Lebanese-Canadian artist Raphaela shares “Take It Back,” a nostalgic, uplifting pop single caught between memory and uncertainty. Vivid and cinematic, the track looks back at a love that once felt effortless while confronting how different it has become.

The idea took shape during a writing session in Nashville with Jordan Lake. When asked what she wanted to write about that day, Raphaela noticed an old Dolly Parton vinyl titled I Wish I Felt This Way at Home. Surrounded by the excitement and inspiration of Nashville, the phrase made her consider what happens when a person who once felt like home suddenly doesn’t anymore.

The title initially suggests wanting a relationship back, but its meaning gradually shifts. “Taking it back” becomes less about reversing an ending than revisiting an earlier time when everything was new and full of possibility. “There’s a sadness in knowing you may need to let something go while still longing for the version of it that once felt like home,” Raphaela explains.

That conflict crystallizes in the lyric, “Would it be all for nothing if I leave you now?” It’s a question Raphaela sees extending beyond romance to friendships, careers, or anything into which we have poured significant parts of ourselves.

“When we’ve invested so much of ourselves into something, even when we know in our gut that it’s time to leave, we can spend so much time wondering whether walking away somehow erases everything that came before it,” she says. “I think the song lives in that tension – knowing something can have been meaningful, beautiful and real, even if it isn’t meant to last forever.”

Months after the initial Nashville session, Josh Bogert joined Raphaela to reshape and produce the track, translating that push and pull into cinematic pop. Its structure mirrors the progression: verse one lives in memory, verse two introduces doubt, and the chorus is where the two collide.

“Take It Back” marks the first chapter in a larger body of work that moves through memory, doubt, grief, longing, relapse, and eventually hope. Here, Raphaela establishes the story at its point of uncertainty, before the songs that follow venture deeper into its emotional fallout.

Continuing to push beyond the sound established on their breakout debut EP, Toronto indie quintet Next Week’s Washing shares “Clear Eyes,” a massive, dreamy, and cinematic new single that brings alternative rock energy together with densely layered shoegaze. Taken from the band’s forthcoming sophomore EP, Spiral, set for release on November 13th, the track represents their most expansive recording yet, combining walls of textured instrumentation with upfront vocals and a growing confidence in the sound they can distinctly call their own.

“Clear Eyes” was the first song Next Week’s Washing wrote after completing their debut EP. Rather than starting over, the band approached the track as an opportunity to take the foundations they had already established and push them somewhere bigger.

“We wanted to take the sound we had begun to develop with the first six songs and push it forward,” the band explains. “We took a lot more time building layers into the recording, and the result is our biggest (sonically) sounding song yet.”

That progression can be heard throughout the track. While the instrumentation leans heavily into the band’s shoegaze influences, Next Week’s Washing deliberately pushed the vocals forward in the mix, allowing the songwriting to remain present within the song’s towering layers of guitars. The result lands somewhere between the immersive atmosphere of shoegaze and the immediacy of alternative and indie rock, bringing the different sides of the band’s identity into sharper focus.

For Next Week’s Washing, that convergence of influences is precisely what makes “Clear Eyes” significant. Rather than sounding indebted to any single reference point, the band sees the track as one of the clearest representations yet of what their own sound can become.

“It’s probably the truest blend of all our influences that we’ve ever written,” they share. “It feels like something only Next Week’s Washing could’ve written, and we’re proud of that.”

The song’s title arrived only after the music and lyrics were already complete. Fans of the television series Friday Night Lights, the band found themselves returning to Coach Taylor’s recurring mantra, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” The phrase unexpectedly aligned with the meaning they had already discovered within the song, giving the track its name and adding another layer to its perspective.

“Clear Eyes” describes how it feels to move through life when you’re young and everything is in flux. Sometimes you thrive on the uncertainty and at other times you really want straight answers or a direct path forward. You can get knocked around quite a bit, even when you try to plan ahead or think things through. Ultimately the song is a call to trust your instincts and enjoy the ride – we’re all in it together.

One of the recording’s defining moments emerged just as spontaneously. The song’s breakdown was initially conceived as entirely instrumental, but after hearing the completed arrangement in the studio, the band felt something was missing. They wrote a short poem to test over the section, unsure whether the words would work rhythmically against the music. When Miles stepped up to record it, the experiment immediately clicked.

That instinctive moment reflects the larger evolution behind “Clear Eyes.” As Next Week’s Washing progress into the era of their second EP, the band are becoming increasingly comfortable expanding their arrangements without sacrificing the directness at the heart of their songwriting. The scale may be growing, but their perspective remains grounded in documenting the world as they experience it.

