Charlotte Cornfield - Hurts Like Hell
Hurts Like Hell is another shining example that Charlotte Cornfield is a national treasure. She can pen a love song to rival the greatest, and her peculiar eye for odd details makes her one of the most original songwriting voices working today. Cornfield’s foray into motherhood has gifted her with wisdom and a new, less self-focused perspective that comes through in her lyrics. This doesn’t make her come across as pretentious or dogmatic, though, and she still impresses upon the listener that she’s one of us. She is still tumbling through life, feeling all the bruises that are left behind. She is still hurting like hell, but these songs offer a resilient hope for the future.
cootie catcher - Something We All Got
Something We All Got is an album that has a cinematic ambiance to it. I am not saying this is quite an atmospheric soundtrack, but that it captures those moments of life that you just want to get a snapshot of. It feels like cootie catch achieved exactly what they set themselves out to do, by creating the sharper edges of their rough-around-the-edges sound.
femtanyl - MAN BITES DOG
Listening to femtanyl feels like a rush of aggro movement. Abrasive and thriving in all of its intensity, femtanyl is the Toronto digital hardcore act by Noelle Stockwood, now joined by multi-instrumentalist Juno Callender.
Significance, Otherness - Burs
At its core, Significance, Otherness works its way through an underlying philosophical question: How are the ways in which we find meaning / significance / purpose tied to what is other than ourselves? Today, there is a pervasive individualistic outlook that suggests that meaning is self-made, so letting the other in becomes a compromise to its authenticity. However, Burs offers a musical challenge to this contemporary inclination by suggesting that significance and otherness are in fact two sides of the same coin.
Hobby - Clear Blue River
Hobby’s third album is a refreshing collection of tunes that pay homage to and expand upon the long line of Canadiana music that has come before it. Dive into it and let it wash over you. When I listen to this record, I’m transported. All of a sudden, I’m right there with the band, and they’re right there with me on a summer day in the back of my best friend’s car as we head towards the Clear Blue River.
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.
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.
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.
KERUB - APHANTASIA
"With this snapshot of what you can find in the deconstructive worlds that KERUB fleshes out, I encourage people to give APHANTASIA a shot since it is their most accessible yet ambitious release yet. This is a producer that you will see expanding their already prolific catalogue and getting more deeply involved in other people’s work”
Debby Friday - The Starr of The Queen of Life
With The Starr of The Queen of Life, Debby Friday’s has fleshed out a depth of creative maturity and personal insight that allow her to embody the starr that she ultimately is. Not only is this the best Canadian release in 2025 so far for me, but it may be a contender for such a title at an international level.
Fortunato Durutti Marinetti - Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter
Between the smoky upright bass, the tasteful brass flourishes, and Marinetti’s tender baroque pop soliloquies, Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter is an album worth not just listening to, but experiencing.
Eliza Niemi - Progress Bakery
Simone Atenea Medina Polo reviews the latest record from Toronto’s Eliza Niemi: Progress Bakery is an incredible sophomore album that shows off the breadth of what Eliza Niemi can do.
Sled Island Edition: Chinese Medicine - The Trans Agenda
Chinese Medicine contains multitudes on The Trans Agenda. It is both a collection of stories and a statement of a band on the rise that leaves no doubt that they are one of the most vital punk bands active today.
Sister Ray - Believer
Believer is an album with an air of hope looking-on into another world, an elsewhere, another life, a past life, or even a future life.