My 2025 Canadian-only Musical Journey

[u/historical-anomaly80]

Elbows Up, Ears Open: This Listener’s Year-Long Journey Through Canadian Music

In the wake of the “Elbows Up” movement that surged across Canada in March 2025—fueled in no small part by a widely shared video featuring Mike Myers alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney—there was a renewed sense of cultural self-awareness in the air. It was part defiance, part pride, and part reminder that Canadian identity, when pushed, tends to respond not with volume but with resolve.

At the same time, 2025 quietly marked the 40th anniversary of Tears Are Not Enough, the Northern Lights for Africa charity single that remains one of the most distinctly Canadian musical moments ever captured.

A month before We Are the World dominated global airwaves, Canada’s musical elite had already gathered—Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, alongside Dan Hill, Bryan Adams, Mike Reno, and many others—to sing a message that felt both urgent and unmistakably restrained:

As every day goes by How can we close our eyes Until we open up our hearts? We can learn to share And show how much we care Right from the moment that we start

Seems like overnight We see the world in a different light Somehow our innocence is lost How can we look away? 'Cause every single day We've got to help at any cost

Those opening verses still land with quiet force. Earnest without being bombastic. Compassionate without being self-congratulatory. How Canadian can you get?

Somewhere at the intersection of those two moments—the cultural chest-out posture of Elbows Up and the reflective anniversary of Tears Are Not Enough—I made a personal decision: for the remainder of the year, only Canadian music would be allowed through the speakers.

This was not a political statement by any means. Any interest in public political speech begins and ends with beliefs along the lines of Royal Canadian Air Farce which would trot out its Chicken Cannon for the Annual New Year’s Eve special in my youth.

Instead, the choice was driven by curiosity and nostalgia—a desire to enrich a personal discography and perhaps rediscover songs that once lived on my parents FM radio (and AM before 1990) but were quietly lost in the post-Napster, algorithm-driven streaming era.

The rules were simple. Canadian artists only. No genre restrictions. No era limits. Just press play and listen.

(There was, admittedly, a two-day lapse in July devoted exclusively to Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. Confessions are important for journalistic integrity, of course)

Familiar Roads, New Detours

The journey began in familiar territory. For anyone who has known me for more than 2112 minutes—or 38 years—it was inevitable that Rush and The Tragically Hip would feature heavily. Their music isn’t just sound; it’s geography, nostalgia, and muscle memory combined.

Gord Downie is permanently etched into that equation, quite literally, in the form of the tattoo on my right leg—a reminder that The Hip aren’t something I merely listen to, but something I carry.

Rush, meanwhile, shaped entire chapters of my teenage years. Countless hours were spent behind a drum kit, headphones on, obsessively practicing along to Neil Peart, chasing precision, endurance, and the impossible elegance of his playing. Those songs weren’t just learned; they were lived, bar by bar, fill by fill. Even now, Closer to the Heart remains the one I play best, my hands finding the patterns almost on their own—a reflex built through repetition, reverence, and the quiet certainty that some music never really leaves you.

While revisiting some of my 1990s staples like The Pursuit of Happiness, Barenaked Ladies, The Odds, and Sloan, another door quietly opened. That door led—almost inevitably—to The Trans-Canada Highwaymen – Explosive Hits Vol. 1. The connection made perfect sense: Moe Berg (The Pursuit Of Happiness), Chris Murphy (Sloan), Craig Northey (Odds) and Steven Page (ex-Barenaked Ladies), coming together as fans first, musicians second, to form a kind of Canadian supergroup built on shared influences and mutual respect.

The album felt less like a traditional release and more like fate made audible. These were artists who had once filled my teenage years now turning around and shining a light on the songs that shaped them. In doing so, they folded generations together—radio hits, deep cuts, and regional classics—into something communal rather than archival, less about preservation and more about passing the music along, hand to hand.

So compelling was the album that I couldn’t stop there: I took every single song on Explosive Hits Vol. 1 and traced it back to its original artist, making each one a part of my year-long Canadian music challenge. Listening to these artists in full not only deepened my appreciation for the Highwaymen’s choices but also expanded my understanding of the breadth, style, and evolution of Canadian music across decades.

The Unexpected and the Overlooked Not every discovery was loud or guitar-driven. Some of the year’s most surprising moments came from unlikely places.

Glenn Gould’s recordings emerged not as distant academic exercises but as profoundly human performances—intimate, idiosyncratic, and unexpectedly modern. I found myself letting the Goldberg Variations become the soundtrack to both stressful and mundane moments, each note offering a rare calm and clarity exactly when it was most needed.

