With over two decades of genre-spanning work behind him, acclaimed Canadian songwriter Julian Taylor unveils Anthology Vol. 2; a reflective, wide-ranging collection that traces the evolution of an artist who has never confined himself to a single lane. Featuring songs recorded across a 25-year period, the album captures Taylor’s enduring commitment to storytelling, live musicianship, and emotional honesty.

Across Anthology Vol. 2, Taylor revisits songs recorded in vastly different contexts from early-career material to recent collaborations, unified by recurring themes of love, resilience, kindness, nature, and perseverance. Much of the album was recorded live off the floor with real instruments, a deliberate choice that reflects Taylor’s belief in authenticity over polish. “This album has taught me that it’s really important to venture in all sorts of new directions and always go back to see where you came from so that you can forge a path to where you’re going,” he shares.

Anchoring the release is the focus track “Hunger,” a traditional folk song with a very Celtic feel originally written by Graeme Williamson. Taylor was inspired to record the song after it was shared with him by friend and Canadian Songwriting Hall of Fame-inductee Frank Davies. “When I first heard the song, it was the lyrics that really struck me,” Taylor explains. “With everything going on in the world right now, hunger remains such a devastating and unnecessary reality. There are people with enough money to eradicate it in 24 hours, but they choose not to. Frank and I decided that we would donate a portion of the song’s sales to the Band Aid Charitable Trust.”

Recorded in England with longtime friends Sian, Rae, and Michele, and engineered by Dave Williams, Taylor’s version of “Hunger” expands the original acoustic arrangement into a full-band performance. Recorded live and organically in the studio, the track leans into a Celtic-influenced folk tradition, creating a sound that feels at once timeless, gentle, and deeply unsettling. “It was recorded in one day at a studio in Great Britain on a lovely property where we all got to stay for a couple of nights,” Taylor recalls. “We weren’t really sure which direction it was gonna take, but I’m really proud of the one that it went. It’s haunting, it’s mysterious, it’s touching, and it’s real.”

Japan-born, Canada-raised artist Justin Maki returns with “Old School Heart,” a moody, groove-forward R&B/pop-rock single that confronts unrequited love and emotional ambiguity head-on. Dark, passionate, and deeply self-assured, the track finds the FCLMA–winning singer-songwriter drawing a clear line in the sand, demanding commitment in a dating culture increasingly defined by non-answers and half-measures.

“I was on my first writing trip in Nashville when I accidentally encountered a new posse of friends at a networking bar called Red Barn,” Maki recalls. After a few drinks and a spontaneous suggestion to write together, Maki linked up with Laura Ann Short and Steven Martin, booking a session just days later at Round Hill Music. “I started jamming out to a sample drum loop that made my head bop. I then came up with this John Mayer-esque riff and after some more time of refining the musical idea, I recorded the guitar. That became the foundation of our creation.”

What emerged was a familiar story with a sharper edge: unrequited love paired with a bold demand for clarity. “‘Old School Heart’ is my way of speaking up,” Maki states. “Of asking for the commitment that I seek, of expressing my values, and of asserting my value.”v

The name “Old School Heart” came later, following collaboration with JUNO Award–winning production duo VAŪLTS (David Mohacsi and Maïa Davies), who produced Maki’s forthcoming record. “The song’s original iteration was ‘My Damn Heart,’” he explains. “David and Maïa loved the song but felt the title could be stronger, more evocative, more visual, and that the message could be delivered more gently without losing its weight.”

The revised title reframed the song’s core truth. “The reason I long for commitment is because I’m an old soul,” Maki says plainly. “There’s nothing cryptic about the message. The song just says it like it is.”

Following the September 2025 release of her debut EP I Kill Spiders and the subsequent single, “To Her,” Montreal singer-songwriter Libby Ember shares “Let Me Go,” a melancholic, dreamy indie-folk single that sits in the uncomfortable space between holding on and letting go. Nostalgic and emotionally raw, the track captures the quiet contradictions of a relationship that lingers long after both people know it isn’t right.

