Toronto-based R&B singer Omar Lunan, now known as oH!, has been an industry veteran for over a decade. From starring on Canadian Idol to playing alongside the likes of Usher, Brandy Norwood and Ginuwine, oH! who is currently signed to S.O.G. Entertainment Inc.; distributed by Orchard-SONY is now preparing to make his solo debut with his new single “The Greatest,” out now. An eight-song EP is to follow “The Greatest” on Nov. 1, before heading out on a national tour, bringing his distinct and memorable musical stylings to audiences across the country.

When not in the group Moore Ave, singer-songwriter Josh Gaudette has plenty on the go in his own life. But Gaudette, using the name numberonesun, has opened himself up with the shimmering, highly contagious indie pop single "Over Again." It's a song addressing a personal issue that many have and can successfully deal with.

"'Over Again' is about discovering my issues with anxiety, learning what it feels like to me, how it presents itself to the ones I love, learning to live with it everyday, and working towards conquering it one day at a time," the artist says. "'Over Again' really punctuates the topics that surround the record it is preceding."

A musician's life can sometimes be glamorous but often involves a lot of time away from family, the rigors of the industry, and trying to keep a stiff upper lip often in the face of doors being closed or slammed shut. The temptations touring and the road offer can also destroy many physically, emotionally, and mentally as an artist tries to survive for the original love of creating one's art. For Toronto blues rock musician Frank Cosentino, the challenges of being a songwriter and performer are starkly captured in his latest weighty single, "Making The Rounds." It's a song Cosentino sounds like he's lived through and persevered.

Capturing mental illness in song is a dicey business. When somebody does it right, you feel like you’re getting to listen to the most poetic case study ever written. When they do it wrong, it’s like being accosted on the street by an actual mental patient who wants to sing you his very favorite tune. Which he just made up.

Suffice it to say that prog- metalers Derev get it right on their new single, “Room 9.” Very right indeed. Harrowing in all the best ways, the song chronicles the inner torment of an inmate in a mental institution who feels as if he’s trapped within his own mind as well—that his thoughts keep racing around and around on an “endless trail” that leads nowhere but back into the thick of an impenetrable maze.

Some guys just don’t get the hint until you paint a picture for them. Fortunately, Darline Desca is working with a full palette of colors. On her new single, the sensuously imploring “Do Me,” the Haitian-born singer makes her intentions plain to a man who can’t quite seem to get with the program. The result is an overtly sexy come-on that’s tough to misinterpret, no matter what language you speak.

“I was in this relationship where the vibes were strong, but there were moments of distance and uncertainty creeping in,” Desca says, remembering her inspiration for the tune. “The song captures that tug-of-war of emotions, how a guy can be amazing yet leave you guessing with his silence.” 

Just because Toronto’s Danceland owe their existence to The Grateful Dead doesn’t mean they can’t pay tribute to another musical legend when it’s warranted. Take “Steve Earle,” their new single that chronicles a night out on the town with the Nashville firebrand—a dinner to remember that, as it turns out, was put in motion by the simplest of requests.

“He was in town, and his label guy needed a couple joints,” Danceland singer-songwriter Joe Ferland explains, matter-of-factly. “My friend asked me to hook him up, and the rest is in the tune. I wasn’t really a Steve Earle fan at the time, so I didn’t ‘fanboy’ him, which I think added to the topics of conversation we ended up having.”

Toronto-based, JUNO-nominated artist DENIELLE BASSELS releases her first single “Lighthouse,” from her upcoming third album It Goes Like This, slated for release in February, 2025. Following her highly-acclaimed, JUNO-nominated Little Bit a’ Love, the new album promises a daring, imaginative journey – think Ella Fitzgerald’s grace clashing with Moby Dick’s epic narrative, or Nina Simone’s intensity encountering 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. “Lighthouse” will be out October 25^th, on all major platforms. For more information please visit any of the links below or Bassels’s website.

From a husky whisper to a full-on scream, and through that cycle again, "Lighthouse" builds to a wildly frenetic peak of interpolated piano (by Ewen Farncombe) and violin (by Drew Jurecka) solos, reflecting the intense internal turmoil in Bassels's soul. As Leonard Cohen said in "Closing Time," "The whole damn place goes crazy twice."

