Lav's Music Corner

5.  TURN YOUR HEART AROUND  - SBTRKT The strange phenomenon of new SBTRKT singles being lightyears better than anything on the project's new album from last year continues. This is a short but sweet track that really puts its head down and grinds out a pummeling pseudo-industrial little dance track with tight loops and fuzzed-out vocals for a mostly pretty irresistible result.  Listen 4.  PHANTOM BRICKWORKS VII  - Bibio Another helping of the familiar solemn piano and isolating ambient compositions of Bibio's  PHANTOM BRICKWORKS  series feels perfect right now. It also feels in line with the trio of singles released so far from the upcoming ambient-focused project. This may be my favorite of the bunch offering up another bulky runtime that manages to impressively weave together a beautiful, gentle series of piano passages effortlessly.  Listen 3.  PLAY DEAD! PLAY DEAD!  - Vylet Pony Color me surprised as someone who has always had mixed ...

Review by Lavender: Zach Bryan is one of the most interesting artists operating in country music today. He had his breakthrough in 2022 when his spectacular single Something In The Orange  became a surprise chart hit. That single landed on a massive album 34-song album with over two hours of material. He followed it up last year with his more conventional-length self-titled album and has now circled back once again with 19 songs that make up a full new hour of material. While his work ethic is undeniably impressive, I was curious whether or not he would be able to maintain his consistency as a songwriter. As it turns out he has no trouble at all.  With 19 songs that largely exist inside the same mold, fusing together elements of country and folk, there are bound to be some tracks that don't hold up as well. Surprisingly it's some of the songs with featured guests that come up the shortest when you'd think they'd be the ones adding variety. Purple Gas  is a fine song th...

One of the busiest weeks of the year for new singles resulted in a hotly contested top 5 where I had to make some hard cuts. Here's what soared to the top.  5.  Del Oro  - Floating Potins Del Oro  builds on the already exciting promise of a strong single Floating Points dropped last year. Once again its the combination of irresistible house drums that keep me moving from start to finish and the progressing dance synths fluttering in every which direction over top of them. The album serves up one breakdown after another eventually leading to its last and final moment sparking the spectacular final minute of the song.  Listen 4.  Purple Gas  - Zach Bryan Zach Bryan seemingly just can't miss right now and this song is even more proof. Just a few weeks after dropping one of the best country singles of the year he's back with a breezy, chemistry-filled duet. He continues to master his ability to pull from vintage folk and country styles and presentation but...

I'm actually early this week to make up for the past two, enjoy <3. 5.  Ark  - KMRU & Kevin Richard Martin With two singles under their belt, I'm becoming incredibly excited for prolific ambient producer KMRU's upcoming collaborative record with The Bug's Kevin Richard Martin. This second single deals in spoken word samples and thick walls of gritty haze that give the track a distinctive texture. It's the louder of the two singles so far and yet in some of the methodical repetition and pure haze of it all I find the song more soothing than its predecessor.  Listen 4.  Sexy To Someone  - Clairo Clairo fans will be the first to tell you I haven't been nearly as crazy about her music thus far as many other critics but I've seen glimpses. That's why I'm surprised by how much I like this song. It's crafted in the image of some of my favorite up-beat tracks of hers to date with a vibrant instrumental now free of Jack Antonoff's touch. What r...

Boys Of Faith  EP - Zach Bryan Zach Bryan dropped his self-titled album a few months ago, which I think is one of the best country projects of 2023. He fully lived up to his potential as a songwriter with rootsy folk-style capabilities and a definitive country swagger to go with. The album also broke him into the mainstream as a commercial music force with his name still popping up in the top 10 of both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200. I think that this EP was released so shortly after for two reasons. The first appears to be that he had leftover material, which is nothing out of the ordinary but normally causes me to temper my expectations. But once I saw the two features on the project it changed my perception. The project also recruits one of 2023's breakout stars Noah Kahan and the always-reliable Bon Iver as features. While the EP hasn't necessarily resulted in a mega-hit or anything, I think it's obviously an attempt to settle Zach Bryan onto the charts indefinitely. Bu...

Zach Bryan is an Oklahoma-based country singer who had somewhat of a breakthrough 2022. After building up momentum for years he released his first top 10 album American Heartbreak  last year which also contained his first massive hit song Something In The Orange . Now just a year later, he's following that extremely long album up with a more scant collection of songs that see him leaning into his folk influence and raw stylings.  Review by Lav: Ever falling short of being the definitive music influencer, I didn't really hear about Zach Bryan until everybody else did. Late last year I called his breakthrough mainstream hit Something In The Orange  one of my favorite hit songs of the year and it also landed on my singles of the year list. I completely stand by both of those choices. While his album American Heartbreak  was far too long and inconsistent for me, I was really excited to see what Zach had to offer with this shift to more conventional full-length, and he di...