Lav's Music Corner

The Loveliest Time  - Carly Rae Jepsen After releasing two of the best pop albums of the 2010s Carly Rae Jepsen established herself as the best and one of the most underrated songwriters in all of pop music. Her most recent project, last year's The Loneliest Time,  was the first time in a decade that I wasn't blown away by her material either studio albums or B-sides. Despite having a few incredibly good moments it was surprisingly inconsistent for an artist who felt like they just never ran out of good songs. Now, that album is getting a quick follow-up in companion album The Loveliest Time . While it's easy to reflexively call this a B-Side project, it also kind of feels like a more romantic answer to its predecessor. Given that has historically been right up Carly's alley and that I thought the lead single Shy Boy  was pretty good I was excited about this.  Unfortunately, the four songs proceeding Shy Boy  on the album don't add up to a ton of intrigue. The o...

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...

While the singles list is burdened with rules about one song per artist and the insistence on taking every single element of a song from a cultural and promotional standpoint into consideration, the songs list has none of that. This is just the best songs from every single album, mixtape, and EP I heard this year. Anymore context than that is unnecessary, enjoy. <3 100. More Pressure  - Kae Tempest (feat. Kevin Abstract) I fell foolishly in love with this song early in the year and while I was ultimately disappointed by what Kevin Abstract brought to the final two Brockhampton projects, he makes a great contribution here. On top of that Kae's mind-bending lyricism is as compelling and mystifying as ever, not to mention catchy as the refrains throughout have stuck with me all year. Key Lyric: "Less instruction, more comprehension" 99. So Much More  - Conway The Machine This year Conway made a statement with a record that not only elevated him from much of his previous w...