Lav's Music Corner

I promise the rapid fire reviews are almost done. The next entire month is packed full of new releases I'm excited for and will be reviewing in full, but for the past few weeks I've mainly been playing catch-up before the year is halfway through. Euphoric Recall  - Braids Braids are an indie act that I've always been nicer to than most critics, at least dating back to their 2015 third album Deep In The Iris . Its follow-up five years later was even better and gave me plenty of reason to be excited for new music from the enigmatic trio, even if the four singles leading up to it didn't blow me away. Apple  is a song that grew on me over time. I love the beautiful vocalizations throughout but the short refrain it returns to over and over again never really did anything for me. The more I paid attention to the shifting tides of the instrumental the more I began to appreciate it. Evolution  has been the record's breakout hit of sorts and is already well on its way to bec...

Taylor Swift is a pop artist who at this point needs no introduction. After racking up a decades worth of hits and massive commercial success in the late 2000's and 2010's Taylor finally reached a place of critical success earlier this year on her indie inspired Aaron Dessner produced 8th studio album folklore . Just a few months later Taylor is following this up with a second album in a similar vein. Much like it's predecessor evermore  is an indie folk inspired record with a similar set of collaborators that was also surprise announced and dropped with no singles. Review By Lav: I have never been a big fan of Taylor Swift, see my Lover  review here . While her first few records are just as utterly intolerable today as they were when they first came out she has had a few points where it felt like she was moving slightly in the right direction. 2012's Red  was easily her best album to date but she followed it up with the middling mediocre 1989 . 2017's Reputation  w...

Taylor Swift is a Nashville based pop superstar who began early on in her career fusing country into contemporary pop music before slowly transitioning to a more synthetic pop sound over the next decade. Less than a year after her 7th studio album Lover  she surprised announced and then dropped without any singles  her 8th record, folklore .  Review By Lavender: I was worried about this record. I have never been a big Taylor Swift fan but even after her first three records nauseated me I thought she was improving leading up to my favorite of her projects 2017's Reputation . The improvement slowed to a halt however on last year's Lover  which wasn't a total disaster of a record but featured far more misses than hits. The 2nd thing that worried me was that Aaron Dessner, the man responsible for two of the 2010's most boring indie records (The National's Trouble Will Find Me  and I Am Easy To Find ) was responsible for much of the songwriting and production on the ...

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'...

1. Of Monsters And Men - "Alligator" Of Monsters And Men return after a four year absence and run away with the number one spot on the charts this week setting up for a big comeback effort this summer. 2. The National - "Hairpin Turns" The National drop a third single in a line of critically acclaimed drops so far in 2019 setting up for their upcoming album to potentially be one of their best in years. 3. Madonna - "I Rise" Madonna follows up an underwhelming single quickly with another addition to her ever evolving catalog of genre bending pop tunes. 4. Titus Andronicus - "Tumult Around The World" Titus Andronicus follow-up one of their best singles in years with another promotional cut to drum up even more hype for their upcoming album. 5. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - "Black Star Dancing" The former Oasis frontman returns quickly with more material from his solo band following up a recently released B Sides an...