Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Porter Robinson is an electronic musician who was elevated to full-on critical darling in the wake of his 2021 album Nurture . While critics fell over themselves to praise the record, I wasn't nearly as in love with it. In fact, it was some of the things that people specifically loved about the album like it's sunny demeanor and nagging pop hooks that really wore me down. After I didn't really care for SMILE 's lead single Cheerleader  I was afraid I would find myself in a similar situation once again. But SMILE is an improvement over its predecessor if for one reason only, songwriting.  Before we get into the ways that songwriting helped heighten the record, let's knock out some of the songs I'm not crazy about. Cheerleader  has some compelling washed-out synths that guide the song into the chorus that are flat-out distracting. But even once you dig into the song underneath it, it's not that compelling. Perfect Pinterest Garden  is a son...

Porter Robinson is a North Carolina based electronic music producer who first emerged as a dubstep artist before transitioning into more abstract fields of electronic music leading up to his debut album in 2014. He hasn't been completely radio silent in the 7 years since releasing some remix projects and a couple EPs. Since his debut album received acclaim the long wait has caused this follow up to be a highly anticipated one.  Review By Lav: Man, I love electronic music. I missed Porter Robinson when he first emerged and only really heard his debut record after it came out. I have had time to learn a little bit more about him and given that he's from my home state of North Carolina and started dabbling in veins of experimental electronica I was pulling for him to succeed and excited to see what he would do next. I only heard one or maybe two of the singles for this record before going into it so I didn't know what to expect and I really was excited for it. Unfortunately th...