Lav's Music Corner

Manchester Orchestra are an Atlanta based indie rock band who have been releasing music since 2006. They found critical success on the back of their first two records I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child  and Mean Everything To Nothing  in the 2000's. The bands initial output in the 2010's, namely 2011's Simple Math  and 2014's Cope  weren't nearly as acclaimed upon their initial release. The band returned in 2017 with A Black Mile To The Surface  which very quietly became a major fan favorite and one of the most critically successful indie albums of that year. After 4 years of relative quiet the band has returned with their 6th album on the back of three singles released in the earlier months of 2021. Review By Lav: While I am not a Manchester Orchestra super fan I have always enjoyed their music. I think their debut Virgin  is supremely underrated and while I wasn't head over heels for Black Mile  I did give the record a positive review 4 years ago and i...

The Alchemist is a legendary hip hop producer whose discography really speaks for itself at this point. He is a veteran of the craft but has maintained a pretty prolific output both of solo material, collaborations and one off production credits pretty much every year. In 2020 The Alchemist wowed alongside Freddie Gibbs with Alfredo  and even earlier this year saw another collaboration released with New York underground hip hop duo Armand Hammer.  Review By Lav: The Alchemist's discography really does speak for itself, and any hip hop fan will likely tell you the same thing. He puts out so much music that not every single thing he touches necessarily turns to gold but when he is on, there is almost nobody better. Historically his solo material hasn't always provided necessarily the best of the best Alchemist work but with this short EP recruiting a stacked feature list there was no reason to believe it wouldn't be another hit, and for the most part he delivers Nobles  is ...

Royal Blood are an English rock duo who first emerged in 2014 with a hard-rocking debut album that turned heads with high energy performances and songwriting. Typhoons  is the bands 3rd album in 7 years and they have slowly developed quite a bit of popularity becoming a rock radio staple and receiving a surprising amount of attention given their brand of music. Review By Lav: When Royal Blood's self-titled debut album came out in 2014 it sent a jolt through me. I thought their wiry explosive brand of rock was totally intoxicating ad I just couldn't get enough of it. I wasn't quite as impressed by their follow-up album a few years later even though it had some very solid singles. I just didn't see the song having the same intensity that originally made me fall in love with the bands sound. With Royal Blood in the most commercial place of their career I wasn't necessarily expecting them to return to form on this record, but overall I have to say Typhoons  is a solid a...

Earlier this year we lost a remarkable, unparalleled talent in SOPHIE. There's nothing I can say that makes it any easier to swallow but I did want to take a moment to review some music she either directly contributed to or artists she worked with and clearly heavily influenced. FUCK IT UP  EP - Basside Basside are a Miami duo that are fusing some rap and hip hop sound with club music. This is an EP I've heard a lot of people getting excited about and I first remember reading about the duo a few years ago now. This is definitely an interesting EP that is hard to pigeonhole genre wise, there are plenty of verses that are basically rapping but also songs with meditative repetitive club ready refrains. All the tracks are produced by SOPHIE herself and the instrumentals definitely shine throughout with her trademark edge showing up all over the clapping percussion and heavy bass all over the EP. The personality on display is sometimes cute and very sensual and sometimes a little ob...

Porter Robinson is a North Carolina based electronic music producer who first emerged as a dubstep artist before transitioning into more abstract fields of electronic music leading up to his debut album in 2014. He hasn't been completely radio silent in the 7 years since releasing some remix projects and a couple EPs. Since his debut album received acclaim the long wait has caused this follow up to be a highly anticipated one.  Review By Lav: Man, I love electronic music. I missed Porter Robinson when he first emerged and only really heard his debut record after it came out. I have had time to learn a little bit more about him and given that he's from my home state of North Carolina and started dabbling in veins of experimental electronica I was pulling for him to succeed and excited to see what he would do next. I only heard one or maybe two of the singles for this record before going into it so I didn't know what to expect and I really was excited for it. Unfortunately th...

Lil Yachty is an Atlanta rapper who first emerged in the latter half of the last decade with a unique and fun sound on his Lil Boat Mixtape . Since then he has released an inconsistent series of projects that pivoted completely from his individual sound into something much more commercial. Review By Lav: There have been a couple of times in Yachty's discography that I've really enjoyed his sound. His breakout mixtape is still one of the most idiosyncratic pieces of contemporary trap out there and the sequel is a more commercial leaning hard-hitting affair. Even on last years Lil Boat 3  there were plenty of solid tracks among the bloated 19 song tracklist. Unfortunately everything not in the Lil Boat series has been pretty disappointing from Yachty so far and I was hoping this would break that trend. Yachty collected a bunch of artists from Michigan to feature all across this album and occasionally highlights some excellent unique voices. But unfortunately for the most part thi...

Cordae is a Maryland based rapper who has emerged in the last few years as one of the most lyrically gifted young MCs in hip hop. He was originally one third of the YBN trio but since scoring a XXL freshman slot and releasing a highly acclaimed debut album he has dropped the YBN from his name and started to release solo material. Just Until  is a 4 track EP meant to tide fans over until the release of Cordae's second album later this year. Review By Lav: I really enjoyed Cordae's debut album in 2019 and he's been on my singles of the year list for three years straight with his J Cole response track, Bad Idea  and last years The Parables . He has displayed a strong talent for cohesive tracks with excellent narrative focus and witty lyricism but is no slouch when it comes to making hard-hitting and fun tracks as well. This versatility and high level of execution has made him one of the most exciting artists out right now in any genre and Just Until  builds even further upon...