Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Panda Bear is the nickname/project of psychedelic folk artist Noah Lennox. Lennox has spent more than two decades as a member of critical darling indie folk outfit Animal Collective, but has also been a magnet for acclaim as a solo artist. The peak of that came on his 2007 album Person Pitch , which I and many others consider to be a masterpiece. His last solo album dropped back in 2019 but he's stayed very busy since then with multiple Animal Collective records dropping and a collaborative album with Sonic Boom in 2022. Now he's returning to solo work with Sinister Grift , a surprisingly vulnerable record that sees Noah dealing with the aftermath of his divorce. And it's absolutely stunning.  Sinister Grift led off with the single "Defense" which was pretty notable for being a collaboration with the biggest critical darling of 2024, Cindy Lee. I did enjoy the track, but I didn't realize just how much I liked its catchy lucid psychedelia un...

5.  First Rodeo  - Kelsea Ballerini Kelsey Ballerini's vulnerabilities continue to be the highlight of her music. While the track does have a gentle swaying instrumental and a pretty memorable chorus it's really the bearing of her soul that she displays through second-guessing and pure admiration that fully sells the song.  Listen 4.  the cost of giving up  - Poppy While Poppy has become pretty damn hit-or-miss since a great 2020 effort, you can't say she doesn't occasionally hit the mark. It's the songs where she manages to slice directly between her girlish dreamy pop side and her crushing dark metal instincts that hit the hardest. the cost of giving up  throws it back a few years in her discography to when she had that sound even more honed in and it's all the better for it.  Listen 3.  Defense  - Panda Bear (feat. Cindy Lee) I'll be the first to admit that this song may not have lived up to the impossible level of excitement generated pur...

Rounding out the first half of the year I'm looking back and covering some bands that got major attention from either critics, music fans, or both.  Diamond Jubilee  - Cindy Lee One of the biggest surprises of 2024 was the emergence of massive critical acclaim for Cindy Lee and Diamond Jubilee . The project spawns out of the complicated journey of late 2000s indie rock outfit Women. While various members of the band broke off and formed Viet Cong, a group that would eventually change their name to Preoccupations and receive critical acclaim in the decade that followed, frontman Patrick Fiegel spawned this drag-oriented pop outfit that never quite reached the same level of acclaim. But now with the project's 7th album, which is still yet to be released on streaming services, that hype has arrived. I went into Diamond Jubilee  having only sparingly heard other albums from the project like What's Tonight To Eternity  and Act Of Tenderness . But in this two-hour epic of ...