Lav's Music Corner

Headlights  - Alex G For over a decade now, Alex G has been a consistent presence in indie music, popping up every few years with a new acclaimed project that critics tend to enjoy a little more than I do. I thought that might not be the case with Headlights , because I enjoyed a few singles going into it. While "Oranges" pops up on the record's far more boring second half, and fits in, the first two singles really worked. "June Guitar" is a gentle, dreamy cut that still sounds just as infectious as it did when I first heard it. The lead single, "Afterlife," is even better and still stands among my favorite Alex G cuts to date. But honestly, I can't really think of a single deep cut that inspires the same level of interest. "Real Thing" is probably the closest the record comes. Even though the song itself isn't quite as sticky, the lyricism is a big highlight, and the way he deploys the metaphor of the "Real Thing" is worth ...

I Walked With You A Ways  - Plains Plains is the new collaborative project of Waxahatchee aka Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson and it just felt like it was gonna be good. It's hard to explain exactly why because it's not like the singles were completely blowing me away or anything. It just seemed like a half hour of good country folk music from these two would do great things for the soul, and that's exactly what happened. The images you might be conjuring of country folk aren't even the limitations of this record anyway, while there are plenty of wonderful harmonizing and forlorn metaphors the second track is a ripping rock song with a guitar solo bridge that doesn't sound out of place at all in the tracklist. The record is just remarkably consistent with a sonic palette that is simple but rewarding and vocal performances that shine throughout. I wouldn't even say it reminds me of some older Waxahatchee projects that I liked quite a bit for how much her vo...

If all goes well there should be a number of rapid fire review posts going out this weekend the first of which is merely a pair of records I've been meaning to review for a while and mirror each other in a way that I feel very clever and very smart and very good at my job for thinking of when nobody else did /s, mostly. These are mostly covers albums by artists who have a very specific sound to thank for some of their original tracks and took a spin doing their own versions of some of the classic tunes from those sounds, whether it be Mexican folk music or delta blues.  Un Canto Por Mexico, Vol. II  - Natalia Lafourcade Part two of Natalia's renditions of classic Mexican folk songs is a record that I've been flirting with off and on for a few months since it came out. Since I'm not a native speaker and not as familiar with the original versions of these tracks I took my time pulling apart the various creative decisions she makes on the record given how much I've enj...

Natalia Lafourcade - Un Canto por Mexico, Vol. 1 Natalia has been one of the leading voices in the world of Mexican folk revivalism with her pair of Musas  releases both of which received massive critical acclaim including from me. While UCPM isn't quite the same concept the sounds will be familiar to people who have been following Natalia recently and he executes it well. The set of tracks here are raw but extravagantly performed and lushly arranged which means that even when moments blend together the minute to minute sound of the record is exciting. While it clearly won't be for everyone if you've enjoyed her music prior to this then the album is yet another can't miss entry. 7/10 Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas This album completely slipped under my radar despite the fact that I was a fan of Lianne's debut Is Your Love Big Enough?  around the time it came out. Given that it was one of the records I was most excited to finally get a chance to listen to my expec...