Lav's Music Corner

These EPs are all just a lil bit scary, but that's okay because more importantly they're all also varying degrees of good.  Living Is Easy  EP - Agriculture Agriculture is a west coast black metal outfit that's signed to The Flenser, all of which basically guaranteed that I was going to like them before I ever heard a single song. That crystalized into a debut self-titled album last year that I thought was solid and one I was looking forward to the follow-up to. I didn't expect that it was going to come so soon in an EP just a year later and I also didn't expect it to be teased with singles I loved as much as the two they delivered. Opener Living Is Easy  feels triumphant in the same way some of the best songs on their debut did. It has punishing intensity in the crashing drums and guttural wails across the middle section. But the song is weirdly bright in the spaces between in a way that makes its throttling intensity feel like it isn't just there to punish lis...

Welcome to the songs list. More than any other list I publish this is the one that is most purely about what the best work is. Many artists appear on here multiple times and none of the placements have anything to do with anyone else's reception but mine. These are MY favorite songs of the year, though please take the chance to share yours wherever you can. Enjoy <3 100. Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily - Shadow Forces Thank god for the positive critical buzz surrounding Arooj Aftab's last solo album because without it I would have never heard this strange and surprisingly dark chamber jazz album. That also means I wouldn't have heard its defining moment Shadow Forces  which uses its expansive and in the second half even oppressive composition to really surround you on all sides with its eerie mysticism.  Key Lyric: "Oh God, I love my heart, oh God, I love my heart, no one can cure my heart, oh God!" (translated) 99. Jane Remover - Backseat Girl Jane Re...