Single Servings, Oct. 18, 2021

By Jason Schneider

In this week’s Single Servings, some folk-rock legends get ready to return, The Dirty Nil embrace change, Shaq’s new favourite singer shares a new track, and much more!

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Song Of The Seasons

Release Date: Oct. 14

Label: Warner Music Canada

Although a new Neil Young & Crazy Horse album isn’t the event it used to be, the announcement that their latest collection, Barn, will arrive Dec. 10 is still cause for Rusties everywhere to rejoice. This all-acoustic first taste—with Nils Lofgren’s accordion featured prominently—may be an outlier of the record’s overall sound, but it feels like a warm invitation from old friends to pull up a seat around the campfire.

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Blue Rodeo – When You Were Wild

Release Date: Oct. 15

Label: Warner Music Canada

Speaking of Canadian folk-rock legends, it was also welcome news that Blue Rodeo will be back on Dec. 3 with Many A Mile, their 15^th (I think) studio set. When You Were Wild is an easy grooving Greg Keelor number, which really shows off how the band’s newly expanded line-up has gelled over the past few years. The added guitars and harmonies seem like the logical place where the aforementioned Mr. Young and Buffalo Springfield may have ended up if that band could have held together.

Stream/Pre-Order here 

Breit Workman – Corvair Blues

Release Date: Oct. 15

Label: Isadora Records

The notion of Hawksley Workman and Kevin Breit teaming up seems completely natural. Both are musical adventurers with impeccable chops, so letting them run wild in the studio was bound to produce results nothing short of fascinating. Indeed, their new six-song release, Breit Workman, forgoes lyrics altogether in favour of instrumental pastiches like the oddball, New Orleans-flavoured Corvair Blues. Definitely one for those who enjoy the unexpected.

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Land Of Talk – Moment Feed

Release Date: Oct. 12

Label: Dine Alone Records

Guelph, Ontario-raised Elizabeth Powell has been pushing musical boundaries with her Land Of Talk project for 15 years, which along the way has forged alliances with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Patrick Watson, and others in the Montreal alt-rock scene. The latest Land Of Talk offering, the EP Calming Night Partner, is Powell’s “pandemic record,” juxtaposing lush and adventurous sounds with at times dark, difficult realities, as on Moment Feed.

Pre-Order here

Liyah – What Would You Do

Release Date: Oct. 10

Label: Foundation Media

Having released her debut single only last February, this Toronto R&B artist now has her EP Foreverliyah available and is poised to do big things. What Would You Do captures her nimble flow, which shows off a lot of pop crossover potential.

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The Dirty Nil – Ride Or Die (Live At The Killroom)

Release Date: Oct. 12

Label: Dine Alone Records

Hamilton, Ontario rockers The Dirty Nil are still riding high on their 2020 album Fuck Art and are ready to hit the road in the U.S. and southern Ontario to close out this year. However, they’ll be doing it with a new bassist, Sam Tomlinson, who’s replacing the departed Ross Miller. Ironically, this scorching new live video for one of the album’s standout tracks is likely the last time we’ll see Miller with the band.

Tour Info here

Julian Taylor – 100 Proof

Release Date: Oct. 14

Label: Howling Turtle

As he currently works on the follow-up to his acclaimed album The Ridge, Taylor is tiding his audience over with this laid back cover of a song by his friend Tyler Ellis, who some in the Toronto folk scene may know as the host of open stage at the Dora Keogh Pub. A jaunty, old time-sounding track with echoes of Mississippi John Hurt, 100 Proof once again shows off Taylor’s wide range as a performer.

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Claudia Bouvette – BBZ

Release Date: Oct. 13

Label: Bonsound

A veteran of the Montreal scene, with BBZ Bouvette has joined forces with local label Bonsound. The electro-pop track tells a story of forbidden love at first sight with Bouvette punctuating it with the chorus, ‘Am I crazy to want your babies?’ She’s explained that she felt the phrase perfectly expressed how blindly lustful you can be when you want what you can’t have, just like the relationship in her song.

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Loviet – Picture

Release Date: Oct. 14

Label: Independent

Toronto-based alt-pop artist Loviet has announced the release of her debut album 777 on Nov. 18 with this single, described as a reckoning with identity in the age of technology. In her own words, “I don't know the version of myself that I'm putting online and I don't understand the relationship I have with it, but it tortures me daily, and I know the way I used to live versus now and that haunts me too.” She is on tour in Ontario and Quebec from now until the end of January.

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Luna Elle – Distant

Release Date: Oct. 13

Label: Hot Freestyle Records

Just this past September, 16-year-old Mississauga R&B singer Luna Elle captured the attention of no less than Shaquille O’Neal. It’s certainly boosted her social media following and built expectations for the debut EP she’s currently working on. So in the meantime we’ll just enjoy the tracks she’s released so far, the latest being this smooth slow jam.

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