Each week, staff from CBC Music, Radio 2, 3 and CBC regions across the country collect songs they just can't get out of their heads, and make a case for why you should listen, too. Press play below and discover new songs for your listening list.
Let us know in the comments or via @CBCMusic what catches your ear, or if you have a new song you just can't stop playing.
Chvrches, 'Leave a Trace'
Get ready to leave this one on repeat for the week. Scottish synth-pop trio Chvrches announced their forthcoming album, Every Open Eye (due in September), with the release of hypnotic lead single "Leave a Trace," which vocalist Lauren Mayberry described to Pitchfork as "the nastiest, snidest tune" on the record. But this isn't your typical sneering breakup song: it's an upbeat, almost hopeful soundtrack to that dreaded impasse that follows a relationship's gruelling end. Even wrenching lyrics like "you talk far too much for someone so unkind" sound optimistic, set against Chvrches' catchy beats. That's some slick pop skill you won't be able to get out of your head.
— Emma Godmere (@godmere)
Kacey Musgraves, 'Pageant Material'
Kacey Musgraves isn't your typical country singer. I mean, when you look at her she could be another Carrie Underwood: young, good-looking, standing onstage with cowboy boots and a guitar. But that's only at the surface. When you listen to her music, you hear something more subversive — especially by Nashville standards. Musgraves sings songs not about standing by your man, but instead about having multiple lovers; not about a tear in your beer, but about being, as she describes it, “higher than my hair.” It all culminates in an album title that says it pretty much straight-up: Pageant Material.
But I don't want you to think that Musgraves is defined by what she is not. She is also a remarkable songwriter with a gift for melody and, while she's challenging conventions of country music, she still makes you feel like she's on your side. Even if country isn't your thing, you’ll still love Musgraves talking about how she ain't pageant material.
— Tom Power (@TomPowerCBC)
Knife Pleats, 'Terrible'
Rose Melberg's voice is the feeling of holding hands for the first time with your first crush. It's dreamy and soft, like stepping inside a cloud. That hint of childlike wonder is like a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down, so even in the lyrically darkest places, like this track from her new Vancouver-based project Knife Pleats, there's a dance party happening amidst the devastation.
— Andrea Warner (@_AndreaWarner)
Hairy Holler, 'St. James Infirmary Blues'
Ontario's Hairy Holler is worshipping at the gypsy punk altar popularized by Gogol Bordello, and doing a hell of a job of it. This is sweaty, klezmer-infused punk rock of the highest degree. Well worth a listen.
— Adam Carter (@AdamCarterCBC)
Born Ruffians, 'We Made It'
The brand new track from Born Ruffians starts off simple enough, with a finger-picked guitar lick, some drums and frontman Luke Lalonde singing, "Got a deal, signed a deal, quick. I didn't need it." But this being Born Ruffians, who prefer to not keep anything too simple, by the time the chorus kicks in the song is a spastic, full-blown eruption brimming with energy and joy and uncontrollable yells. And then just like that, it's back to where it all started as the four-piece recounts what it's like to "fake it, until you make it" in the music business. Born Ruffians' new LP, Ruff, is set for release Oct. 2.
— Jesse Kinos-Goodin (@JesseKG)
Adrianne Pieczonka and Brian Zeger, 'Rote Rosen,' WoO. 76, by Richard Strauss
While Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka is spending the summer in Europe, singing in a Bavarian State Opera production of Strauss's Elektra and a Salzburg Festival production of Beethoven's Fidelio, Delos has released a new album of Lieder by Strauss and Wagner featuring Pieczonka with pianist Brian Zeger. It's a nice reminder that singers with big, dramatic voices, accustomed to riding a Wagnerian orchestra, can also be perfectly suited to recital repertoire. She and pianist Zeger have great complicity throughout, especially in Strauss's "Rote Rosen" ("Red Roses") which opens the album. Pieczonka sings it with restraint and careful attention to the text, with Zeger magically completing her thoughts. Perfect! — Robert Rowat (@rkhr)
Adrianne Pieczonka and Brian Zeger
'Rote Rosen,' WoO. 76
by Richard Strauss
Lauv, 'Reforget'
Earlier this year, New York’s Ari Leff released his debut track, "The Other," under the moniker Lauv, and we had it on repeat for weeks (full disclosure: still often on repeat). "Reforget" is his brand new second track, and it's a catchy dose of synth-y R&B that we won't soon be turning off. Here’s hoping Leff’s debut EP comes sooner rather than later this year.
— Holly Gordon (@hollygowritely)
Little India, 'Oola'
This is one of the catchiest electro indie-pop jams of the last year, and thanks to a new music video — which is a Pantone lover's dream come true — it may finally get the attention it deserves. A dynamic and danceable track with a bit of a dark heart, which is just the way I like my summer songs. — AW
by Holly Gordon via Electronic RSS
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