Canadian rock band Autopilot is thrilled to announce the release of their latest album, "Here Comes the Pressure," available today on all major streaming platforms. Following their successful series of North American tours, this new album marks a bold evolution in their sound, showcasing their unique blend of hard-hitting rock and introspective lyrics.

"Here Comes the Pressure" features 10 tracks, clocking in at just under 30 minutes, each a testament to Autopilot's commitment to pushing creative boundaries while staying true to their rock'n'roll roots. The album dives into themes of resilience, self-discovery, and the complexities of modern life, all set against a backdrop of dynamic playing and powerful vocals.

Ever thought you were in a relationship and found out too late you weren’t? It’s easy to feel like a fool, isn’t it? Well, Innisfil, Ontario’s Anna Goldsmith is here to tell you not to beat yourself up over it. After all, there are far healthier ways to deal with the realization that the love connection you had thought so genuine was all in your imagination.

Like blaming the other person for it.

On her invigorating new single, “Brain Boyfriend,” Goldsmith reflects on an ideal pairing that turned out to be a mirage. And the strategy she hits on for deflecting her shame is to blow a rousing raspberry of “How dare you”—while keeping it out there that this thing could still work, just in case anybody’s listening.

“I’m done wastin’ all my tissues/ We can work around your issues,” she challenges, teeing up an irresistible chorus that washes away all the nights of tears and denial with a promise that her “brain boyfriend” may yet be hers—“You just don’t know it yet.”

The styles of reggae and EDM have usually have two intrinsic characteristics in common: they make people feel good and they make people dance. But fusing the two of them is a lofty goal to some and perhaps downright foolish to others. Nobody however has met the likes of Miami, Florida based vocalist Kēvens who has managed to thread both genres together for surprisingly spectacular results. Now, Kēvens is set to show that his love of the genres is possibly surpassed only by his love of the United States and the human race with the double A-side single releases "Sweet Lady Liberty" and "This Is LOVE." 

Both songs speak to the universality of equality, peace, harmony, justice, and love. First off, "Sweet Lady Liberty" evokes images of Ellis Island, where newcomers immigrating to the United States would see the Statue of Liberty and realize they were arriving to a place brimming with hope and opportunities, a chance their country of birth couldn't afford. Kēvens says "Sweet Lady Liberty" is an ode to the American Dream and how it is available for all entering her realm.

For much of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Caribbean, Jamaican and reggae music scene in Toronto was almost unrivaled in North America in terms of quality and performers. Jay Douglas, lead singer of The Cougars and one of the biggest and brightest talents of that time, is the subject of a fantastic new TVO Original documentary entitled Play It Loud! -- How Toronto Got Soul. The documentary, directed by Graeme Mathieson, produced by Andrew Munger (Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band), and Executive Produced by Clement Virgo (Brother, The Wire) will have a special advance preview screening Oct. 23 at 630 PM at Toronto's The Royal Theatre (608 College Street) with limited tickets available to the public: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/play-it-loud-how-toronto-got-soul-sneak-pre…

Toronto jazz chanteuse Geneviève Marentette was performing a three months-long residency at the hotel bar in the Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong in 2019 and seeking material for a theme to the shows. Marentette used the past as her future inspiration, returning to the music made and released a half-century earlier in 1969. The result is the fantastic and extremely novel idea of reworking these classics into her own signature jazz style for Songs of '69, Volume I, a stellar, stunning 10-track effort released on Vesuvius Music Inc. honoring each song with thoughtfulness, tenderness and led by Marenette's marvelous, majestic voice.

Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/album/4EtQkCLSdUz5uDrXKJgaXL

Sometimes, creating a pop hit is a lot like being an air traffic controller. You align everything correctly so that the plane or single lands as deftly as it soared when it first took off. Fortunately, Emland, a pop singer born in Ahlen, Germany but now calling Mallorca, Spain home, has melded his skillset as an air traffic controller at Spain's Palma de Mallorca airport with his pop sensibilities. The result is the stylish "Better Off Without Me," the latest single from his album EVOLVE set for release next year.