“When we’re writing a song, we like to try and embody the perspective that our generation has on the world,” the band explains. “We feel like it’s part of our duty as we’re coming up with the next generation of great music.”

Toronto singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Maya Killtron returns with “Touch This Body,” a playful, groove-soaked new single that explores one of pop music’s most overlooked subjects: keeping romance alive after the honeymoon phase. Blending post-disco, funk, soul, contemporary R&B, neo-soul, and quiet storm influences, the track captures the confidence, chemistry, and intentional effort required to keep long-term love feeling exciting years after the first spark.

While countless love songs celebrate new attraction or heartbreak, “Touch This Body” turns its attention to what happens after the butterflies settle. Inspired by Maya’s own reflections on lasting relationships, the song embraces the reality that intimacy doesn’t simply sustain itself. It evolves, requiring playfulness, vulnerability, and the willingness to rediscover one another.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

The song is about keeping the fire in long term love. The hard work that we’re only just starting to talk about. Touch This Body is another great collaboration with Producer HiFiLo. I told him we wanted to go in a Prince and Sheila E direction and he delivered the perfect blend of both – a fantastic mood for love 10yrs in. It just felt like the perfect song for a video. Rob Dunn both DOP, Director and owner of the beautiful 1962 Chevy Impala, took the reins for the video highlighting the best in lowrider culture to mirror the vibe in production.

2. What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

We wanted to highlight a feeling from a different time. Toronto in the 80’s, more specifically South Etobicoke but in technicolour. There’s so much you can feature in Toronto and I want to do that with all of the videos for this album!

3. What was the process of making this video?

We took 2 days to shoot the video on location in South Etobicoke Toronto. On day with the car and another on location with the cameo guys and our night shot. All of the editing magic was done by Rob Dunn in post. A very small team so we could move around and shoot quickly and head to the next location. A huge team effort all around to complete the project in 2 short days. Plus shout out to Gus Tacos Etobicoke for our post shoot dinner!

Canadian artist Addi John unveils his new EP, Love & Misfortunes, a deeply personal collection about loss, family, change, and learning to move forward. Entirely produced, performed, and mixed by Addi himself, the seven-track project emerged from a period of upheaval and ultimately centres around a simple but hard-earned realization: everything changes, and that’s okay.

The larger record began taking shape after Addi lost his father three years ago. Within six months, his mother and brother had moved out of the country and his former band, Lost in Japan, had broken up. Faced with several major changes at once, he turned to music as a way of processing them, writing songs that explore where different members of his family found themselves following his father’s passing.

“I want people to feel as if they’re not alone and to have a sense of hope for the future,” Addi shares. “The hope I want them to see is that change can be scary but, in order for us to grow, we need to accept that everything changes.”

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically?

I wrote this song after a wedding I was attending played a two door cinema club song called “What You Know”. It was as simple as, “hey I like this song, I want to make a song like that”. I chose to visualize it because I felt like it needed some kind of story to go with this song.

2.What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

I always wanted to make an 80s-over-the-top montage video. The idea was what if we have someone trying to work out and get in shape to get in the flow like daniel from the Karate Kid (1984). The concept seemed like a really fun idea so I brought it to the director of the video (Josh Ford at Josh Ford Media) and he loved it and we went with it.

3.What was the process of making this video?

Josh had a connection with a local gym in Windsor, Ontario so we shot the majority of the scenes in the gym. Honestly, we were just walking around and looking at all the equipment at the gym and were trying to figure out the worst ways someone could interact with the equipment and then we shot that. The whole video took us probably 2 hours. We kept running into the washroom to add an insane amount of water to my face to make it look like I was sweating profusely. It was a lot of fun to make!

Montreal-based producer, songwriter and composer JoJo Worthington shares “Ever Ender Star Infinity,” a sweeping alt-folk anthem that turns romance into something celestial. Dark, dreamy and consumed by longing, destiny and connection, the track draws together spirituality, stardust, fantasy and the enormous persistence of desire to capture something relatively unfamiliar within her catalogue: a love song.

“‘Tu as une bonne étoile.’ You have a good star,” JoJo explains. “Meaning, you’ve been blessed and there is someone watching over you.” It’s the first single to be shared from JoJo’s upcoming EP, BAPTIZED II, set for release on November 6th, 2026.

