Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Last time around, she collaborated with Beck and Billy Corgan, with mixed results. This time, Faithfull picks the perfect partners for her tortured cabaret-singer persona: iconoclasts Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. Cave contributes “Crazy Love,” with its gypsy strings, and the strange “Desperanto,” which features Faithfull rapping. Harvey produced five songs, including the disturbing “No Child of Mine” and “The Mystery of Love,” which rivals Faithfull’s best work on her 1979 classic Broken English. Chilling stuff.

MacDonald is one of Canadian music’s little-known treasures, a gifted singer whose songs straddle traditional Cape Breton tunes and modern electronic sounds. It’s an engaging, hypnotic fusion that has lent itself to choreography by Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens and remixing by Transglobal Underground. Her latest CD is another strikingly original work, featuring the chanting “Murmur of Pearl,” the jazzy title track and the dreamy “Song for this Child,” with its pulsing rhythms and rich, cascading vocals. Jan. 18

Once again, Gwen tries to inject some hip-hop flavor into her dance-pop sound. But where Love.Angel.Music.Baby. shimmered with the sheen of something fresh, Stefani’s latest is just impossibly dull. The Neptunes-produced tracks are the worst, especially “Wind it Up,” a limp remake of Black Eyed Peas’ horrible “My Humps.” Stefani’s painful attempts at rapping are best avoided and only the Nellee Hooper-produced “Early Winter” and “Wonderful Life” are remotely musical. More sour than sweet, in fact.

Bootylicious fame awaits her. The Ottawa native is only 18 and just finishing high school, but her label (same as Beyoncé’s) is making the big push for a U.S. breakthrough. It just might work. Although managed by her chaperone mother, or “momager,” Chanté has been making all the right moves lately, landing major U.S. modeling contracts and hooking up with top songwriters and producers. Catchy, hip-hop flavored tracks like “Fallen” and “Been Gone” may still be tamer than Beyoncé’s, but Chanté’s maturing fast.

Mittoo was a founding member of The Skatalites and a legendary Studio One keyboardist who backed Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and others. His music played a crucial role in reggae’s foundation and he left a rich recorded legacy of his work in both Jamaica and Canada, where he lived through the 1970s and ’80s. This reissue of a rare album, recorded in Toronto in 1971, captures Mittoo at his best on gems like the majestic instrumental “Grand Funk” and the soaring, gospel-tinged reggae workout “Soul Bird.”

Canadians are tops at reality TV. J.D. Fortune won the contest to become the new INXS singer, and preening vocalist Lukas Rossi beat out 15 contenders to front a three-headed monster with Motley Crüe’s Tommy Lee Jones, Metallica’s Jason Newsted and Guns N’ Roses’ Gilby Clarke. Yes, Fortune once lived in his car and Rossi was, in his own words, “broke as a joke.” But are their victories really worth celebrating? Judging by this histrionic, hideous recording, no. One song title here says it all: “Social Disgrace.”

Canada has its share of prodigies, including this Saskatchewan native who, at the age of 10, became musical director and organist at her local church. Now in her 20s, Taylor has emerged as a jazz diva worth watching. Her second album, produced by keyboard great Doug Riley, showcases her impressive range, belting out Louis Jordan’s “Knock Me a Kiss” and Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things” or delivering a swinging rendition of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” and her own bluesy “Little Black Dress.”

With roots in Halifax’s hardcore scene, Wintersleep has emerged, quietly, as one of Canada’s most promising new alt-rock bands. The group has opened for Pearl Jam, and singer Paul Murphy sometimes shares Eddie Vedder’s throaty howl, especially on hard-rock nuggets like “Jaws of Life.” But Wintersleep’s moody, atmospheric soundscape mostly has the ring of something refreshingly vital and original. And ballads like “Fog,” “Insomnia” and the epic “Nerves normal, breath normal” boast a dark, hypnotic power.

Waits, a superb and eccentric singer-songwriter, can divide a room faster than a religious debate: some rave about his balladry; some can’t stand his vocalizations. Waits’ peculiar genius is in full roar on these 54 new and rare recordings, arranged thematically on a three-disc collection. Highlights include his theatrical cover of Kurt Weill’s “What Keeps Mankind Alive,” the torchy “Little Drop of Poison” and his highly political “Road to Peace,” a riveting account of a young suicide bomber’s attack on a Jerusalem bus.

It’s been nine years since McKennitt’s last studio album. The doyenne of Celtic music retreated after the drowning death of her boyfriend and founded several charities, including one promoting water safety. She later traveled widely, exploring the Celtic connections in Greece and Turkey that inspired her latest recording. Featuring bouzoukis, ouds and other exotic instruments, moody songs like “Caravanserai” and “Sacred Shabbat” form a rich, haunting soundtrack for McKennitt’s latest mystical journey.