Unlike the legendary story of blues icon Robert Johnson and his iconic "Cross Road Blues," widely acclaimed blues guitarist Terry Robb and the highly lauded blues pianist David Vest have individually crossed clubs, cities, and countries performing their rich and illustrious discographies to blues fans from north to south, east to west. Now the two musicians have joined forces for CrissCross, the debut album from the duo featuring the almost criminally short but terribly sweet instrumental single "Long Gone Home."

Eugene Ripper might not be mistaken for Canadian music artists like the late greats Leonard Cohen and Ian Tyson. But the Toronto-based punk folk pioneer has put his own unique spin on their signatures with the gorgeous double-A side release featuring Cohen's memorable "Hallelujah" and Tyson's timeless "Four Strong Winds." It's a pair of covers which stay true to the originals while also adding subtle but quite tasteful atmospherics and accents to both.

music.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz0v3hfcgeI

"In the summer of 2024, I emerged from the studio with my take on these two Canadian folk classics featuring a mash up of analog instrumentation merged with some trippy electronic grooves, beats and digital soundscapes," Ripper says. "This approach is not unfamiliar ground for me. Throughout my solo recording career, I've had a proclivity to bend, fold, and manipulate sonic structures, and I reckon this stance is projected with this new release."

Sometimes great art emerges from difficult times, either personally, socially, or politically. For Hamilton-based alternative folk singer S.G. Sinnicks, the tumultuous situation south of the Canadian border is what makes the excellent, pensive and timely "Miss America 2.0" so poignant. For Sinnicks, the song is "equal parts love song and lament" from the standpoint "of a neutral observer."

"I spent so many years playing and touring in the U.S. seeing the growing fractures in a society that is too important to fracture and the pain in my American-born wife, friends and family as it went downhill," Sinnicks says of "Miss America 2.0." "The title is a bit of a play on words. Both reflecting that I miss an America that used to value things like compassion and intelligence and using an aging beauty queen in her MISS AMERICA sash for her once beautiful country."

In an age where political discourse and conversation is often polarizing at best, Toronto folksinger Larry Folk brings a call for unity and equality with his warm, inviting single "There Is A Power." The poly-rhythmic song was inspired in part by the 1986 Mark Mathabane autobiography Kaffir Boy, which appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists detailing life under South Africa's Apartheid regime and the writer's escape from it.

Brantford, Ontario-based artist KC Armstrong has had a long, illustrious career thanks to fine songwriting and fun, infectious arrangements that pack a wallop. And although the title might lead you to think otherwise, "I Don't Care" is a great, Americana-laced barroom keeper off his Finally Crafted effort that proves Armstrong cares about offering finely-crafted nuggets that hit you in all the right places.

"I Don't Care" is a beer-raising, brassy, and bouncy slice of Americana from its saxophone courtesy of Sean O'Connor and the ivory ticklings of keyboardist Steve O'Connor. From there, KC Armstrong's vocals are accompanied by backing vocalist MaryEllen Allen, giving "I Don't Care" a gritty but groovy vibe from start to finish. Guitarists Scott Utting and Barry Haggarty adds some great work throughout, while Armstrong and Jake Adams round out the rhythm section, playing bass and drums, respectively.

In April of 2023, as Montreal’s winter stubbornly abided, between tunes at a Hay Babies rehearsal, Katrine said, half-jokingly: “We can’t seem to find time to make this album. Why don’t we go to Louisiana or something?”

Julie and Vivianne missed the joke, but caught the genius: Like many Acadians, the three girls felt a deep-rooted connection to Cajun culture, and always met a warm welcome in the Bayou. They booked flights south that very evening.

Whether it's work-related or relationship-related, temporary or permanent, losing someone near to you affects you. And adult contemporary singer Katie Ditschun has exemplified that feeling of loneliness with the gorgeous, reflective "In Your Arms." It's a song she delivers with a tenderness and fragility that makes you take note of those you're missing and need to touch or touch base with again.

"'In Your Arms' is a song for anyone who is having a hard time because they're missing someone dear to them," Ditschun, now based in Alexandria, Ontario, says. "They may be physically absent, or perhaps emotionally absent. They're not where or who they were before. 'In Your Arms' captures that sense of deep longing to regain what has been lost."