Lav's Music Corner

alt-j are a British indie rock trio who first began to attract attention with their 2012 debut album and breakout hit song Breezeblocks . They garnered attention for a very unique sound and the defining lead vocals which helped their songs stand-out. While they declined in critical success over their next two albums the band has still maintained a devoted fanbase. The Dream  is their 4th album following 2017's Relaxer . Review By Lav: I've always had a soft spot for alt-j. Their quirky British charm worked on me better than I'd like to admit and when it's paired with great songwriting I think they're capable of doing really great things. Even though the quality of the band's albums have gone down with each new release I've always been slightly more positive than the critical consensus. With The Dream  alt-j deliver their most inconsistent bunch of tracks to date and to make it easy on me, they basically split it right down the middle.  Two of my favorite son...

Pop Smoke was a New York drill rapper who was tragically murdered last year, and has since proven to be a force of commercial music. Faith  is Pop Smoke's 2nd posthumous album and likely to be his 2nd #1 album, following last years Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon . Just a few days before the record the tracklist and production credits for the album were revealed, showing off a myriad of talented features.  Review By Lav: It's always difficult to review a posthumous record, since it can often have so little creative input from the artist whose name it's released under. In the recent years, hip hop in particular has frequently been criticized for it's posthumous records which either release recordings that are clearly unfinished and shouldn't be heard by the masses, or packing the songs full of trendy features that the original artist would have never worked with. This record does both, but it isn't quite as bad as it seems like at the outset. The biggest pr...

Lil Wayne is a name that needs no introduction at this point. One of the most influential rappers of the 2000's who continues to release solid material and is coming off of the long awaited Carter V  one of his most acclaimed projects in years. Review By Lavender: I think I'm about as much of a fan of Lil Wayne as everybody else is. His big radio hits and hugely successful mixtapes soundtracked some of my younger years but he still manages to surprise me every once in a while with a record like The Carter V  which had way more great songs than duds. Given that the record had no true singles I didn't know what to expect going into it, but at a daunting 24 tracks and 80 minutes in length the only thing definitive about Funeral  is that absolutely nothing was left off of it. The album actually gets off to a pretty hot start with its first couple tracks. Funeral is the opener and the title track where Wayne opens up with a short sung passage before the heavy beat dro...