New Music Friday: August 28, 2026
🇨🇦 Five Canadian Releases to Add to Your Weekend Playlist
Friday is here, and Canadian music has delivered another strong batch of new releases. From intimate folk and acoustic songwriting to psychedelic rock and a deeply Canadian musical tribute, this week’s New Music Friday has plenty to discover.
Here are five Canadian albums and EPs we think deserve your attention — plus a couple of new singles worth adding to the playlist.
🎧 LE REN
Don’t Be Funny Without Me
Album | Royal Mountain Records
Five years after her acclaimed debut Leftovers, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Lauren Spear — better known as Le Ren — returns with her sophomore album, Don’t Be Funny Without Me.
Released today, the 10-track album finds Le Ren expanding her intimate folk sound with fuller arrangements while maintaining the emotional directness that has become central to her songwriting. The album explores love, jealousy, heartbreak and the complicated ways those feelings overlap.
The record includes previously released songs including “Free Wheeling,” “Every Age” and “Gold in California.” Don’t Be Funny Without Me is available now through Royal Mountain Records.
Listen: Don’t Be Funny Without Me
🎧 TRUE MOUNTAIN LAUREL
Angel So Bad
Album
A brand-new Canadian collaboration arrives today as True Mountain Laurel, the Vancouver duo of singer-songwriters Haley Blais and Sam Lynch, releases its debut album, Angel So Bad.
The eight-track collection blends acoustic folk, folk-pop and singer-songwriter traditions. The album opens with its title track, followed by “Holy Hell,” before moving through songs including “Bird of Prey,” “East of Anything,” “Sunny” and “The Trial.”
With two established Canadian artists coming together under a new name, Angel So Bad is one of the more intriguing debut releases of the week. Angel So Bad is out today.
Listen: Angel So Bad
🎧 SUMMERSETS
Pine Trees in a Perfect Row
Album
For anyone who believes Canadian music should tell Canadian stories, summersets has delivered one of the week’s most interesting records. Ottawa duo Kalle Mattson and Andrew Sowka return with their second album, Pine Trees in a Perfect Row, a stripped-down collection rooted in Northern Ontario, small-town identity, memory, class and the experience of coming home.
The album includes “Move Back Home,” a song inspired by the growing reality of younger generations leaving expensive urban centres and returning to smaller communities. Another standout, “Canada,” takes a characteristically personal look at Canadian identity and place.
Recorded live off the floor with producer Jim Bryson, Peter von Althen of Skydiggers and additional contributions from Christine Bougie and others, the album has an immediate, organic quality. Pine Trees in a Perfect Row is out today.
Listen: Pine Trees in a Perfect Row
🎧 ELEPHANT STONE
ASHA
Album
Montreal’s Elephant Stone celebrates 20 years with its 10th release, ASHA. The new album represents one of the band’s most personal recordings to date. The title comes from the Sanskrit word for hope and honours frontman Rishi Dhir’s late mother.
Dhir produced, engineered and mixed the record at Sacred Sounds in Montreal. The album features the current Elephant Stone lineup and includes a guest appearance by Amy Millan on the closing track, “Spirit, Take Me Away.”
With ASHA, Elephant Stone continues to explore its psychedelic-rock roots while taking the music into a more intimate and emotionally direct space. ASHA is available today.
Listen: ASHA
🎧 BASIA BULAT
Bouquet
EP | Secret City Records
Montreal singer-songwriter Basia Bulat revisits some of the music from her 2025 album Basia’s Palace with today’s new acoustic EP, Bouquet.
The five-track release presents reimagined acoustic versions of songs from the earlier album, offering a more stripped-back perspective on Bulat’s songwriting. The EP includes “Right Now (Bouquet Version)” and “Laughter (Bouquet Version),” with Bulat joined by musicians including Drew Jurecka, Ben Whiteley and Naomi McCarroll-Butler.
Bouquet is out today through Secret City Records.
Listen: Bouquet
🇨🇦 More Canadian Music Out Today
BRYAN ADAMS: “The Ballad of Terry Fox”
One of Canada’s biggest musical names turns his attention to one of the country’s most enduring heroes. Bryan Adams has released “The Ballad of Terry Fox,” a new song inspired by Terry Fox’s historic 1980 Marathon of Hope. The song was written for Sean Menard’s documentary Run Terry Run, which explores Fox’s journey and legacy.
A music video directed by Menard accompanies the release.
Listen: “The Ballad of Terry Fox”
SHY-ANNE HOVORKA: “Raise My Fist”
Ojibwe singer-songwriter Shy-Anne Hovorka brings together more than 30 Indigenous and ally artists on “Raise My Fist,” a new single and video celebrating Indigenous strength, community and reconciliation.
The collaborative recording features artists and voices from First Nations, Métis communities and organisations across Canada, making it much more than a conventional single release.
The song was inspired by the story of former Long Lake #58 First Nation Chief Judy Desmoulin.
Listen: “Raise My Fist”
🍁 Maple Music Lounge Pick of the Week
SUMMERSETS — Pine Trees in a Perfect Row
This week’s pick goes to summersets for creating an album that feels unmistakably Canadian without relying on clichés. Pine Trees in a Perfect Row looks at Northern Ontario, small-town life, affordability, memory and the complicated relationship many Canadians have with the places they call home.
It is personal, specific and rooted in place — exactly the kind of Canadian story we love to uncover.
🎶 WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?
Have a favourite Canadian release out this Friday? Tell us what you’re playing and who we should be listening to next.
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