Tobi's high-energy motivational anthem, and 3 more songs you need to hear this week
For even more new music, check out our SYNTH playlist on Youtube.
He's So Good, Tobi
When Nova Scotia hip-hop producer and rapper Classified sent Tobi a pack of beats, the Toronto rapper said that what's now the backbone of He's So Good immediately stood out to him. "It was high-energy, positive, very confident," Tobi explained via email, and recorded his lyrics, freestyle, right away. The result is an affirmation song heavy with swagger, as compliments tumble out verse after verse over bright horn samples and a Classified Easter egg: that tongue-in-cheek "you gonna find out" is a sample from his 2006 song Find Out, as he told Exclaim!. "My mission with this song was to create something that I could say to myself in the morning before tackling the day," wrote Tobi, and it's a fitting chapter from his new album, Elements, Vol. 2, which braids Tobi's vulnerabilities with the award-winning rapper's well-earned confidence. — Holly Gordon
Wheel, Living Hour
On Oct. 17, Winnipeg band Living Hour will return with their fourth studio album, Internal Drone Infinity. Its lead single, Wheel, is a powerful jolt of shoegaze-inspired rock full of dreamy vocals, but punctuated by a palpable angst. The track was inspired by an experience singer Sam Sarty went through buying a car off of Facebook Marketplace that turned out to be junk. "I was driving through the mountains, and the headlights were so dim, and for a stretch there was nowhere to turn off," she explained in a press release. "It felt like a weird, horrific video game – navigating the road and dodging danger and trying not to die. I also felt so deeply betrayed by all the men involved in the whole thing." Wheel finds Sarty reclaiming that experience and turning the tables on those men, putting them in the same danger they put her in, posing the scenario: "What happened/ When I went/ Falling off the wheel." — Melody Lau
Nothing to Do, Emmett Jerome
Country singer-songwriter Emmett Jerome has crafted a sunny ode to growing up in a small town with his latest track, Nothing to Do. Over shimmering pedal steel and a warm harmonica riff, he looks back on fond memories of Bragg Creek, Alta., defined by moonlit nights, red dirt roads and stolen cases of beer. The intoxicating hold of nostalgia keeps Jerome in its grip as he sings, "I can walk into any liquor store and lay my money down, it just don't feel the same." A warm synchronicity flows through the song, which can be attributed to the track being recorded live off the floor: "We wanted to use the same technology our favourite classic records were made with. Real analog gear and real musicians," he said in a press release. Next up, he'll be dropping a new song every few weeks throughout the summer. — Natalie Harmsen
Colorado, TX, Mah Moud
It's been a fair while since we've heard new music from Mah Moud. The Toronto artist's last release was 2022's abdalla, an explorative and spellbinding debut album that made CBC Music's best albums list that year. In November, he teased some new music while opening for Mustafa at Roy Thomson Hall, and now, eight months later, it's finally here. Colarado, TX is the first single from Mah Moud's upcoming album, Alexander Mure's songs in the key of C-minus. After witnessing the effects of gentrification on his life-long neighbourhood of Leslieville, Mah Moud created the character of Alexander Mure to symbolize the heartbreak, rage and anxiety that come with feeling pushed out of your home. Colorado, TX is the introduction to Mure, a vigilante outlaw, who after being gentrified out of his home takes a journey back, only to find the Toronto he returns to is unrecognizable. The country-folk road song is anchored by Mah Moud's soaring, impassioned vocals and a meandering pedal steel that mimics the nomadic journey Mure has embarked on. — Kelsey Adams
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