Spring 2024 album guide: 15 new releases you need to hear

Spring is in the air, and with it comes a bounty of new music.

This season brings a wide range of new albums: Neil Young and Crazy Horse's compilation; the return of R&B crooner Charlotte Day Wilson; Acadian singer-songwriter Julie Aubé's first English-language album; the debut EP from indie pop-punk upstart Haleluya Hailu; Cadence Weapon's dystopic blend of electronic and hip-hop music; folk musician Kaïa Kater's reclamation of power and more. 

Scroll down to check out all the albums we'll have on heavy rotation this spring. 

Artist: Rhyan Douglas
Album: Circles
Release date: March 15

During a short appearance at 6lack's Toronto tour stops in November, Rhyan Douglas blew the audience away with his soaring vocals and commanding stage presence — he felt surprisingly seasoned for a young, green performer. But, as he's pointed out in interviews, he takes his craft seriously, and it's vividly evident on his debut EP: the collection of songs feels earnest, polished and precise. There's an art-pop undercurrent to the soulful, Wondagurl-produced "Afro Blue" and an irresistible, romantic gushing that unfolds on "Spin the Block" that's reminiscent of early Daniel Caesar. Although comparisons to the Grammy winner are inevitable, it's necessary to note that the Brampton, Ont., singer possesses a thirst for experimentation with folk that puts him more in line with the sounds of Mustafa. Regardless, it's an ambitious first project that highlights Douglas's impressive vocals, as well as his creativity and confidence. — Natalie Harmsen

Artist: Haleluya Hailu
Album: eternally, yours
Release date: March 22

With her new EP, Vancouver's Haleluya Hailu emerges as a bold new voice in Canadian pop punk. The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist started releasing music in 2020 and her last EP, 2021's Greetings and Salutations, was a formal introduction to the artist. On eternally, yours, Hailu dives back into her plucky, guitar-driven melodies and lamentations about the struggles of teenagedom. Her sound is boygenius meets Willow, with cheeky lyrics that parse through her young adult life, from exes who saw her as a one-dimensional character in their own lives ("Manic Pixie Pacifist") to feeling uprooted and untethered while being catapulted into adult life ("Postal Code"). She wrote the EP during her freshman year at the secluded Selkirk College in Nelson, B.C., and that environment shaped some of the themes on eternally, yours: the banality of suburbia, and both coming of age and healing trauma while in isolation. Hailu finds a way to make even the bad parts fun, and her full-bodied vocals give the songs such richness that you can't help but sing along.  — Kelsey Adams

Artist: Loony
Album: Loony
Release date: March 22

R&B singer Loony's career has been steadily rising: there's Soft Thing, her 2021 Polaris-nominated EP; a sample of her smouldering song "Raw," on 21 Savage's recent album; plus her recently announced headline tour. On her self-titled debut, she confirms why she's one to watch as she adeptly pieces together the peaks and valleys of relationships through relatable lyrics: "Baby, I'm not here for long," she warns on "People Die Everyday," a shiny, melodramatic song about lovers in a spat. Previously released soulful singles such as "Old Friends" and the soaring, gospel-infused "First Thing Smokin'" fit in seamlessly with the new material, for a melodious, fleshed-out project that's as fun as it is diaristic.  — NH

Artist: Parlour Panther
Album: Bloom
Release date: March 22

Parlour Panther's signature sharp guitar riffs and crisp vocal stylings punctuate the indie-rock group's third album, yet new sounds are sprinkled throughout that showcase playful experimentation. Take the title track, "Bloom," a shimmering, harmony-laden song about learning how to flourish, or "Chosen Fam," a sweet ode to community: both demonstrate how Frankie and Reidar, the trans, non-binary couple at the core of the band, have fearlessly stepped into a more danceable chapter. Their chemistry has been elevated with the addition of Saadi D'Hoore on synths and guitar, and drummer Jen Foster, who help to generate an excitement that makes the songs feel more expansive. In an Instagram post discussing the glittering track "All I Need," D'Hoore summed up how the foursome's bond shaped the project: "[It's] sort of the whole story of working on this record for me: getting to reconnect with old friends, and witness growth and healing in each other." Bloom is Parlour Panther's celebration of connection, serving as an open-arms invitation for listeners to partake in their joy. — NH

