Sloan’s poetic sentiments, captivating songwriting and delicate voice hold our hand through these changing seasons and life lessons as summer ends and the leaves begin to fall.

I am inspired by Jade’s vulnerability as she explores the deepest parts of herself while also discussing the beauty of love. This record is timeless and relatable, conveying how music can change your life for the better. It is a reminder to live life one day at a time, and that the journey of self-growth is ongoing.

Beautiful and occasionally unsettling, “In Another” is an album fit for any fans of the ambient, the jazzy, and the experimental.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Henry Adam Svec creates parallel Canadian universes, ones in which football players write love songs, AI-bots compose remarkable Canadiana, and rural families withhold secrets from a folklorist and song collector. In his many worlds, history melts into fantasy, tragedy melts into comedy, past melts into future, and music is the only constant. Maybe there’s a bigger metaphor there, but I won’t connect the dots, and neither will Henry.

In a sense, ZIMA is not simply a record about survival. It is the sound of survival in progress. In its kineticism, or perhaps because of it, ZIMA also bears a certain enduring persistence, running defiantly alongside its bleak underscoring. And what is survival if not persistence in the face of annihilation – of the self, or even, of reality itself?

Bringing an unapologetically raw and untamed energy, this hard-hitting album also brings with it a unique restrained softness, a dim light amidst the darkness, but as you approach the light rows of sharp teeth reveal themselves, waiting to swallow you whole. Accept your fate and allow yourself to be cast into the dark abyss of human emotion that is Truster’s Creeping Thing. 

As with every full-length BSS release, the album cannot be reduced to single songs – it’s meant to be experienced as an album, played front to back. The songs are connected to each other lyrically, musically, threaded together through a kind of sonic language that more than 20 years as a band, collective, and chosen family can share. I’m so glad they’re back. 

…like a coming-of-age story told backwards, where we begin in the present and dream up the past as the story continues.

Beached Out brandishes their hard-earned wreaths and scars as they forge a path forward on Average Weekends, cautiously hopeful about a future that has invariably been shaped by the past, for better or worse.

There’s an uncertainty when presented with a band name like “Sea of Lettuce”; should I expect a mathcore alt-metal extravaganza? Avant garde prog-rock kids music? I can’t say I was surprised when I heard jangly, slacker-pop delivered with the airy precision of soft rock on the Open Doors EP released in April. These are sentimental songs grounded in strong songwriting and seriously tight playing.

Jody Glenham's Still Here is dreamy and grounded, intimate and generous, moody and practical - it feels like a very honest expression from someone who embodies all these things herself. Jody Glenham is one of the hardest working people in Vancouver, and this EP is a gorgeous and lush culmination of both her labour and her love.

I am empowered by Witch Prophet’s resilience and determination. It is a reminder that words matter, and although it is easy to feel down or second-guess yourself when times get tough, you need to remember that it is during these times that your words count the most.

Bug Swallow started in 2024 mostly as an excuse to hang out, make weird music with friends, and avoid taking themselves too seriously. You can hear that; no posturing, no forced coolness. Just people making fried, bugged-out egg-punk in the joy of each other’s company.