Canadian JUNO-nominated powerhouse vocalist Denielle Bassels releases a new single, "Songbird," a haunting and introspective ballad that explores the complexity of love, loss, and societal judgement. Releasing on February 7th, 2025, on all platforms, "Songbird" is the third offering from Bassels' forthcoming album It Goes Like This, and once again showcases her dynamic range as a singer and songwriter.
"Songbird" finds jazz/blues chanteuse extraordinaire Denielle Bassels crossing arbitrary genre boundaries with a gorgeous foray into a folk ballad with country vibes. In an astonishingly beautiful and tender vocal performance, Bassels tells the story of a seemingly joyful songbird by day who becomes a lonesome wolf by night. It encapsulates the emotional turmoil of losing a deeply troubled partner, and the burden of mourning in silence. The melodic turns and vocal harmonies from Bridgette Anderson are stunning; Drew Jurecka's string arrangement is heartbreaking; and Ewan Farncombe's brief organ solo is as engaging as it is subtle.
"'Songbird' tells the story of a relationship with a person whose struggles with addiction led to their untimely passing," says Bassels. "It's meant to evoke a quiet, profound sense of mourning – an unspoken grief that remains unsolved in the face of social stigma."
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| Photo - Camilla Vodstrup Øverup |
Released today 'Radical Self Love', is the second single of artist Victoria Akua from Copenhagen, Denmark. Victoria describes her music as a genre mix of indie pop, folky singer-songwriter and meditative music.
Victoria Akua on her new single: "Like leaves falling from the trees in autumn, I’m reminded of the natural cycles within us. Not all of them are easy, but each one is essential. Radical self-love means embracing every part of ourselves – not just the ones we find easy to love, but also the ones we believe are unlovable."
Victoria's music is based on her own journey, which began at a young age, searching for more balance and a deeper peace and understanding within herself. In a hectic world where it is so easy to be pulled in many directions, she wants to find ways to stay centered with an open heart in the hope that her music can support others on their own paths. The intention of the music is to have a nourishing, calming and healing effect. Music that comes from the heart and that reflects and creates inner peace, trust and self-love - and connects us. Her music is inspired by the rhythms and cycles of nature, healthy and nurturing connections between people and creating spaces for expression, creativity and loving energy. Through the simplicity of the music, the listener is invited directly into a calm cocoon where breathing becomes deeper and the mind can rest.
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| Photo - Andrew Bromell |
Polaris Music Prize nominee Steph Cameron returns with "Rain", the first offering from her highly anticipated third studio album, ‘Blood Moon,’ out later this year via Neon Moon Records. Accompanied by a striking new music video, the single finds the Saskatoon-born artist expanding her sonic palette, weaving elements of indie Americana into her signature folk roots.
A hauntingly poetic ballad, “Rain” blurs the lines between longing and memory, its evocative lyrics carried by a melody as fleeting as the wind. Rich in atmosphere and emotional depth, the track showcases Cameron’s arresting lyricism and emotive vocal delivery, elevated by the skillful production and mixing of John Raham and engineering work by Mike Lefebvre. Cameron’s hands-on approach to the production ensures a sound that is both intimate and exquisitely polished.
“Rain is the first song I wrote in this genre—a significant departure from the sparse, revivalist folk music I’m known for,” Cameron shares. “This song allowed me to be playful with vocals and structure them in a more layered way than I have in previous recordings. Rain is about the dissipation of the soul and the search for those we’ve loved and lost. It reflects on connecting with those who have passed by finding them in the earth, the elements, and the natural world.”
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| Photo - Hannah Bailey |
There's plenty of country influence around these days, but few contemporary bands hit the sweet spot for me the way Tobacco City does. The wry humor, the mundanity and the heartbreak all in equal measure make them real torch bearers for classic country songwriting the way I've always loved it. Today we're sharing second and final single Bougainvillea, along with a beautiful video for it.
In Chris Coleslaw's words: “Bougainvillea is my favorite song on the album. It’s another nostalgia trip about the time in your younger years when you are free to be stupid and silly with very little consequence. Those days of excess were wild and illuminating but eventually times have to keep changing but the view from the heights of those times never changes.”
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Bambara’s new single "Letters From Sing Sing" is out today! This classic Bambara rager drops with a video by Jason Miller featuring Wife Erath and the band. The video captures the grim madness of the track’s narrator, depicting a scene that fits neatly within Birthmarks’ intricate, multi-generational story arc.
Birthmarks (out 3/14) emerges directly from the band’s favored aesthetics and themes, but captures them with a new sense of sonic adventurousness and thematic subtlety, resulting in a collection of songs that are somehow both the band’s most apocalyptic and most poignant. Produced by Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis, These New Puritans) and the band, Birthmarks is a wild, musically adventurous suite of songs that follows a host of lost characters caught in a cycle of love, violence and rebirth.
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