Happy Canada Day from the good folks here at Progarchy! We hope you’re rocking out with suitable Canuck tunes. But, if you are looking for some new music, why not check out these three albums from the top bands descending from up in the True North?

Brass Camel, Brass

Since they have just completed a magnificent musical tour across Canada, it’s worth drawing the band Brass Camel once again to your attention. I highlighted this album as one of the best last year:

Here’s an obscure one for you, but it will seduce your heart and mind. A genuinely unique mixture of hard rocking funk plus an intricately overlaid tapestry of prog. Dive into this album (the follow-up to their 2018 debut) by sampling the prog cred on tracks like “King for a Day,” “Easy,” and “Last Flight of the Vulcan.” I’d say one of the strongest contenders for Prog Song of the Year is “Last Flight of the Vulcan,” because the way that song takes flight is truly thrilling. As it fades out, you just want it to circle back and never end. The album itself ends perfectly with “Only Love.”

https://progarchy.com/2022/12/26/top-10-albums-of-2022/

New Pornographers, Continue as a Guest

This Vancouver supergroup burst on the scene in 2000, with their debut Mass Romantic. It was unmistakable power pop perfection, announced via the glorious single “Letter from an Occupant,” which featured Neko Case’s impressively soaring vocal trajectories.

Next, two classic albums followed after the requisite time for their consummate craftsmanship to reach fruition: Electric Version (2003) and Twin Cinema (2005).

Then, over the ensuing decades, five more gems were released in a steady stream for the audio enjoyment of the cognoscenti.

This year, the New Pornographers show no signs of senescence, as the glorious disc Continue as a Guest (2023) demonstrates their musical skill to be still of the highest level.

It’s worth the effort to hunt down this album for the art rock masterclass given on standout tracks like “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” “Angelcover,” “Wish Automatic Suite,” and the dazzling title track, “Continue as a Guest.”

Crown Lands, Fearless (Deluxe)

Last but certainly not least, I have to mention what I already know is the Album of the Year for 2023. It’s the masterpiece Fearless from the mighty Crown Lands.

No other album in my collection has received more repeated listens this year than this one. I alerted you to the lead track, “Starlifter,” back in February. Then, with the release of the whole album in March, it has been in heavy rotation in the succeeding months.

Despite the many top contenders for Prog Album of 2023 that have issued forth since then (such as the perfect-score five-star wonders from The Winery Dogs, Yes, Riverside, Haken, and Tanith), I now have indisputable proof that Crown Lands must be awarded the top prize for 2023. That proof is the Deluxe edition of Fearless that was made available last weekend.

Added to the nine tracks that comprise the Fearless album, we now have eight instrumental versions (so you can do Crown Lands karaoke, or practice playing the musical parts on your own instruments—and the number is eight, because the album track “Penny” is already a guitar instrumental in the tradition of prog palate cleansers like Steve Howe’s “Mood for a Day” or “The Clap”); not only that, we also have seven live versions of tracks from the studio version of Fearless (and it’s seven, not nine, since the album tracks “Context” and “Right Way Back” date back to 2021, and we’ve already witnessed live audio and video versions of those songs in the intervening months).

The Deluxe edition live versions of the Fearless tracks are nothing short of amazing. Usually bands sound worse live than on record. But with Crown Lands, we get versions of the studio tracks that sound even heavier and even more energetic than the carefully produced prog perfection originals.

Somehow, Crown Lands manages to capture on this recording a special energy that they obviously have when they play live. Kevin’s riffs are even darker and more menacing, and the synth sounds punch and crackle with tactile gusto. Cody’s singing is impassionate and immediate, hitting all the high notes and even adding extra sentiment in the heat of the moment. The drum fills are astonishing, as they fly from speaker to speaker and you feel like you are standing behind the kit next to Cody as he kicks out the songs with enhanced verve. Kevin’s guitar solos and bass lines induce ecstasy, which is symbolized by all those bonus fretboard dive-bombing finger slides and power chord zoom blasts.

Fearless (Deluxe): You have to hear it to believe it, and you won’t be able to pick a favorite version of the album—live or studio—since they each have their own special charms. All that the listener can do after hearing Fearless (Deluxe) is to pronounce the winner of Album of the Year for 2023: unquestionably, it has to be awarded to the invincibly fearless and unstoppable Crown Lands.

All hail Cody Bowles and Kevin Comeau! Prog on, eh? Happy Canada Day!