Staff Picks

Beams Are Bright and Menacing on 'The Spark in Your Eye'

Exclaim! Staff Picks

PUBLISHED Aug 17, 2023

Moving further away from their folksier-leanings of yore, Toronto's Beams returned in August with their psych-rock-adjacent three-track EP...

Resavoir's "Inside Minds" Is a Soundtrack for Shortening Days

Exclaim! Staff Picks

PUBLISHED Aug 16, 2023

Even if you aren't immediately familiar with Resavoir by name, there's a good chance you've heard the sounds of its leader, Will Miller, so...

P:ano Are Back in All Their Glory on "Hollow Stars"

Exclaim! Staff Picks

PUBLISHED Aug 15, 2023

P:ano's 2005 album Brigadoon is on my Mount Rushmore of Vancouver indie rock records from the 2000s (alongside Mass Romantic, Streethawk: A...

Rachel Bobbitt Sounds Whole on 'The Half We Still Have'

​Exclaim! Staff Picks

PUBLISHED Aug 14, 2023

There's an ineffable quality to what Rachel Bobbitt brings to the table as a songwriter. She wrote one of my favourite songs of 2022 with "...

Exclaim!'s Staff Picks: Sheer Mag Are (Thankfully) Still Themselves on "All Lined Up"

PUBLISHED Aug 3, 2023

Sheer Mag do one thing. In regard to most bands, that would sound like an insult, but Sheer Mag do that one thing so well — so (seemingly)...

Exclaim!'s Staff Picks:​ TOBi and Topaz Jones Don't Relinquish Their Grips on "All Night Long"

PUBLISHED Aug 2, 2023

TOBi's inimitable tone and dynamic lyricism have had my playlists in a stranglehold since his contemplative single "City Blues" took Toront...

Exclaim!'s Staff Picks: Idman Breaks Out of Her Sad Girl Bag with 'Risk'

PUBLISHED Aug 1, 2023

"Risk" is such a white-hot word to me. It's loaded with potentiality, buttressed by fear descending from all angles. Despite the insurmount...

Exclaim!'s Staff Picks:​ PJ Harvey Spins a Delicate Darkness on 'I Inside the Old Year Dying'

PUBLISHED Jul 27, 2023

Decades on, the shadows that have always existed within PJ Harvey have evolved. Instead of the throaty growls that marked her seminal works...