Austra - Chin Up Buttercup
Austra has certainly proven to make excellent music across the board, Chin Up Buttercup taps on an element of her music that makes this album so special: her intimate emotionality and vulnerability.
Heaven for Real - Who Died & Made You the Dream
Who Died & Made You The Dream? is as eccentric as it is authentic, with lots to chew on through repeat listens. It’s an album that shines bright in an already dazzling catalogue, and one that just might entice you to feel your weirdest feelings, blessed with a newfound assurance that surely you’re not alone in it.
Living Hour - Internal Drone Infinity
Internal Drone Infinity, from beloved Winnipeg shoegaze band Living Hour, is a thoughtfully crafted and deeply moving album, from the electronic fake-out opening of “Stainless Steel Dream” to the folky equanimity of “Things Will Remain.” By turns plaintive, tender, and playful, the album engages with the passing of time, the processes of healing, and the beauty preserved in the particularities of everyday life.
The Flower Painters - The Flower Painters
The lyrics pick up on familiar themes from both Davies’ and Vallentin’s solo works, emphasizing love, grief and slices of rural life, which given their history from small towns in PEI should come as no surprise. These are not city songs, but it’s definitely not country music.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - Live Like The Sky
The album kicks off with “White Kites and Blue Sky,” driven by a lofi drum machine progressively adorned by a clean guitar riff and Simpson’s lush vocals lyrically building a sense of being captive as the song progresses in complexity. Slowly, this gives way to those elements of moccasingaze with layers upon layers of guitars, vocals, synths, and percussions amping up the tension of the song intensifying as the drum fills hit harder leading up to the outro.
The Blue - So Look at the Bright Side
This new album by The Blue is an absolute and communal tour de force, one which captivates the bright side that The Blue performs at his live shows — perhaps it has a brightness of its own. The cabaret of features really brings together some of Calgary’s best into a shared spotlight of their own making, and you get to learn how they made that spotlight themselves through hard work and looking out for each other.
Robert Adam - Governed by the Seasons
In spite of the adversity of living in a world with rampant queerphobia and transphobia, the resilience in Adam’s work shines, not just through the mix, but through their invigorated direction for their career. Coming back from a first-ever Japan tour and gliding on the heels of a CCMA nomination, Adam is one of those musicians who is ripe for a wider audience that is ready to welcome them.
JANE INC - A RUPTURE A CANYON A BIRTH
A RUPTURE A CANYON A BIRTH has an emotional gravitas and consequentiality that punctuates it perhaps as Jane Inc.’s most significant record to date. Not just as a testament to the life that was, but to the life that is now along with the death that will be next however symbolic or real it may be.
POP POP VERNAC - A SENSE OF HUMAN
Pop Pop Vernac’s newest EP, A Sense of Human, is what you remember the morning after your 18th birthday: a few songs, lots of yelling, and a good fuckin’ time.
Sloan - Based on the Best Seller
All four members, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott have such distinct voices, not just as singers but as songwriters. Their compositions are instantly recognizable, and Based on the Best Seller almost plays like a latter-day greatest hits album because of it.
Fencing - Fencing Wikipedia
In the end, Fencing Wikipedia isn’t some grand reclamation of the past, and maybe that’s the point. Its nostalgia doesn’t feel clean or comforting—it’s messy, conflicted, more about disillusionment than escape. The record captures what it means to live in a digital landscape that’s too fast, too curated, too numb, yet still find yourself longing for sincerity inside it.
Smokey - Bleak Heritage
I once described Smokey as sounding like a “railroad worker on a mushroom trip,” and reductive though that may be, there’s something about the combination of his choice of subject matter—coyotes, religion, unemployment, death—that paints a decidedly midwestern gothic picture. And yet it’s tinged with an almost spiritual quality, something ethereal that lingers, prodding you to remind you that not everything is as simple as it seems.
Absolute Losers - In The Crowd
With tattoo-like melodies, cleverly crafted riffs, and three-part harmonies to write home about, In the Crowd perfectly captures the Absolute Losers at their best, and makes it easy to see why they’re quickly becoming one of the Maritimes’ rising stars.
Fredy V & The Foundation - No Tribe, No I
Imagine this: you are at their live show, the opening song would have you wanting to clap along immediately, then when the beat comes in and the vocals start, you have the urge to get out of your chair and hit the dance floor, then the whole show, you just cannot sit back down. Yes, that was me in my bedroom listening to this.
You can catch Fredy V & The Foundation live at their album launch party tonight at 8:00pm at the Turbo Haus in Montreal.
Rec Centre - Squash
Overall, in many ways, Squash takes everything that Rec Centre had built up to in Maxed Out (2023) and takes it to the next level with its gentle thematic focus and its creative ways of playing on this long term creative collaboration with Jay Arner. Honestly, this album can appeal to a wide audience from indie rock darlings who want gentle rock music all the way over to engineering music heads who will find lots to dig into throughout some of the more ambitious cuts of the album.
Patrick Watson - Uh Oh
“I lost my voice ‘cause I talked too loud,” mourns Patrick Watson in “Silencio,” Uh Oh’s opening track. It’s a true story—the singer-composer wasn’t sure if his damaged vocal cords would ever heal. Though he’d recovered in time to make the record, he wisely kept his cast of plan B singers, resulting in a highly collaborative album that frequently explores the thematic avenues surrounding voice and voices in their abundance or absence.
Kathleen Edwards - Billionaire
This album is a triumph of songwriting, a lyricist who found another peak more than 20 years into her career and whose voice has only gained power and beauty since her 2003 debut - less airy vibrato and more grace and control. Honesty and vivid storytelling have always been Edwards’ strengths. Here those strengths are balanced by a level of experience and wisdom that can only come with the benefit of age.
Ribbon Skirt - PENSACOLA
Ribbon Skirt continues to be a stunning act of musical artistry and lyrical prowess that has picked up on the following behind their debut release and leaned on it to enhance it. You can tell that PENSACOLA turns up the notch on what made Bite Down one of the highlights of 2025, whether it is in the textured noise, the vocal dynamism, or the melodic composition. This only makes me all the more excited to see what Ribbon Skirt has coming up next for them.
Dust Cwaine - Twin Lakes
it is a delight to see one of Vancouver’s finest bless us with a sophomore release. Dust Cwaine (aka. I-am-not-giving -more-than-this-drag-name-cuz-I-am-not-a-cop) has a considerable following tied to their almost decade long drag career, but I want to stress that the fact that they are just as much a musician shouldn’t get buried under the layers of make-up, mascara, and blush.
Franco Rossino - #2
Franco Rossino, who’s previous album, #1, is packed with brilliantly sardonic folk-punk earworms that rail mercilessly against the day to day minutiae of small town hierarchies, garnering him a devoted club of fervent fans, most of whom now sit in the front row, giddy with excitement.