Songs of the Week: February 23 - March 01, 2026
“the punisher” by LØLØ
I’ve been humming this earworm since it appeared in my inbox this week! “the punisher,” is the latest single from Toronto artist LØLØ’s upcoming sophomore album, god forbid a girl spits out her feelings! and it’s go me in my feelings.
LØLØ says of the song: “‘the punisher’ is about that sick twisted ritual we all do after a breakup: stalking your ex on the internet (and their new girlfriend…and her sister…and her sister’s boyfriend…and yes, even the new girlfriend’s sister’s dog) even though you KNOW it’s going to ruin your entire day. I wrote it during a moment where I caught myself doing exactly that. As I continued to piece together my ex’s new life through photos on the internet, I couldn’t understand why I felt addicted to punishing myself. It was almost like some part of me weirdly enjoyed it, as I found myself looking forward to checking in almost every day, playing his new life out in my head.”
Another reason to get off your phone and go out and enjoy the world.
Christine
“They will draw halos around our heads” by Common Holly
Last week, Common Holly not only released her latest EP, They will draw halos around our heads, but also a video for the title track.
Featuring the adorable cat Juniper, the video matches the mood of the haunting song, as Brigitte Naggar states, “I think it’s an exploration of the projections that get cast onto girls and women to embody the highest moral standard, the picture of perfect angels. And it’s about the receptive position of the impressionable child, the way messaging leaves deep imprints on how they experience the world. Maybe it’s also a kind of call to reclaim, for them to take their brains and bodies back and determine for themselves what they believe in.”
Have a watch for yourself below, and check out the EP now!
Kirk
“Bad For Your Health” by The Sheepdogs
Super convenient that The Sheepdogs new album Keep Out Of The Storm came out just as the Olympics were finishing - the Canadian men’s hockey team used their track “Feeling Good” as their goal song throughout their games.
The band is now gearing up for a year of touring, with the Canadian leg starting this month and then the UK & EU in early winter. Hopefully we’ll be squeezed in there somewhere, as there is no Vancouver date yet.
Along with the album release, the band put out the single and video for “Bad For Your Heath” which touches on digital addiction, so when you’re finished listening to all this music, turn that screen off!
Christine
“Get It Right” by Fleur Electra
Also releasing a new EP this week was the Toronto’s Fleur Electra, who celebrated with a video for the new single “Get It Right”
The dreamy new song marks the start of Anna Klein’s “colourful, girl-pop era in the depths of 2020 chaos,” as she goes on to elaborate that it’s “a sweet nostalgic love song about leaning into possibility, even when you know better. I initially started writing it without a specific person in mind, however at the time, I was seeing someone. The relationship was going surprisingly well, but I was proceeding with caution. I allowed myself a moment to deeply romanticize the connection, knowing it would translate well given the song’s sonic sincerity. It feels like floating through a cloud of optimism, still with the underlying noise of reality. Musically, this track is inspired by electroclash, early 2000s synth pop, and my daydreams. He didn’t end up getting it right in the end, which I think was the icing on the cake for the overall tongue-in-cheek nature of the song.”
Check out the video below (unless you have coulrophobia ) and the new EP, Strike The Match, is available now!
“Kyle Hangs Ten” by Motherhood
I’m not gonna lie, it was the description of Motherhood as “Canada’s Evil Beach Boys” in the press release that got me to listen to this song, and I’m glad I did!
“Kyle Hangs Ten” is the new single from the New Brunswick trio, an unabashed surf rock jam, with the band explaining “Usually by the time we release a song, the original influences have been hidden under layers of subterfuge, with our attraction to play far outweighing our ability to stay put. With 'Kyle Hangs Ten,' we were trying to write the most surfy song we could without over-complicating a genre that, at it’s core, is just swaggy country music. Adam had a drum beat that we jammed over, eventually falling into a Miserlou-adjacent guitar melody and filling the rest with pastiches.”
The track is actually a new version of “Kyle Hangs at Noon” off their last album Thunder Perfect Mind; the band couldn’t decide on the tempo for the song, so they made them both!
“In the end, the slow version (the spaghetti western “Kyle Hangs at Noon”) made the record and the fast version ("Kyle Hangs Ten") didn’t,” explains the band, “but we still love the song. Kyle promised us he’d be able to hang 10 by the time this song comes out. If not, he hangs at noon.”
Kirk
“phantom disasters” by Eva Pekárová
Vancouver’s Eva Pekárová released her debut solo album last week, KAIROS, centering on the ancient Slovak shepherding flute, the fujara. She says she’s taking the unique instrument “into innovative genres (like dark jazz, electronic, and atmospheric) –exploring shifting time, memory, and the immigrant experience.”
The album is sweeping and atmospheric, which you can hear in the haunting song “phantom disasters” below!
Kirk
