Luna Li and Hope Tala's spellbinding duet, and 3 more songs you need to hear this week

Songs you need to hear is CBC Music's weekly list of hot new Canadian tracks. 

Scroll down to discover the songs our producers are loving right now.

I Imagine, Luna Li and Hope Tala

Luna Li's dreamy instrumentation and airy vocals are a warm balm, floating over harp and piano as she sings about a spellbinding love on a new version of I Imagine: "And when I think of you, I get lost for hours, I wonder what tune is stuck (inside you now)." Joining her on the new serene rendition of the song is her friend, British indie-pop singer Hope Tala. Her ethereal vocals melt into the track to perfectly complement Li's: "You looked at me like city lights were spelling out my name," she sings, her voice gently drifting along the second verse. Tala shared she was "thrilled" to hop on the track, her favourite song of Li's, writing, "I had been listening to it constantly and felt so connected to it so it just felt so right." The two artists share a similar sound — lush harmonies and polyphonic rhythms — and fans of either one will notice how elegantly the songwriting and vocals mesh on the track, which is part of a re-imagined version of Li's album When a Thought Grows Wings, dropping on Aug. 8. — Natalie Harmsen

Each Other's Best, Good Dear Good

While feel-good bops are ruling the airwaves in a race for song of the summer, Good Dear Good just dropped a single best sipped slowly, preferably while steeped in your feelings. Each Other's Best begins with a question — "At the end of the day, will you still be my friend even though we're not each other's best?" — and over a set of lush, contemplative verses, the Halifax pop-rock band takes its time examining a relationship that wasn't meant to be but still hurts to end. The horns (arranged by Daniel Ledwell and including trumpet, flute, flugelhorn and tenor sax) and harmonies of Tim Hatcher, Brandon MacDonald and Maisie Gilbert make the look inward as gentle and considerate as possible, though the chorus is a real gut-punch: "But it's safe to say/ I'm not the favourite part of your stories/ I'll never be the one you hold in all your glory/ I'll never be the one you call your one and only/ it's hard to explain." Each Other's Best is a live show favourite that the band says its fans have been asking to see recorded, and they've finally gotten their wish. Look for it on Good Dear Good's upcoming September EP, Sook. — Holly Gordon

U Know How Dis Go, TyriqueOrDie

TyriqueOrDie's new single, U Know How Dis Go, whips in fast, delivering an ecstasy-fuelled club banger in just over two minutes. The Toronto hip-hop/electronic artist started releasing music in 2018, after many years attuning his ear to what audiences want to hear while throwing raves across the city. For this new song, he tapped fellow Torontonian Rafael Khan to lay down the cheerful and bright disco-house production. Over the bubbly track, TyriqueOrDie drops cheeky verses about the undeniable laws of attraction between two people who lock eyes across a dance floor. The song is all highs, with none of the lows that follow an after-party comedown: in the universe of U Know How Dis Go, TyriqueOrDie and his budding love interest will be dance floor partners forever. — Kelsey Adams

Babe, We'll Find a Way, the Dears 

Thirty years into their career, the Dears sound as urgent and impassioned as ever on their new single, Babe, We'll Find a Way. Over a searing guitar riff, backed by the band's signature orchestral pop arrangements, singer Murray Lightburn pleads for love and unity in these divisive times. "'Cause when we start to fall apart/ the world's not far behind," he sings, in the galvanizing build toward the chorus. "But if we just remember to stick together, our love is covered in blindness." Lightburn's falsetto charges the chorus into an emotional jolt, moving listeners in a way that the best Dears songs have always done. In a statement, Lightburn said the song "was so strong and vivid. It pines for the breakthrough, we know it's there!" On Babe, We'll Find a Way, that feeling is palpable. — Melody Lau