more conventional in almost every sense than much of their last album but it works because Jenny is incapable of not standing out. The last minute is really where she seals the deal with her trademark girlish vocals buttoning up the song perfectly. Listen 4.  Talk To Me Nice  - Tinashe I've been awaiting new Tinashe ever since I was shocked that her last project ended up as one of my favorite R&B projects of 2021. While this new single doesn't set the world on fire the way some of her best songs do, its more lowkey tone still works. She manages to use her poise to extract obedience out of the track's title refrain and the song is growing on me pretty much every time I hear it.  Listen 3.  White Horse  - Chris Stapleton Alongside the announcement of his long-awaited follow-up to 2020's Starting Over , an album I st...

Day late, whoopsie I was swimming. For the record new songs from Timbre Timber, Faye Webster, Little Dragon, and Lyrical Lemonade could have made this list in a weaker week. 5.  Shy Boy  - Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen songs basically have a spot reserved on this list but Shy Boy  pushes that presumption more than most. The snappy dance beat and memorable lustful verses will sound VERY familiar for anybody whose enjoyed Carly's music before. My only real issue with the song is the singing on the hook which is clearly a stylistic choice but one that I think fractures the songs otherwise very good vibe. Ultimately it's the supplementary vocals in her normal register that save things and keep the song on the list.  Listen 4.  BABY HELLO  - Rauw Alejandro & Bizzarap Consider me surprised. Not because I didn't know what these artists were capable of individually. Rauw Alejandro first impressed me on one of his biggest hits Todo De Ti  before joining...

Beachy Head is a new super grous project bringing together members of Slowdive (and Slowdive infused super-group The Soft Cavalry) with members of The Flaming Lips and Casket Girls. The collaboration was announced just last month though it received three singles. The debut album is slim with just 8 tracks under 30 minutes but has plenty of promise and poise among its ranks to deliver something special.  Review By Lav: It's no secret I'm a big fan of shoegaze, it's also no secret I'm a huge fan of Slowdive. Pretty much everything Slowdive vocalist Rachel Goswell has ever done from Minor Victories to Mojave 3, The Soft Cavalry and even her solo material I've found to be enjoyable at minimum. Continuing my likeliness to to enjoy mostly everything she touches I dove into Beachy Head  excited about what she may be offering. Ultimately the record doesn't do a whole lot with its short runtime, delivering wiry, dreamy shoegaze reminiscent of the original projects of its...

Ride is a legendary English rock band considered one of the fathers of the Shoegaze genre who released the first of Shoegaze's "Big 3" records with their 1990 debut album Nowhere . Since then the band released a triology of albums in the 90's including one of the most maligned records of their career before breaking up in 1996, and reforming for a comeback album in 2017 alongside both of the other big three shoegaze bands. Review By Lavender: Nowhere , Ride's debut record was a groundbreaking moment for Shoegaze and one of the most consistently underrated records of the 90's given how ahead of their time the band was and how brilliantly the music has held up. I also find myself consistently enjoying the bands music more than many others, their sophomore record Going Blank Again  and their early recordings album Smile  are both records I would highly recommend, and I was pretty high on their 2017 comeback record Weather Diaries . While they released a B-...

The Soft Cavalry is the new project of former Slowdive member Rachel Goswell and her husband Steve Clarke. Goswell has been busy in the past few years with the supergroup album Minor Victories  in 2016 and the self-titled Slowdive  record in 2017, so coming into The Soft Cavalry  she has both a veteran status and an active prescence in the worlds of modern dream pop and shoegaze. Review By Lavender: Slowdive is absolutely legendary as one of the big three shoegaze bands and a prime example of the youthful energy for experimentation that shoegaze was built on. Since their run in the 90s Rachel hasn't slowed with her output of music I've enjoyed. The 2016 Minor Victories record was one of my picks for the most underrated of the year and one that I still enjoy revisiting, but in 2017 Slowdive released their first new record in over 20 years and Slowdive  is the record that truly got me back into Rachel's output. That record landed in my top 10 albums of the year ...

The Top 10 Artists Of 2017 While the Albums, Songs and EPs list celebrate individual achievements of greatness artist of the Year takes a step further. Everyone comes into the start of a year in different places and everyone leaves a changed artist, whether drastic or minor. The Top Artist Of The Year has always been one of the more subjective lists as it takes into account the perception of an artist beyond their music where opinions differ even further. Acts like Kendrick Lamar and LCD Soundsystem released albums that would easily land a first timer on this list, but when compared to their greater discographies we're left to wonder what could have been. These 15 artists left no room for wishing as they set out to have fantastic 2017's across the board. Honorable Mentions Alvvays In 2017 Alvvays proved they had staying power in the Dream Pop genre, a feat most bands without "Beach" in their name have struggled to achieve. A trio of fantastic singles and ...