It's been 16 years since Amy Millan has released a solo album, but she's kept her songwriter muscle strong, spending those years as a core member of Canadian indie rock supergroups Stars and Broken Social Scene. Now working alongside composer Jay McCarrol on the new solo album I Went to Find You (out this week, May 30, through Last Gang Records), Millan's pen remains as sharp as ever, as she mines universal pathos through snapshots of specific emotional experiences.
When ranking the five best songs from her catalogue, Millan covered the breadth of her catalogue, going back more than two decades and including both solo songs and Stars collaboration. This includes songs for both friendships and friendship breakups, a song for global crisis, and the song she thought would earn her millions (but didn't).
5. Amy Millan
"Untethered"
I Went to Find You (2025)
From my newest album and the first collaboration record with Jay McCarrol. Out of the eight new songs on this album, I picked this one because I love an underdog. Jay kept not finishing this song and trying to, and I texted him to "forsake" the tune! So we went back at it and worked at some transitions with a scalpel and it became the breezy beast it is. After almost not making it on the record, this little friendship love song got made and dedicated to those besties who entertain me while I drive around and yack on the phone. I do the drum fill into the last chorus, which was a very fun evening in the studio, and the line "The love you make is equal to the goodbyes you'll have to say" is one of the truest I've written.
4. Amy Millan
"Pour Me Up Another"
Honey from the Tombs (2006)
I wrote this for my grandmother, who had kind of a tragic life. "It's hopeful but doubtful for tomorrow" is a line I love and feels true to these times, and in all times of global crisis. An "I'm a pessimist because of intellect and an optimist because of will" (Antonio Gramsci) kind of thing. I wanted the song to have an "is that all there is" kind of feeling about it. I come from a long line of WASPs, where sardonic humour matched with "pour me another" is like a catch phrase of our history.
3. Stars
"Changes"
The Five Ghosts (2010)
My mother and Torquil Campbell both detest change, so I wrote it with them in mind; Evan Cranley and Chris Seligman wrote the music. My mother had a personalized license plate with the word "CHANGE" when I was growing up, almost to will herself to accept it. I can get really bad anxiety at sundown (there is a syndrome actually called sundowning), and the first verse is a nod to this uncomfortable time of day. I have always loved the word "trouble" and wanted to work it into a song — thank you to "Trouble" by Cat Stevens — as well as the subtle uncertainty at what exactly I'm referencing when I close with, "Are you my trouble?" It's a little mystery trick I enjoy singing on stage. I know what I'm talking about, but maybe my trouble is different than yours.
2. Amy Millan
"Bury This"
Masters of the Burial (2009)
Some lines I love in this song: "Thieves steal the mood you're in" and "Your blood thins at this war within." The melody has soothed me through the sad tale of a friendship breakup and having to let the person go. "You lost the long goodbye but you tried, or did you try?" is my attempt at taking some responsibility for my part in the unravelling of the doomed relationship.
1. Stars
"Elevator Love Letter"
Heart (2003)
Chris Seligman was playing the piano in a super fancy studio we thought we could afford. (We couldn't — we had to break the lease and my mother lost the deposit. Sorry, mom.) I held a vision for a very long time of the Toronto downtown skyline and had always wanted to write a song about how the lights never get turned off in those gigantic office high rises. I was envisioning a woman who could see her office from her apartment and was so lonely, even though she was surrounded by lights and people. I love the hook, I love the sentiment, and I truly thought the song was going to make me millions of dollars. (It didn't.)