That idea stretches back to conversations about space and spirituality, and the idea that everything is fundamentally connected. Fascinated by the fact that the atoms within our bodies are assembled from material that predates the Earth itself, JoJo began folding the language of stars, space and elemental matter into the song.

The song’s fantastical language also emerged from another passions – Magic: The Gathering. While opening a package of Dragon Shield card sleeves, JoJo came across the description “Emme: God of Ender & Ever.” The phrase immediately captured her imagination, recalling the duality of “Forever Evermore” from her 2022 BAPTIZED I EP and eventually helping shape “Ever Ender Star Infinity.” Other cards, including “Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn,” provided further fragments for its lyrical universe.

Musically, “Ever Ender Star Infinity” finds JoJo unexpectedly embracing pop instincts she has spent much of her career pushing against. Rather than keeping that immediacy contained, however, she blows it outward into something vast, pairing the song’s melodic core with layers of distorted guitars and the expansive production sensibilities of co-producer William Crann.

“Ever Ender Star Infinity” marks the next chapter in a much larger story. The track forms part of BAPTIZED II, the second saga in a concept project JoJo has been developing for the last six years. Following BAPTIZED I, the forthcoming release continues a spiritual narrative that will ultimately culminate in the full-length album ARMOUR OF GOD, bringing together material from both chapters alongside new songs.

Within that journey, “Ever Ender Star Infinity” feels like a significant arrival. Spirituality has long permeated JoJo’s songwriting, but here the search for connection becomes tangible and deeply human. The divine and romantic begin to overlap: atoms, stars, fantasy and faith all become different languages for expressing the same connection.

For an artist whose work has so often occupied the space between earthly and celestial worlds, “Ever Ender Star Infinity” turns JoJo’s gaze outward toward infinity only to find something profoundly personal staring back.

Award-winning singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Kate Schutt releases “Moonsick,” an ethereal jazz-pop reverie inspired by one of the most unforgettable moments in Austrian writer Christiane Ritter’s 1934 memoir A Woman in the Polar Night. Blending timeless songwriting with luminous adult contemporary arrangements, the single captures a transcendent encounter with the Arctic landscape, where moonlight becomes so overwhelming, so beautiful, that the boundary between self and nature begins to dissolve.

Drawn from Ritter’s account of overwintering in the remote Svalbard archipelago, “Moonsick” centers on a night after months of darkness and relentless storms when the sky suddenly clears, revealing an immense full moon suspended above snow and ice. The brilliance of the landscape leaves Ritter spellbound, unable to tear herself away from the frozen wilderness despite the danger surrounding her.

“She loses all sense of self in the magical light,” Kate explains. “It is so bewitching that she wants to lose herself. The song is about this dissolving of self, the desire to dissolve into something so brilliant, so elemental, so bright, so pure.”

The title perfectly encapsulates Ritter’s extraordinary emotional state. More than simple admiration, “Moonsick” describes complete surrender to wonder – a rare moment where perception, imagination, and reality blur together beneath an Arctic sky.

That fascination with moonlight also places the song within a much older musical tradition. From “Moon River” and “Moonglow” to “Paper Moon” and “How High the Moon,” generations of songwriters have found inspiration beneath the night sky. Rather than imitate those classics, Kate set out to write something that sounded “newly old-fashioned”: a song that feels timeless while quietly revealing itself to be unmistakably contemporary.

“When I write a song like ‘Moonsick,’ I try to imagine someone like Ella Fitzgerald singing it,” she says. “What kinds of songs would those great vocalists like Ella, like Billie Holiday, like Sarah Vaughn, be drawn to want to sing if they were alive today?”

That philosophy shapes every aspect of the recording. Rather than relying on modern production trends, “Moonsick” unfolds with understated elegance, allowing space, melody, and musicianship to carry the emotional weight. Glenn Patscha (Bonnie Raitt, Ollabelle) creates an otherworldly harmonic landscape through his shimmering keyboard performance, while Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Lizz Wright) delivers a lyrical guitar solo that feels as timeless as the song itself. Dan Rieser’s nuanced drumming adds delicate swing and sparkling texture, giving the recording an effortless sense of motion without ever disturbing its dreamlike atmosphere.

Kate’s connection to Ritter’s memoir stretches back more than a decade. The instant she finished reading A Woman in the Polar Night, she knew two things: she had to see the Arctic with her own eyes, and one day she would write music inspired by Ritter’s remarkable story. Those ambitions eventually led Kate to Svalbard in both 2016 and 2024, where standing inside the same vast landscapes transformed admiration into lived experience.