Being able to relax completely in another person’s presence is often rare and underrated. alt-rockers The High Loves crystallize the essence of that warm, light-hearted feeling in their mellow, melodic, and summery new single, “Sure Of It” – Watch and listen on YouTube here:

The song begins with a shimmering tone over the sound of raindrops, and then two guitar countermelodies fuse to create a gentle, rolling, lo-fi super melody that evokes roller skating on the beach at the golden hour. Add an easy but energetic beat, and you’re in an afternoon where the sun’s putting a halo in your hair and shadows are long and graceful on the boardwalk.

The video for “Sure Of It” reflects this laid-back, sunny vibe, and makes use of slightly grainy ’70s-style film to capture the band playing their instruments on the beach.

It’s a big, diverse world out there, and living in any supportive and caring community can help us thrive. Multi-award winning Madagascar singer/songwriter Donné Roberts has experienced that nurturing feeling of community in his adoptive home of Canada, and represents it in his joyful new global music single, “Seheno” – watch and listen on YouTube here:

A key track from Roberts’ third solo album, Oya, released last August, “Seheno” is a celebration of life and neighbourly love flowing along to a multi-cultural, urban rhythm. Written and sung in Roberts’ first language, Malagasy, there’s a global, but widely shared human experience that he is conveying.

Hip hop artist Rawmny Wildcat channels energy and heart into an anthemic, hard-hitting production around the tropes and techniques that reinforced early 2000’s rap with his newest single, “Fearless (feat. CHXXX)” – check it out on YouTube here:

Harkening back to the radio bangers that nothing short of defined the early aughts, “Fearless” is an amalgamation of Ludacris and Lil Wayne’s production styles — with a splash of Rick Ross for flavor.

Couple that with a feature from Rawmny (pronounced Raw Money) Wildcat’s close collaborator and friend, CHXXX, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Finding himself quarantined during lockdown, as much of the world did, it was after being exposed to Covid and not sure what to do, or how to kill two weeks in solitary, that “Fearless” was written and recorded.

Step right up: there’s been an “Attack of the 50ft Woman” at San Francisco/Toronto-based Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival, and admission to show is just a stream away, thanks to their new dizzying-pop alt-rock synth-bop of a single – check it out on YouTube here:

Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival (DVIC) are back with their latest drop, and the upbeat banger is everything you’d expect from the monster garage-pop duo of the mysterious — but friendly — Von Irvin and his constant counterpart and ‘spiritual advisor,’ Dave “Dr. Prycenstein” Pryce.

Canada’s The Dirty Beat walks through hellfire and brimstone, separating scorched earth beneath the audience’s feet with the release of the supersonic new single, “Birds” – check it out on YouTube here:

Landing alongside The Dirty Beat’s self-titled new album, “Birds” is a song unlike any other with its unique instrumentation and compositional depth that rival the most prominent music production houses. As the brainchild and sole member of The Dirty Beat, Warren G. Funk channels the energy of the greatest hard rock legends while telling soul-wrenching tales of triumph and despair.  Bone-crushing vocal harmonies and planet-shifting percussion take center stage as heavy-folk melodies fill listeners’ ears and open minds.

Carlo Capobianco is “Sleeping With The Enemy” with the release of new synth-infused electro-pop track – check it out on YouTube here:

Hot on the heels of the sultry love affair that was recent single, “Pray To You,” the Canadian singer-songwriter continues to push the boundaries with his unapologetically sexy flair for dance tunes — this time an imploring request for release of a partner who is unequivocally wrong for him.

“‘Sleeping With The Enemy', if even more so than my last single ‘Pray To You’, is what I believe to be the epitome of my album,” says Capobianco. “Sonically, it is like a dark dream or a Tim Burton story. I wanted to make sure that the feeling of unknowingly, or knowingly, loving something so deeply — can be as euphoric as it can be blinding.”

Self-doubt is inevitable sometimes but, when someone struggles with anxiety, it can become chronic and amplified. Having experienced that anxiety firsthand, Canadian Christian artist Ileen Laura sings an upbeat, uplifting prayer of and for confidence in her soaring, harmony-filled new single “I Am Yours” – watch and listen on YouTube here:

“I am someone who has struggled with anxiety ever since I was a little girl,” Laura shares of her inspiration behind “I Am Yours” — which is from her forthcoming album of the same name, set for release early Summer 2022. “My friends know me as a ‘worrywart’ and I am in a constant battle with myself over self-doubt.

