ROY, Rick White and the Sadies, Myriam Gendron, Kee Avil
Today’s round of Quick Picks is pretty special. I decided to cover four full length albums that are on my list of the Best Canadian Albums that have been released so far this year. I picked four albums that I’m obsessing over and that Cups N Cakes has not yet covered anywhere except on the Spotify Top 40 playlist. These are very special records that I hope you take the time to truly absorb.
- Jeff MacCallum
ROY - Spoons For The World
ROY is the solo project from Toronto’s Patrick Lefler, a mainstay in that city’s psychedelic music scene. While his past releases under the ROY moniker, leaned more toward psych-rock sonics, Spoons For The World ditches those sounds for 60s AM radio vibes and channels past greats like Lee Hazlewood. Psych vibes still squirrel their way into the album’s aesthetics but they’re muted and much more subtle. Instead, Lefler delivers his most mature record to date, choosing to showcase an incredible ability to compose songs that transport listeners to a different time and place. The album is so compelling that I can’t go a week without revisiting its mastery.
Rick White and The Sadies - Self Titled
Anytime psychedelic music pairs with country music, I’m in heaven. It has become my favourite sub-genre on the planet so you can imagine my excitement over a new collaborative release from Canada’s most accomplished psych artist in Rick White and the best country/surf/psych-rock on the planet, The Sadies. The record is exactly what I was hoping for, you get some incredible bluegrass guitar-pickin’, some country balladeering, some proper rock n roll, and some sun soaked surf flourishes all wrapped up in a hazy psychedelic bow. One of the year’s finest albums so far.
Myriam Gendron - Mayday
If you’re unaware of Myriam Gendron’s power at this point, let me be the one to introduce you to Canada’s best folk artist. Her latest offering is a heartbreaking examination of three generations of women— herself, her mother and her young daughter. Mayday is a contemplative record, with Gendron coming to terms with her grief over the passing of her mother. It employs both French and English but more importantly, traditional folk and avant-garde instrumentation. This has become her calling card and on this release the two very different styles of music come together so perfectly that you barely notice their fusion.
Kee Avil - Spine
Montreal based sound artist, Kee Avil returns with her unsettling brand of glitchy experimental music. The sound design of these tracks is superb, they move between nightmarish vibes from an in-your-face horror to soft rustling eeriness of a hair-rising cold breeze. Cementing my love of this record was my first chance to see Kee Avil live at this year’s Sled Island Music Festival. I was completely spellbound and utterly sucked into the soft tapestries and wild experimentations that filled the air. The strength of the live performance had me diving back into this album to hear more and experiencing new sounds and textures I missed upon first glance.
- Jeff MacCallum