Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Clarence Clarity is an electronic music producer and vocalist who first broke through with a surprise underground hit in 2015's No Now . That gave way to a sophomore record called Think: Peace  in 2018 and eventually part 1 of Vanishing Act , an EP that dropped in 2021. Simultaneously Clarence has continued to produce for a variety of other artists like Dorian Electra, HMLTD, Sundara Karma, and most notably, Rina Sawayama. Now his long awaited 3rd studio album has arrived 6 years after its predecessor and three years after the EP it's serving as a sequel to. The record dropped with no singles, so there's really no choice other than to dive right in. Where to even start with this record, the beginning I guess? The first half of this record is pretty standard Clarence, and it's a god damn banger factory. You have to get 4 songs deep into the album just to find a track that reaches 4 minutes, which makes the opening salvo of the record a dizzying affair...

Rina Sawayama is a Japanese-British pop singer who first broke through with a Clarence Clarity produced EP and broke out into the world of elevated pop and critical acclaim with her 2020 debut Sawayama . Hold The Girl  features a familiar roster of collaborators but focuses on the more emotionally earnest elements of Rina's music. Review by Lav: Hype is a fragile thing. Coming into the year if you had told me we were in for new Rina it would have shot to the top of my list and after an excellent lead single my excitement had only gotten stronger. The continued releases since then were far from disappointing, in fact, I like most of them. But they seemed to serve as foreshadowing for Rina slipping from her pedestal as a creative pop innovator to just another of the genre's very solid and reliable voices. Far be it from me to complain about that level of quality given that Hold The Girl  could still be among the better pop records released this year. It's really just that two...

The Extended Play is either a dying breed with too few songs to rack up meaningful streams or it's the only place where you can discover authentically good indie music anymore. Depending on who you ask. The reality of it is while the EP is mostly dead in popular music save for a few artists who could release literally anything and their fans would listen, it is a thriving medium in the underground. Part of me hates doing this list because 10 years from now we will know about some great EPs from artists who will break out in the next few years and this list will look completely different. But for now lets indulge with artists we know are good right now and count down the top 10 EPs of 2021.  10. Lil Mariko  - Lil Mariko Lil Mariko garnered quite a bit of attention with her appearance on Dorian Electra's My Agenda  last year, but she was really just getting started. Her debut EP is a hyperpop meets hip hop meets metal fusion sort of like Poppy but with more rapped verses. A...

Clarence Clarity is a British singer and electronic music producer known for his bright, loud and detailed take on electronic music whose rise to fame slightly pre-dated hyperpop's peak in popularity, and occurred alongside frequent collaborator Rina Sawayama's. VANISHING ACT  follows his 2019 ambient album Dead Screen Scrolls  and his 2018 sophomore record THINK: PIECE . Review By Lav: Clarence Clarity is like my grade school crush of music. His exciting brand of experimental electronica completely wowed me on his 2015 debut and his adaptability in the pop music sphere with his 2nd album and work alongside Rina is just as impressive. After he dropped a pretty compelling ambient album last year I had to ask myself if there was anything Clarence couldn't do. I was pretty curious going into this EP if he would continue the trend he started on his 2nd album of taking his sound in a brighter more poppy and straightforward direction, or deep dive back into the insane experimenta...

Clarence Clarity is a London based songwriter and electronic music producer who emerged in 2015 with an electric and critically acclaimed debut record. After following it up with a second successful sophomore record in 2018 he took a break to produce for some other artists most notably Rina Sawayama before returning with his first collection of ambient compositions. Review By Lavender: Clarence Clarity has been a name that for the last five years I have been following very closely. After his unique and explosive debut record I was hooked on his style, and after he perfectly applied his sound to a poppier style a few years later I was in awe of his versatility. Given how much I liked his work I was still excited for this project even though it was only an ambient project, and for good reason as his creativity certainly creeps into the medium.  The album consists of nine tracks that reach just over 30 minutes. While the record gets off to a great start and ends on a series of great s...