Articles by Paul Blinov
Home Front Can't Be Beaten Down on 'Games of Power'
PUBLISHED Mar 2, 2023
Home Front's first album feels more like a lost classic than a modern debut, a thrilling convergence of eras that spans uplifting new wave,...
Samantha Savage Smith's 'Fake Nice' Shows Real Growth
PUBLISHED Apr 21, 2022
On her third album, Calgary's Samantha Savage Smith digs into the liminal space between inner doubts and outer life. Wrapped up in swirling...
Mares of Thrace Return Nerdier (and Heavier) Than Ever
PUBLISHED Mar 22, 2022
You could be forgiven for thinking the title of Mares of Thrace's new album, The Exile (out March 25 via Sonic Unyon), was about the band i...
CHVRCHES Find New Vitality in Analyzing Modern Society's 'Screen Violence'
PUBLISHED Aug 24, 2021
Screen Violence, CHVRCHES' fourth album, seems haunted by uncertainty: with choices made, with the world at large, and with (as its title s...
Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band's 'Banned' Finds Beauty in Unpredictability
PUBLISHED Jun 22, 2021
Sprawling over 200 acres of precambrian shield near Gravenhurst, ON, is an outdoor art gallery called the Tree Museum. It's hosted some 80...
'Islomania' Is Islands' Danciest Album Yet, Even in the Bleak Moments
PUBLISHED Jun 7, 2021
It's been almost two decades since Nick Thorburn closed the Unicorns' 2003 album, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?, by singing, "I've...
VISSIA Takes Charge on the Multifaceted 'With Pleasure'
PUBLISHED Apr 28, 2021
With Pleasure finds Edmonton's VISSIA chasing satisfaction across genre lines. Her previous album, 2017's Place Holder, delivered smart, a...
Motorbike James Expresses Existential Wonder Through Well-Honed Songcraft on 'VIISIONS'
PUBLISHED Apr 8, 2021
The cover of Motorbike James' VIISIONS features a chrome-suited astronaut peering through a window, an image that certainly resonates after...
