Every week, CBC Music producers come together to bring you some of Canada's best new releases. The rule: if it's a song you need to hear, you'll find it on this list.
This week, we have songs from electro-pop duo Chromeo, pianist Jean-Michel Blais and more. Scroll down to find out why you need to hear each song — and hit play to hear it.
What are some Canadian tunes you're currently obsessed with? Share with us on Twitter @CBCMusic.
'Bedroom Calling,' Chromeo feat. the-Dream
The guys from Chromeo cram everything we love about them into their latest song, “Bedroom Calling,” a collaboration with heavyweight songwriter/producer Terius Youngdell Nash, a.k.a. the-Dream. Super funky bass line? Check. Lovingly updated '80s kitsch? Totally. Adorably dorky, uxorious lyrics? Yes! (“First I had no clue about you/ now I’m all brand new about you.”) First “Juice” and now “Bedroom Calling” — these advance tracks have got us impatient to see what else Chromeo has in store on Head Over Heels, which can’t drop soon enough.
— Robert Rowat
'Prémonition,' Cœur de pirate
The odds are ever in our favour: Beatrice Martin, a.k.a. Cœur de pirate, recently dropped her first new track since 2015's Roses album. "Prémonition" is a catchy, dancy track, but in true Cœur de pirate fashion, there's a flip side: set to a video of Martin and dancer Arnaud Deprez pushing and pulling each other across a muted colour scheme of rooms, the song is about a toxic relationship cycle. "Mais on est attirés par notre malheur/ on détruit ensemble/ mais peux-tu m’attendre?" she sings (in English: "But we're attracted by our misfortune/ we destroy together/ but can you wait for me?").
"Why do people who make each other unhappy stay together? My conclusion is that there is comfort in that. We return to what we know," Martin said in a statement. The heavy sentiment comes with a silver lining: we'll be getting a new Cœur de pirate album this spring.
— Holly Gordon
'Roses,' Jean-Michel Blais
Post-classical pianist Jean-Michel Blais' music is not for people who are trying to get things done. His sprawling, heart-wrenching pieces consume the listener, leaving them staring blankly while the music rises and falls in their chest. "Roses," Blais' first single since his 2016 debut (plus that 2017 collaborative EP with CFCF), is no different. The time-halting piano ballad blends strings and ambient echoes in its exploration of what Blais explains as "the cathartic effects of music and the understanding of sickness and wellness it provides."
"'Roses' is a funeral piece dedicated to my friend's mother who died from cancer," he continues. "The ostinato, the repeating single note in the intro, represents her beating heart, and the ever-present tumour, sometimes forgotten but still growing. How do ill people find peace, if they can at all?"
— Jess Huddleston
'Pinball King,' Terra Lightfoot
When Terra Lightfoot’s album New Mistakes came out last October, CBC Music called it “generous and wise, funny and vulnerable.” Fast-forward a few months and songs like “Pinball King” are still as infectious as ever. A brand new music video for the aforementioned track was released recently, and it’s just as joyful as the song itself. The kaleidoscopically colourful clip follows a man as he aims for the high-score record in a pinball game as Lightfoot and her band perform in front of him. It is both an ode to the thrills of playing pinball and those exhilarating nights of falling in love with someone. — Melody Lau
‘Cease and Desist,’ Alice Glass
“Every day is a fight,” Alice Glass told her fans the day she dropped her latest single, “Cease and Desist.” The two-minute track is loud, disruptive and an important reminder to survivors of abuse that they can, and must, fight through feelings of worthlessness. It’s a cause that Glass has taken on since opening up last year about the alleged abuse she went through with her ex-Crystal Castles bandmate, Ethan Kath, and “Cease and Desist” is rightfully filled with rage and catharsis. As Glass's messages have conveyed: victims have the right to feel angry, to fight for not only justice but some semblance of normality in their lives. This track is the battle cry that many need to hear and, perhaps, shout along to. — ML
More to explore:
Charlotte Day Wilson, Rich Aucoin and more: songs you need to hear this week