As we get into May, it’s time to start rolling down the windows and listening to music really loud. The Five Songs You Must Hear This Week are candidates for doing just that.
1. The Cure, Warsong
Mixes of a Lost World (Fiction)
Recommended If You Like: Remixed Cure, obviously
In the early 90s, The Cure released an album full of remixes called Mixed Up which they debuted on a pirate radio station in London. All these years later, Robert Smith is going it again with a remix album featuring the tracks from their brilliant Songs of a Lost World album. This particular remixed was handled by Chino Moreno of The Deftones. Proceeds from the album will benefit WarChild UK.
2. Dan Mangan, Diminishing Returns
Natural Light (Arts & Crafts)
RIYL: The end of the world
The press release that came with this single calls it “a tender reckoning with the end of the world as we once knew it. Against the din of #UniversalDoom, Mangan finds refuge in something quieter: love in the early light.” So if you’re feeling depressed with the state of the world, this might help.
3. Ezra Furman, Power of the Moon
Goodbye Small Head (Bella Union)
RIYL: The Velvet Underground
When I first heard the first few bars this song from Chicago trans singer Ezra Furman, I thought I was about to hear a cover of The Velvet Underground’s Rock and Roll. Yes, the DNA is similar but the song is delivered with such verve and passion that you’re immediately sucked into it. Easily my favourite new song of the week.
4. PUP, Olive Garden
Who Will Take Care of the Dogs? (Little Dipper)
RIYL: Bottomless salad bowls and endless breadsticks?
PUP’s fifth album arrived this past Friday and the band is plotting a summer tour. It will include a “Toronto Takeover” in July and probably more than few stops at Olive Garden restaurants. They may have trouble with that given that there are now just eight such restaurants in Canada after a corporate shake-up in the early 2000s. The closest one to their hometown of Toronto is 200 km away in London. How far will they go to enjoy endless breadsticks?
5. Chris Birkett, Big Fan of Myself
Single (Independent)
RIYL: When producers step out on their own
Chris is a Toronto-based producer, engineer, and performer whose resume includes working with Sinead O’Connor, Alison Moyet, Bob Geldof, Quincy Jones, and dozens more. The records on which he’s worked have sold more than 100 million copies and have earned four JUNOs, a Grammy, and a Polaris Music Prize. He’s also a songwriter and performer himself. This is his latest.
Big Fan of Myself by Chris Birkett
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