Perpetual Love Burning | DOminiONATED March 2020
🔥Etienne Dufresne, Sainte-Colère (Montréal QC)
Etienne Dufresne isn't in a hurry on his debut release, Sainte-Colère. Dufresne lets his songs unravel slowly and smoothly, employing all of the delicious bedroom pop essentials that make the genre so irresistible: synth melodies, wobbly guitar notes and tender, pillowy vocals. For a particularly heavenly bought of languidness, dive into “Copains”.
Laura Stanley
🔥“Surrender into Waiting Arms” by Wares (Edmonton AB)
Prairie punks have had the pleasure of experiencing Wares dynamic live show, and now thanks to the support of Mint Records, many listeners will be treated to a band that sounds secure due its time on the road, yet also loose and organic thanks to a "live" recording process. “Surrender into Waiting Arms”, the first single of their upcoming LP Survival, starts out brimming with jangle-pop energy before it melts into (perhaps quite literally) fervid pleasure. As the mid-point of an album telling "the story of recovery as a non-linear path of healing and disruption," it's quite fitting that the song takes a non-linear path to explore what can be complex emotions and feelings. The story might not be an easy one, but it will be one that listeners should take note of.
Jon Neher
▶︎▶︎ LPS / EPS
Craig Currie, Instant Classic (Prince Edward ON)
The name says it all: Craig Currie's Instant Classic is a heady, hazy shade of perfected slacker-pop. Cuddly as a kitten and prickly as a cactus in equal measure, it's the kind of EP that's just as fulfilling as a long-player.
Jim Di Gioia | RIYL Nap Eyes | Have you also heard? The Pinc Lincolns
Matthew Good, Moving Walls (Coquitlam BC)
Matthew Good's new album Moving Walls finds the Vancouver songwriter settling into the mood that has always resulted in his strongest work: down, depressed, a bit pissed and just hopeful enough. Highlights like "Dreading It" and 'Selling You My Heart" show Good has more in common with early 2000s emo-tinged radio rock than the wave of 90s CanRock he is often lumped in with. Moving Walls is his most sonically varied and best album since 2011's Lights of Endangered Species and offers the possibility, nearly thirty years into his career, that Good's best work may still be ahead of him.
Mac Cameron | RIYL feeling sad and listening to Matthew Good, obviously.
- Dylan Greenhough, Alone (Edmonton AB)
- Teganbear, Psychedelic (Victoria BC)
▶︎▶︎ SONGS
“Long Time Comin’” by Justin Fancy (Conception Bay South NL)
It's been a long time since a straight-up song like “Long Time Comin’” hit me straight in the solar plexus. Conception Bay South, NL based singer-songwriter, Justin Fancy has a classic voice: deep and rugged but soft where it needs to be. There's nothing fancy or frivolous about Fancy's music, just solid songwriting that's always a welcome change of pace.
Jim Di Gioia | RIYL Donovan Woods | Have you also heard? Kirsten Ludwig
“Twice” by J. Hutton (Toronto ON)
It's been almost three years since we heard from J. Hutton since his incredible single “No Complaints” and his return scales back the instruments but is no less catchy. Snappy percussion guides the verses, and then the chorus goes for broke with an icy swell of synths. Once again, Hutton remains the epitome of cool.
Michael Thomas
“Atauttikkut” by The Jerry Cans (Iqaluit NT)
Prepare yourself for a boxing match with the lead single from the beloved Nunavut group's upcoming album. The bass guitar punches with tremendous force in the verse, the chorus pulverizes with swirling synths, and the bridge dances around the ring with a choir of la-la-las to lull you to sleep before providing the knockout punch just three minutes into the bout.
Micheal Beda
“First Flight (Come With Me)” by Überfreude (Calgary AB)
Everything is better when you involve your friends, right? For his 80s-influenced cinematic musical project Überfreude, composer Craig ‘Ritchie’ Meuser is bringing together different musicians for each track on an album titled Dark Side of the Sun. “First Flight (Come With Me)”, the project's latest release, is an epic, room-filling synth-based powerhouse that will have you airborne with its first notes.
Jim Di Gioia
- “Living Feeling” by Blooming Season (Montréal QC)
- “Rosary” by Pat Clifton (Calgary AB)
- “Sheltering Night” by Waxlimbs (Toronto ON)
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