Lav's Music Corner

These are some collaborative EPs that have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other aside from being two different artists working together.  genre: sadboy  EP - Trippie Redd/Machine Gun Kelly This project is probably gonna land among the most hated musical releases of 2024. These two artists enter the game as victims of some of the most severe over-hate in all of music, especially Trippie. While he's released his fair share of lame-duck projects he's also got some absolute banger singles under his belt and a few genuinely strong records in his catalog. MGK is even more divisive. While I've never been a fan of his catalog I appreciate some of the intensity he's brought to an otherwise extremely sleepy era of contemporary pop rock, even if the quality of songs aren't really there. At the very least anyone who thinks he's a better rapper than he is a punk-rocker needs a deep re-analyzing of their priorities.  With the venom that exists for these two artists genre:...

5.  Te Mata  - Kali Uchis Kali's new Spanish-language album is off to a strong start with this Bolero cut. The style feels like a natural fit to her and while it lacks some of the purely infectious moments her best songs contain, the track is lush and dramatic in a way that feels larger than life. It's a song that's both exceedingly charming and exceedingly pretty.  Listen 4.  In The City  - Charli XCX (feat. Sam Smith) This song definitely took some time to grow on me but at the end of the day it's really the A.G. Cook production that wins me over. Like so many of their best songs together  In The City  manages to translate the grit of its jagged and rough around the edges production into supremely blissful pop sounds. This time in particular the motif of "The City" feels particularly well served by the sonic choices and it elevates an already solid songwriting foundation.  Listen 3.  Sleeper  - BADBADNOTGOOD (feat. Charlotte Day Wilson...

BADBADNOTGOOD are a Canadian jazz trio who first gained popularity in the early 2010's with their first two albums. They were released on Bandcamp and featured creative instrumental renditions of online favorites like video game soundtracks and hip hop beats. The band had a breakout moment with their 4th album in 2016, with the records biggest hit becoming a surprise Tik Tok hit earlier this year. The band is known for collaborating with artists from the hip hop and indie scenes but Talk Memory  features a much more jazz oriented set of collaborators and a sound much more indebted to classic jazz music as a result.  Review By Lav: In my early teenage years I loved hip hop both new and old, loved artists like Joy Division and James Blake, had grown up playing Zelda games and was developing a burgeoning interest in jazz. All of that is to say that for me, like many other people out there BADBADNOTGOOD were an incredible cool and exciting way to dip my toes into the genre through...

The best new tracks to drop this weekend: 5.  Pressure  - Ari Lennox We will get the obvious one out of the way real quick. The biggest reason anyone is talking about this song is that literally everything about it sounds almost identical to Beyonce. While being influenced by Queen B is certainly nothing to fault an artist for, an entire album full of this much worship could come out intolerable. Thankfully as a single the track manages to be enjoyable and never quite step into complete complete sonic thievery.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E604eZ81_YQ 4.  Blackest Crow  - The Body & BIGBRAVE One of the stranger collaborations of the year has already proven interesting on prior singles and has even more intrigue on Blackest Crow . The expanded composition sees both metal bands continuing to reel it in and cover more folk influenced territory with a great degree of success. The track is surprisingly agreeable given the names involved but everything about i...