“I wrote ‘I Am Yours’ about this struggle, a little reminder to set aside the opinions of others and focus on the one opinion that matters, God’s.”

Guitarist-composer James Brown returns from a 13-year recording hiatus with the fetching Song Within the Story. Brown’s fourth album, and his first since 2009’s Sevendaze, finds him helming his Toronto-based working trio featuring bassist Clark Johnston and drummer Anthony Michelli.

Respected tenor saxophonist Mike Murley joins the band on three of the album’s 10 tracks—eight of which are original compositions that document Brown’s ongoing intermarriage of jazz and classical music, while two covers explore Canada’s rich folk-rock legacy.

Veteran troubadour Steve Poltz has released his new album, Stardust & Satellites — available now via Red House Records.

Check out on Can O' Pop (Official Animated Video) YouTube here:

Produced by Oliver Wood and Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers, Stardust & Satellites is Poltz’s 14th solo album, and comprises another exuberant, thoughtful batch of songs that celebrate life in all of its stages — including his effervescent new single, “Can O’ Pop.” The high-spirited, syncopated track is joined by an official animated video directed by Boston-based artist/animator Duncan Hatch (Galactic, American Authors). In its premiere of the video, Rolling Stone Country called the song “a delicious delivery reminiscent of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.”

Like ebbing waves ready to get lost in, Indie pop-rockers SuperTonic roll out their latest single in “Wide Awake,” the latest to arrive from their recent LP, Time to Repair

Check out “Wide Awake” on YouTube here:

Featuring Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson, “Wide Awake” is an ethereal, indie-rock uprising that mellows out the listener while enticing them to stay and enjoy.

The complementing video for the song features SuperTonic co-fronts Jay Stiles and David Pulkingham in a room of candles as their combined vox soothes and calms over the melodies; the listener is dared to identify with the lyrics, the opening nearly melancholic, as it fades into beautiful optimism.

First forming SuperTonic during the preliminary onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, Stiles and Pulkingham wrote and recorded the 10-song-strong LP Time to Repair in the Spring of that year.

Although the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock may have receded from the press and faded from public memory, they continue to have an enormous impact on how many of us now think about the environment and our natural resources. With that, Thompson, Manitoba-based folk duo Spirit Trail pays tribute to that Sioux legacy via their rocking-and-soaring new single, “Water Protectors” – Check it out on YouTube here:

“Water Protectors” begins with a rhythmic, full-bodied acoustic guitar that soon surrenders the spotlight to the seamless interplay of Destiny Fiddler and Chas Piper’s voices. Their harmonies are like an elegant, deftly choreographed dance — with Fiddler’s vibrato soprano blending and dissolving into Piper’s earnest alto, and vice versa, so that at many points it’s impossible to determine where one ends and the other begins.

Being young often means dealing with emotions you don’t fully understand; it’s only with age that real perspective and true maturity can be gained. Ottawa-based HemlockHotel captures that conundrum with their melodic, smooth-rockin’ Americana anthem “Angry Young Man” – check out the YouTube here:

A warm blend of rich, full-bodied acoustic guitar, wailing electric guitar, and easy beats, “Angry Young Man” tells the first-person narrative about a confused young man in conflict with the people he loves, even though he knows it isn’t deserved.

Well, I am a soldier
Without a cause
Well, I keep on fightin’
The people I love
Come on dear Jesus
I’m not a saint

Laced with delicately placed melodies shrouded in what appears to be chaos, Canadian experimental pop artist Celogen creates an entirely unique listening experience with his new single, “The Red Lips Called Snowfinch” – check it out YouTube here:

The brainchild of Calgary-based musician Dominic Demierre, the song is the latest to land from Celogen’s most recent LP, Wastebasin Lake — an unleashing of industrial electronics combined with guitars, keyboards, strings, and horns… All of which make their heady debut in “The Red Lips Called Snowfinch.”

Certain melodic elements tempt to lure the listener into a final resting place while counter melodies and dissonance remind you that this is a journey that is just beginning — for both the main character of the story and the listener.

