Lav's Music Corner

It's that time of year when I apologize to some of the more outside-the-box music genres for focusing a little too much on pop, rap, indie, rock, and R&B. Let's give both hardcore and screamo, and some records that exist within the folds of both, a chance.  Persona EP - Gel Last year Gel rode in a huge wave of hype to deliver one of my favorite debut album of 2023. When they the pummeling single Mirage  earlier this year it made it seem like they would continue climbing that mountain whenever their next project arrived. That next project is Persona , a 5-track and 13-minute EP that's only a few minutes shorter than the album that preceded it. The new project serves up songs like Martyr , a similarly short but surprisingly versatile and unrelentingly fiery two minutes that would have fit in well on Only Constant . But it's the very shoes the EP has to fill that handicap it from hitting as hard as it should.  Take a track like Shame  whose vocal layering should mak...

Posting this at the last possible minute. (She did not actually post it in time anyway.) 5.  Auguries of Guilt  - The World Is A Beautiful Place & I'm No Longer Afraid To Die  I was inclined to like this song out of the gate because they shout me out by name in the first verse. I will say this song may not have the explosive conclusions and dramatic tension of The World at their absolute best work but it's openly sentimental in a way that my heart is just barely warm enough to enjoy.  Listen 4.  To every squirrel who has ever been hit by a car, I'm sorry and I love you  - Fire-Toolz The best single from prolific digital screamo outfit Fire-Toolz upcoming new album so far is this hilariously named 6-minute odyssey. She continues to combine distant blood-curdling screams with maddeningly glossy splashes of cloudy synths in a messy but surprisingly grounded haze. This song takes that to a compositionally expansive conclusion and I'm happy to go along for t...