No music comes from a vacuum. Every artist has influences who have inspired their work, so, for the latest Show & Tell, we touched base with a few Canadian artists to find out what albums have had the greatest impact on their careers. They responded by shouting out iconic Britpop classics and recent Exclaim! cover stars, and one artist even shouted out an album she witnessed being tracked first-hand.
Avenoir
Ginuwine… The Bachelor by Ginuwine
Photo: YMX Beats
If you’re looking for the origin point for Avenoir’s new album Mirage and its moody, open-hearted R&B, check out Ginuwine’s 1996 album The Bachelor. The Edmonton-hailing artist tells Exclaim! that it “was one of the first records that showed me how R&B could be both vulnerable and swaggering at the same time,” laying out the blueprint for how he approaches his own raw, intimate music. “Sleek but human,” Avenoir says. “Futuristic but tender.”
Begonia
Live by Donny Hathaway
Photo courtesy of the artist
Begonia is known for her powerhouse performances — hence why she once released a live album after just one studio LP. It makes sense, then, that she chose a live album from 1972 as the one that inspires her most. “Donny Hathaway is amongst my favourite singers of all time, and this album is one of my favourites from his catalogue,” she notes. “What inspires me most about it is that raw shared energy between the band and the crowd. Especially when they start singing the chorus of ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ together. That’s a room I’d love to teleport into if I had the chance!” Seeing Donny Hathaway live — talk about a Fantasy Life!
Andrew Neufeld of Comeback Kid
Frengers by Mew
Photo: Rebeca Castellani
If you love Canadian hardcore music, you love Comeback Kid — and that cult appeal is what vocalist Andrew Neufeld loves about 2003’s Frengers from proggy Danish indie band Mew. It has “some of the most clever songwriting I’ve ever heard,” Neufeld notes. “This is an album that links people together in a when-you-know-you-know type of way, and has been a huge influence to my musical path.”
Kevin Comeau of Crown Lands
Relayer by Yes
Photo courtesy of the artist
Prog duo Crown Lands are entering their next album cycle with two instrumental EPs, Ritual I and II, which take listeners on an expansive sonic odyssey. Multi-instrumentalist looks to Yes’s 1974 album Relayer as one of his inspirations for the new direction. “The opening side-long epic ‘The Gates of Delirium’ has been our guiding star while we have been recording our new record,” he reveals.
Alanna Finn-Morris of Fionn
Wet Leg by Wet Leg
Photo courtesy of the artist
Vancouver twin sister duo Fionn make pop rock that’s fun, upbeat and filled with hooks — not unlike Wet Leg’s punchy tunes from their 2022 debut. Alanna Finn-Morris tells Exclaim!, “I was already hooked when I heard their single ‘Too Late Now,’ but quickly realized that I loved all of their other songs just as much. This album ticks all the boxes for me, with catchy hooks the whole way through, colliding with a jaded disillusionment.” Speaking of catchy hooks, Fionn released their EP I Put My Make Up On back in August.
Ása of Kingdom of Birds
Elastica by Elastica
Photo courtesy of the artist
“What I want to write are punk songs that are secretly pop songs,” Kingdom of Birds singer-guitarist Ása says. “I want music to be raw and dissonant but surprisingly catchy, and to me Elastica’s debut [from 1995] is a perfect model of this.” This mission is carried out on grungy punk tunes they’ve been releasing in advance of their upcoming album Vermin, due out in February 2026.
Carson McHone
Volcano Volcano by Steven Lambke
Photo: Colin Medley
Carson McHone was present in the studio for initial tracking of Steven Lambke 2022’s album Volcano Volcano, and it inspired the Texan-born, Canadian-based singer-songwriter as she went about making her new album Pentimento and its vivid, tenderly pastoral chamber folk. “Steven Lambke knows a thing or two about fundamental elements. In fact, he has a degree in physics. He is also a poet and knows a thing or two about philosophy, likely enough to challenge the existence of space-time and even matter itself,” McHone tells Exclaim! “It’s a classic, it’s elemental. It’s physics!”
Megan James of Purity Ring
Double Negative by Low
Photo: Ginger
From one exploratory duo to another, Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick hails the minimalist magic of Low’s 2018 album Double Negative. “I’ve loved Low for a very long time, and when I first heard Double Negative, it kind of blew my mind,” the singer notes. “It feels sparse, but it’s laden with weight and emotion, like hymns dragged through barbed wire.” Purity Ring’s new self-titled album takes a similarly adventurous approach to textured electronic sounds. “Rest in peace Mimi Parker,” adds Roddick.
Tush
Human Beings by Seal and Second Toughest in the Infants by Underworld
Photos courtesy of the artist
The core elements of Tush’s sound can be seen in the albums the group’s members cite as inspiration. On the one hand, singer Kamilah Apong cites Seal’s underrated 1998 album Human Beings, which she calls “his ‘least commercially successful’ release, but real ones know this is his best album. It has aged like fine wine.” And then there’s producer Jamie Kidd’s pick, Underworld’s 1996 dance classic Second Toughest in the Infants, which he calls “my introduction to dance music that was cerebral.” Hear that musical melting pot on the new single “Push.”
Larissa Loyva of Voice of Hearing, Kellarissa and P:ano
Different Class by Pulp
Photo courtesy of the artist
Vancouver vocalist Larissa Loyva’s latest project is called Voice of Hearing, and it’s even more meditative and hymnal than the music she used to make as Kellarissa. When it comes to her most inspirational album, however, she looks to something a little more flamboyant. “I am obsessed with Pulp’s Europop sensibilities: minor chords, simmering buildups and explosive climaxes; self-deprecating yet eloquent lyrics,” she says. “I could never imitate Pulp, but I’ve deliberately distilled their synth-slathered sound into my own songs for years. WWJD?”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source exclaim.ca ’
