Lav's Music Corner

For the people who can tell the difference between all these genres, I'm sorry, and I promise I can to. But this was the best way to quickly talk about a bunch of records I wanted to comment on regardless in a rapid fire fashion. Enjoy <3 THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED - The Armed When The Armed broke through to a massive new audience on their 2021 album ULTRAPOP  they seemed to hit on something unique. They mixed the sounds and compositional styles from the indie rock umbrella into the pure ferocity of their screamo and hardcore demeanor. While I appreciated what the band did, I had an issue with the actual sound of the record. The production and mixing seemingly robbed the band of their most intense elements, with screams and churning guitars that felt like they never sounded as heavy as they were supposed to. Unfortunately, the EXACT same issue plagues this record.  The trio of singles for the album are the main reason I decided to cover it at al...

Review by Lavender: Weatherday is the emo and noise pop project of Swedish singer-songwriter Sputnik. The project first received quite a bit of attention online in the months following their 2019 debut Come In , which in the years since has developed a pretty substantial cult following. While Sputnik has remained busy with various collaborations and side projects in that time, Hornet Disaster  is the long-awaited sophomore Weatherday album. With a 76-minute runtime spread across 19 tracks, the album gives long-time fans plenty to chew on for however long it takes until Weatherday eventually returns again.  If you've paid any attention to my TikTok or Twitter, or even came to the release party I hosted for Hornet Disaster  last week, then you already know I'm a big Weatherday fan. And in the lead up to this record I became more and more excited with the release of pretty much every song. In one way or another dating all the way back to 2022, 7 songs in total had been relea...

This is a special review written by my friend and go-to emo and pop-punk coinnessoir Sasha Prudence. You can check her out on Instagram here. Review by Sasha: Origami Angel is a 5th wave emo band from Washington DC that made their big break on the scene with their acclaimed 2019 album Somewhere City . The album consisted of lyrics ripe with nostalgia for late 2000s childhood delights, blisteringly fast mathy riffs, and themes about a hopeful future full of emotional growth and self-improvement. However, the band’s hopes to tour behind this album were dashed with the arrival of Covid 19. Their tour was canceled, and the momentum the band had gained was all but lost.  They returned with a follow-up album, Gami Gang , which was as unorganized as it was experimental. The album ended up feeling like a mixtape full of wild ideas such as "Bossa Nova Corp," which combines easy listening bossa nova with powerful pop-punk chords, and it’s one of my personal favorites of the band. Thei...

Review by Lavender: Foxing are an emo band from St. Louis, or at least they were at the start of their tenure. 10 years ago they released an album hailed by many as a modern classic of the genre, but since then they've wandered in all kinds of different stylistic directions. Unfortunately, I haven't been nearly as crazy about any of the material that followed. That culminated in 2021's arena-rocky mess Draw Down The Moon  which I didn't particularly care for. But after the band announced a shift away from labels entirely with their self-titled 5th album and followed it up with two kick-ass singles, I was pretty excited to see what they delivered.  Let's talk singles first. I likely wouldn't even be talking about this album right now if not for Greyhound  the lead single that left me floored. For what it's worth Foxing aren't a band that I'm specifically expecting to be very playful with composition so the fact that they stretch this into a full 8-min...

Review by Lav: glass beach's first album, the fittingly titled the first glass beach album dropped back in 2019 and has attained quite a cult following in the years since. That's due to a few factors. The raw presentation and emotional vulnerability are in line with numerous internet-core classics and moments on the record felt like the future of emo. But in the rapid-fire pace that internet genres develop, 2019 feels like three waves ago. That's why I'm not surprised that the band returned with an indulgence into prog rock and art rock that sounds entirely different than their debut.  I was all over this album after having heard the first two singles. the CIA  was the lead single of the album and it's still my favorite glass beach song to date. It's one of the catchiest and most exciting singles I heard last year and every single compositional development it deploys feels both well-earned and perfectly reinforced. I also still like rare animal  a lot with its r...

