Yes Mirror To The Sky Century Media Records By my count, Mirror To The Sky is Yes’s 23rd studio album since they made their debut in 1969. Since then, the band has been through many changes, but the sound remains the same. Coming very quickly on [...]
The Used Toxic Positivity Big Noise For a group that has a career spanning over 20 years, ingenuity and relevancy can prove insurmountable, especially when previous records have held such a warm spot in the hearts of millions of fans. This [...]
Sufjan Stevens, Timo Andres, Conor Hanick Reflections Asthmatic Kitty Records Indie legend Sufjan Stevens has been on the music scene since the 90s and constantly finds new ways to challenge himself. His latest album, Reflections with Timo [...]
Solar Flare Solar Flare Independent Originally released in 2020, power metal quintet Solar Flare have revisited their debut album and given it a brand-new remix/remaster polish, bringing their classically derived sound to a different level that [...]
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE SPIRIT THEY’RE GONE, SPIRIT THEY’VE VANISHED (REMASTERED 2023) DOMINO RECORDS Animal Collective is a party for the ears, animating my life for the past two decades. Listening to Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve [...]
Bruce Cockburn O Sun O Moon True North Records There is truth in the statement that some things get better with age. Case in point, Bruce Cockburn’s new album O Sun O Moon serves up a heaping helping of musical goodness. Recorded in Nashville, [...]
Sister Ray Teeth Royal Mountain Records Sister Ray is Edmonton’s Ella Coyes (they/them), whose melodic touch, lyrics, and vocals simply stand out on their latest EP Teeth. It is no wonder that here they are supported by ginla, the Brooklyn [...]
Nick & June Beach Baby, Baby Independent It was about time that some other artists would be inspired by the Hollywood film/music combination of the 50s and 60s as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of Lana Del Rey, but inspired in the [...]
Esben And The Witch Hold Sacred Nostromo Records There was always a dark streak running through dream pop, with or without shoegaze touches, that made that dream element acquire some nightmarish tones, while still leaving that pop element [...]
Ron Hawkins Trash Talkin’ At The Speed Of Sound Sonic Envy Ron Hawkins, best known as an original founding member and lead singer/songwriter of Toronto’s legendary Lowest Of The Low, has embraced synths and electro drum beats for his six-song [...]
Logan Halstead Dark Black Coal Thirty Tigers It is very hard to believe that Logan Halstead is 19 years old and that Dark Black Coal is his debut album. This artist and album shows such a great deal of depth, history, and connection to days gone [...]
Gord Downie & Bob Rock Lustre Parfait Arts & Crafts Lustre Parfait, a collaboration between the late Gord Downie and famed producer Bob Rock, is a labour of love that was a decade in the making. Work began on the project soon after Rock [...]
Jessica Rhaye And The Ramshackle Parade Sunshine Baby Scout Music Jessica Rhaye made her debut in 2000, with her self-titled album. Since then she has released a total of four solo albums and with Sunshine Baby, she has released two albums with [...]
Alien Eyelid Bronze Star Tall Texan Records For a band hailing from Texas, it might seem simple to travel in the sometimes clear, sometimes murky waters of roots rock/Americana. Whether those waters go clear or stay murky certainly depends on [...]
Rocky Roberts & Friends Pieces Of Time Wolfe Island Records Being a touring guitar technician for the likes of Wilco, Patti Smith, CSN&Y, Paul Simon, Lucinda Williams and My Morning Jacket can actually make you quite a select group of [...]
Dave Lombardo Rites Of Percussion Ipecac Recordings An album that belies conventional expectations, or even structure, is usually reserved for artists favored within post-modern circles. In the case of Rites Of Percussion, we have an album [...]
The Reverend Horton Heat Spend A Night In The Box Real Gone Music It is really hard to believe that Spend A Night In The Box by The Reverend Horton Heat is making its debut on vinyl in 2023. Here is a well-crafted album taking its lead from the [...]
The Donnas Early Singles 1995-1999 Real Gone Music The Donnas burst onto the punk scene like a force of nature in the late 1990s. Far from being an overnight success, this quartet (vocalist Brett Anderson, guitarist Allison Robertson, bassist [...]
Laura Reznek Leap Year Birthday Cake Records These days, the interpretation of what consists of an EP has become quite an elastic thing. It can run from a single (albeit long) song to something that lasts as a full-fledged album for some other [...]
Maximillian Maximillian RidingEasy Records In 1969, Maximillian, a short-lived New York City-based band made up of African American and Latino musicians, released its self-titled album. Consisting of singer Buzzy Bowzer (aka Maximillian), lead [...]
Mary Hopkin & Jessica Lee Morgan Two Hearts Mary Hopkin Music Jessica Lee Morgan comes from a very talented family. Her father is famed producer and musician Tony Visconti and her mother is Welsh singer Mary Hopkin. She has performed with [...]
Dex Wolfe Vestiges Independent Back in 2020, we had this to say about Dex Wolfe’s music: “Brief musical notes conjuring all the better sides of David Byrne, Sparklehorse, and Sufjan Stevens work some real polymath magic.” Ok, [...]
Teenage Bottlerocket So Dumb/So Stoked Pirates Press Records Teenage Bottlerocket’s new EP, So Dumb, isn’t exactly my personal favorite. The tracks lack a bit of structural complexity, and the overall delivery could be described as [...]
Great Lake Swimmers Uncertain Country Fontana North/Cadence Music Years ago, a friend described the experience of her toddler’s first show. It was Great Lake Swimmers, a band I hadn’t heard of until then. Yet the image of the [...]
