Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Jamie xx is a writer, producer, and electronic musician who first rose to fame as a member of indie pop outfit The xx. In 2015, he released his first solo album In Colour , which was a massive critical darling for its blend of dance and electronic styles and impressive roster of collaborators. It's been 9 years then and yet it feels like In Waves  picks up right where the previous album left off. After a series of strong singles, Jamie xx has delivered another slice of absolutely excellent electronica that reinforces itself and features one highlight after another.  A surprising half of this album's tracklist dropped as singles in advance of it's release and there really isn't a miss in the bunch. A track like Treat Each Other Right  may not have exactly blown me away at first but its impact on the record is enormous. It comes after the instrumental intro track Wanna  which sets up the punchy beat underneath perfectly. The other single that didn'...

Musically the album is king. While singles top charts and generate radio play it's the album that fans stay up all night waiting for and constantly ask for online. Everything about these collections of songs seems just as innocuous as well, a collection of songs. But what they mean to us and what they meant to us specifically in 2020 is immeasurable. I listened to just over 250 albums this year and reviewed almost 200 of them and as usual there were tons of records I just didn't have time to get to. As much as I wish I could have listened to absolutely everything, this list is the best of everything I actually could listen to this year. These records range from solid and slightly inconsistent experiments to some of the best and most groundbreaking music of the year, and is neatly arranged into a 100-1 list as best as I could do, enjoy. 100. Freezepop - Fantasizer One of the premiere synth pop bands of the 2000's returned in 2020 with Fantasizer . While it came completely ou...