Foxtails are an American screamo band from the northeast who have been around for almost a full decade with 4 albums under their belt. They've received attention from both critics and fans in the hardcore underground for their fusions of screamo with genres like classic post-hardcore and contemporary emo.  Review By Lav: I feel like I've been aware of this band for a while and have heard buzz about their singles or records here and there but this is the first time I've taken a deep plunge. It also felt like in my head that this was a relatively new band but I blinked and suddenly their four albums deep so I had to do a little bit of catching up before doing this review. But now I'm here and I can say for certain that I appreciate some of the unique things the band does among their hardcore contemporaries. I can also say that this is my favorite of their records to date and the increase in buzz among critics is appropriate.  The thing that really sold me on this record a...

Anxious is a Connecticut emo band who have been turning heads in the underground for a year or two and signed to Run For Cover records last year. They've released four singles in the past year leading up to this, their debut album. Review by Lav: Last year I was turned on to the music of Anxious by a Brooklyn Vegan article and I've been following them ever since. When they signed to Run For Cover records and started releasing singles for the lead up to their debut album I got increasingly excited for what the band was capable of delivering. While the record is definitely a mixed bag as the band looks for their sound, there are plenty of bright spots along the way.  The record gets off to a solid start but generally the first half is quite a bit weaker than the second half. Your One Way Street  is the opening track and the band wastes no time getting into the thick of things with this up-tempo two minute pop punky opener. It has a tight groove and a short but memorable hook and...

Parannoul is an anonymous Korean artist who began attracting tons of attention in online music circles in the month after this record came out. While it is technically his 2nd record it is the first many have heard of his lo-fi bedroom blend of shoegaze and indie music sounds with classic emo lyricism.  Review By Lav: This record has become the first real underground darling of 2021 so far when it first emerged about a month ago with no real press or attention to speak of. Since then I've seen it emerge on music sites and be discussed by indie fans and I was hoping to wait until the record was released on streaming services to talk about it. Unfortunately it looks like that isn't going to happen any time soon so I figured I should go ahead and jump on the bandwagon and talk about the record. While that phraseology may make it seem like this was some kind of chore or obligation I assure you it isn't, To See The Next Part Of The Dream  is easily one of the best records I'...

Touche Amore are a California post-hardcore band who spent the last ten years releasing one critically acclaimed album after another and peaking with 2016's Stage Four . Lament is the bands third release on Epitaph records and featured a pair of singles that developed significant hype for the project.  Review By Lavender: While I wasn't the earliest adopter of Touche Amore, by the time Stage Four  came around I was certainly on board. I enjoyed the project quite a bit and I've been anticipating a true follow-up ever since. After I enjoyed most of the singles leading up to the record I had pretty significant expectations for the project, and it mostly lives up to them.  Reminders  was the most recent single we heard from the record and while it has a much more conventional chorus than most of these tracks but I have to give the lyricism a ton of credit for putting such raw emotion on display. I also think the instrumental pulls off some pretty diverse transitions well...

Remo Drive are a promising young midwestern emo band who burst onto the scene in 2017 with their breakout single Yer Killin Me  and followed it up with the critically acclaimed Greatest Hits . After the departure of their drummer the duo dropped a short EP in 2018 and released three singles in the lead up to Natural, Everyday Degradation .  Review By Lavender: Not very many emo bands, or bands period get off to as promising a start as Remo Drive. The groups breakout single  Yer Killin Me  stands head and shoulders above pretty much any other emo tunes this decade and landed in my top 20 singles of the year back in 2017. The album that the song ultimately landed on Greatest   Hits  was a solid collection of tunes but the band needed to develop some new elements of their style. I was happy to see the start this transition on the short but sweet Pop Music  EP in 2018 which contained another single I liked a lot and landed on my year end list wi...

American Football is the legendary Illinois based emo band who's 1999 album American Football  became a legendary pillar of midwest emo and math rock and is considered by some to be one of the best albums of the 90s. The band reunited 15 years later and after playing a series of shows, released their 2nd studio album in 2016 to very mixed reviews. Now three years later than band tries to rekindle their magic and recover their reputation with a 3rd album. Review By Lavender: American Football (1999) is by nearly every metric and brilliant and successful album. It was the pioneering moment for midwestern emo and has a legendary reputation among music fans. The project still resonates with me to these days and contains some songs that I believe are absolute masterpieces. While many were hostile towards their second effort in 2016 I tried to look for what the project did well as much as what it did wrong. While their songwriting took a hit there were a lot of moments of pristi...