Single Servings, Oct. 25, 2021

By Jason Schneider

In this week’s Single Servings, Charlotte Cardin offers a new song for autumn, Corb Lund fights the Alberta coal industry, U.S. Girls collaborate with Glenn Gould, and much more!

Majid Jordan with Drake – Stars Align

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: OVO

The ongoing relationship between Toronto R&B duo Majid Jordan and Drake keeps evolving, with their label head contributing to this track from MJ’s new album Wildest Dreams. Bearing all the hallmarks of a Majid Jordan production, Stars Align hits the mark with sultry melodicism.

Stream/Purchase here 

Charlotte Cardin – Scorpio Season

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: Cult Nation

To coincide with the Nov. 12 release of the deluxe edition her acclaimed full-length debut Phoenix, Montreal alt-pop visionary Cardin is sharing this brand-new song inspired by autumn’s predominant astrological sign. Built upon an intoxicating trip-hop beat, Scorpio Season delves into a dying love affair, something that seems common in the fall as well.

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Corb Lund – This Is My Prairie

Release Date: Oct. 20

Label: Warner Music Canada

The revered Alberta country artist Corb Lund has been an outspoken opponent of the recent push to expand coal mining in the province, and his efforts have found support in nearly all corners. On This Is My Prairie, Lund brings together more Alberta artists, including Brett Kissel, Mike Plume and Terri Clark, to amplify the cause, and one look at the stunning scenery in the video should be enough to convince anyone this is a fight worth winning.

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Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs – Lately

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: Dine Alone Records

As these southern Ontario punks continue to work their feisty third album Real One, they’ve created a timely Halloween-themed video for Lately, featuring skateboarding vampires on the loose in the downtown Toronto. None of it has much to do with the song, mind you, apart from complementing its high energy, power pop-tinged brilliance.

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Chynna Lewis – What Are Friends For

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: Interstreet Recordings

Toronto-based R&B artist Lewis is getting set to release her debut EP, but some might already know her for backup work over the past decade with Ed Sheeran, Jessie Reyez, Charlotte Day Wilson and Jully Black. That should provide a sufficient primer for What Are Friends For, a dynamic track that blends old school and new school with Lewis’s impressive pipes front and centre.

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Jr. Gone Wild – Five Million Songs

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: (weewerk)/Stony Plain

The buzz is building for the arrival of the Edmonton alt-country pioneers’ first new album in over 25 years, Still Got The Jacket, on Nov. 12, and they’ve shared two more tracks from it, a cover of The Beat Farmers’ Southern Cross, and this twangy original, which frontman Mike McDonald describes as, “basically about how maybe that thing I’ve been trying to build all these years is finished.”

Pre-Order here  

Like A Motorcycle – 122 Hours Of Fear

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: Warner Music Group

The Halifax hard rockers are currently working on a new album, but have released this dark, grinding track for the scary season. There’s definitely some heavy goth vibes here—a little bit of Nine Inch Nails with a dash of Killing Joke—which begs the question as to what direction their other new material might be going in.

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TOPS – Waiting

Release Date: Oct. 19

Label: TOPS Musique/The Orchard

The Montreal alt-pop band is teasing new music as well, following their 2020 album I Feel Alive, with Waiting coming on the heels of this past summer’s optimistic single Party Again. However, the more ethereal Waiting waxes nostalgic, with vocalist Jane Penny describing it as, “a tribute to the early days of TOPS and the romanticized version that I have of those times.”

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Jacques Greene – Faded

Release Date: Oct. 14

Label: LuckyMe

Renowned Montreal electronic artist Greene is marking his first decade of work with Anth01, a 12-track collection including early rare singles, collaborations with Koreless and How To Dress Well, along with two previously unreleased singles. Faded originally appeared on the 2012 LP VSE07, but its mind-expanding intensity hasn’t “faded” at all over the ensuing years.

Website

U.S. Girls with Glenn Gould – Good Kinda High

Release Date: Oct. 22

Label: Sony Music Masterworks

One of the month’s more interesting new releases is Univited Guests, a project spearheaded by Toronto producer Billy Wild that has allowed a range of cutting-edge artists to combine their approaches with the work of Canada’s classical piano genius. Meg Remy of U.S. Girls is one of the more prominent participants, writing Good Kinda High around Gould’s recordings of two movements from Bach’s English Suites. Gould’s estate is fully behind the album and says the late artist would have been thrilled to hear it.

Pre-Order here