Alex's Staff Picks
Wet Leg Level Up with Punchy "catch these fists"
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Apr 2, 2025
"Level up," Wet Leg vocalist Rhian Teasdale declares as the thundering groove of "catch these fists" bursts into its pummelling chorus. It's...
'Dan's Boogie' Offers a Beginner's Introduction to Destroyer
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 28, 2025
For much of his career, Vancouver songwriter Dan Bejar has been one of those musical chameleons — a Bowie or a Beck, whose arrangement...
Black Country, New Road Live Up to Their Promise on "For the Cold Country"
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 26, 2025
I've been intrigued and a little confused by the way Black Country, New Road's 2022 album 'Ants from Up the There' has been embraced as a...
Japanese Breakfast's 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)' Sees Swooning Beauty in the Sorrow
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 21, 2025
The title is objectively cringe, and the two pre-release singles breezed past without making much of an impression — so I'm as surprised as...
Wares' Cassia Hardy Makes Edmonton Sound Just Like Heaven on "Empress"
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 18, 2025
Wares leader Cassia Hardy has released a solo single paying tribute to the Empress Ale House, an Edmonton pub and venue that shut down back...
jasmine.4.t and Phoebe Bridgers Offer an Effortless Exercise in Contrasts on "Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation"
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 17, 2025
Phoebe Bridgers announced plans to "take a massive step back" in 2024, and she's been true to her word — but she unassumingly emerged from...
Jonathan Personne Charts a Majestic Power Pop Course on 'Nouveau Monde'
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 14, 2025
'Nouveau Monde' mixes together unreleased songs from different eras of Jonathan Personne's writing, and a press release even goes so far as...
Marie Davidson Humanizes Electronic Music on 'City of Clowns'
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 7, 2025
In this City of Clowns, Marie Davidson is the mayor, and her first decree is that dancing is mandatory. "I want your ass on the floor," she...
