15 March 2024 - Jayli Wolf - Blood Orange

Honestly, I've been sitting on this song since last summer, when it was released.  It's amazing and it was really tempting to post it right away.  I held back.  

I'm glad I did.  Because today is the 1600th post on Wicked Guilty Pleasures, and there are few songs I'd rather such an odometer flip of a post would be about than this song.

The last few times I've posted about Jayli Wolf, I've very much leaned on her reliance on indigenous themes and how she's writing important music. And, let's be clear - she does - she has arguably done more for her Anishinaabe/Cree culture than anyone else in modern times - and she is making important, thought-provoking music.  

Not every great song needs to be deep and important.  "Blood Orange" is a great song that is just a great song.  It's not at all deep and important.  It's just about fruit.

“I wanted this song to boldly confront the themes of control, oppression, and societal standards, while also illuminating the courage to break free and reclaim one’s narrative,” - Jayli Wolf

No, of course it's not just about fruit.  It's a powerful song about standing up for yourself against your oppresors - whoever that may be - and claiming your own narrative. The first single from her highly personal EP God is an Endless Mirror, the whole set is introspective and filled with emotion.  She's left the city to buy and work her generations-old family farm in British Columbia, and that seems to be driving this direction in her music.

The video, written and produced by Jayli herself, has a lot going on - and yes, does feature a real blood orange (watch the upper right left corner).  

This song is also really great.  Doubtless.  

14 March 2024 - Tate McRae - exes

We're posting a THIRD Tate McRae post today for two reasons.  

1) These are among the last ones we're wriitng for this month - we're full up - and we feel badly about waiting so long to post her.

2) This is post #1,599, and we like odometer flips, so you know tomorrow morning's post is going to be a banger.

It does not hurt that "exes", the follow-up to "greedy", is pretty damned catchy.

Also, this is McRae's current single, and it's pretty successful in its own right.  

McRae also performed this song at the NHL All Star Game this year.

14 March 2024 - Tate McRae - calgary

Yep.

Two Tate McRae songs today.  This one isn't a single yet....

It's just another great song from Think Later that got a bit of a visualizer.

And, it's about Calgary.  C'mon, guys.  You know I love Calgary.

It's not really about Calgary.  It was co-written by McRae and is somewhat autobiographical. 

Also, there's an acoustic version of this one - from London, not Calgary, for some reason - and I really wanted to further back up my earlier claim that she can sing.  

14 March 2024 - Tate McRae - greedy

There is absolutely no way I could do a Maple Leaf March this year without including the pride of Calgary, Tate McRae, who had been up to 2023 something of a minor hit artist outside of Canada.

Then came "greedy".  This female empowerment anthem, co-written by McRae, hit #3 on the US pop charts and was a #1 hit elsewhere in the world.  It is, by far, her biggest hit, both inside and outside Canada.

By the way, this is an active hit song.  As of this publication, it's currently rising back up the Billboard charts, at #6 THIS WEEK on the US Hot 100, #5 on the Canadian Hot 100.  

The song is also a 2024 nominee for Single of the Year at the Juno Awards next weekend - one of three for which she's been nominated (Artist of the Year, Fan's Choice).  

Also, driving a Zamboni.  Iconic.  She's clearly a fan (she even wears goalie pads on the album cover). 

Think Later is the album.  We failed to mention that.  Released December 2023

 So, enjoy the song... and the Zamboni ride. 

Keeping with the hockey theme, McRae performed during the intermission at the 2024 NHL All Star Game in Toronto - including this song, of course.

It's a pretty clean performance, which we'd expect at a sporting event.

I watch a lot of live videos before I choose the ones I want to share with you - and I'm picking this Today Show performance.  Why?  It's less clean than others have been - and she can clearly sing, even without the Autotune so clearly foisted onto her.  

13 March 2024 - Lightning Dust - Loaded Gun

I spend a lot of March compiling music for future Maple Leaf Marches.  Sometimes, the songs are great and will make good music for future Marches, or really, for any month of the year.  

Sometimes, I can't wait. 

And, so we are clear, I almost completely bumped Lights for this one.

I decided this was a good day to double up instead of bumping anyone.  

Amber Webber and Joshua Wells are Lightning Dust, and they are also members of another band called Black Mountain.  Hailing from Vancouver, Lightning Dust is presumably named after a character from My Little Pony... but, more importantly, they are focused on synth-pop-rock sounds that are really interesting.  

This song, a driving synth anthem, is from their 2013 album Fantasy, and it is really solid.

Despite being a side project, this duo does perform their critically acclaimed music live, and they do so with far more emotion that you might expect from a synth-pop-rock duo.

13 March 2024 - FouKi ft. P'tit Belliveau - St-Han Quinzou

We missed FouKi.  We first featured him and his collaboration with Jay Scøtt in 2022.  That Félix award-winning song ended up on my heavy rotation and was my most-listened to song on Spotify in 2022.  

It is also sung by people in my house who do not speak French.  

FouKi was also nominated for a Juno in 2022 - for Francophone Album of the Year.  He lost - and deservedly so, honestly.  Impossible à aimer was amazing.  He's nominated again this year in the same category, for Zayon, and I am boldly predicting victory.

This song, a collaboration with fellow Canadian artist P'tit Belliveau (he is a folk musician from Nova Scotia who does a fair bit of Acadian vocals), is quite energetic.  It is a party song, celebrating a popular festival day in Quebec of St. Jean Baptiste.  

Also, FouKi wearing the Nordiques sweater is straight fire. 

I actually like this better live.  You can really hear the Acadian folk that Belliveau brings to the party.  FouKi brings the Expos jersey to the party in this performance.  

12 March 2024 - Lights - Savage

Well well well.

We've reached the Lights portion of the month.  

You had to know it was coming.  It's not like we've haven't had like 20 Lights posts in the last three years.  

Only a slight exaggeration.  This is the 19th since 2021.  

This single was released in advance of her 2017 album Skin&Earth, which of course came with a comic book and a post-apocalyptic video.  

As she has done several times since Siberia, Lights made an acoustic version of Skin&Earth and released it in 2019.  This was an innovative recording, with unusual recording locations. 

This is not the studio recording.  This was a live performance in Austin, TX in 2019.  

No, no, this was the "studio" recording.  I put "studio" in quotes because her "studio" was her portable rig under an umbrella sitting on the ground outside during a rainstorm.  

That's really rain you hear.  

And this kind of shows you how she did it.