Lav's Music Corner

Blossom  - Pupil Slier While I wasn't the earliest adopted to Pupil Slicer I had been catching some buzz about the band for a while, even before their lead singer made a memorable appearance on Backxwash's fantastic record last year. Lead single, title track, and closer Blossom  was my favorite song from the band to date when it dropped as a single and I still love the frenetic pacing and composition a lot. I also love the more sheer brutality of the record's first full song Momentary Actuality , together the two tracks bookend thing quite nicely. So going into the sophomore effort of the genre-fusing metal group all I was really hoping for was a versatile collection of songs that held my attention throughout.  On that first point, they delivered. Songs here exist on a spectrum from dark but somewhat languid space to blistering technicality, sometimes making drastic shifts within the song itself. Creating The Devil In Our Own Image  is one of the best examples whose ...

5.  MOTHERLESS  - Killer Mike While all of Mike's new singles have been blunt, this one is straightforward in a different way with a hook that lays out the exact caliber of trauma that he's working through in song. While the sparse beat and occasional gospel interpolations do come off as pretty light, they're all in service of a worthwhile journey of self-reflection. Listen 4.  Momentary Actuality  - Pupil Slicer The closer we get to this new Pupil Slicer album the more and more I become convinced that it might be one of my favorite metal records of the year. This new track has a strong dichotomy of blistering verses marked by switch-ups in instrumental speed and intensity but pays it off with a dystopian-sounding hook that chills things in the absolute best way.  Listen 3.  Giddy Up  - Jenny Lewis If you think you've got Jenny Lewis' sound pinned down this song is here to come along and tell you she's got more versatility than you're expecting. While ...

5.  Fatal Attraction  - 6LACK After I was split on the first two singles from this new album more of my hopes than I'd like to admit rested on this song and I kind of came down in the middle. 6LACK is still a very compelling performer and I like the wavy spaced-out production on this song quite a bit. The problem is almost everything here from the lyrical content, to the piano refrain, and even the hook itself feels really standard and arguably overdone. It's a track that fails to excite me like a single should but would make a fine deep cut. Listen 4.  Lean Beef Patty  - Danny Brown & Jpegmafia The first offering from one of the most highly anticipated rap crossovers in years is a short offering that feels MUCH more like Peggy than Danny with it's blown out bass and chaotic changes in style. Even if it feels more like a 2-minute bar fest than an actual song these two are still undeniably compelling performers and it shows in the intensity they can put behind eve...