Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lav: Chelsea Wolfe is an artist whose music I've enjoyed for a long time, though I feel like I haven't gotten to review her at her best yet. I thought her 2019 album Birth Of Violence  was just okay and though I enjoyed her Converge collaboration more it featured less of the hallmarks of Chelsea's music than her own material. That's why I was so excited for She Reaches Out  which featured some of my favorite of her singles to date. The album that resulted is cohesive but still impressively distinct and the best thing Chelsea Wolfe has dropped in a long time.  Describing the singles from this record as "good" honestly kind of feels like an understatement, they're fantastic. Lead single Dusk  serves as the closing track and it's still remarkably good. I can't think of many other tracks that manage to be this chilling and occasionally obtuse while also being so irresistible and well-written. The album opens with another single I loved Whispe...

Okay so I'm getting a late start to the year at least on the blog. I woke up one day this week and realized I had somehow just kind of forgotten the weekly segment I've done on here for years. So there's been three weeks of the new year so far and quite a few high-profile songs released, these are the 10 best. 10.  Right Back To It  - Waxahatchee (feat. MJ Lenderman) Fresh off a breakthrough year for Wednesday, MJ Lenderman teams up for a supporting contribution to Waxahatchee's new song, and boy does it go over well. The pair aren't exactly charting new ground stylistically but Katie's vocals are somehow even more infectious than ever before and the woozy folk instrumental palette is still a near perfect fit.  Listen 9.  J Christ  - Lil Nas X Much like Doja Cat did last year with Paint The Town Red , Lil Nas X is leaning into his most controversial instincts. I think he ended up with a pretty catchy song which keeps up the line of his short and incredibly infec...

5.  Petroleum  - Yard Act While I came away from the first Yard Act album pretty mixed something tells me I'm going to like the follow-up a lot more. The singles have seen the band leaning into their grooviest eccentricities and the results are post-punk that fringes on danceability in the way very few bands can achieve. This may not be the most bombastic or infectious of the songs but I still like it quite a bit.  Listen 4.  Tunnel Lights  - Chelsea Wolfe While this track may not blow me away in quite the same way Chelsea's past two tracks have it still has everything I would want in one of her songs. From the spacious percussion marked by booming distorted drums to her haunting voice wrapping itself around mystical fairy tale refrains it's all still so compelling.  Listen 3.  The Fight  - Future Islands The most reserved single from Future Islands' new era might be its best moment yet. It has the patience to squeeze every moment of somber drama ...

MWAH <3 5.  And Still  - Peter Gabriel In total the collection of new material Peter Gabriel has released hasn't exactly been consistently satisfying. But he's managed to shine through a handful of times and this song sounded better and better to me every time. I love the sweeping compositional style and consistently catchy refrains throughout. I still have no idea what to make of his upcoming new album though.  Listen 4.  Brick By Brick  - Conway The Machine & Wun Two Okay, consider me surprised. My expectations were not high for Conway crossing over with lo-fi hip-hop beats artist Wun Two. What seemed like nothing more than a reason to release new material is actually off to a great start with Conway delivering some of his characteristically hard-hitting lines in appropriately lethal fashion. They pair great with a vintage-sounding instrumental highlighted by fluttering keys.  Listen 3.  Why? - Matmos Leave it to Matmos to show up on this list...

Because I moved last week I just combined the two weeks into one, enjoy <3 10.  It Won't Be Like This Forever  - Neck Deep Don't make fun of me. I've been waiting for neck Deep to return to their catchy meets angsty brand of pop-punk bliss since 2015 and this is among the better tracks they've released in the past 8 years. In no way is this rewriting the book on any element of their sound or style but come on, it's catchy and explosive and fun. Listen 9.  Murder At The 18th St. Garage - The Mountain Goats You have to respect the hustle of The Mountain Goats. Dropping a new album pretty much every year the band doesn't have the most stylistic versatility to them but they play to their strengths occasionally. On this track they absolutely nail their dorky and occasionally over-written style with a simple energetic instrumental and some lyrics fans will love pouring over.  Listen 8.  SHAQ & KOBE  - Meek Mill & Rick Ross Am I crazy or is Meek soundin...

Sorry about this one. These albums have nothing to do with each other aside from being released recently and I recommend you listen to all of them. They just came out in a time where I was busy with other work and about to go on a week vacation. So to apologize I'm going to review as much as I can over the next two weeks leading into my year end lists starting with this. Enjoy <3 the Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures  - R.A.P Ferreira Despite the fact that he publicly criticized my last review of his music earlier this year in a series of now deleted tweets, I'm still a big fan of Rory and I was excited about this project. After dropping one of the best abstract hip hop projects of 2020 he kicked 2021 off with a much more indulgent and compositionally abstract record that I was lukewarm on. Light Emitting  seems like a mix of the two as it features some more structured sung hooks and a number of fantastic conventional rap verses, but it isn't afraid to go wanderin...

The best new tracks released this weekend below: 5.  The Unanswered Why  - William Doyle Following up his pretty solid album earlier this year former East India Youth frontman William Doyle announced a new EP this week and dropped a charming little lead single with this track. It ups the tempo from his standard outing but doesn't lose any of the poise with pleasant strumming electric guitar and sharp refrains. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv1hF7dWYYI 4.  Write A List Of Things To Look Forward To  - Courtney Barnett Courtney's most recent single may be the most nondescript so far but that doesn't stop her from effectively capturing the breezy indie rock vibe that she's always been known for. The song has a slinky reverbed guitar lick and a swaying momentum that lulls you in from the very start.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTrdzqGHqu4 3.  Incendio  - Arca Arca came out of nowhere to drop a new track that deals in many of her typical stylistic lan...

Xiu Xiu is the long running experimental music project of singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart. The band has been through many iterations and line-up changes over the past 20 years and their most recent era was defined by horror themed experimentations starting with a covers album of the Twin Peaks  soundtrack and culminating in the brash an terrifying Girl With Basket Of Fruit  in 2019. OH NO  appears to be a transition in the bands style as they recruit guests vocalists on every single track here to craft a series of uniquely strange duets. Review By Lav: The last two Xiu Xiu albums have been particular favorites of mine so I think the band can be described as being in some sort of 2nd stage renaissance. With that being said I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this album. I wasn't sure how much influence the featured artists would have on the tracks but ultimately the album feels very pretty recognizably Xiu Xiu throughout.  Generally speaking most of the mor...

Chelsea Wolfe is an American singer-songwriter who has been releasing music for almost a decade that interpolates folk, electronica, rock and even some metal into her sound over the years. She released one of her most acclaimed records to date in 2017 with Hiss Spun  and has been building up to Birth Of Violence  with more acoustic and atmospheric singles. Review By Lavender: Chelsea Wolfe has never really crossed my radar until I decided to check out her 2017 record Hiss Spun  as it received rave reviews from critics and fans alike. The record was a strange odyssey of genre crossovers and indulgent songwritng that I enjoyed and even one that grew on me after I first heard it. I figured Birth Of Violence  would be a good moment to dive into her history and listen to some of her older records I had missed and I have to say that I wasn't really overwhelmingly impressed. While Apokalypsis and Pain Is Beauty  were interesting listens that I enjoyed ...