Ottawa's Ears Perk Up: Three Albums Worth Your Full Attention
Ottawa's music community has always had a deep love for ambitious, genre-defying sounds — and this month's crop of new releases from Aldous Harding, MUNA, and Broken Social Scene delivers exactly that kind of challenge and reward.
Whether you're curling up at a Glebe café, wandering Lansdowne on a Saturday afternoon, or just looking for something to fill your earbuds on the Transitway, these three records deserve a serious listen.
Broken Social Scene – Remember the Humans
There's always been something distinctly Canadian about Broken Social Scene — the sprawl, the ambition, the willingness to throw everyone into the room and see what happens. On Remember the Humans, the Toronto collective leans hard into that identity, pulling threads from every corner of their discography and weaving them into something that feels simultaneously nostalgic and startlingly new.
For Ottawa fans who caught BSS at Bluesfest over the years, this record will feel like reconnecting with old friends who've been on a very long, strange journey. There are moments of lush orchestration, scrappy indie rock bursts, and the kind of communal vocal chaos that only a band with this many members can pull off. It's not always tidy — but it was never supposed to be.
This is the kind of album you play loud on a Sunday morning with the windows open.
MUNA – [New Release]
LA-based MUNA has quietly become one of the most exciting pop acts working today, and their latest builds on the breakthrough momentum of their self-titled record. Crisp production, enormous hooks, and lyrics that feel pulled from late-night journal entries — MUNA writes pop songs that hit harder than they have any right to.
For Ottawa's LGBTQ+ community, which has long championed MUNA's music at Pride events and local queer nights, this release will feel like a victory lap. It's the kind of album that fills a dancefloor and makes you feel genuinely seen at the same time.
Aldous Harding – [New Release]
New Zealand artist Aldous Harding is in a category of her own. Her music resists easy description — it's folk-adjacent, art-pop-curious, and deeply unsettling in the best possible way. Her new record continues the tradition of wrong-footing listeners just when they think they've got her figured out.
If you've ever spent a late night at Pressed or an intimate show at the NAC's Fourth Stage wondering why more music sounds like this, Aldous Harding is the answer. She's the kind of artist Ottawa's arts-focused crowds tend to discover and never stop talking about.
A Good Week for Your Playlist
Ottawa Life Magazine's round-up of these three records is a reminder that Canadian and international indie music is in a genuinely exciting place right now. Between Broken Social Scene waving the Canadian flag and MUNA and Harding pushing pop and folk into unexpected territory, there's no shortage of quality listening this spring.
Catch any of these on streaming platforms this weekend — your ears won't regret it.
Source: Ottawa Life Magazine
