Lav's Music Corner

Childish Gambino   is an artist whose career has taken him through a dynamic range of sounds and styles. From the humor-laced hip hop of the still solid Because The Internet  to the Funkadelic soul of the excellent Awaken My Love , calling Gambino a "rapper" has been increasingly inadequate of a classification as the years go by. Earlier this year Gambino shares ATAVISTA , a finished, and marginally improved version of his divisive 2020 album. But that merely set the table to Bando Stone,  which has been marketed as the "final" Childish Gambino album.  To be completely honest, I think the Bando Stone  era got off to a great start. Lead single Lithonia  is easily the best song here and that was obvious to me from the very first time I heard it. It piles one catchy refrain after another on top of a roaring rock instrumental to great results. He also shared In The Night  which is a pretty nice song that gets solid contributions from Amaarae and Jorja Smit...

5.  BACK ON  - SBTRKT SBTRKT has kinda been on one recently, that's something I bet you didn't expect to hear in 2024. Despite what I thought was a huge miss with THE RAT ROAD  last year I've enjoyed a number of the singles that have followed in the wake of it. This is another pretty direct embrace of sunny summery house music but it's consistently delightful throughout.  Listen 4.  Lies Lies Lies  - Morgan Wallen "Lies lies lies, eyes eyes eyes" is a lyric that's below Morgan Wallen's pay grade, let's start with that. While he can be one of the most obnoxious artists in music when he's coming with ego, but he's still an earnest conceptualizer of songs. This is a vulnerable cut where he gives in to the numerous lies he tells himself and others about having moved on from a woman no longer in his life.  Listen 3.  kms  - Los Campesinos! The first single from their new record might be the best Los Campesinos song I've heard in 15 years, bu...

Review by Lav: KAYTRANADA is a Canadian DJ and electronic music producer that I've been a fan of for a long time. It really got started with his 2016 debut 99.9%  which was a car-radio staple of mine for years. The record had strong roots in dance music but expanded into the worlds of jazz and funk with a variety of excellent performances from special guests. His sophomore album BUBBA  was a much more straightforward embrace of dance music that still featured some stand-out moments, but didn't quite live up to the extremely high expectations I had for it.  His third album TIMELESS  lands somewhere in the middle. I want to get it right out of the way, Kaytranada's production and beats on this album are consistently very solid. The drums in particular, which are the key to my heart, pop off on most of the songs on this album. His knack for compelling grooves and interesting textures is as strong as ever. But this album is also much more willing to wander off course tha...

Latto is an Atlanta rapper who has broken out in recent years with tracks like Big Energy  and Bitch From Da Souf  as well as being named to the 2020 XXL Freshman Class. 777  is her sophomore album and follows 2020's Queen Of Da Souf . Review By Lav: While I don't think Latto has a particularly impressive back catalog thus far, I have always seen the appeal of her music, in particular her uncompromising personality. On tracks where she's lean into her confidence and demeanor she has been just as good as some of her best and most popular contemporaries, so it was no surprise to me to see her developing some more acclaim and commercial success. I wouldn't say that had me anticipating that 777  would be some kind of major breakout record, I was just hoping she would lean into that personality. Turns out she does, and the results are pretty solid.  A lot of discussion surrounding this record starts with one song, Big Energy . It has sort of become Latto's true comme...

2020 was the year where the only thing anyone could talk about was how bad 2020 was. Journalistically it was disappointing to see so many dive headfirst into the cliche slightly self-absorbed reactionary notions of writing about the modern day. Ultimately though I have no choice on this list but to recap the last 12 months of music as best I can, but here on the Songs list I try to take in as little outside noise as humanly possible. Regardless of where an artist is in their career, how popular or successful a song was or how critically acclaimed it is, these are my 101 favorite songs of the year as of December 30th, 2020. A year from now, month from now or even a week from now my opinions could change but as the door closes on this curious year I did everything I could to paint a truthful list of the best tracks I heard on any EP or album this year, and here it is. <3 101. Kinda Dark  - Destroyer Dan Beyar's sophisticated indie pop has never sounded as nocturnal as it does acro...