Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

A late jazz bloomer, vocalist-pianist Horn first rose to prominence in her 50s, although she had been championed much earlier by Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. Horn’s best on ballads. And the best of the bunch here are Harold Arlen’s “Ill Wind” and Duke Ellington’s “Take Love Easy,” both featuring trumpeter Roy Hargrove. But what Horn does to “Yesterday” is a wonder to behold: with unexpected nuance and emotion, she makes Paul McCartney’s old chestnut as fresh as a bouquet of spring flowers.

She burst onto the scene flaunting her liberated self with Exile in Guyville. Although she’s now married and become a mother, the 36-year-old Phair hasn’t mellowed a bit. Her first album in five years carries a Parental Advisory warning, mostly for H.W.C., a rollicking tribute to the apparent health benefits of sperm. But the album’s real strength lies in cool, assertive rockers like “It’s Sweet” and “Rock Me.” When Phair sings “I’m your ordinary, average, everyday, sane, psycho supergoddess,” who can argue?

The High Priestess of Soul gets the reissue treatment she deserves with this handsome four-CD set, featuring music recorded from 1964-66. Simone sang the songs of everyone from Cole Porter to Chuck Berry, but it’s her own work that transformed her from lounge singer to political icon: the haunting portraits of “Four Women,” the stirring gospel of “Take Me to the Water” and the African-inspired “Come Ye.” When she sings “this whole country is full of lies” on her civil rights anthem “Mississippi Goddam,” the explosive message still hits home.

One of the biggest stars of the early MTV era, Cyndi Lauper will be forever associated with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” the 1983 hit from her debut album She’s So Unusual. Cyndi was indeed an unusual at the time. With her shock of orange hair, thrift-store dresses and high-pitched, Betty Boop voice, the native of Queens, New York reflected a kooky, carefree attitude, especially in her video for “Girls.” The song, with its spirited message of female empowerment, grew to become an iconic feminist anthem.     Always embracing a myriad of styles, including pop, new wave, reggae and funk, Cyndi never repeated the commercial success of She’s So Unusual. After releasing several softer, more adul...

This Montreal-based quintet has made an impact with its dreamy romantic pop and songs about love and death. The band combined those twin themes perfectly on its last album, In Our Bedroom After the War. Here, vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan conjure up a more stripped-down sound of suitably haunted beauty, especially on “Dead Hearts,” “Winter Bones” and the chiming “I Died So I Could Haunt You.” Torquil knows of what he sings: his father, Shakespearean actor Douglas Campbell, died last fall.

It’s been five years since her last album, but Sarah hasn’t been at all idle. The Juno-winning artist has been busy fighting to save Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment from development. Sarah’s fifth album features urgent, peppy songs like “Captive” and “The City” that owe more to her rock roots in the band Weeping Tile than her recent country-tinged recordings. As always, the Burlington-born activist’s greatest strengths are her evocative lyrics and a voice as pure as the rural wilderness she so deeply cherishes.  

Sarah McLachlan’s fans are used to waiting. There was a six-year gap between the Canadian pop icon’s best-selling Surfacing album and 2003’s Afterglow, due to the death of her mother and the birth of her first daughter. This time, it’s taken seven years for Sarah to deliver a new album. “I write slowly and have two kids, that’s the most honest answer,” explains the Grammy Award-winning songstress. “Everything sort of fell apart for me personally a couple of years ago, and it’s sort of a long, slow road coming back and redefining myself.”     What fell apart was Sarah’s marriage to drummer Ashwin Sood, with whom she has two daughters, India and Taja. The dissolution of that relationship and t...

As the frontman of the Tragically Hip, Gord gives the beloved Canadian group a poetic depth not normally associated with rock bands. On his third solo album, the head Hipster gives full vent to his literary muse, quoting poet Al Purdy and referencing the western novel The Ox-Bow Incident among other things. But the album, whose title is taken from a term for desertion used in a General Custer biography, boasts a lively, indie-rock spirit, full of peppy songs about fatherhood, the environment and what it means to be Canadian.  

“My 15 minutes started an hour ago,” raps Drake on “Fireworks,” the opening number featuring Alicia Keys on his debut album. True, Drake’s fame—both as a rapper and an actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation—precedes this long-awaited release. Working with hip-hop heavyweights like Jay-Z and Kanye West, the Toronto-born artist shows off his lyrical skills on tracks like “Light Up” and “Show Me a Good Time.” But on the deeply romantic “Find Your Love” Drake also proves himself a most promising crooner.

Think Christina Aguilera has been left behind in Lady Gaga’s glitter dust? Think again. The “Dirrty” singer is back with a futuristic album that promises to be one of this summer’s hottest blockbusters. Featuring the lead single “Not Myself Tonight” and its racy video, Bionic is a return to the raunchy, spirited sound of 2002’s Stripped. It comes four years after the more retro Back to Basics and two years since the birth of her son, Max. “Bionic is the definition of the superhuman abilities we as women have in everyday life,” says Christina. “I’ve grown and changed and never felt sexier than I do now.”     It’s a far cry from The New Mickey Mouse Club TV show, where she once appeared alongs...