K'naan's loving ode to refugees, and 5 more songs you need to hear this week

Here at CBC Music, we're always on high alert for new songs by Canadian artists.

This week, we're listening to new tracks from:

• Carly Rae Jepsen.
• Maggie Andrew.
• K. Forest.
• Joyia.
• K'naan. 
• Idman.

Scroll down to find out why you need to listen, too.

What new Canadian tunes are you currently obsessed with? Share them with us on Instagram @cbc_music. 

To hear more about these standout songs, tune in to CBC Music Mornings every Thursday (Canada-wide) with producer Ryan Chung and host Saroja Coelho, and Here and Now with Gill Deacon every Wednesday afternoon (in Toronto). Both are available via CBC Listen.

'Shy Boy,' Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen is back with "Shy Boy," her first new single since last year's The Loneliest Time. Picking up on the disco elements on her last album, "Shy Boy" is a slinky synth number where Jepsen channels her inner Donna Summer. "Shy boy, stir me up/ You didn't even know you got the Midas touch," she sings as her falsetto floats over the chorus, trying to lure said shy boy out of his shell. Just in time for the sweaty summer nights, "Shy Boy" is a sensual summer anthem that'll heat up any dance floor. While she hasn't confirmed it yet, Jepsen has revealed to fans that she is working on a companion project to The Loneliest Time (perhaps similar to her previous b-side projects, though she didn't describe it as such); if "Shy Boy" is our first glimpse of this release, then consider us hooked already. — Melody Lau

'Better Than You,' Maggie Andrew

Summer's a pitch-perfect time to fall in love, but you know what it's also good for? Cutting yourself off from that fool who doesn't deserve you so that you can focus on yourself — and Maggie Andrew has just the banger for that. The Halifax-raised, L.A.-based singer-songwriter just dropped her second single of the year, "Better Than You," and it's filled with biting one-liners directed at that no-good ex, candy-wrapped in early 2000s influence that starts with Avril Lavigne and leads to Olivia Rodrigo. "It's not my fault that you're such a jerk/ your favourite band is Walk Off the Earth/ and I wish that you would/ push you off the edge if I could," she sings, holding nothing back as she punches out each verse. Andrew's 2021 single with American musician and producer blackbear is nearing four million streams on Spotify, dropping the same year she won a SOCAN Foundation Award for young Canadian songwriters and earlier this year she was nominated for African Canadian artist of the year at the East Coast Music Awards. With "Better Than You," co-written with Carleton Stone and Willie Stratton and co-produced by Stone and Corey LeRue (formerly of Neon Dreams), Andrew continues her steady ascent. — Holly Gordon

Editor's note: strong language warning.

'Thoughts and Prayers,' K. Forest

Toronto's K. Forest released his latest album, Pray for a Beautiful Sky, on June 20 and moody, broody "Thoughts and Prayers" is its quasi-title track. The R&B musician imbues this notoriously hollow expression with meaning, describing trauma and the challenge of overcoming it:

Could you please help me up?
On my feet to stand in the wind
Devil's throwing more jabs
And I'm tryin' not to flinch

It's a vulnerable outpouring, made more poignant by the song's warm, enveloping production: gentle strings, a sternum-caressing beat, and a magical rising keyboard line that suspends time and temporarily keeps the outside world at bay. Fans in Montreal can catch K. Forest at Bar le Ritz on July 8. — Robert Rowat

'Indecision,' Joyia

"Sweeter than tangerines on summer days, that's what loving's always like with you," sings Toronto DJ and R&B singer Joyia on her glossy new single. A smooth R&B backbeat slowly heats up, transforming into a bubbling dance track as she ponders where her relationship with a love interest stands. The harmonies add a rich layer to the pumping instrumentals as she sings, "I say yes but I just can't say no." Joyia has always strived to be vulnerable in her songwriting, and that openness translates to listeners on the track. "From composition, songwriting, recording, engineering, production, and mixing [this song is] 100 per cent me," she explained in a press release. Anyone tangled in a situationship can find catharsis in Joyia's sincerity, which flows through all the way until the end. — Natalie Harmsen

'Refugee,' K'naan

Refugee crises remain a constant in our modern world. From those who have to walk kilometres in the snow through the bitter Canadian winter to those who risk their lives crossing the treacherous oceans, all with the hope of finding sanctuary in a new home. On the release of his new single, "Refugee," K'naan shared his reason behind writing the song on Instagram: "In the dictionary refugee is synonymous with displaced person, fugitive, outcast. In Somali, the word feels like drifter or homeless. I wanted to write a song that felt like a home for those of us made homeless by conflict." 

The Somali-Canadian singer, rapper and poet has long shared his personal story of displacement in his music. K'naan fled Mogadishu during the civil war in Somalia with his family when he was 12, and they eventually settled in the Rexdale neighbourhood of Toronto. He's never shied away from revealing the more harrowing and heartbreaking realities of his experience. "Refugee" marks his return to music after a prolonged hiatus, his last solo album was 2012's Country, God or the Girl, and he released a smattering of singles up until 2016, appearing on songs with Keane, Riz MC and Simple Plan. This new song comes to us at a fraught time, when the plight of refugees and migrants is becoming increasingly dire. K'naan offers "Refugee" as an ode and a reclamation of what it means to be displaced by forces outside of one's own control — as he sings repeatedly on the chorus: "Somebody called me refugee/ And I wear it proudly." — Kelsey Adams

'Still,' Idman

Toronto R&B artist Idman is gearing up for the release of their debut EP, titled Risk, out July 14 via Arista. To mark the recent announcement of the EP, they released "Still," an emotionally-packed single that also works as a great gateway into the rising artist's work. "Honest, can I really keep it honest?" Idman sings in its opening moments, setting the tone for what they describe in a statement as "my undignified heartbreak song because with it I decided to put down my toxic, 'too cool to care' facade and opted to sit in the genuine pain of what I was still very much moving through in a real and deep way." That pain is palpable throughout the track, as they candidly admit, "But I still can't be without you/ Still hate that I always will." The track's outro offers some peace though, perhaps with the passing of even more time, where Idman lands in a place of acceptance: "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. — ML