Lav's Music Corner

Review By Lavender: Tinashe is an R&B singer who took a while to warm up on me. She spent pretty much the entire 2010s releasing material consistently that occasionally flirted with critical acclaim on moments like 2014's Aquarius . But I didn't really become a Tinashe fan until a few years ago when her absolutely excellent 2021 album 333  caught me by complete surprise. The album was full of slick, infectious, and sensual R&B songs and stood out to me instantly as her best work to date. She followed that up in 2023 with the short but sweet BB/ANG3L  and dropped one of the biggest hits of her entire career Nasty  as the lead single to this new album. Unfortunately, while Quantum Baby  is a decent album, it doesn't fall in line with the momentum she's built up over the past few years.  You don't need me to tell you that Nasty  is an absolute fucking banger. One of the songs of the summer put Tinashe's name back in front of so many people who should h...

This week was stacked FULL of potential favorites and breaking down the best to just 5 wasn't easy, but here's what rose to the top  5.  Getting No Sleep  - Tinashe Asking Tinashe to follow-up on Nasty, the freaky anthem of the summer, was always going to be a tall, if not impossible take. But honestly Getting No Sleep  does a pretty admirable job with a rumbling R&B instrumental with drums that pop out of the mix. More importantly, the song is effortlessly sensual in Tinashe's hands with vocals and charm that is nearly unmatched.  Listen 4.  Flipside  - Melt-Banana Melt-Banana have absolutely nothing to prove as the legendary Japanese rock outfit returns for their first new album in over a decade. That's why it's no surprise that their lead single is a fiery no-holds-barred slugfest of a song that pummels you for a rapid-fire two minutes and unceremoniously fades out. I fully expect it to be just one of many punches the band has in store.  Li...

Review by Lav: KAYTRANADA is a Canadian DJ and electronic music producer that I've been a fan of for a long time. It really got started with his 2016 debut 99.9%  which was a car-radio staple of mine for years. The record had strong roots in dance music but expanded into the worlds of jazz and funk with a variety of excellent performances from special guests. His sophomore album BUBBA  was a much more straightforward embrace of dance music that still featured some stand-out moments, but didn't quite live up to the extremely high expectations I had for it.  His third album TIMELESS  lands somewhere in the middle. I want to get it right out of the way, Kaytranada's production and beats on this album are consistently very solid. The drums in particular, which are the key to my heart, pop off on most of the songs on this album. His knack for compelling grooves and interesting textures is as strong as ever. But this album is also much more willing to wander off course tha...

I couldn't quite finish this on time yesterday. I have a great excuse but I can't tell you about it so you'll have to take my word for it. 5.  Rag  - Porches Consider me surprised. It's been a while since I REALLY enjoyed a Porches single but I found myself hooked on this one pretty quickly. I love the slurring indie rock style and some of the incredibly evocative lyrics. For a song so intense it's also impressively catchy and has been stuck in my head basically all week.  Listen 4.  Differ  - KMRU, Kevin Richard Martin Normally ambient singles don't really have the kind of pull to stand out on their own the way they do when compellingly assembled into a full album, unless you're Tim Hecker. But the most I listened to this song the more I was impressed by its gentle washes of sound and how impactful they were despite the minimalism. After becoming a big fan of KMRU in the past few years, seeing him collaborate with Kevin Richard Martin of The Bug fame is a c...

5.  Ruins - Lost Girls Jenny Hval's Lost Girls project is back with a seeming shift in focus both sonically and compositionally. The track is more conventional in almost every sense than much of their last album but it works because Jenny is incapable of not standing out. The last minute is really where she seals the deal with her trademark girlish vocals buttoning up the song perfectly. Listen 4.  Talk To Me Nice  - Tinashe I've been awaiting new Tinashe ever since I was shocked that her last project ended up as one of my favorite R&B projects of 2021. While this new single doesn't set the world on fire the way some of her best songs do, its more lowkey tone still works. She manages to use her poise to extract obedience out of the track's title refrain and the song is growing on me pretty much every time I hear it.  Listen 3.  White Horse  - Chris Stapleton Alongside the announcement of his long-awaited follow-up to 2020's Starting Over , an album I st...

So I was sort of on vacation this week which is why this list is one day late, sorry. Reviews will be back in line tomorrow with either a rapid fire or maybe the new Beach House. <3 5.  Magic  - Vince Staples This new Mustard produced single from Vince Staples does feature some uncharacteristic singing but it actually goes over surprisingly well. He also does some of what you'd expect him to spinning confrontational gangster tales over a sparse instrumental. It isn't redefining his sound necessarily but it does take it in a new direction while holding on to what makes him so good in the first place.  Listen 4.  I Love You  - Fontaines D.C It wasn't that long ago that I hadn't really been that impressed by anything Fontaines D.C had done, but earlier this year when they dropped Jackie Down The Line that changed. Thankfully I actually kind of like this new song too even though it can start to feel like its wandering in the middle section the distant crashing dr...

This time around on the week starting episode of rapid fire reviews it's time to dance with some she's and they's that I meant to review earlier in the year but never got the chance. Like the trap rendition I'm hoping once again to have another rendition of this specific format later in the year, tbd. Ultimately I was just happy to finally catch up to some of these albums that the girlies have been talking about for months.  Dancing With The Devil...The Art Of Starting Over - Demi Lovato I was always aware of Demi Lovato during the child star phase but not being a Disney Channel die hard I never really experienced any of their music or movies from that era. Since then I've always been loosely cognizant of Demi the pop star and TMZ headline grabber but not nearly as dialed into the music. After some extremely traumatic personal battles Demi had a triumphant comeback at last years Grammy's debuting the single Anyone  with a belting performance. Given that the song...

Blood Orange is the long time project of British R&B singer and songwriter Devonte Hynes. Dev has released four records under the Blood Orange moniker met with varying degrees of critical success and announced the  Angel's Pulse  mixtape just days before its release and dropped it without a single. Review By Lavender: For a long time my opinion caught the ire of many Blood Orange fans when in 2013 his  Cupid Deluxe  record began to turn heads, but I wasn't convinced. Still to this day the record reads to me as an homage to 80s synth pop with a funky/R&B twist, but made by somebody who didn't really understand what made that music so good to begin with. The follow-up  Freetown Sound  was certainly an improvement but I still wasn't head over heels for the sound, especially given how much acclaim the record received upon release. It wasn't until Blood Orange's next release that I finally came around to his sound, as it transitioned into a much s...