Lav's Music Corner

Now that I'm recovered enough to have opinions again a week full of big swings fell right into my lap. See what hit it out of the park and what completely struck out.  5.  Alter Ego  - Doechii (feat. JT) This is definitely a tricky one but in a week like this, it belongs on the list. Doechii and City Girls rapper JT is a combination I was THRILLED for and boy do they deliver. The two verses on this song are intense, pummeling, verbose, and completely unstoppable avalanches of charisma and momentum. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I try I just cannot get behind this chorus. Where both rappers make the intensity of their performance sound great on the verse the hook is just purely annoying in a way that is so blown out it's difficult to swallow. It's a tricky assessment on a song that has some of the most impressive performances I've heard all year.  Listen 4.  Gasping Dust  - Full Of Hell (feat. Ross Dolan) Is this song only a minute long, yes. But b...

The EP is a format I've often explored on this channel with the intention of finding breaking artists on their earliest work. While that is also normally mixed in with a handful of more established and polished artists who wanted to dip their toes into the EP pool, I can name dozens of artists I loved who I first covered on this blog with the release of early EPs. This year, however, that wasn't necessarily the case. The theme of this list is more about side projects, artists going solo, collaborations, and just a vibrant and exciting collection of little projects where beloved names do something entirely new. It made the process of listening to all of these projects, ordering them, and writing the list itself a rewarding creative challenge that resulted in a collection of boundary-pushing projects that I'm happy to be recommending.  10. The Other Side  - Ruth Radalet The former frontwoman of Chromatics finally debuted as a solo artist this year, but she isn't necessari...

On time even though I don't have wifi right now because I moved. The things I do for my little darlings.  Enjoy <3 5.  Grapevine  - Weyes Blood Even with Weyes Blood being known for playing it lowkey the verses on this track are on the sparse side. And while the hook doesn't quite erupt like some of her best tracks it doesn't have to because the beauty comes from the subtlety. With Johnathan Rado once again on board for production every single chime, keys and swell of strings sounds immaculately aligned.  Listen 4.  Stressed  - Doechii Top Dawg's new versatile wonder child is back with another impressive new single that shows off her ability to sing and rap across an effective array of styles. Beyond her impressive display the song also has a great instrumental that's creative and pretty uncompromising in its willingness to work in charming small details.  Listen 3.  ours  - R.A.P Ferreira In the middle of this song Rory explicitly says no...

All of a sudden there's quite a few EPs to be covered and we're pretty light on new records this week. So let's handle some recent short-form projects from the world of hip hop. RED & WHITE EP - Lil Uzi Vert It's no secret that I've been a pretty big critic of some of Uzi's music in the past but at the very least I can say that one of their most enjoyable projects to date was technically the most recent one not counting his collaboration with Future.  Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2  remedied many of the big problems I had with Eternal Atake , namely much stickier hooks and many features that helped make up for some of Uzi's shortcomings as both a rapper and singer. So I was a little suspicious going into this nearly 30 minute EP once I saw that Uzi is handling the entirety of vocal duties by themself. Thankfully both the production and songwriting here are better than on EA and while I think there is still some distance between Uzi and their biggest contem...