Artist: Julie Aubé
Album: Boiling Over
Release date: April 5

Acadian singer-songwriter Julie Aubé, also known as one-third of Les Hay Babies, has been releasing solo music for nearly a decade now, and her first English EP is equally as charming and fun as her French catalogue. Boiling Over is made up of five country-folk tracks that are playful, witty and musically sharp, as Aubé sings of love in many forms: the patient kind ("Labour of Love"); the long-distance kind ("When It's Time to Go"); the father-daughter kind ("Turn on a Dime"). Aubé's 2022 album, Contentement, won French recording of the year at the Music NB Awards and nabbed nominations at the East Coast Music Awards and Quebec's ADISQ gala. Boiling Over is more intimate while also serving as a natural followup, letting us get a little closer to Aubé and some of her country influences. "I have always known I could make it on my own/ thought I had to break for someone else to take/ a part of me they could settle for," she sings on album closer "I Found Mine" — an album thesis, and a sound way to live. — Holly Gordon

Artists: Cory Weeds, Champian Fulton
Album: Every Now and Then: Live at OCL Studios
Release date: April 12

Over the past two-plus decades, saxophonist Cory Weeds, owner of the prolific Cellar Live label, has created a wormhole between Vancouver and New York — a free exchange of jazz talent, resulting in collaborative concerts and reliably excellent albums. For the next instalment, Weeds joins acclaimed American pianist/singer Champian Fulton for a duo set with tremendous synergy.

As the album title suggests, there was a live component to the recording sessions, which took place at OCL Studios outside Calgary. Producer Scott Morin explained to CBC Music how it went: "We invited a live studio audience to sit in the main tracking room with headphones on and watch the recording session happen live in front of them. This was inspired by the concept of recording live off the floor in studio to capture the highest fidelity recording quality, while having a studio audience to bring the added energy to the sessions." Mission accomplished, if their bouncy instrumental take on Frank Wess's "Boss Tutch" is any indication. Note to collectors: this will be a vinyl and digital-only release (no CDs). — Robert Rowat

Artist: Cadence Weapon
Album: Rollercoaster
Release date: April 19

Last October, Rollie Pemberton, a.k.a. Polaris Music Prize-winning rapper Cadence Weapon, wrote a column for Hazlitt about being stuck in the infinite content loop of the internet. Describing an overwhelming sense of malaise over technology's hold on us, he wrote: "More and more, it feels like I'm clocking in rather than logging in ... I want to use technology, not let it use me." And that is exactly what Pemberton does on his new album, Rollercoaster. Having dipped his toes in electronic music in the past, Pemberton dives head first into hyperpop and electro-inspired production on Rollercoaster, enlisting the help of genre heavyweights like Jacques Greene, Machinedrum, Loraine James and Taydex. Replicating the internet's sensory overload, Pemberton spits shrewd observations over bombastic beats, crafting a sonic universe that illustrates our dystopian present, while forging a path ahead with confidence that we can collectively escape that infinite loop — and the capitalist hellscape technology has trapped us in. On his lead single, he establishes a battle cry of sorts: "Press eject, press eject/ logging off 'til I get respect." Are you ready to break free? — Melody Lau

