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Thanks for reading the Toronto Star’s Weekend Music Digest, a roundup of new music, concert listings and more.
This week’s roundup includes new music from Charlotte Cornfield, billy woods, SBTRKT, Ken Yates and Fireboy DML.
Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist.
Album of the Week
Charlotte Cornfield: Could Have Done Anything
Like the folk legends of the ’70s, Toronto singer-songwriter Charlotte Cornfield has a gift for penning simple but evocative lyrics that carry listeners to a specific time or place. “Economy’s wild, but the sunsets in Phoenix never go out of style / I watch the colours get real, the pink and the teal,” she sings over rounded piano chords on “Gentle Like the Drugs,” a song inspired by a recent tour through the sprawling ranges of the western United States.
Cornfield’s fifth album, “Could Have Done Anything,” is filled with imagery that convey the serenity of open skies and open spaces. “My last record, ‘Highs in the Minuses’ was written and made during the pandemic and there was still some of that claustrophobia of being inside,” Cornfield told me over the phone. “But this record was coming from this place of joy — of being able to be on the road and out in the world and with people again.”
While album feels forward-looking, it’s also a document of reflection. Across nine songs that recall the rootsy, bright-eyed sound of contemporary indie-folk artists like Waxahatchee and Hiss Golden Messenger, Cornfield recounts intimate, hyper-specific memories of friendship, heartbreak and romance — friends beelining to MacGregor Park in search of an open washroom (“Walking With Rachael”), a messy night at Montreal’s Corona Theatre (“The Magnetic Fields”), a stolen moment of seclusion on the far side of Toronto Island (“Could Have Done Anything”) — each delivered with the kind of clarity that, if we’re lucky, bubbles up in the wake of upheaval.
Cornfield got pregnant shortly after her last recording session and welcomed her first child in April — she says the new album represents the close of one chapter in her life and the beginning of another. “It feels like a deep breath,” she explained. “I’m in a different place now, but I want to honour those times: the wildness of them and how they informed who I’ve become now.”
It’s a sentiment Cornfield drives home in the album’s final coda: “I am grateful / That I am calmer than I was / Stronger than I was / … happier than I was.”
Star Tracks: More of the best new (and newish) music
billy woods & Kenny Segal: “Maps”
I’ll admit that I’ve barely scratched the surface of “Maps,” the extraordinarily dense new collaboration between New York rapper billy woods and L.A. producer Kenny Segal. A concept album that documents life on the road, the 17-track behemoth has all the hallmarks of an underground classic: a seasoned MC at the top of his game, gritty beats that make radio-rap sound like the Disney Channel, and a roster of eccentric rappers who show up ready to leave a mark (Danny Brown’s verse on “Year Zero” lands like a knock-out left hook).
There’s a lot to dig through, but for now I’d like to simply draw your attention to “Babylon by Bus,” a bonkers track that’s as hard as it is unsettling; as humorous as it is dark. “Lake Michigan a frozen pond / Black swan with the bubble butt,” woods quips in the song’s first half, which is built around a terrifying sample of Aphex Twin’s infamous “#2” — a dark swirl of sounds that one might hear at a circus in the lower depths of hell. Fortunately, Segal provides a bit of relief midway through the track, introducing a menacing piano loop and teetering drums into the mix, setting the stage for a wicked verse courtesy of the hip-hop duo ShrapKnel. But it’s woods with the kicker during the track’s final moments, just as the strings arrive to scoop us to safety: “What I do can’t be copied / I take care of these words / Munchausen by proxy.”
SBTRKT: “DAYS GO BY” (feat. Toro y Moi)
Millennials of a certain vintage will remember when SBTRKT dropped “Wildfire” back in 2011. Featuring a neoteric beat and unforgettable vocals from Little Dragon, the track exploded among the hipsters and the jocks, promising to usher in a golden era of futuristic, big-tent electronic pop music (even Drake hopped on an OVO Sound remix of the song). That never really played out — by 2013, Daft Punk was already looking to the ’70s and ’80s for inspiration — but the oft-masked English producer has remained on the fringes of the scene, releasing a steady drip of new music throughout the 2010s.
On the sprawling “RAT ON THE ROAD” — his first new album in seven years — SBKTRKT dabbles in a broad range of electronic sounds and styles, but he sounds most at home when he taps into early 2010s nostalgia. Featuring laidback vocals from chillwave singer Toro y Moi, “DAYS GO BY” is a glimmering slice of festival-ready electro-pop, equipped with velcro synth lines and a nasty bass groove that will have those same millennials digging up their neon Wayfarers.
