Tag Archives: Kathleen Edwards

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2025

09 Friday Jan 2026

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

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Are singles just the equivalent of a musical snack for you? Need something a bit meatier, a bit more filling? Well, here’s the list for you. Twenty-five full length LPs gathered from throughout the year that was 2025. There’s rock, there’s pop, there’s jangle. There’s love, there’s despair, there’s political commentary. Dig in and pick out your own faves.

Without further delay, here is Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2025:

1. Absolute Losers In the Crowd
2. The Sonny Wilsons Maybe
3. Strange Neighbors People Pleasing People
4. The Cords The Cords
5. The Rockyts Parkwood Manor
6. Tamar Berk ocd
7. Banda AL9 The Ninth King
8. Tom Henry Songs to Sing and Dance To
9. The Jeanines How Long Can It Last
10. Jean Caffeine Generation Jean
11. Lone Striker Lone Striker
12. Eytan Mirsky All Over the Map
13. Atticus Roness Power Pop World Domination
14. Greg Pope The Roar of Silence
15. Jody and the Germs Love Descends
16. Chris Lund Surveillance
17. The Mayflies USA Kickless Kids
18. The Wellingtons Baby Moon
19. Richard Turgeon Shungite
20. Dropkick Primary Colours
21. Ryan Allen Living on a Prayer on the Edge
22. The Spindles Wavelength
23. Jonathan Personne Nouveau Monde
24. The Loft Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same
25. Tristan Armstrong The Lonely Avenue

My top five albums got a lot airplay from me this past year. PEI’s Absolute Losers wowed me with their sonic revamp, pretty well reinventing their sound. And it was pretty good to start with. The Sonny Wilsons album was so fresh, so straight up poprock goodness. What can I say about Strange Neighbors that I haven’t written already? They write great songs, they play in a great style. I won’t call out every LP on the list but make no mistake, I really like all that appear there. Each one had some special thing that set it apart. And breaking it down, old faves and new discoveries both appear here in roughly equal measure. You can check them out as they were featured in the original posts by clicking the hotlinks.

Now I don’t think it’s just because it’s my day job (political scientist), but the world seemed pretty intensely political in 2025. You couldn’t avoid it, it was all over social media, conventional media, and the water cooler. And that showed up in the music as well, even a genre as generally apolitical as power pop. So I’m singling out 3 albums as my top political poprock albums of 2025:

1. Dish Pit Violet Dish Pit Violet
2. No Jersey Mondo Cool
3. David Woodard Everything Belongs

Mersey is never far from my mind, as in the distinct chimes of Merseybeat. Every year I single out some record that really revives the spirit of its golden era while still making it their own. This year’s best riff on the Beatles recognition goes to:

Rad Venture Merseyside

My policy on legacy artists is that I cover them when they put out something that grabs me but I’m not going put them in the lists above. What would be the point? They’re already getting plenty of media oxygen, they don’t life support from this little blog. But I did spent some considerable time with a few of them in 2025. Kathleen Edwards put out a stellar record, Tristen never lets me down, and what a surprise with those two albums by the boys from Stranger Things. Here’s my legacy artist shout out of notable albums for me from 2025:

1. Kathleen Edwards Billionaire
2. Tristen Unpopular Music
3. Mae Martin I’m a TV (Welcome Distraction Version)
4. Jake Bugg A Modern Day Distraction
5. Wilderado Talker
6. Jesse Welles Middle
7. Finn Wolfhard Happy Birthday
8. Djo The Crux
9. Suzanne Vega Flying With Angels
10. OK Go And the Adjacent Possible

Does it seem like overkill to single out the same band twice for the same award? I’m gonna risk it because this band killed with their second double-album collection of covers. This year’s special award of awesome poprock merit goes to:

The Half-Cubes Found Pearls: Pop Treasures Volume 2

Thanks for dropping by this past year and digging all these great finds with me. Check out your faves on the lists above and don’t be afraid to buy an album or two to support these artists well into their musical dotage.

Photo courtesy Francois Fibotte Flikr collection.

Not only in it for the money: Kathleen Edwards and Mike Trebilcock

28 Sunday Sep 2025

Posted by in Artist Spotlight

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Here are two albums working a money motif but not in any direction you might expect. Whether it’s millions or billions they’re referring to the musical results are solid gold.

I can’t stop listening to Canadian Kathleen Edwards’ new album Billionaire. It’s a lush acoustic Americana affair offering plenty of variety within that genre. From the killer should-be hit single opener “Save Your Soul” to the spare vocal testimony of album closer “Pine” this is an LP that is just so easy to keep putting on. There’s not a weak song in the batch and the performances really showcase Edwards’ vocal flexibility. Songs like “Save Your Soul” and “Little Red Ranger” have the folk pop sheen of Suzanne Vega, the latter even featuring a Toronto Maple Leafs shout out. “Say Goodbye, Tell No One” feels more Natalie Merchant to me. Then there’s “FLA” and “Other People’s Bands” where I think Brandi Carlyle would be a more appropriate comparison. The band is also pretty fantastic, utilizing a Tom Petty slow swagger to showcase Edwards’ lyrical social commentary on “When The Truth Comes Out” and “Need a Ride.” Title track “Billionaire” is the album outlier, featuring a very different vocal and instrumental attack. Lighter, more airy, like being pulled in close when someone has something important to say just to you. When Edwards sings ‘if this feeling were a currency I would be a billionaire’ the emotional imagery is striking. Get a copy of Billionaire, it’s worth every dollar.

Canadian band The Killjoys enjoyed some time in the sun with recordings spanning the mid to late 1990s. But solo the band’s main singer and songwriter Mike Trebilcock is mostly known for cranking out quality b-movie horror film soundtracks. But we do have his criminally overlooked 2001 longplayer Shield Millions for some sense of where stardom might have taken him. The record is an amazing repository of reverb, jangle and outrageously good hooks, delivered in both power pop and country hues. This kicks off with the obvious radio-ready single, “Stark Raving Glad.” This takes me back to the 1990s poprock feel of the Northern Pikes or Eugene Edwards. “Sale of the Century” turns things toward an Americana vein that features strongly on the album. Sometimes it’s light and jaunty (“Snow Angel Blues”) or acoustic singer/songwriter (“Box of Failures”) or even drawing on a New Orleans elan (“Dog Hill”). “Stacked Back to the Wishing Well” adds a few more Nashville notes to the country vibe. I hear a dark Elvis Costello echo across both “Today’s Crossword” and “This Side of Human.” Shaking us out of the Americana ambience, “Shut Us Up (and Make Us Smile)” has a grungier pop sound. “Pretty Girl Bruise” wraps things up by gearing down into an introspective Bruce Cockburn-like tune. Love the horns on this song! We really could use more Mike Trebilcock like this.

Money is super helpful is living is your aim. While every artist does a bit of starving to get to their creative destination, these recordings suggest these two have arrived and are ready to meet your cash contribution. Just visit the hyperlinks above.

Photo ‘A boy and his tunnel’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.