Lav's Music Corner

I have a lot of albums that I'd like to catch up on. So during the next few weeks, which at least look initially like down weeks relative to the heavy schedules of May and June, I'll be covering as much as I can through these rapid fire reviews. Starting off we are diving into some accessible and more importantly danceable cuts from the indie pop and indietronica worlds that I have been meaning to talk about for a while now. Islomania  - Islands Islands is the indie pop project of Nicholas Thornburn, once a member of a personal favorite band of mine from the indie world of the 2000's, The Unicorns. The band has had a diverse selection of members around Nicholas, including fellow Unicorn Jamie Thompson across their 8 albums on 4 different labels. This is the bands first new album in 5 years since they dropped two records back in 2016, and the era got off to a good start with (We Like To) Do It With The Lights On , the records lead single which has been one of my essential su...

Amusement Parks On Fire are a British rock band who dabbled in the realms of shoegaze and noise rock during the 2000's. After a long hiatus the band returned in 2018 with a new EP and series of live shows, before leading up to the release of Ad Archaea , their 4th album overall and first in 11 years. Review By Lav: Amusement Parks On Fire are a personal passion of mine. They come from a time in the 2000's where shoegaze and experimental rock bands in general never really got the credit they deserve and they're one of many bands from that era I consider to be extremely underrated. The bands 2004 self-titled album is a huge favorite of mine and I was excited to see what elements of their sound the band would maintain with over a decade having passed since their previous studio album. With no singles I wasn't really sure what to expect but the band is holding tight to their layered rock sound and proves a few times throughout Ad Archaea  that they still do it well.  The re...

The Mountain Goats are a long running indie folk project spearheaded by indie folk personified, John Darnielle. The band has a prolific catalog of early lo-fi recordings from the 90's and early 2000's before their sound shifted to a more expensive production sound, relatively speaking. The band spent the first half of the 2010's releasing acclaimed conceptual indie folk projects before shifting to something a little bit easier to digest in recent years, without receiving the same level of critical success.  Review By Lav: Following The Mountain Goats can be an exciting, occasionally exhaustive pursuit. The band is in the midst of a very prolific run over the last 3 years which has the potential to be quite exciting, but unfortunately the records have been tame and occasionally bloated since 2017's fun and conceptual Goths . I was excited for this project because a couple of the singles I heard peaked my interests more than projects in recent years and I think the recor...

Tyler, The Creator is a California rapper and multi-medium superstar. After first emerging as the main brain behind the Odd Future hip hop collective Tyler cultivated a brand for himself that included numerous solo albums, TV shows and an imprint into the fashion industry and that's just a start. Since first breaking out Tyler has drastically changed the sound of his music, transitioning from his edgy lo-fi brand of provocative hip hop into the sounds of pop, R&B and soul music starting with 2017's Flower Boy  and expanding even further on 2019's Igor . Review By Lav: Hello! If you're a Tyler, The Creator fan reading this it's probably the first time you've seen one of my reviews since I covered IGOR  in 2019. You most likely bookmarked a tweet about it or followed my account with a burner so that you could periodically send me provocative DMs because I made the unforgivable mistake of calling out the album for the elements of it that failed to translate wit...

Backxwash is an experimental rap artist who broke out last year with her God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It  album which saw her fusing hip hop with industrial and metal music and would eventually go on to win the Polaris Prize. Backxwash is capitalizing quickly on the records success with a sequel that projected a noisier and even more chaotic direction for her music.  Review By Lav: Backxwash was introduced to me last year as a trans artist who had connections to fellow 2020 breakout act Black Dresses, and in my pursuit of consuming all the great trans art I could I engaged with and enjoyed her last project quite a bit. While it would be reductive to try and collectivize the artistic accomplishments of trans creators in recent years, we can highlight the ethos of the work. When we think of trans peoples contributions to music these days we probably go to hyperpop or niche electronica genres, painting futuristic escapism in digital bangers with experimental f...

Your Old Droog is a New York rapper who was once suspected of being a pseudonym of Nas, but has since established himself as one of the most acclaimed and prolific rappers in the rap underground. He kicked off 2021 with a pair of collaborative albums with Tha God Fahim and is keeping his pace up with one of his most fleshed out and thematically conceptual projects he's released in years in Time . Review By Lav: Droog is a fun artist to watch and one of my favorite voices in underground hip hop. He released a trio of studio albums in 2019 highlighted by the excellent Transportation  and followed it up with a busy back half of 2020 and early 2021 which resulted in 3 more projects. I was excited to see Droog returning to solo work, especially with what seemed like one of his most fleshed out and thematically connected projects in a few years. Time  totally lived up to my hype and delivers not only on Droog's classic formula of creative beat choices and lowkey delivery, but also s...

Sleater-Kinney are a female fronted punk rock outfit from Washington with origins in the riot grrrl movement of the 1990's. The bands original run of records leading up to the mid 2000's is a universally acclaimed set of punk and indie rock releases and that acclaim continued when the band reformed in 2015 with their No Cities To Love  comeback album. They're 9th album was released in 2019 to very mixed reviews and is seen by many as one of their worst despite drawing attention for its St. Vincent production, and Path Of Wellness  is the first record to not feature longtime drummer Janet Weiss.  Review By Lav: I love Sleater-Kinney, from widely accepted classics like The Woods  and No Cities To Love  to underrated gems like Dig Me Out  and The Hot Rock  the girl's punk flare has always appealed to me. This is why it was so difficult to hear 2019's The Center Won't Hold  which did feature a few great songs but was largely the bands most muddled and...