Lav's Music Corner

Last best new songs of October, here's hoping my year-end lists will come out on time.  5.  I Killed Captain Hook  - Unknown Mortal Orchestra I had a pretty negative reaction to this when I heard it for the first time as it very purposefully sounds like a demo but it seems like it's genuinely the next single of this UMO era. While it's nowhere near as good as last year's That Life  the presentation did grow on me, particularly after really digging into the song's instrumental bridge where every little nuance of guitar sound is put up front and center behind the thin crackling distortion.  Listen 4.  Feedback  - La Roux (Feat. Baby Tate) Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you are. La Roux is back and her new single is an R&B banger with a Baby Tate verse that honestly kinda rules. That sentence feels randomly generated. There certainly isn't any new territory broken on the song but I am genuinely shocked at how comfortable La Roux sounds on it. This is ...

JID is an Atlanta rapper who first rose to prominence as a member of the Spillage Village collective and a signee on J. Cole's Dreamville label imprint. His previous studio album DiCaprio 2  came out in 2018 and drastically rose his profile as both a commercial artist and a critical darling. Review by Lav: While I wasn't the earliest to come around to JID I have been able to watch his rise over the past 6 years where he's not only drastically increased his profile but also his talent. I did get some flak from hip-hop heads on twitter for not completely fawning over DiCaprio 2  but with this new record, I feel pretty validated. Not only has JID improved his talent on just about every level, but also his scope and ambition with it. The results are one of the best hip hop records I've heard in 2022.  I'm really glad the lead single to this record still managed to land on the record. Surround Sound  is a track I've been enjoying all year with one of the best hooks I...

Earthgang are a hip hop duo composed of Doctor Dot and Johnny Venus from Atlanta who originally founded the rap collective Spillage Village, before joining J. Cole's Dreamville label a few years ago. That led to their debut album Mirrorland  in 2019 as well as a prominent spot on Revenge Of The Dreamers III  and the Spillage Village album in 2020. Ghetto Gods  is the highly anticipated sophomore album which the band teased with a trio of singles dating back to last year. Review By Lav: I had the same read that most people did of Earthgang's debut Mirrorland . While it showed immense potential and had some huge highlights it was also decidedly bloated and a little thematically inconsistent. As for those two issues they have fixed the thematic inconsistencies quite a bit on this record with strong song concepts that connect throughout the record and create a dynamic tracklist. As for the bloated tracklist that is less remedied and more pivoted. There are very few songs on t...