Home Front channel the gritty spirit of Edmonton on ‘Games of Power,’ plus new music from Gord Downie, Rufus Wainwright and the perfect song to kick off summer

Thanks for reading the Toronto Star’s Weekend Music Digest, a roundup of new music, concert listings and more.

This week’s roundup includes new music from Home Front, Amaarae, Blood Ceremony Navy Blue, Rufus Wainwright, plus the long-awaited collaboration between the late Gord Downie and Bob Rock.

Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist.

Album of the Week

Home Front: Games of Power

Anyone who has visited Edmonton during its long winter months will be familiar with a particular sense of grittiness that’s draped over the city’s downtown core — an unyielding hardness that pervades both its urban landscape and the spirit of those who call it home.

On their debut full length album “Games of Power,” Edmonton’s Home Front — a band led by vocalist Graeme MacKinnon (Wednesday Night Heroes) and musician Clint Frazier (Shout Out Out Out Out) — seek to capture that spirit of the Alberta capital with pummeling drum machines, lush synths and exuberant vocals that make you want to dive headfirst into the icy North Saskatchewan River. The result lands somewhere between post-punk and new wave, shot through with a style that is distinctly Edmonton.

“We call it ‘bootwave’,” MacKinnon explained to the Star. The term refers to the unique sound and cadence of boots walking on frozen concrete, or crunching through a frozen layer of snow. “Joy Division and New Order — you can’t hear those records without thinking about Manchester. We wanted that same feel when you listen to ‘Games of Power’ — this is what is in our well, in our water.”

That might come off as a bit bleak, but in fact, “Games of Power” is a blast. Featuring sturdy production from F — cked Up’s Jonah Falco and Shout Out’s Nik Kozub (see: hand claps), Home Front dabble in thrashing punk (“Nation”), muscular industrial (“Real Eyes”), nervy post-punk (“Born Killer”), lush new wave (“Overtime”) and even krautrock ( “Games Of Power”). Picture Robert Smith in a Oilers jersey, on his fifth pint of stale beer.

“England was heavily on our radar when we were writing music, but again, it kind of takes on its own mutated form when it passes through the prairies, and especially since we do the majority of our writing and recording is always in winter,” MacKinnon said. “So I always think that that adds a different that adds a flavour that’s pretty unique.”

Star Tracks: More of the best new (and newish) music

Amaarae: Co-Star

It’s been close to three years since Amaarae arrived on the scene like a luminous alien with her brilliant debut album “The Angel You Don’t Know,” and close to two years since the Ghanaian Afro-R&B fusionist exploded in popularity after a remix of her song “Sad Girlz Luv Money” went viral on TikTok. On Thursday, Amaarae made her highly-anticipated return with the zodiac-themed “Co-Star.” The track opens with a sparkling shower of harp, before dropping into upbeat Afrobeats groove, as Amaarae surveys and sorts her potential lovers into astrological buckets: “Crazy like Aquarius / Text me when you’re serious.” Bursting with anticipation, it’s a perfect song to kick off the summer.

Blood Ceremony: Powers of Darkness

For more than a decade and a half, Blood Ceremony have carried the torch of 70s heavy metal and 80s doom metal, drawing sounds from bands like Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and Pentagram while continually pushing the genre into interesting new directions. On “Powers of Darkness,” the latest single from the Toronto band’s new record “The Old Ways Remain,” Blood Ceremony turn the clock back even further, channelling the spirit of The Zombies for a crunchy detour in psychedelic pop, as frontwoman Alia O’Brien swaps her typically sneering vocals for a buoyant hook and sugary background harmonies. It’s a slight, but welcome departure, though diehard fans need not worry — the “The Old Ways Remain” also contains plenty of riff-heavy guitar jams and spine-tingling flute performances from O’Brien.

“This album is a continuation of our sound, although with every album we try to push ourselves in some new musical directions,” songwriter and guitarist Sean Kennedy said in a press release. “Having said that, we can’t escape ourselves, and I think it will fit alongside our previous releases.”

Navy Blue: Chosen

Over the past several years, Navy Blue — a.k.a Sage Elsesser, a Brooklyn-born pro skateboarder and visual artist — has quietly proven himself to be among the most proficient rappers and producers to emerge from New York’s loosely defined “experimental/alternative” hip hop scene. On his recent Def Jam debut, “Ways of Knowing,” Elsesser teamed up with the English producer Budgie for a collection of sleekly laid-back tracks that go down like iced tea on a hot summer’s day.

Elsesser and Budgie’s chemistry finds its pinnacle on “Chosen,” which stacks a breezy live drum loop on top of an obscure slice of 90s R&B. “God utter truth to who gon’ use their lungs / Breathin’ out this music, breathin’ in a ton,” Elsesser raps with characteristic dexterity on the first verse, casually dropping references to Yasiin Bay, Lionel Messi and Bell Hooks. “Built me a lil’ ark, I’m ready for the flood whenever it comes,” he concludes with a swaggering confidence, tempered only by a seductive air of nonchalance.