Fireboy DML: “Someone”
Last summer, Fireboy DML sang about his suave romantic pursuits on “Playboy.” On his new single, “Someone,” the Nigerian Afropop superstar doubles down on his lover boy persona, while peeling back the layers and showing vulnerability through sultry, soulful vocals: “But if you leave / What happens to me / Where do I find someone, someone / Someone to love me.” The track showcases Fireboy’s versatility as an artist and, by fusing the traditional African rhythms his fans adore with contemporary sounds, the energetic, club-ready beat is a perfect intro to summer 2023. — Madi Wong
More new releases
- London, Ont., folk singer Ken Yates has released an acoustic version of “The Future Is Dead,” a standout from last year’s excellent “Cerulean.” The stripped back tune features lovely harmonies from the indie-folk trio Tiny Habits.
- Celine Dion fans will get some new music in the form of the “Love Again (Soundtrack From the Motion Picture).” The soundtrack for the romantic comedy, which stars Priyanka Chopra, Sam Heughan and Dion herself, marks the first new music from the Canadian superstar since a rare neurological disorder forced her to cancel or postpone concerts to concentrate on her health.
- Rock titans Queens of the Stone Age released the riff-heavy “Emotion Sickness,” their first song in six years this week. New album coming in June.
Miscellanea from around the music world
- RIP Rob Laakso, guitarist and producer who recorded with Kurt Vile and played as a multi-insturmentalist in Vile’s backing band the Violators. Laakso died of cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of bile duct cancer at the age of 44. Vile paid tribute to Laakso on Instagram this week:
- 100 gecs-heads rejoice! The hyperpop weirdos have a brand new video for the “The Most Wanted Person in the United States.” Unsurprisingly, it’s completely bizarre and creepy, and features a very random cameo from ’90s hearthrob Ryan Phillippe. Choice quote from the YouTube comments: “This was the most music video of all time.”
- Imagine Dragons: Unplugged
Naomi Klein on AI-generated art (her argument is relevant to AI-generated music, I believe):
“Why should a for-profit company be permitted to feed the paintings, drawings and photographs of living artists into a program like Stable Diffusion or Dall-E 2 so it can then be used to generate doppelganger versions of those very artists’ work, with the benefits flowing to everyone but the artists themselves?
The painter and illustrator Molly Crabapple is helping lead a movement of artists challenging this theft. “AI art generators are trained on enormous datasets, containing millions upon millions of copyrighted images, harvested without their creator’s knowledge, let alone compensation or consent. This is effectively the greatest art heist in history. Perpetrated by respectable-seeming corporate entities backed by Silicon Valley venture capital. It’s daylight robbery,” a new open letter she co-drafted states.
- TFW you listen to The 1975:
Newly announced concerts
- Toronto-born, New Zealand-based singer Tami Neilson made a splash last summer with her country/blues record “Kingmaker.” She sets out on tour this spring, kicking things off with a show at the Longboat Hall in Toronto on June 1. Tickets on sale now.
- Lil Yachty’s Field Trip Tour is swinging through History on Oct. 2. Presale is on now.
- Toronto rock band Beaches is embarking on a tour of 18 Canadian cities, including two shows at Massey Hall on Nov. 1 and 2. Tickets on sale now.
Toronto Concert Calendar: A selection of upcoming shows across the city
FRIDAY, MAY 12
The Colombo-American R&B singer is in town for the Red Moon in Venus Tour, with support from RAYE.
The Canadian power-pop band is on tour in support of (very good) new album “Continue as a Guest.” Don’t skip openers Wild Pink if you’re into heartland indie rock.
SATURDAY, MAY 13
The American DJ and producer is back on the road after releasing her debut studio album “With a Hammer” last month. This one will be fun.
SUNDAY, MAY 14
The indie pop trio made quite the splash at Coachella last month. See them before they get huge.
MONDAY, MAY 15
Blink’s second of two Toronto shows goes down Monday. To repeat from last week: make sure you arrive early to catch the opening set by the quickly rising hardcore band Turnstile.
The American pop singer, who recently spoke to the Star, is embarking on a “30th Anniversary Tour.” You’ve got two chances to see him at Massey: Monday and Tuesday.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
The indie pop artist Brian Fennell released his sophomore record, “The Day My Father Died,” earlier this year and also appeared on the last Lana Del Rey record.
THURSDAY, MAY 18
Leslie Feist will perform for the first time in Toronto since the release of her excellent new record “Multitudes.” Read the Star’s intereview with her here.
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