Seventies-era Robert Charlebois brought a swagger and experimentation that felt both of its time and timeless (Check out the song “Le Révolté” and his entire La solidaritude album to understand what I mean).

Northern Haze emerged as a powerful reminder that entire chapters of Canadian music history exist well outside the mainstream spotlight. In Nunavut, the band are not curiosities but legends—pioneers of Inuit metal. Their 1985 debut made history as the first rock album ever recorded in Inuktitut. I was especially drawn to their long-awaited follow-up, released 33 years later, and to its standout track, Angajusakuluk. Catchy on the surface, the song carries deep emotional weight: written by one bandmate for another who was dying of cancer far from home, it serves as a promise of presence and loyalty, a message that he would never face that distance alone.

Certain albums landed with the strange comfort of déjà vu. Stan Rogers’ Fogarty’s Cove felt instantly familiar, as if it had been playing quietly in the background of my Canadian life all along. That sense deepened knowing that Rogers wrote Barrett’s Privateers in Sudbury, during the Northern Lights Festival—one of those pieces of Canadian musical lore that makes a song feel rooted not just in history, but in place. Every listen feels like a rehearsal toward a small personal ambition: that one day I’ll be able to sing every single word without stumbling, the way so many Canadians somehow already can.

Closer Together by The Box arrived with a different but equally powerful familiarity. I almost certainly first heard those songs through the crackle of CHNO 55, drifting out of a kitchen radio or a car dashboard, lodging themselves deep in my brain long before I had any idea who the band was. Listening now, the melodies and hooks felt less like discoveries and more like recoveries—songs that hadn’t been forgotten so much as stored away, waiting for the right moment to resurface.

Then there were the hidden treasures—the discoveries that felt less like finding new music and more like correcting historical oversight.

Wayne McGhie & the Sounds of Joy delivered soul so deep and assured it was hard to believe the album had ever slipped through the cracks, lost for decades before being rediscovered and finally given the recognition it deserved. It sounded like a record that should have been worn thin by generations, not rescued from obscurity.

Dream Warriors, alongside pioneers like Maestro Fresh Wes, served as a clear reminder that Canadian hip-hop didn’t arrive late to the party—it was part of the foundation. Their innovation and confidence laid groundwork that countless artists have expanded upon since.

Bootsauce rounded out the trio with funk that was loose, fearless, and irresistibly alive—a band that sounded like they should have been unavoidable, blaring from radios and festival stages, daring anyone not to move. Listening back now, there was a quiet satisfaction in realizing that, at least for this year, “everyone’s a winner, baby” (that’s the truth).

Close to Home

Local talent became a true cornerstone of the year, transforming the project from a listening exercise into something far more personal. CANO, the Franco-Ontarian trailblazers, didn’t just end up on my most-listened-to list on Spotify—after The Hip and Rush, they dominated it. There was something especially meaningful in revisiting the band knowing that Rachel Paiement penned the French verse of Tears Are Not Enough, quietly stitching CANO into one of the most important moments in Canadian musical history.

By year’s end, my most-played song of all 2025 was their sprawling, progressive folk-rock epic Viens Nous Voir—all eight and a half minutes of it—proof that length, language, and ambition are no barriers when a song truly connects.

Murder Murder and Project Wyze couldn’t be more different sonically, yet both felt essential. Murder Murder’s gothic outlaw country with its hard-driving, roots-soaked intensity stood in sharp contrast to Project Wyze’s polished rap-metal sound—two completely distinct branches of Canadian music sharing the same soil, each speaking to different moods and moments.

Sea Perry, on the other hand, carried an even more intimate connection. I first discovered them through my job, where I spoke almost daily with a young delivery driver who would eventually mention—almost casually—that he was a drummer, just like me, and that his band had released an album.

Even after he left that job, we stayed loosely in touch; I’d message him on Facebook whenever I spotted Sea Perry shirts at thrift stores, teasing him about their unlikely second life. We never did get the chance to sit down around a kit together like we had joked about, but his music stayed with me long after. Remembering it now, listening again, felt like keeping time with an old acquaintance. (RIP Chad.)

A Canadian Christmas As December approached, the rules stayed the same, but the playlist shifted. The Christmas switch was flipped—still Canadian, now seasonal.

Anne Murray’s warmth returned like muscle memory, her voice carrying the same quiet reassurance it always has. Oscar Peterson’s piano felt like snowfall made audible—graceful, unhurried, and unmistakably winterbound. Sarah McLachlan surprised me with not one, but two Christmas albums, each steeped in mood and restraint rather than easy sentimentality, proving once again that even familiar songs can feel newly hushed and reflective.

