Lav's Music Corner

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...

After a few impressive weeks in a row, this one is just okay. 5.  booboo  - Yaeji Even though I wasn't completely in love with Yaeji's debut album last year I still think she has immense high-end potential so any time she drops a new song it's an event. That seemed to be the case even more with this love letter to the dancefloor that dropped in the wake of a viral Boiler Room set. The song is admittedly pretty cute and has a charm to it but I can't say it's clicked with me quite as strong as some others beyond an impressively versatile instrumental.  Listen 4.  very little effort - Julie Foregoing the many dozens of puns I could make surrounding the name of this song, I'll just say that Julie is an LA shoegaze band worth keeping your eyes on. Their debut album is dropping later this year and this is the most distinctive they've sounded yet with a pair of vocalists sliding perfectly into the moody demeanor of their fuzzed out haze.  Listen 3.  any means ...

An extremely busy time for me is finally settling down and I'll have time to focus on a lot of records I've wanted to review over the last month or two through rapid fire reviews. While there is still a ton of exciting indie music coming out on a weekly basis in 2021 it is also worth looking back at some of the staples of the genre whether in the 2010's or 2000's to see what they've been up to recently.  Draw Down The Moon  - Foxing I've always had a weird relationship with Foxing, seemingly be drawn to the albums that most people are least impressed by. While they're debut is certainly solid I though the follow-up Dealer  impressively embraced post-rock fusion in a way that felt more instrumentally impressive than most indie rock bands were capable of. This is why I was surprised to feel to meh about the bands previous record Nearer My God  in 2018. Regardless I was willing to engage with the band given the clear talent in their line-up and the fact that th...