The search for contentment and personal freedom is often a lifelong journey that can take us to many different places along the way. Blues/Rock “Woman of the World” Caroline Cotto has lived that journey and shows us the map with her smoldering new single “A Momma To Cry To” – check it out on YouTube here:

The drive to find herself and develop her artistry led the New Orleans-based guitarist/vocalist and songwriter from New York to Paris to London and finally, to NOLA to signal her arrival as an artist and woman who has discovered through all her travels that she’s always carried everything she needs within herself.

“‘A Momma To Cry To’ describes a young woman on the journey to her spiritual awakening,” says Cotto. “The song’s message is about forging your own path and moving forward despite one’s past.”

Canada’s reigning queens of grunge-pop punk are back with an aggressive and immersive new anthem in “Clowns For President” — check it out on YouTube here:

The sonic middle finger, per se, unabashedly denounces control and constraint, and lands straight from their recent EP offering, Live Fast Die Punk.

The glorious 4-piece from Quebec swing truth bombs like axes in this pulsating follow-up drop. Refusing to back down, to be censored, or controlled, Bad Skin slices through the narrative and beguiles the listener in a race against conformity; a punk quid pro quo in sending the message that Gen Z is awake, and paying attention to the global society around them. And punk is here to save the day.

Possessing a unique talent for approaching sensitive and relevant issues within the Black community, multi-GRAMMY Award-winning hip hop, rap and soul group Arrested Development channel their trailblazing and history-making talents into the poignant hymn for Black girl magic that is “Never Had Your Back” – check it out on YouTube here:

Fresh from their newest album, For The FKN Love, and featuring lyrics from Speech and background vocals from Ke’Andra, legendary British Boom-Bap producer Configa wraps everything up in a well-executed production.

“Never Had Your Back” features a compelling overall concern for the way that Black women are portrayed in modern media and music. Noticing how depictions were demeaning, the group says they went to work crafting a production that would empower “Melanated Black Queens” and raise social awareness.

Life can be punishing, and the world can be a cruel place, and sometimes we just want someone to lay it all out how it really is, without varnish or artifice. Canadian indie folk-rocker Edison Rupert does just that in his rollicking ballad of hard luck, “Ticket To A Place” – check it out on YouTube here:

“Ticket To A Place” starts out with marching, percussive electric guitar as Rupert tells the sad tale with plain-voiced candor in the vein of Johnny Cash. The story begins in the first person, as Rupert narrates the empty, anonymous existence of a cipher:
I’ve got a ticket to a place that nobody knows
I’ve got some years on my back with nothing to show
If you come looking for me, I’m hiding in the shadows
I’ve got my own dirt pile pillow, It feels like home

Alt-pop new wave rockers Evil Tongues are delivering a synth-infused message in a banger bottle with the release of their new single, “Fine”.  Check it out on YouTube here:

The debut drop from the Canadian duo was born of the global pandemic that pushed the pair to the top of their songwriting prowess. “Fine”’s lyrics evoke a somber, devastated Jennifer Di coping with isolation, depression, anxiety; and the cinematic inspired soundscape is delivered by engineer Mike Allain. “Mike wrote the foundation for the song,” explains Di, “I asked him to make something that sounded like it would be in the movie Tron.”

Canadian alt-folk rockers Village Manor are encouraging the act of “Gunsaway” with the release of their new single — check it out on YouTube here:

The imploring plea arrives as their debut release, and was inspired by how “tired everyone is waking up every morning to the news of gun violence on a consistent basis,” co-front John Weinberg says.

“It’s every single day!”

“How many times can we wake up, how many times can we hear,” asks the lyrics. “It’s only time - and a time for winning, time for losing, time for loving, and a time to stop saying goodbye.”

The new single  from Hamilton band Long Black Cadillacs is “True Love,”  sung by Chris Jackson, and led by Earl Johnson, former lead guitarist for hard-rock band Moxy.

Check out “True Love” on YouTube here:

In its heyday Moxy toured North America, sharing the stage with such iconic Rock acts as AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Styx. Most recently, however, Johnson, with his new band, have written and recorded songs more in an R&B style, and “True Love” is a terrific “rock ballad,” written for his common-law wife Debbie Sutton, who sadly passed away in 2019. There's still plenty of Johnson's trademark guitar, but the new song and the new band have a more sophisticated sound than Moxy, more like Carlos Santana.