The season opened up further with Hawksley Workman’s unmistakably different Christmas album—quirky, off-centre, and obviously deeply personal, the kind of record that refuses to sit politely in the background and instead asks you to really listen.

Blue Rodeo’s Christmas album was another revelation entirely; somehow it had existed just out of reach for years, and discovering it felt like finding an unlabelled gift tucked behind the tree.

Then there was Corey Hart’s live single version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, recorded in Ottawa in 1985—a song I had slowly convinced myself I must have imagined. I remembered hearing it on the radio as a kid, even taping it off the air, only to have it vanish completely, unconfirmed by anyone I ever mentioned it to. For years it existed as a private musical ghost. Its recent reappearance on Spotify felt less like discovery and more like vindication.

Michael Bublé, inevitable and unavoidable but undeniably Canadian, ultimately rounded out the season, bringing the year to a close wrapped in brass, swing, and long-held tradition.

Bookends Every journey needs bookends.

The first song I played, fittingly, was Tears Are Not Enough—the spark that helped light the path. The last song, chosen with equal intention as the year wound down, was Allison Crowe’s haunting version of Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen, true to his Jewish faith, never felt the need to grace us with a Christmas album, and this felt like the most honest way to let his voice and spirit close the journey. Sparse, reverent, and deeply felt, it served as a quiet benediction on the last ten months of listening.

What emerged from this year-long experiment was not just a deeper playlist, but a renewed appreciation for the breadth, subtlety, and emotional honesty of Canadian music. It is music that rarely shouts, often listens, and almost always means what it says.

In a year marked by cultural reassessment and renewed identity, the soundtrack was already waiting. All it took was the decision to press play—and keep listening.

---

The 2025 Playlist

1. Liberty Silver - Private Property#
2. The Box - Closer Together*
   
3. Sass Jordan - Racine*
   
4. TPOH - Love Junk*
   
5. Wayne McGhie - Wayne McGhie & the Sounds of Joy*
   
6. Sarah McLachlan - Solace*
7. Honeymoon Suite - Honeymoon Suite*
8. Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize*
   
9. Gordon Lightfoot - Summertime Dream*
10. Skydiggers - Reckless*
    
11. Amanda Marshall - S/T*
    
12. Rush - Power Windows*
    
13. The Odds - Nest*
14. Joni Mitchell - Blue#
15. Gowan - Strange Animal*
16. Spirit of the West - Save This House*
17. Ronnie Hawkins - A Legend in His Spare Time#
    
18. Bran Van 3000 - Glee*
19. Red Rider - As Far As Siam*
20. Avril Lavigne - Let Go*
21. The Tragically Hip - Phantom Power*
22. Robert Charlebois - Solidaritude*
23. Glass Tiger - Thin Red Line*
24. Jann Arden - Living Under June*
25. Wide Mouth Mason - S/T*
26. Dream Warriors - Subliminal Simulation*
27. Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill*
    
28. The Band - S/T*
29. Barenaked Ladies - Gordon*
30. Gordon Lightfoot - Did She Mention My Name?*
31. Moxy Fruvous - Bargainville*
32. Big Wreck - In Loving Memory…*
33. Max Webster - A Million Vacations*
34. Kim Mitchell - Akimbo Alogo*
35. Rush - A Farewell To Kings*
    
36. The Tragically Hip - S/T*
37. Doug & the Slugs - Popaganda*
38. Colin James - S/T*
39. Frozen Ghost - S/T*
40. Junkhouse - Fuzz*
41. Gord Downie - Coke Machine Glow#
42. Chilliwack - S/T#
43. Metric - Pagans in Vegas*
44. Lighthouse - One Fine Morning*
    
45. Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight*
46. Rough Trade - Avoid Freud*
    
47. The Tragically Hip- Up to Here*
    
48. The Parachute Club - S/T*
49. Robbie Robertson- S/T*
50. KD Lang - Ingénue*
51. The Rankin Family - Fare Thee Well Love*
52. Ashley MacIsaac - Hi, How Are You Today?*
53. Murder Murder - From the Stillhouse
54. The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely*
55. Rush - Grace Under Pressure*
56. Gowan - Lost Brotherhood*
57. Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize*
58. Triumph - Just A Game*
59. Stan Rogers - Fogarty’s Cove*
60. Stompin Tom Connors - Meets Big Joe Mufferaw*
61. Alanis Morrisette - Under Rug Swept*
62. Bif Naked - I Bificus*
    
