Lav's Music Corner

Rosalia is a Spanish singer, songwriter, and musical auteur. Her major critical breakthrough came on her conceptual 2018 album El Mal Querer. A few years later, she transcended her experimental darling status into a full-blown superstar on the massively acclaimed and massively popular Motomami . Now, 3 years later, she remains one of the biggest stars of Spanish music, making LUX  one of the most anticipated new albums of the year. Now that it's here, the album resoundingly lives up to every expectation leveled upon it.  LUX  only had one single, but god is it a swing for the fences fitting for an album so bold. "Berghain" sees Rosalia teaming up with Yves Tumor and Bjork, but more than any of those brilliant artists, it's the blasting baroque instrumentation that absolutely steals the show. The album follows this trend with several of its shorter songs aiming high and hitting their mark. That starts early with the excellent table setter "Sexo, Violencia y Llanta...

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds  - Yves Tumor While I've never been anywhere near as big a fan of Yves Tumor's music as a lot of my critical contemporaries, I did think their last full-length project Heaven To A Tortured Mind  was their best yet and that combined with some singles I somewhat enjoyed I was looking forward to this being a continuation of sorts. That started with lead single and album opener God Is A Circle  which just missed my singles list last year and carried on to the spectacularly named Heaven Surrounds Us Like A Hood . The record parlays those two tracks into a pretty good start with songs whose sequenced beats and gentle singing make for a dark but surprisingly inviting combination at their best moments. The unfortunate part is that the second half of the record has a much more rock slant generally and it comes served with an occasional pop-punk edge that I could really do without sometimes. The secon...

It really does feel like we're starting to reach that point in the year where releases dry up, almost to the point that this weekly segment takes a hiatus while I work on my year-end stuff. Not quite, but almost. 5. Ahimsa  - The Antlers Technically letting something I wouldn't normally slip into the singles list go this week because it's honestly the only way I'm gonna fill this thing out. this is an Antlers remake of a Peter Silberman solo song that came out a few years ago and while I don't find it to be a particularly life-changing update I do think it hits at the slow development and pacing that have always made The Antlers such a compelling music project at their peak.  Listen 4.  God Is A Circle  - Yves Tumor There have been many a busy week that a decent Yves Tumor song slipped through the cracks but in one of the weakest release weekends of the entire year for singles allow this to be the beneficiary. This dark rumbling single features some characteristics ...