Artist: Kellie Loder
Album: Transitions
Release date: April 19

There is something about Kellie Loder's voice that reaches deep inside your body, unearthing feelings you thought were dealt with (or successfully hidden). It's good to feel them, though, and Loder is the best company, their powerhouse vocals and vulnerable songwriting acting as buoy and guide. "Tell me how/ how do I let go of the old times/ how do I be strong in the sunlight?" the Newfoundland singer-songwriter belts out on opening track "The Month of May," backed by the inimitable voices of Reeny, Haliey and Micah Smith, who hail from North Preston, N.S. Loder released their first album in 2009, and got a Juno nomination for contemporary Christian/gospel album of the year for their 2010 followup, Imperfections & Directions. Their third album, Benefit of the Doubt, nabbed them a Canadian Folk Music Award, and last year Loder won songwriter and fans' choice entertainer of the year at the East Coast Music Awards. Transitions is Loder's fourth full-length, and it's broken something open: the songs are raw, lined with hope, and we bet it'll bring even more accolades their way. — HG

Artist: Tei Shi
Album: Valerie
Release date: April 19

Over the past few years, Valerie Teicher, who performs under the moniker Tei Shi, has been reinventing herself, entering a newly independent era since parting ways with her label. She's made her feelings about her turbulent experiences in the music industry clear in her past two EPs, 2020's Die 4 Ur Love and last year's Bad Premonition. With many of the songs on her upcoming album, Valerie, written before Bad Premonition, Teicher will likely continue some of those themes. Case in point, lead single, "Quédate Queriéndome," a bachata-influenced, Spanish/English track that tells the story of a doomed love, but not one of romance. "I wrote this song as I was coming out of a period of deep frustration and into one of empowerment and ownership," she wrote on Instagram. "It was a [middle-finger emoji] to those who didn't allow me to flourish, who seemed to revel in keeping me under their thumb and helpless, who took for granted my might." We can't wait to hear that might unleashed in its full glory on Valerie. — ML

Artist: Ellis
Album: no place that feels like
Release date: April 26

When Ellis first debuted in 2018, her music — and the melancholy it carried — felt insulated, buried underneath layers of reverb. While the anxieties that Hamilton singer-songwriter Linnea Siggelkow expressed on previous releases still feels present on her upcoming album, no place that feels like, there is a palpable sense of clarity and lightness that only arrives after lots of arduous work, be it through therapy or opening up to collaborators. (In recent years, Siggelkow has written with Ethel Cain, Chastity's Brandon Williams and City and Colour.) Now Siggelkow's voice soars over the synths and guitars, almost triumphantly so on tracks like "What I Know Now" and "Taurine." Siggelkow hasn't emerged with any concrete answers, but what she has figured out is how to make peace with the uncertainty. As she sings on album closer "Devil's Punchbowl," when times get hard, we can fall into our old patterns or choose not to, but ultimately: "I guess that it doesn't matter/ it all will turn out the same in the end." — ML

Artist: Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Album: F##in' Up
Release date: April 26

Now well into his 70s, Neil Young has shown no signs of slowing down. Fu##in' Up follows last year's All Roads Lead Home, an album where Young and members of Crazy Horse (Nils Lofgren, Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot) each recorded songs individually and combined them into one tracklist. Their new release finds all of them united in one room, with additional help from Micah Nelson (Willie Nelson's youngest son), capturing the band's electrifying onstage dynamic from a November set at Toronto's Rivoli. While this album doesn't feature new music, it does capture the sound of Young and Crazy Horse now as they perform tracks from their 1990 album, Ragged Glory (track titles have been re-named). "In the spirit it's offered, we made this for the Horse lovers," Young wrote, in a press release. "I can't stop it. The Horse is runnin'. What a ride we have. I don't want to mess with the vibe, and I am so happy to have this to share." A limited edition vinyl of the album will be released on April 20 as a Record Store Day exclusive, with a wider release — including a likely appearance on Spotify — to follow on April 26. — ML

Artist: Charlotte Day Wilson
Album: Cyan Blue
Release date: May 3

Cyan Blue finds Charlotte Day Wilson in an exploratory period. The Toronto soul singer's second album will be her first since signing to British record label XL Recordings last August, but she's embarked on more than just the journey from independent to signed artist: she's also been unstifled from her own self-imposed parameters. In a press release, she shared that while making previous work, like her debut album 2021's Alpha, Day Wilson always felt the need to "make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time."