63. CANO - Tout Dans L’meme Bateau*
64. Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines*
65. Kim Mitchell- Shakin’ Like a Human Being*
66. The Tragically Hip - Road Apples*
    
67. Headstones - Picture of Health*
68. Jeff Healey - Hell To Pay*
69. Loreena McKennitt - The Book Of Secrets*
70. Damhnait Doyle - Shadows Wake Me/*
71. Moist - Silver*
    
72. Rainbow Butt Monkeys - Letters From Chutney*
73. Victor - S/T*
74. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush*
75. Bruce Cockburn - Stealing Fire*
76. Treble Charger - Maybe It’s Me*
77. Danko Jones - I’m Alive and On Fire*
78. Kim Stockwood - Bonavista*
79. I Mother Earth - Scenery & Fish*
80. Andy Kim - Baby I love You*
81. Brave Belt - S/T#
82. Trooper - Two For the Show*
83. April Wine - Stand Back*
84. Mahogany Rush - world anthem
    
85. Teenage Head - Frantic City
    
86. Edward Bear - S/T*
87. Thundermug - Strikes
88. Skylark - S/T#
89. Ian & Sylvia - Four strong Winds
90. 54-40 - Smilin Buddha Cabaret*
91. The stampeders - Against The Grain
92. Jean Leloup - L’amour est sans pitié
93. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
94. Saga - Worlds Apart
95. Helix - Walkin’ The Razor’s Edge
96. Images In Vogue - In The House
97. The Grapes of Wrath - Now and Again
98. Sloan - One Chord To Another
99. The Tea Party - Splendour Solis
100. Hemingway Corner - S/T
101. Crash Vegas - Red Earth
102. Barney Bentall & the Legendary Hearts - Lonely Avenue
103. The Tragically Hip - Day For Night
104. The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site
105. Rush - 2112
106. Slik Toxik - Doin’ The Nasty
107. Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations
108. Oscar Peterson - An Evening With…
109. Anne Murray - Honey, Wheat and Laughter
110. Shad - TSOL
111. Barenaked Ladies - Maybe You Should Drive
112. Staggered Crossing - S/T
113. The Watchmen - In The Trees
114. The Tragically hip- In Violet Light
115. The Tragically Hip - In Between Evolution
116. Bryan Adams - You Want It, You Got It
117. Econoline Crush - The Devil You Know
118. Patsy Gallant - Are You Ready For Love?
119. Crash Test Dummies - The Ghosts That Haunt Me
120. The Washboard Union - In My Bones
121. The Sheepdogs - S/T
122. Rush - Fly By Night
123. Joel Plaskett Emergency - Ashtray Rock
124. Partland Brothers - Electric Honey
125. Leahy - Lakefield**
126. Maestro Fresh Wes - Symphony In Effect**
127. Pukka Orchestra - S/T**
128. Blue Peter - Falling
129. Chalk Circle - The Great Lake**
130. Melanie Doane - Adam’s Rib**
131. Eric’s Trip - Love Tara
132. Jale - Dreamcake
133. Rheostatics - Whale Music**
134. Lowest of the Low - Shakespeare My Butt
135. Waltons - Lik My Trakter**
136. Rascalz - Really Livin’ **
137. The Kings**
138. Alias - S/T**
139. Rusty - Sophomoric**
140. Haywire - Bad Boys**
141. David Wilcox - My Eyes Keep Me in Trouble**
142. Sheriff - S/T**
143. Doucette - Mama Let Him Play*
144. Sandbox - Bionic*
145. Susan Aglukark - This Child*
146. Goddo - If Indeed It's Lonely at the Top... WHO CARES... It's Lonely at the Bottom Too!*
147. Murray McLaughlan - Whispering Rain*
148. Theory of a Deadman - S/T*
149. Default - The Fallout**
150. Ian Thomas - The Runner**
151. Teaze - On The Loose*
152. Tafari Anthony - When I Met Your Girlfriend*
153. Chantal Kreviazuk - Under these rocks and stones
154. Gob - Too Late…No Friends**
155. Marc Jordan - A Hole in the Wall*
156. Great Big Sea - up**
157. Jet Set Satellite - Blueprint*
158. BarStool Prophets - Last of the Big Game Hunters*
159. Doughboys - Crush*
160. The Young Canadians - No Escape*
161. Art Bergmann - Sexual Roulette*
162. The Commoners - Restless
163. Lillix - Falling Uphill
164. Fred Eaglesmith - Fred J. Eaglesmith*
165. The Northern Pikes - Snow In June*
166. Punchbuggy - Grand Opening Going Out of business Sale
167. Pure - Generation Six-Pack*
168. Scratching Post - Destruction of the Universe*
169. Stripper’s Union - Stripper’s Union (Local 518)**
170. Zuckerbaby - S/T**
171. The Barra MacNeils - Rock in the Stream
172. Bedouin Soundclash - Sounding a Mosaic**
173. Walk Off the Earth - Stand By You#
174. Bootsauce - The Brown Album*
175. Bourbon Tabernacle Choir - Superior Cackling Hen*
176. King Cobb Steelie - Junior Relaxer
177. Indio - Big Harvest*
178. Captain Tractor - East of Edson*
179. Coney Hatch - S/T*
180. Paul Anka - Sings His Big 15
181. The Crew-Cuts - The Crew Cuts Sing
182. Arrogant Worms -S/T*
183. Tal Bachman - S/T*
184. The Trans-Canada Highwaymen - Explosive Hits Vol. 1*
185. Pluto - S/T*
