Lav's Music Corner

Late drop again because I'm just getting back from vacation but hey at least it's coming out today.  5.  Von Dutch  - Charli XCX Aspiring hyperpop DJs got the best news of the year when Charli XCX announced that her upcoming project would be a club record. We got the first taste of that with von dutch  and, yep, it's certainly a club record. Okay there are plenty of things I like about the song like the revving squeaky synths and Charli's always unflinching confidence. But the beat and refrains just start to feel like nothing aa the song goes on. It doesn't have the actual high impact that I was hoping for from a lead single, If the refrains start to click with me more going forward the song will work a LOT better.  Listen 4.  Running Through The Campus  - Cloud Nothings I've always had a soft spot for this band even as they seem to get less and less hype each year. This song continues their shift into a pop flavor though it arguably dials some of that...

This was an all-time strange week where some of the big releases left me very underwhelmed. Here's my best attempt to make clarity out of the mess. 5.  Deeper Well  - Kacey Musgraves This was probably the new single I was most excited for this week but I just can't quite say I'm in love with it. I do like the novelty of Kacey essentially offering to pass you the blunt for a few minutes. But the song also doesn't really evolve in any way that's satisfying and. I also think her attempts at vulnerability in the lyrics kind of come up short even if she is being honest in her writing and delivery, it just doesn't feel like it's actually revealing anything.  Listen 4.  Auset  - Jlin Even though this kind of grinding metallic electronica will be familiar to Jlin fans I still like this song. It has a much more direct house and dance influence than much of her EP last year with stuttering hand claps and tight drum looks worked into certain parts of the song. Even if ...

Zach Bryan is an Oklahoma-based country singer who had somewhat of a breakthrough 2022. After building up momentum for years he released his first top 10 album American Heartbreak  last year which also contained his first massive hit song Something In The Orange . Now just a year later, he's following that extremely long album up with a more scant collection of songs that see him leaning into his folk influence and raw stylings.  Review by Lav: Ever falling short of being the definitive music influencer, I didn't really hear about Zach Bryan until everybody else did. Late last year I called his breakthrough mainstream hit Something In The Orange  one of my favorite hit songs of the year and it also landed on my singles of the year list. I completely stand by both of those choices. While his album American Heartbreak  was far too long and inconsistent for me, I was really excited to see what Zach had to offer with this shift to more conventional full-length, and he di...

Kacey Musgraves is a Texas based singer and songwriter who has spent the last few years shifting from a country artist on her first few records to a full blown pop star today. star-crossed  is the follow-up to 2018's  Golden Hour  Kasey's most commercially and critically successful album to date.  Review By Lav: While I've always been aware of Kacey Musgraves' music I was never really crazy about her sound until she really impressed me on Golden Hour . It was the first time that she consistently executed both good songwriting and good sounding songs, and the fact that it became her breakout record is no surprise. For those reasons  star-crossed  was a follow-up album I was pretty interested in and I'm not surprised at all that Kacey dove head first into the world of pop. The thing I was surprised about was how difficult of a record it would turn out to be. From the awkward songwriting and topical approach, to the straight up unfinished mixing and production...