Now, unburdened by that expectation, she's at her most experimental: "I think I'm getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect." With production assists from Grammy winner Leon Thomas (SZA, Ariana Grande, Drake) and Jack Rochon (H.E.R., Daniel Caesar), Cyan Blue is lush with layered sonics, hazy synths, warbled reverb, and unexpected samples, like on single "I Don't Love You." Cyan Blue is still full of the Day Wilson mainstays fans have loved for years: the nostalgic R&B melodies; the sultry smokiness of her lower register; the eviscerating lyrics about self-discovery through heartbreak. But there's some surprising instrumentation, vocal effects and a lo-fi atmosphere that represent an openness to expanding her sound. — KA

Artist: Kaïa Kater
Album: Strange Medicine
Release date: May 17

Six years have passed since Kaïa Kater's last album, Grenades. In that time, the folk singer revealed in a press release that she was able to "finally write about the times in my life when I didn't feel like I had a voice, in order to give myself one now." Strange Medicine is a radical celebration of Kater reclaiming her inner power, while also shedding light on those relegated to the margins of history — as on "Fédon," where she passionately tells the story of Grenadian insurrectionist Julien Fédon. Kater has always illuminated her Grenadian heritage in her music, but another standout song pays tribute to her Montreal upbringing: "In Montreal" marks her first collaboration with longtime friend and fellow folk artist Allison Russell, and on it, the two women are undoubtedly in their element. They sing about tornadoes and daisies bursting through concrete as they trace their journeys of self-discovery. But it's not an album exclusively focused on the big, sweeping numbers like the aforementioned song or the layered "Floodlights," as Kater reminds us she's always been the kind of artist who is strong and steady in the quieter moments, too. Her gentle strumming on "Tigers" sounds crystalline as she brings the album to a close: "I put on my rosy glasses, make my way along the path," she sings, on the delicate soul-stirrer. — NH

Artist: Wyatt C. Louis
Album: Chandler
Release date: May 24

It's been nothing short of thrilling to follow the emergence of singer-songwriter Wyatt C. Louis over the past six months, as they've released a string of tantalizing singles from their upcoming debut album. You get the feeling you're witnessing the arrival of a future great: a lyricist who imbues simple, direct language with poignant layers of meaning ("No matter what I lose in myself, I know where to find it," they sing in verse 1 of lead single "Bobtail Road"), and a vocalist whose restraint packs an emotional punch (listen to the hair-raising line "I see, so clear" at 2:53 in "Carefree," above). Louis shares songwriting duties with John Ross (Wild Pink) and Nixon Boyd (Hollerado, Anyway Gang), and City and Colour's Matt Kelly plays pedal steel throughout — creating a sound that falls somewhere between country and folk, and manifesting Louis's deep respect for the music they heard growing up on Treaty 6 territory. — RR

Artist: Kallitechnis
Album: Mood Ring EP
Release date: May 31

The first words on Kallitechnis's new album bring you straight into the conceptual theme: "Hey there, this is your mood ring. What colour are you feeling today?" However, this is one mood ring that won't turn your finger green. The Montreal R&B singer has curated a voyage through musical atmospheres, with each song representing different emotions, from apprehension to excitement, titillation to disappointment. "I've built a multi-coloured, multi-dimensional universe for people to step into and allow themselves to experience a range of emotions as vast as the spectrum of colour," she said in a press release. The concept allows Kallitechnis to thrive in her wheelhouse, which is robust R&B vocals that elicit strong emotional reactions. The mood that standout track "Kaleidoscope Love" symbolises is lust, and it's teeming with sensual melodies and hushed vocals that inspire lingering fingertips and whispered sweet nothings. On her third EP, Kallitechnis has blossomed: her honeyed voice is so transcendent, and the production and songwriting are so tight, I'd happily let her rule my moods forever. — KA