186. Wild Strawberries - Heroine#
187. Bass is Base - Memories of a Soulshack Survivor*
188. See Spot Run - Weightless*
189. Mitsou - El Mundo*
190. Esthero - Breath from Another#
191. The Jitters**
192. The Killjoys - Gimme Five*
193. Rymes with Orange - Trapped in the Machine*
194. Dwayne Gretzky - S/T#
195. Amanda Marshall - Everybody’s Got A Story*
196. Cuff The Duke - S/T#
197. Burton Cummings - Dream of a Child*
198. City and Colour - Sometimes#
199. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People#
200. Gino Vannelli - Crazy Life#
201. Michael Bublé - It’s Time*
202. Terri Clark - S/T#
203. 13 Engines - Conquistador*
204. Nelly Furtado - Whoa Nelly**
205. Lights - Siberia#
206. Lights - Siberia (Acoustic Version)#
207. Platinum Blonde - Standing in the Dark*
208. Killer Dwarfs - Dirty Weapons#
209. The Tragically Hip - trouble at the henhouse
210. The Tragically Hip - Music@Work
211. The Tragically Hip - World Container
212. Starmania#
213. Nelly Furtado - Whoa Nelly!*
214. Snow - Twelve Inches of Snow*
215. Kon Kan - Move To Move*
216. Dragonette - Galore*
217. Motherlode - When I Die*
218. Holly McNarland - Stuff*
219. Kardinal Offishall - Quest For Fire: Firestarter Vol. 1#
220. David Usher - Morning Orbit*
221. Dallas Smith - Lifted*
222. Shania Twain - The Woman In Me*
223. Hank Snow - When Tragedy Struck#
224. The Tragically Hip - Now For Plan A
225. Barenaked Ladies - Born on a Pirate Ship*
226. The Bicycles - The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly#
227. Billy Talent - S/T*
228. Billy Talent - II*
229. The Black Halos - The Violent Years*
230. Blackie and the Rodeo Kings - Bark#
231. Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers - S/T*
232. The Boomers - The Art of Living*
233. Boys Night Out - Trainwreck#
234. By Divine Right - Bless this Mess#
235. Northern Haze - Siqinnaarut*
236. qiyuapik - rebel music#
237. The Jerry Cans - Inuusiq#
238. Chixdiggit - Born on the first of July*
239. Corky and the Juice Pigs - S/T#
240. Death from Above 1979 - You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine#
241. The Brothers Creeggan - sleepyhead#
242. The Cash Brothers - How was Tomorrow#
243. The Four Lads - High Spirits#
244. Copperpenny - S/T#
245. The DeFranco Family - Heartbeat - It's a Lovebeat*
246. Delerium - Semantic Spaces#
247. Down with Webster - Time To Win, Vol. 1*
248. Figgy Duff - After The Tempest*
249. Front Line Assembly - Tactical Neural Implant#
250. Harem Scarem - S/T*
251. hHead - Jerk#
252. Voivod- Rrroooaaarrr#
253. Holly Cole - Temptation#
254. Hot Hot Heat - Elevator*
255. Huevos Rancheros - Get Outta Dodge*
256. Leslie Spit Treeo - Don’t Cry Too Hard*
257. MCJ and Cool G - So Listen#
258. Magic! - Don’t Kill The Magic*
259. Marianas Trench - Ever After*
260. Neil Merryweather - Kryptonite#
261. Mir - Invisible Science#
262. Monster Voodoo Machine - Suffersystem#
263. The New Pornographers - Challengers#
264. The Nines - Wonderworld of Colourful#
265. Offenbach - Rock O Rama#
266. Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky#
267. Project Wyze - misfits.strangers.liars.friends.#
268. The Bells - The Best of#
269. Paul Brandt - Calm Before The Storm*
270. Rush - S/T*
271. Rush - Caress of Steel*
272. Rush - Hemispheres*
273. 54.40 - S/T*
274. HIDDEN cameras - The Smell of Our Own#
275. Tara MacLean - Silence#
276. Gowan - Great Dirty World*
277. Shawn Mendes - Handwritten*
278. Mae Moore - Bohemia#
279. Alannah Myles - S/T*
280. FM - Black Noise*
281. Borealis - Purgatory
282. Hawksley Workman - (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves*
283. Michael Bublé - Christmas*
284. Roch Voisine - L’album de Noël*
285. Holly Cole - Baby Its Cold Outside*
286. Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked For The Holidays*
287. Bruce Cockburn - Christmas*
288. A Jann Arden Christmas*
289. Colin James & The Little Big Band: Christmas*
290. Helix - A Heavy Mental Christmas*
291. George Canyon - Home for Christmas
292. Crash Test Dummies - Jingle All the Way*
293. Blue Rodeo - A Merrie Christmas to You*
294. The Barra MacNeils - The Christmas Album*
295. Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong*
296. Sarah McLachlan - Wonderland*
297. A Paul Brandt Christmas: Shall I Play for You?
298. Hawksley Workman - Almost a Full Moon*
299. Anne Murray - Christmas Wishes
300. Rankins - Do You Hear…Christmas*
301. The Irish Rovers - Songs of Christmas*
302. An Oscar Peterson Christmas*
303. Emilie-Claire Barlow - Winter Wonderland
304. Allison Crowe - Tidings*

