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 For album two Godrich has been replaced by Sam Petts-Davies, whose work I enjoyed significantly on the newest Warpaint album Radiate Like This .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...

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  -...

Bon Iver is an indie folk collective originating from Wisconsin and founded by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.The first Bon Iver record For Emma Forever Ago  was released independently in 2007 where Pitchfork Media played a huge role in promoting it alongside many other indie folk releases around that time and helped make Bon Iver into an indie must hear. They followed this up with yet another critically acclaimed record Bon Iber, Bon Iver  in 2011 before taking an extended period off and returning in 2016. The third Bon Iver record 22. A Million  was also met with critical praise but reached for a very different sound, interpolating electronica heavily into their previously warm and folk cetntric sound. With teaser tracks that also dipped into the abstract electronic Bon Iver seemed to predict a continuation of this path making, i,i  a quick turn around on what will likely be an artistic evolution for the group. Review By Lavender: For a time before I began ...

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...