I have said it before. I am saying it again: If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that people love music videos. Here’s the proof: The videos below — the 24 most-popular clips on the site this year — have amassed thousands of views. And there’s plenty more where they came from: Just click the Video Premiere and Sponsored tags at the bottom of the page to see tons of others clips that have debuted and screened here. Now, to the list:
1 | Rory Block | Murder Most Foul
Rory Block goes big with a 20-minute video for her cover of Bob Dylan’s recent landmark Murder Most Foul.
The closing track from her Dylan covers set Positively 4th Street, Murder Most Foul was originally the centerpiece of Dylan’s 2020 album Rough And Rowdy ways. The track is a haunting, sprawling epic that delves into the cultural landscape of 20th-century America, weaving together history, music, politics and tragedy. Block’s interpretation brings her signature blend of raw emotion and masterful guitar work to Dylan’s poetic lyrics, adding her own distinct voice to this modern classic.
2 | Ontarians | Trippin’
Ontarians are Trippin’ in more ways than one with their dreamy psychedelic anthem and footloose video.
A preview of the rootsy pop-rockers’ sophomore album More How It Is, Trippin’ is a fittingly, well, trippy throwback to the paisley-clad halcyon days of Cosmic American Music and the Laurel Canyon / Sunset Strip sound. As the band massage the sweet spot between country, folk, pop and rock by layering jangly guitars and swirly sonics over a lazily loping groove, their smoky vocal harmonies spin a confessional tale that will ring true to anyone who’s tried to put their best foot forward as they fall head over heels.
3 | The Hearts | The Long Goodbye
The Hearts head out on a long, lonely ride in their reflective roots ballad and video The Long Goodbye.
The first preview and centerpiece of the Edmonton Americana sextet’s EP Traces, The Long Goodbye shares a title with a Raymond Chandler ’50s noir classic, but its sound is firmly anchored in the classic sound of ’60s and ’70s California folk-rock — complete with lush keyboards, gorgeous harmonies and a vibe that balances warmth and melancholia as beautifully as a late-summer sunset off the Malibu coast. If you want it all, you can have it — unlike the lovelorn protagonist who’ve lost sight of their love, their direction and themselves.
4 | Tom Wilson Tehohàhake | Death Row Love Affair
Tom Wilson Tehohàhake shows us more of his Beautiful Scars on his single and lyric video Death Row Love Affair.
Wilson calls the song’s sentiments “words of love from the silence between heartbeats.” The recorded track fills those silences perfectly: With no percussion to interfere with its almost free-time introspection, it paints an exquisitely unhurried portrait of wistfulness. Completing that portrait was a task Wilson entrusted to producer/engineer Gary Furniss, who also played guitar, bass and keys on the track, augmenting Wilson’s own lead vocal and acoustic guitar. Thompson Wilson provided additional vocals, with Jesse O’Brien on piano and Aaron Goldstein on pedal steel and baritone guitar.
5 | Laurie LeBlanc | BBQ Dance
Laurie LeBlanc is cooking with gas on his single and video The BBQ Dance.
Acadian country superstar LeBlanc throws on his apron and welcoming us all to the backyard with the English version of his paean to the immortal pleasures of a warm-weather pig-out. As compelling a jingle for carnivorous consumption as you’ll ever hear, the song is like any great outdoor repast: tangy, expertly seasoned and giving off plenty of smoke. One listen, and it’ll be stuck in your head until fall comes, pulling you to your feet over and over again to dance with a rib in your hands and a big, greasy grin on your face.
6 | Giorgia Fumanti | Stay Close To Your Heart
Giorgia Fumanti gets under your skin with her inspirational single and video Close To Your Heart.
Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in your own head. That’s when you need someone like Fumanti to remind you there’s a certain other organ you could be listening to instead. On her new single, the Montreal pop/classical crossover artist urges us all to never stray too far from our emotional core. Her immaculate soprano soaring over lush orchestration, Fumanti lays out the reasons to always heed that most frequently name-dropped yet perennially underestimated of strengths: the power of love: “I enjoy the lyrics very much,” she says, “and the melody is a perfect choice for my voice. The lyrics speak about going through life’s experiences — the joys, the sorrows — while remaining ‘close to your heart’ to navigate the journey of a wonderful life here on Earth.”
7 | Les Stroud | One Giant Farm (ft. Slash)
Les Stroud enlists none other than Slash for his environmentally themed rocker and video One Giant Farm.
For decades now, Stroud has been using his platform as an award-winning filmmaker, composer, singer-songwriter, author and world-famous adventurer to lobby passionately for the preservation of the natural world. With the release of his new song One Giant Farm, he’s inviting us all along to make a deeply emotional reckoning with a particularly devastating reality: The sacrifice of marine life on the altar of human greed and whim. A track from the newly remastered and expanded vinyl edition of Stroud’s 2019 album, Mother Earth, One Giant Farm decries the harrowing destruction of our oceans in the service of nothing of value. It’s a protest only Stroud could make so convincingly and poetically. And with guitar god and fellow committed conservationist Slash in tow, the track becomes a stirring rallying cry against the exploitation of marine creatures.
8 | Kina | Get You The Moon (ft. Snøw)
Kina reached the musical stratosphere as the first Italian artist with a billion Spotify streams, thanks to his rocket-powered single Get You The Moon.
At just 24 years old, Kina has reached multiple platinum certifications with his moody, lo-fi pop anthem. Utilizing the talents of writer and vocalist Snøw, Get You The Moon saw a snowball effect on social media.The track flooded TikTok pages all over the globe and went viral on SoundCloud, earning its status as a viral sensation. The single’s unique flavour of melancholy lo-fi brought to the forefront a new sound; before Kina, very few lo-fi producers had reached the global success and recognition he has seen.
9 | Queen M | High Road
Queen M takes the High Road at the rocky end of a relationship in her single and video.
For her latest release, the acclaimed Ontario soul singer-songwriter shares another intoxicating slice of vintage R&B that offers some hard-earned life lessons: “We all know the particular disappointment the end of a relationship can bring,” Queen M says. “When life unexpectedly goes south, you can choose to live in regret or you can pull up your boots and take a ride on the high road.” Produced and co-written by longtime collaborator Craig Smith, who also plays guitar on the track, High Road is another showcase for Queen M’s highly emotive vocals, honed through her previous experience of performing Motown and Bob Marley covers.
10 | Liona Boyd | Canadian Summer Dreams (ft. Olivia Newton-John)
Liona Boyd and Olivia Newton-John head back to the cottage in a new version of their summery single and video Summer Dreams.
Nostalgia has a poignant way of folding in upon itself. That’s what’s happened with Summer Dreams, the 2013 duet between Canadian guitar icon Boyd and Australian pop superstar Newton-John. When it was first released, the song was a simple, heartfelt ode to weekend vacations past. Now that it’s been rereleased in a remixed and updated production, the record has taken on the extra dimension of a moving tribute to a friendship not even death could dim. “Back in 2013, I asked my dear girlfriend of many years, the late Olivia Newton-John, to be my guest on a song for an album I was releasing that year,” Boyd says. “She happily agreed, and I flew down with my producer, Peter Bond, to record her near her home in Jupiter, Florida. It was a great experience. In 2013, she was absolutely at the top of her game vocally, and the entire session lasted little more than an hour. At the end, Olivia did some improvising that was so beautiful it gave us both goosebumps.”