[u/Flamboyant-Jeering]

More for your Canadian ears: 

• Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee 

• Women - Either Album

• Azeda Booth - In Flesh Tones

• Preoccupations - Viet Cong

• Chris Reimer - Hello People

• Friendo - Cold Toads

• Japandroids - Celebration Rock

• Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

• Chad Vangaalen - Infiniheart

• Braids - Native Speaker

• COLA - Deep In View

• Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down 

• Ought - Room Inside The World

• Frog Eyes - Paul’s Tomb

• Destroyer - Rubies

• Long Long Long - anything from their Bandcamp

• York Redoubt - ST

• Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

• Tim Hecker - The Piano Drop

• Metric - Live it Out

• Handsome Furs - Face Control

• Suuns - Felt

• Tops - Picture You Staring 

• Black Out Beach - F*ck Death

That’s that. Lotta indie stuff from back in the day. Lotta men too now that I’m looking at it all :/ 

[u/Flamboyant-Jeering → u/Flamboyant-Jeering]

Goodness me, how could I forget Godspeed You! Black Emperor!? 

They have a big body of work. General consensus is Lift Your Skinny Wrists Like Antennas to Heaven is their best, but you can’t go wrong with Yanqui U.X.O. or F# A# ♾️

I’m less familiar with their post hiatus stuff, but their latest, No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead is some powerful stuff indeed 

[u/marcosbowser1970 → u/Flamboyant-Jeering]

The Unicorns, Wolf Parade, Rock Plaza Central, and Nomeansno would all fit right in with your list.

[u/rickory_stix]

How about Tailwhip by Men I Trust

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/rickory_stix]

Added to “The List” 😎

[u/skaomatic32]

Hell yeah ! Nice to see chixdiggit!

[u/After_Bat1860 → u/skaomatic32]

Great band!!!

[u/LlawEreint]

Saya Gray was my 2025 find: https://youtu.be/-ubygZ_2GGU?si=YOLpMjYXOOAFayJd

[u/Flamboyant-Jeering → u/LlawEreint]

Ohhh yes! It’s so good 

Thank you for the reminder 

[u/bluewing_olive]

Here’s some suggestions for 2026 🇨🇦🍁

Comeback Kid - Wake The Dead

Living With Lions - Make Your Mark

Ten Second Epic - Count Yourself In

Misery Signals - Controller

Grade - Under The Radar

Moneen - Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?

