Illustration by Dorothy Leung
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I still have my copy of Rolling Stone, Issue No. 233, Feb. 24, 1977. Boz Scaggs (“The slow dancer who spun platinum”) is on the cover, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. I thought he was the coolest man alive back then − still do. His first album in seven years comes out Oct. 17, through Concord Records. The collection of standards includes a jazz-lounge reimagination of I’ll Be Long Gone, a chestnut from his 1969 self-titled debut.
Robert Finley: Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya
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“If you ask, you shall receive,” Robert Finley sings on his latest album. “You can be anything that you wanna be.” In 2019, the blind U.S. Army veteran competed on America’s Got Talent. Though he did not win, his career has since flourished. Finley’s fourth album, produced by long-time collaborator Dan Auerbach and out on Easy Eye Sound on Oct. 10, is a gospel experiment informed by deep blues and greasy retro soul − something for fans of the late, great Charles Bradley. Not convinced? Check out the superfly first single, Helping Hand.
Sudan Archives: The BPM
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BPM stands for beats per minute, and while the first two singles from Sudan Archives’s follow-up to 2022’s Natural Brown Prom Queen were party starters, the latest is Come and Find You, a slinky, more intimate proposition. For The BPM, out on Stones Throw Records on Oct. 17, the Ohio singer/violinist born Brittney Denise Parks has adopted a new persona: Gadget Girl, a technologically tricked-out character who imagines a chrome-plated future in which we’re all tapped into our own sense of rhythm. Some call that marching to your own beat – something Sudan Archives does so well.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water: LOTTO
This is heavy, experimental shoegaze music with a cyclone’s fury, from analog-inclined Philadelphians who soon visit Vancouver (Nov. 8, Kingsway Club), Toronto (Dec. 6, the Garrison) and Montreal (Dec. 7, Bar le Ritz). Set for release by ATO Records on Oct. 17, the new album was recorded live off the floor, an exercise the band likens to a “touching of grass.” The single Trainer is a high-weight, low-rep workout.
Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska ’82
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The Boss’s original Nebraska, released in 1982, was a stripped-down set of harrowing songs fixated on death and defeat − a startling counterpart to his Born to Run exhilaration and ethos. Arriving Oct. 17 from Sony Music, this five-disc expanded edition of the album includes outtakes, a newly shot performance film of Nebraska in its entirety and the fabled, so-called “electric Nebraska” – a disc containing band recordings of the title track, Atlantic City, Mansion on the Hill, Johnny 99, Open All Night and Reason to Believe. The Nebraska-themed biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere arrives in theatres Oct. 24.
Begonia: Fantasy Life
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On her new single Hotter Than the Sun, the Winnipeg soul-pop siren Alexa Dirks rhymes “everyday sedation” with “bisexual frustration” and “bought cigs at service stations.” It’s peppier than it sounds. Among the other tracks on the album arriving from Birthday Cake Records on Oct. 24 are Flying, Out of Control and Life Of The Party. Expect blunt honesty, bright colours and songs to get you through a variety of emotional situations.
Shad: Start Anew
Shadrach Kabango, who has taught courses on hip hop at more than one postsecondary institution in Canada, uses deeply grooved tracks as teaching moments. Lead single Bars and BBQs is an example of his skill in mixing pop-culture references with deeper messages. The album, from Secret City Records, drops on Halloween.
Mavis Staples: Sad And Beautiful World
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“Ring the bells that still can ring.” On an album titled Sad And Beautiful World (due Nov. 7 from Anti Records) a version of Leonard Cohen’s Anthem is a natural. Other covers by the 86-year-old gospel-blues matriarch include Curtis Mayfield’s Hard Times, Frank Ocean’s Godspeed and Kevin Morby’s Beautiful Strangers. Among the guest artists are Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, MJ Lenderman and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.
Aerosmith and Yungblud: One More Time
Given that the battle-hardened Aerosmith has enlisted the help of a musician named Yungblood, there is little choice but to call this a transfusion. The brash 28-year-old British musician/actor known to his family and the passport office as Dominic Richard Harrison shares a microphone with Steven Tyler, who has retired from touring because of throat issues. My Only Angel, from a five-song EP coming Nov. 21, sounds like 1990s Aerosmith − and Bryan Adams and Foo Fighters too.
Rheostatics: Great Lakes Suite
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The bad news is that co-founding (and co-front man) guitarist Martin Tielli did not participate in the new project from Ontario art-folk rockers Rheostatics. The good news is that Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson is on board for an improvised effort that also includes spoken-word passages from revered Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson. The double album comes to life on Nov. 21, when the band and guests play the first of two (potentially three) shows at Toronto’s TD Music Hall.