Single Servings, May 3, 2021
Each week Single Servings brings you a balanced diet of the freshest Canadian tracks, spanning Electronica to Rock, Folk to R&B, and everything in between. Remember to support the artists by purchasing their music or adding them to your playlists!
By Jason Schneider
Each week Single Servings brings you a balanced diet of the freshest Canadian tracks, spanning Electronica to Rock, Folk to R&B, and everything in between. Remember to support the artists by purchasing their music or adding them to your playlists!
The Beaches – Let’s Go
Release Date: April 29
Label: Universal Music Canada
Toronto’s The Beaches have definitely been one of the bright spots on the CanRock landscape in recent years, and they’re returning May 14 with a new five-song EP entitled Future Lovers. Produced by Jacknife Lee (U2, R.E.M.), it promises more taut and spiky power pop with immediately catchy choruses—if first single Let’s Go is any indication.
Stream here
Status/Non-Status – Find A Home
Release Date: April 28
Label: You’ve Changed Records/The Grizzlar
In 2019 WHOOP-Szo released Warrior Down, one of the year’s most important records in terms of further revealing the story of Canada’s colonial oppression of Indigenous people. Now, in the spirit of transparency, group leader Adam Sturgeon is publicly acknowledging that he is classified a Non-Status Indigenous person, a result he says of his grandfather giving up his Status Card in order to enlist in the Canadian military. The decision has prompted Sturgeon to re-brand as Status/Non-Status, with the group’s first EP 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years due to arrive May 28. The first single Find A Home is an expansive psychedelic folk-rocker that should appeal to fans of My Morning Jacket and Wintersleep.
Pre-order here
Tania Joy – Blink
Release Date: April 29
Label: Independent
Toronto soul-folk artist Joy has steadily been building anticipation for her forthcoming new EP this fall with recent singles that have explored deeper themes than her previous work. Blink continues that trend, as a meditation on being blindsided by the end of a relationship. Top-notch production by Hill Kourkoutis brings out all the song’s classic slow-burning soul elements.
TOBi – Family Matters (ft. Flo Milli)
Release Date: April 29
Label: Sony Music Canada
Brampton, Ontario native TOBi attracted a ton of attention last fall for his wide-ranging sophomore album Elements, Vol. 1, earning Juno Nominations for Rap Recording of the Year and Contemporary R&B Recording of the Year in the process. Family Matters appears on the record, but for this new version, TOBi teams up with Alabama-born rapper Flo Milli who adds some brash female perspective to the track.
Stream here
Sophia Bel – You’re Not Real You’re Just A Ghost – Ethereal Plane Mix
Release Date: April 28
Label: Bonsound
The Montreal-based singer and producer has been busy the past few months releasing remix collections of songs from her late 2020 EP Princess of The Dead Vol. II. This time the track You’re Not Real You’re Just A Ghost gets reimagined by Casey MQ and TDJ, with the former taking it into mesmerizing trip-hop territory and the latter accentuating its danceable elements. Personally, I’ll take the Casey MQ mix.
Stream here
Half Moon Run – On & On
Release Date: April 28
Label: Crystal Math/Universal
Another Montreal act, two-time 2021 Juno nominees Half Moon Run are also not resting on their laurels as they prepare to release a new six-song EP Inwards & Onwards June 16. It’s a rare instance of the band producing themselves due to pandemic restrictions, with the results no less intoxicating. Second single On & On contains some instantly appealing, easy-going summer vibes, with just the right amount of psychedelic enhancement.
Stream here
Dean Brody – Lightning Bug
Release Date: April 28
Label: Scurvy Dog Music
Speaking of summer, that’s generally the time when country music’s stars bring out their big guns (song-wise, that is), and B.C.’s Dean Brody has Lightning Bug set up to follow his 2020 smash Canadian Summer. Although both tunes are on Brody’s current album Boys, Lightning Bug is the more intimate affair, and thankfully less reliant on “pickup trucks ‘n beer cans” clichés.
Stream here
Mint Simon – Used For Love
Release Date: April 29
Label: Independent
Caveboy front person Michelle Bensimon makes their solo debut under the guise of Mint Simon on this pure pop banger, produced and mixed by Caveboy band mate Isabelle Banos. Expect to hear more in the near future, but for now dig what might be described as an R-rated version of Call Me Maybe.
Stream here
Korea Town Acid – Curtain Call
Release Date: April 30
Label: Urbnet
This Toronto electronica artist (born Jessica Cho) has an international reputation for head-spinning experimentalism, and there’s plenty of that to be heard on the latest 10-track Korea Town Acid album Metamorphosis. Curtain Call is a prime example, with splashes of dramatic ambient textures over a locked-in groove, before a quick jump cut to a jazzy cocktail lounge setting. Note, however, that the full effect can’t be attained unless the album is heard in full.
Stream here
Jonathan Chandler – Faded Blue Ink
Release Date: April 15
Label: Independent
Ottawa singer/songwriter Chandler has been a part of a few Capital City outfits including Amos The Transparent and Silent Winters, but is now ready to emerge as a full-blown power pop auteur on his new seven-song solo release …and the bandwagoneers. Faded Blue Ink shows off his deft studio chops, with its layered arrangement complementing Chandler’s Lou Barlow-esque vocals.