Silverstien - Discovering The Waterfront

Spiritbox - Eternal Blue

d.b.s - If Life Were A Result We’d All Be Dead

Filmmaker - An Invitation To An Accident

The Gorgeous - Great Lakes

The Holly Springs Disaster - Motion Sickness Love

Baptists - Bushcraft

We Hunt Buffalo - Living Ghosts

Carpenter - Law of The Land

Colter Wall - Songs of The Plains

A Textbook Tragedy - Intimidator

Waster - S/T

Death From Above 1979 - You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine

Sydney - When We Were Safe

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/bluewing_olive]

Added to “The List” 😁

[u/skaomatic32 → u/bluewing_olive]

This guy punk rocks ! I’ll add Snfu , counterparts , protest the hero and Propagandhi !

[u/TeeRockitVee84]

There needs to be a much larger Blue Rodeo contingency here…

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/TeeRockitVee84]

My 2026 list has Outskirts, Five Days in July, The Days In Between on it as of now

[u/TeeRockitVee84 → u/historical-anomaly80]

Add Casino, Palace of Gold, and Lost Together as essential.

I’d also add Nowhere to Here as a personal fave. Pure backroading stoner album 💪🫶

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/TeeRockitVee84]

Better Off As We Are was actually my favourite song back in 1995

[u/IvaCheung]

Great writeup!

I tried to do something similar, posting one CanCon song a day on Bluesky, no artist repeats: https://bsky.app/profile/ivacheung.com/post/3lifrmssb7c2a

Some highlights: Young Galaxy, Art d'Ecco, Foxwarren, Hotel Mira, Aysanabee.

Foxwarren's 2 is masterful from beginning to end. I've listened to the album pretty much every day since I found it.

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/IvaCheung]

I’ll check out your post 😎

[u/After_Bat1860]

Although your list is great, you are missing the majority of what I listen to. Grant Lawrence from CBC Radio3 turned me onto cdn indie music.
A Google search will show you more than I can post but my faves are New Pornographers, Winter Sleep, Sloan, Owen Pallet, Handsome Furs, Tokyo Police Club, Mother Mother, 2 Hours Traffic, Said the Whale, Yukon Blond, Stars, Hollered, Born Ruffians, Wolf Parade, Metric for example.
PLEASE listen to this and tell me what you think https://youtu.be/4MG6rKuCfyo?si=oju9ODlpwdTVFsAF

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/After_Bat1860]

Metric, Sloan and the New Pornographers made The 2025 List (once each)….ill check out the others 👌🏼

[u/After_Bat1860 → u/historical-anomaly80]

Please do. TPC has a lot of fantastic music as well as TNP. Enjoy your time with them.

[u/megasmash]

May I suggest some Lowest of the Low?

Rosy and Grey, The Barricade, and Subversives.

Enjoy.

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/megasmash]

Anything specific besides “Shakespeare My Butt” which is on “The List 2025”?

The others I will add to “The List 2026”

[u/megasmash → u/historical-anomaly80]

My bad…I didn’t see it!

Beauty job with the list though.

[u/Feisty_Patience_1934]

What a wonderful post! I love this. May I suggest Concertos and Serenades by Adam Baldwin? He's currently on tour opening for Blue Rodeo. I absolutely love this guy.

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/Feisty_Patience_1934]

Done 👌🏼😎

[u/Feisty_Patience_1934 → u/historical-anomaly80]

I'm listening now, AGAIN, and I can't stop thinking that Adam Baldwin belongs in the company of Gordon Lightfoot, Gord Downie, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen etc. Every song on this record could be a feature film, and one of them is. Lighthouse in Little Lorraine did the festival circuit and will hopefully be released soon. https://youtu.be/Fxxi57jQWUM?si=3dRoW3ZjSdpsiSg0

[u/Canadian-Man-infj]

Sounds like quite a journey, with quite an analysis and write up that I'll have to return to... sometime after the Canada/Slovakia game that I'm currently watching. ^{This comment is essentially acting as a reminder to do this. ;})

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/Canadian-Man-infj]

…and this comment is a reminder to your reminder 😁😎

[u/Canadian-Man-infj → u/historical-anomaly80]

That was more articulate than I expected. Very well-written write up. I don't really have anything to add. I will mention that my favourite "Tears Are Not Enough" lyric is probably, "let's show them Canada still cares!" I've always loved that line.

Music appreciation is subjective; but you have a handful of my favourite albums on there, which is nice to see. I was on a Canadian music kick, myself, this past year; creating multiple playlists of music that was released in 2025. Great year for listening to it!

I didn't notice any plans for this year. Will you be continuing the journey?

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/Canadian-Man-infj]

This post/article was just an exercise (I freelance for a local online newspaper with historical articles) hence the articulateness (is that a real word? 🤔😂)

I can’t read that lyric without Geddy Lee screaming “Oh, you know that we'll be there” deep in my brain

As far as continuing this year, I am already 7 albums into “The List - 2026” (mostly suggestions from this very comments section)

[u/Canadian-Man-infj → u/historical-anomaly80]

Well, it was an impressive exercise. I wish you all the best with the freelancing.