Rufus Wainwright feat. Andrew Bird and Chris Stills: Harvest

I don’t typically get excited about covers, let alone cover albums, but I’ll admit to being intrigued by Rufus Wainwright’s upcoming “Folkocracy” — an album of reinvented folk standards featuring an absolutely stacked list of musicians, including Brandi Carlile, David Byrne (!), ANOHNI (!!), Chaka Khan (!!!) and more.

Ahead of the album’s June 2 release date, Wainwright shared his cover of the 1972 Neil Young classic “Harvest,” which he performs alongside singer and violinist Andrew Bird and musician Chris Stills. And it’s great! Aided by a nice bit of mandolin, some rustic fiddle and a touch of slide guitar, the singers settle into a series of lovely and effortless harmonies, delivered with just enough of the theatrical flair that Wainwright has built his career on. “To record ‘Harvest’ was a pure joy,” Wainwright said in a press statement.

More new releases

Newly announced concerts

Toronto Concert Calendar: A selection of upcoming shows across the city

FRIDAY, MAY 5

The Saskatchewan-raised, Toronto-based indie pop artist is known for his dense and colourful lyricism and experimental sounds. He plays Massey Hall in support of his acclaimed album “Norm,” which came out in February.

SATURDAY, MAY 6

The veteran English indie-electro group is finally returning to Toronto, after their show was postponed last fall. Tickets to the original Oct. 11 date will be honoured for the new date.

Fresh off a pair of performances at Coachella (where he brought out Ciara), the Hong Kong-born singer and member of the K-pop group GOT7 swings through town on his “Magic Man” world tour on Saturday.

SUNDAY, MAY 7

The progressive metal titans are touring in support of their tenth album, the hilariously named “Vaxis — Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind.”

MONDAY, MAY 8

The Grammy-nominated R&B/pop singer recently debuted her new single “Special occasion” with a COLORS session.

TUESDAY, MAY 9

The art-rock/glam-rock experimentalist will play their biggest Toronto show yet in support of their latest album, “Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds).”

THURSDAY, May 11

If you managed to get tickets to one of blink’s two Toronto shows, make sure you arrive early to catch the opening set by the quickly rising hardcore band Turnstile. They’re already huge and are only going to get bigger.

If you haven’t seen the Japanese psych-rockers before, you are in for a treat. Bring ear plugs, and prepare to get weird.

Miscellanea from around the music world

RIP Ontario folk legend Gordon Lightfoot, who died earlier this week at the age of 84.

Here’s a fun look at how Lightfoot’s 1976 track “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgeral” — a 6-minute ballad that details the real-life tragedy of a freighter ship that sunk on Lake Superior — became an unlikely Top 40 hit.

“The melodies are so powerful and he’s such a good storyteller and such a beautiful lyricist,” the Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan said in the 2020 documentary. “And the combination of those things just really makes for a great song.”

Timbaland made a song using an AI-generated “Biggie” vocals. Here’s Andre Gee on “Our Growing Rap Dystopia:”

“Obviously, Biggie is not here to grant permission to use his likeness, just like he wasn’t for the Kardashians when they put him on a shirt, or for gentrifying Brooklyn hipsters who paint him on murals and co-opt “Spread love it’s the Brooklyn way,” the original “I’m a progressive white person” badge before “Black Lives Matter.” They’d probably never live in his era of Brooklyn (which is why it was so underserved), but apparently, it doesn’t matter because he’s not here to point that out. He was killed at 24 in what many believe was a foolish war of egos instigated by vessels of an industry that went on to get every penny they could out of him. He’s had his vocals splotched together and sold with artists who debuted years after his 1997 death. His legacy is akin to a cloth that’s been wrung bone-dry. And now that figurative rag is set to be artificially doused all over again.”

Taylor Swift fans enter a subway car: A horror film:

Interesting (and quite funny) observation from Phoebe Bridgers, as quoted in this excellent profile of The National by Amanda Petrusich.

When I asked Phoebe Bridgers about the band’s reputation for giving voice to a certain strain of middle-aged male angst, she said, “Something middle-aged men and teen-age girls have in common is the act of finding yourself, and being kind of self-conscious. Maybe some beliefs that you’ve held on to for a long time are finally being shed. The teen-age girl in me is obsessed with the National, and feels very spoken to and seen by them, maybe for the exact same reasons that they speak to middle-aged men.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — a canon-making institution that Courney Love recently accused of “sexist gatekeeping” (only 8 per cent of its inductees are female) — announced its list of 2023 inductees on Wednesday.

In: Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners.

Snubbed: Iron Maiden, Cyndi Lauper, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes, Warren Zevon, Joy Division/New Order and Soundgarden.

Give Kreayshawn her flowers:

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