Inspired by a complicated relationship rooted in mutual fear, Libby reflects on the tension of staying when leaving feels just as painful. “I felt like someone was holding onto me because they were afraid of letting me go,” she explains. “Even still, I knew that it was wrong to keep dragging the relationship on when we knew it was wrong for the both of us. It also touches on the fact that the opposite feels wrong. Both letting go and not letting go feel wrong.”

What sets “Let Me Go” apart is its careful attention to detail in both instrumentation and texture. Delicate flute lines weave through the arrangement, while reversed sounds subtly fall into the landscape, creating a hazy, immersive atmosphere. “We were very particular about the instrumentation,” Libby shares. “We also emphasized the detail in the imperfection as a means to drive the emotion forward. The voice isn’t always polished, the sounds can be a bit random. It makes the song feel more raw.”
As the song unfolds, its instrumental outro becomes a space for reflection, allowing the listener to linger in the emotion long after the vocals fade. “It makes me reminisce,” Libby says. “It pushes me back to that time of strong emotions and gets me in my own head. Once my voice cuts out at the end, the instrumental has a way of making me tune out the world and just be in the music.”

Following his ongoing exploration of music as a conduit for healing and connection, Gabriola Island-based composer, vocalist, and meditation leader Mark Fenster unveils his latest single “Sacred Yearning” – a meditative, neo-classical journey blending the spiritual traditions of Indian Classical music with Western strings and vocalese. The track conveys a heartfelt longing to connect with the Divine, capturing both the devotion and joy inherent in musical collaboration.

Featuring a unique fusion of instruments and styles, “Sacred Yearning” showcases Fenster’s collaboration with Sharanjeet Singh Mand, whose vocals and musicality guided the session, and Rishi Rajeev on Tabla, whose energy added vibrant rhythm to the piece. “Sharanjeet’s beautiful spirit and musical prowess collage in a manner that allows music and the love it has to flow with ease and power,” Fenster notes. “I adore his openness and freedom of expression, as I do the blessings of the Tabla and spirit brought to us by Rishi Rajeev on this piece, his very first recording.”

As part of Fenster’s ongoing musical philosophy, “Sacred Yearning” reflects a devotion to spirit, art, and being. “The yearning for the Divine is a yearning to discover all that we already are,” he says. “We must allow this light to shine without distraction or diversion. It’s about just being you and finding celebration in that discovery!”

“Sacred Yearning” conveys a sense of calm, energy, and spiritual uplift, blending meditative Indian Classical elements with Western Neo-Classical textures: strings, Hurdy Gurdy, vocalese, Sitar, and Tabla, all working in harmony to create a transcendent listening experience.

New York–based alt-pop singer-songwriter Lauren Minear returns with “Perfect Girl,” a razor-sharp, darkly playful exploration of what it means to be a woman expected to shapeshift endlessly to please others. Written from the perspective of a fictional, satirical character, the track leans into the absurdity of “perfection” and the way chasing it strips away humanity in the process.

Built on deliberately hard, robotic production choices, “Perfect Girl” captures the inhumanity of trying to be universally palatable. Minear originally drafted the song in 2021, but it found its true place during the creation of her new album, Boxing Day (released October 17th), a project rooted in anger, honesty, and reclamation. At a co-writing retreat, the track came fully into focus with the help of Dan Weeks, Dan Barrenechea, and Leah Wheatley, who pushed the melody and arrangement into sharper, more subversive territory.

“This song is unlike anything else I’ve ever written,” explains Minear. “It plays with themes of body privilege and power to illustrate how the construct of perfection hurts and disconnects everyone (including men).”

Though the track is built around a fictional voice, “Perfect Girl” taps straight into Minear’s longstanding thematic terrain: womanhood, mental health, self-perception, and the quiet wars we wage between who we are and who we’re told to be. “I don’t deliberately write about the female experience,” she says, “but I am a woman, a mother, and a psychotherapist trained in a feminist relational approach – it comes very naturally to me.”

In the end, “Perfect Girl” lands as defiant, mischievous, and liberating – a mirror held up to the impossible standards women navigate every day, delivered with a wink, a snarl, and a fully embodied alter-ego.