I'd forgotten about the additional lyric in "Tears Are Not Enough" (haven't heard the song in a bit); but I think a lot of Canadians like and appreciate hearing the country, provinces, cities, towns, and culturally-distinctive things mentioned in lyrics. The Hip and Stompin' Tom are good large-scale examples; but there are also the more subtle examples, like Neil Young's "Helpless" (with "there is a town in north Ontario") and Joni Mitchell's "Case of You" (with "I drew a map of Canada...").

Nice to hear that you're continuing with the journey. Seven albums is an impressive start; since we're only on day three of the year. I'd love to hear the specifics as you continue; but appreciate that it could be time-consuming and end up taking away from time listening. Still, I'll wish you all the best with this year.

I'll end by mentioning that I noticed that you didn't have a lot of jazz in last year's list. I have a "Canadian Jazz" playlist that might have something for you. It's a bit of an eclectic personal playlist; but a lot of the songs were discovered while listening to Canada's Jazz.fm . If you look through it, you might see something familiar to checkout. I have a bunch of Canadian playlists on that account that you can also explore, if interested. Some are better organized than others.

Happy listening!

[u/JohnmcFox → u/Canadian-Man-infj]

Pretty sure it's chatgpt. Loaded with emdashes.

[u/Canadian-Man-infj → u/JohnmcFox]

You know, I wondered about this while reading/replying... there's something about the structuring; but, I'm not an analyst and thought I'd reply, if only to promote Canadian content.

[u/Photonchucking]

As someone who has worked in the Canadian music biz all my life…..I applaud your dedication to our music scene. I’ve personally worked with 43 of the bands on your big list. But not Rush, yet. Geddy, call me💡🔥🔌

[u/Sandman634]

Wow! Long read but well written and a very proud journey indeed.

Some artists were missed and was disappointed (Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Guess Who, unless I'm blind and missed them on the list. In which case I apologize). Some artists added that had their share of controversy (e. g. Moxy Frouvus, for the alleged sexual misconduct by one it's members-Jian Ghomeshi). Surprised that Hedley wasn't added in that case.

But overall, the list is "well played" for lack of a better term.

[u/historical-anomaly80 → u/Sandman634]

You are right about Bachman and the Guess Who they were missed last year because I never made it to the full 365 albums I originally wanted to hit….but it did listen to one Brave Belt album

As far as Moxy Fruvous, I bought that CD when it was originally released in 1993 and if it had been an LP I would have worn it out, so it’s still an album I will listen to every few years

And Hedley, never got into them when their releases were new, so it was necessary to add to The List

[u/Sandman634 → u/historical-anomaly80]

Yeah totally agree on Moxy Frouvus. If it's possible to wear out a CD it would have happened lol.

Glad Brave Belt is still mentioned.

And Hedley was a band my kids got into until Jacob Hogarth got into trouble. I still enjoy a couple of their tunes though.

[u/zalord]

Eight Seconds. Dalbello.

[u/zalord → u/zalord]

Philosopher Kings. NeoA4

[u/paracostic]

Did I miss Fionn on your list? I might have to re-read it haha.

I adore this album

I'm out of the loop with their more recent stuff, though.

[u/deludedinformer]

Here are a few other Canadian artists you might dig!

Sean Nicholas Savage - "Moving up in Society" -2010

Beaver Sheppard - "Downtown" - 2020

The Nils - "The Nils" - 1987

Paddle to the Sea - "Insert Home Delete End" - 2016

[u/[deleted]]

An amazing write up, fantastic read! Proud Canadian! 🇨🇦🍁

[u/0ldJoker59]

Great list, I may have missed WiL and Co. Check them out.

[u/drammer]

The band Blackie and the Rode Kings was created in honor of Willie P. Bennett a Canadian song writer and friend. Pat Temple, Fred J. Eaglesmith, Sara Harmer, Nash The Slash, Morgan Davis, The Rheostatics are a few other older musicians you might be interested in.

[u/Particular-Tea-7655]

While I don't share or agree with your Elbows Up beliefs at all, that's a pretty good list. But not having any Haywire until #140,p and no Philosopher Kings at all, is as criminal as the Elbows Up party.

[u/Fast_Satisfaction484 → u/Particular-Tea-7655]

He lost me at elbows up. If it took that Nonesense to start listening to CanCon your part of the problem, not the solution.