Lav's Music Corner

Fleet Foxes are a Seattle indie folk band fronted primarily by singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold. They became indie darlings of the Pitchfork folk era in 2008 with a critically acclaimed debut EP followed by an even more acclaimed debut album. Since then they have released the poetic Helplessness Blues  in 2011 and the winding experimental Crack-Up  in 2017 both of which received nearly unanimous critical acclaim. Shore  was announced just a few days before it's release which coincided with the autumnal equinox. Review By Lavender: I like Fleet Foxes, both Fleet Foxes , Helplessness Blues  and even the Sun Giant  EP have songs I love even if I don't worship the band at nearly the same level as many others. The first time the band really wowed me was the first time I ever got to properly review their music on their 3rd record Crack-Up , my favorite of the bands album by far. Compared to the bright indie riffs and simple song structures of their early work Crac...

Fiona Apple is a New York based singer-songwriter responsible for one of the most unique musical outputs in the world of indie for the last 25 years. The time between her releases has increased with each consecutive era of her career, and it has been 8 years since the release of her critically acclaimed 4th record in 2012. Fetch The Bolt Cutters  was released with no singles and very little promo, but was still welcomed immediately by the indie community at large, proving how much influence Fiona has to this day. Review By Lavender: I've always been a pretty strong fan of Fiona Apple's discography, with the lone exception of her third record 2005's Extraordinary Machine . Her debut record Tidal  and even more its follow-up When The Pawn  are unique and interesting pieces of 90's indie that hold up remarkably well in the singer-songwriter heavy modern indie landscape. I also enjoyed her most recent record The Idler Wheel  although maybe not quite as much as som...

Brockhampton is a Los Angeles via Austin, Texas based rap group and self-proclaimed boy band who rose to prominence in 2017 one the back of three universally acclaimed records in the Saturation trilogy. Over the first half of 2018 the band quietly grew their profile while controversially losing one of their most notable members to sexual assault allegations, before dropping their chart topping major label debut iridescence  last year. After marquee member Kevin Abstract dropped his third solo album earlier this year the group geared up for their 6th record in just four years. Review By Lavender: If clout means anything in the digital age I can at least affirm one thing, I've been with Brockhampton since day 1. I reviewed their first mixtape All-American Trash  as well as Kevin Abstract's American Boyfriend  at the end of 2016 and when they hit the ground running in 2017 I was along for the ride. Saturation 1  and Saturation 2  both landed in my top 10 alb...

The National are a long running Ohio based indie rock band who first received critically success in the mid 2000's and have released a series of well received indie project since then. Their last album was released in 2017 after an extended break and since then the various members have participated in a number of side project including Planetarium  and Big Red Machine . After four singles that captured the attention of their fans and the broader indie community the band has returned shortly after their last project with one of their longest albums to date in I Am Easy To Find . Review By Lavender: Of all of the introductions I do one review after another prefacing the review with my own opinions leading up to the album I'm talking about, this one may be the most controversial. Of The National's 7 albums up to this point I really truly only consider myself an outright fan of one of them, 2007's Boxer . While some others like 2005's Alligator  and 2017'...