Lav's Music Corner

We're reaching that point at the end of the year where I'm grasping at any possible straw to put together projects I wanna cover before 2024 is out. This time we're taking the most meaningless of genre defiers, rock, and basing it around that to review 5 very different-sounding albums that I meant to cover earlier in the year, enjoy. <3 Heavy Glory  - Elias Ronnenfelt Iceage was one of the most innovative and electric post-punk bands of the 2010s and while their 2020 record Seek Shelter  struck a chord with me, it didn't quite seem to make the same amount of noise as some of its predecessors. Regardless, their lead singer Elias Ronnenfelt has a pretty distinct voice and vocal style, which had me pretty interested in the direction he would take his debut solo album. That was confounded by a crop of singles I'm pretty fond of, highlighted by the most Iceage-sounding of the bunch, "Worm Grew A Spine." I've also grown more fond of the folksier Dylan-esq...

Another ironically long shortlist for the best new tracks of the week this week, but narrowing it down didn't turn out to be all that tricky. 5.  Scarface  - BABii On BABii's second single with Iglooghost and co on board, the princess of electronica delivers on her promise of hard-hitting glitchy beats with sugary singing. It's a combination that won't be a reset for anyone's expectations of what BABii is capable of but a song whose refrains and grinding dance beat are steps ahead of most of her contemporaries.  Listen 4.  Superstar  - Hinds I haven't been crazy about the pop-punky indie rock of Hinds in a while but this track reminds me of why their effortless fun and bottomless wit clicked with me in the first place. It's an attitude-soaked takedown of a local superstar with all the details and snark you'd hope for but the band manages to wrap it up into a catchy and concise package for their best single in years.  Listen 3.  I'VE BEEN EVIL  - S...

Touche Amore are a California post-hardcore band who spent the last ten years releasing one critically acclaimed album after another and peaking with 2016's Stage Four . Lament is the bands third release on Epitaph records and featured a pair of singles that developed significant hype for the project.  Review By Lavender: While I wasn't the earliest adopter of Touche Amore, by the time Stage Four  came around I was certainly on board. I enjoyed the project quite a bit and I've been anticipating a true follow-up ever since. After I enjoyed most of the singles leading up to the record I had pretty significant expectations for the project, and it mostly lives up to them.  Reminders  was the most recent single we heard from the record and while it has a much more conventional chorus than most of these tracks but I have to give the lyricism a ton of credit for putting such raw emotion on display. I also think the instrumental pulls off some pretty diverse transitions well...