Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender:  caroline are a British 8-piece post-rock outfit who, despite denying its influence, seems to blend the sentimental flavors of Midwest emo with their winding instrumental passages and compositional flexibility. Back in 2022, I called their first album caroline  , one of my favorite debut records of the year , and I was really looking forward to what the band had in store. Now, 3 years later, they're rapidly becoming critical darlings as praise and attention for this record has begun to pour in. Though I don't love the record quite as much as some, I still think it's both an improvement on their debut and a very strong statement.  caroline 2 led off with one of the best singles I've heard anywhere this year, “Total euphoria.” It introduces the album's signature combination of fluttering emo-influenced motifs with vibrant post-rock instrumentation, and the cooed-out vocals have been stuck in my head for months. It's an entrancing combination t...

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...