Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: The Smile is a supergroup consisting of Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood alongside Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. After debuting in 2022 the project quickly returned with new singles in 2023 and a new album early this year. But that's nothing compared to how quickly they're back now. The band's third album Cutouts  arrives less than 9 months after it's predecessor and yet that short amount of time allowed the band to once again lead off the album with a series of massively acclaimed singles.  And let's talk about those singles, because they're great. First came "Don't Get Me Started" which emerged in a time where I wasn't expecting to hear from The Smile and just blew me away. The opening synth lines flashing between channels is so enticing and every sound in the song just seems to bounce back and forth forever into this massive space. It's such a chilling song that's so isolating and magnetic. Cl...

Review by Lav: The Smile is a supergroup consisting of Radiohead's Thom Yorke & Johnny Greenwood alongside drummer Tom Skinner who is most well known for working with Shabaka Hutchings' band Sons Of Kemet. Another important inclusion was that of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. For album two Godrich has been replaced by Sam Petts-Davies, whose work I enjoyed significantly on the newest Warpaint album Radiate Like This . I enjoyed The Smile's first album a lot and was even more excited for the projects second album after hearing the singles.  Let's start talking about Wall Of Eyer  by discussing the second half of the album. That's where you'll find the astonishingly good lead single Bending Hectic , which might still be my favorite Smile song to date. The way it wanders through a beautiful and poignant first half willing to introduce instrumentation for spare brief moments masterfully holds me on the edge of my seat. The song is even better within the conte...

The Smile are a new supergroup made up of longtime Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood as well as Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. A Light For Attracting Attention  is the project's first record and features production from frequent Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.  Review By Lav: Have you guys heard of this band Radiohead? Well as it turns out they're one of the most universally acclaimed and beloved acts on the entire earth and just about anything that any of their members do is likely to draw attention. Not to mention perhaps the two most visible creative forces in Radiohead history, Thom and Johnny, collaborating on a side project together. Enter The Smile a new project which has been teased since last year and featured six singles of varying but mostly pretty good quality. Like most music fans I was pretty excited for this record on namesake alone, not to mention once I heard some great singles. As it turns out that excitement was well placed because A Li...

This was a busy week full of big announcements, highly anticipated singles and the start of some promising new eras. For the second week in a row I had quite a tricky time putting this list together. 5.  Down  - Hot Chip After one of the more unconventional eras of their career a few years ago Hot Chip seemed to announce a return to the basics with this bright, catchy and incredibly dancy lead single. With punchy percussion and irresistible synths all built around an earworm sample it's very easy to explain and experience the great things about the track.  Listen 4.  Hips  - Warpaint This new era of Warpaint tracks has been defined by a gentle but sleek sound and this song is no different with playful basslines and ethereal vocal melodies. The percussion continues to be a huge highlight and the circular jam it goes on throughout the final 30 seconds is like icing on the cake. This is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated projects of the year.   L...

What an interesting week. We had some exciting comebacks, big announcements, lead singles. A pretty great mix of stuff kind of coming out of nowhere but the weekend was all the better for it, enjoy <3 5.  Honeybrains  - Royal Blood If you have a soft spot for really back to basics rock with heavy distortion, formulaic progressions and simplistic instrumentation then this will be the track for you this week. Even acknowledging how much the band borrows I can't help but admit that they manage to do some good stuff with these stop and start riffs and a handful of catchy refrains.  Listen 4.  Gibson Girl  - Ethel Cain While Ethel's music continues to be difficult to define with genre labels it still has an aesthetic vision that is irresistible. The dark and spacious instrumentation and sexually charged instrumentation paints this expressive portrait of her sexuality that is utterly intoxicating. While the song deploys a number of instrumental additions throughout...

Happy New Year babes. For the first time in 2022 we are looking at all the new singles dropped this week and highlight the best of the bunch. Normally this time of year its pretty slow all around but there are some great albums coming out in the next few weeks and the singles aren't lacking behind. Here are the five best new tracks this week: 5.  Hard Drive Gold  - alt-j The alt-j renaissance marches on with their most upbeat single of this new era. With a deep selection of wonky instrumentation and the charming vocal gymnastics we've come to expect from the band the track builds up to a rewarding chorus. It's all done in the kooky way that only alt-j can. 4.  Respirate  - Pinegrove If you know Pinegrove you pretty much know this song. The anxious observational lyricism with a boyish lo-fi charm and the simple indie instrumental which erupts into a detailed arrangement of backing drums and horns. This is exactly what the band does well.  3.  Titanic  -...

Ed O'Brien is a British guitarist who is releasing his debut solo album under the EOB name after serving as a member of Radiohead for over 25 years. Earth  was written and recorded over a multi-year period as Ed toured with Radiohead in support of the bands record A Moon Shaped Pool , and the record was worked on by members of Wilco, Portishead and of course Radiohead. Review By Lavender: I, like everyone else on earth absolutely love Radiohead. Coming off A Moon Shaped Pool  in 2016 I had a feeling it would be a while since we heard from the boys again but they have kept us fed in the mean time with solo projects. With both Johnny and Thom releasing film soundtracks, Thom releasing an excellent third studio album and Ed's debut here we have not been strapped for Radiohead side content. While Earth  is a solid debut record by all means it evens out to about an equal number of hits and misses.  The record had four singles and I was split down the middle, so lets handl...

Thom Yorke is the long tenured frontman of legendary British rock band Radiohead. He first released solo material in 2006 with the wild electronic experiment The Eraser. Since Eraser there have been three critically acclaimed Radiohead albums, the founding of Thom's group Atoms For Peace and it's full length album Amok , Thom's second solo record Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and his soundtrack to the movie Suspiria . Anima arrives as Thom's first release in 2019 and was dropped on short notice with no singles. Review By Lavender: Thom didn't give me enough time to build up excitement for this release but I most certainly would have. The Eraser is a fantastic and underrated electronic experiment that I consider to be on the same level as the Radiohead album it preceded In Rainbows . Since then I have been less head over heels with Thom's releases aside from Radiohead's masterpiece A Moon Shaped Pool. Atoms For Peace got off to a good start with the Judg...