Moscow Apartment Better Daughter Hidden Pony Better Daughter is the sophomore release from the Toronto-based duo, Moscow Apartment. This is a much more serious effort, tackling subjects that are not always found on the radio. The EP is the sound of two young people coming to grips with what is going on around [...]
Alive Alone Therapy Independent Following the release of their debut single, “Safe Sinner”, earlier this year, Alive Alone has released their debut studio EP, Therapy. The rough, hard-hitting, and abrasive six-track release marks a strong and unique entry point for the Chicago-based alternative metal band that is [...]
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Evening Hymns Heavy Nights Shuffling Feet Records Heavy Nights is the first album Jonas Bonetta has released under the Evening Hymns name in five years. The last Evening Hymns album was the brilliant Quiet Energies, and for a lot of artists, it would be a tough album to follow. However, Bonetta is always up for [...]
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Kidsmoke A Vision In The Dark Libertino Records Welsh quartet Kidsmoke debut their new album, A Vision in the Dark, and at first listen, this gorgeously-layered record is anything but dark. It is a dream pop record with the best elements of Real Estate mixed with Wild Nothing. “She Takes You Under” is a swirling, [...]
Japandroids Massey Fucking Hall Arts & Crafts If you saw Japandroids live prior to 2017, chances are it would have been in a modestly-sized, yet uncomfortably rammed room, and you probably left having lost 10 lbs in sweat alone. In the five years between touring, their critically-adored Celebration Rock, and [...]
Julian Taylor The Ridge Independent Few Toronto artists get me as excited with the news of new music as Julian Taylor does. A musical chameleon, Taylor’s work has come in the shape of rock, funk, pop, and soul, written and performed with an equal level of conviction, quality, and integrity. For his latest solo [...]
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Wire 10:20 Pinkflag Records You could call Wire’s 10:20 a B-sides album. Released through the English band’s own label Pinkflag, they refer to the tracks on 10:20 as ‘strays’ — songs that had no place on their previous 17 studio albums. However, tracks like “Boiling Boy” and “German [...]
The Killer Wails The Killer Wails Independent Toronto’s The Killer Wails offer something refreshing this summer with their first self-titled full-length. Described as “weirdo punks”, they have created an album which is undeniably punk-influenced although its charmingly lo-fi, and at times laid back, [...]
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Edward McCormack Astral/Aphotic Eyedear Productions Ambient music is much like rock’n’roll, in that, within that genre there are many different styles and sub genres. Edward McCormack is one artist who releases music under this banner, but his style is distinctly his own. He is also an artist who continually [...]
Blue Öyster Cult iHeart Radio Theatre N.Y.C. 2012 Frontiers Music Frontiers Music, along with Blue Öyster Cult, continue their release of archival material of this classic rock band. Some of the music has been released before, and some, as with this album, has not. This show at iHeart Radio Theatre was originally [...]
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Iggy Pop The Idiot (Deluxe Edition) Virgin Records Hot on the heels of the Lust For Life re-release two weeks ago, Iggy Pop has gone back to his roots to produce a deluxe edition reissue of his debut solo record, The Idiot. After the breakup of The Stooges and a self-imposed stint at a mental health facility to [...]
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Norah Jones Pick Me Up Off The Floor Blue Note Records Many listeners who consider themselves serious fans will instantly disregard the new Norah Jones album Pick Me Up Off the Floor. The reasons – she has sold bundles of albums, particularly her debut Come Away with Me, and she is considered by many to fall into [...]
Bibio Sleep On The Wing Warp Records To “sleep on the wing” is a reference to a bird called a swift that is capable of flying incredible distances without ever touching ground, sometimes for months at a time, and can apparently sleep while maintaining its flight. With that in mind, arriving just over a year after [...]
Kelly Miller & Kyle Burnett Vague Complaints Tunecore Kelly Miller and Kyle Burnett met in 2018 in Monterrey, California while studying in a master’s program for international environmental policy, and their fast friendship has lead to a promising debut EP titled Vague Complaints that fits in neatly next to [...]
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Betty Moon Translucent Evolver Music Betty Moon has led a very creative, and highly productive, musical career. Before her major label album debut for A&M Records in 1990, she was also the frontwoman for cutting-edge Toronto indie rock band Bambi. Her latest release is the shimmering six-song EPTranslucent, [...]
Crown Lands Wayward Flyers Vol. 1 Universal Music Despite the electrifying and driving rock pulse of their recent singles “Howlin’ Back” and “Spit It Out”, Canada’s most promising up and coming rock band, Crown Lands, has returned with Wayward Flyers Vol. 1. The mainly acoustic EP is their first collection of new [...]
Babbling April Days Of Retreat Independent How do you get out of the shadow of a band you are most compared with? Washington D.C. trio Babbling April are doing just that. Those who heard their previous singles and two EPs as well as Days of Retreat, their debut album proper, will certainly notice that another [...]
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Muzz Muzz Matador Records There is something, a feeling or perhaps even a perception, that goes beyond most reviewers’ abilities to explain adequately when an album resonates deeply, emotionally, with the listener. The self-titled debut by Muzz, a trio of incredibly experienced musicians, is such an album; it is [...]
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Blancmange Mindset Blanc Check Records The new Blancmange album opens with the title track, “Mindset”, and following a minute-long musical introduction, the unmistakable voice of Neil Arthur sings “Unlike Wednesday this day is focused/There will be no distraction from the action.” Thus begins Mindset, perhaps [...]
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Run The Jewels RTJ4 BMG After promising their highly anticipated fourth album, RTJ4, would be available for free download in response to those in need due to the global pandemic and the recent racial protests in America, hip-hop duo Run The Jewels have dropped their latest record early, ahead of its original June [...]
Black Sugar Transmission The Flowering Independent Even though this is the second album in a trilogy to be released in 2020, there is no sense of being stuck in the middle here, no sense of preparing for highlights to come. The almost insanely talented Andee Blacksugar manages to reinvent himself for the second [...]
Editor Pick
Iggy Pop Lust For Life (Deluxe Edition) Virgin Records Iggy Pop’s second solo album, made in collaboration with David Bowie and recorded in the divided city of Berlin in 1977, has gotten the reissue treatment. Critically acclaimed, Lust For Life fundamentally altered the landscape of post-punk, helped cement Pop [...]
Royal Canoe Glacial (Live) Paper Bag Records Royal Canoe is known for pushing boundaries of what we can imagine. Its music videos are surreal and its songs feature distorted vocals over layers of bizarre synths and creative percussion. If any band was to attempt a sub-zero outdoor show in the dead of Canadian [...]
ATD A Total Disappointment Kinda Cool Records Vancouver’s ATD have been tearing it up since blasting onto the punk scene in 2015. Their first full-length, A Total Disappointment, is anything but a disappointment. The album rips into high gear immediately, and what follows is around 17 minutes of relentless punk [...]
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