Maybe it’s cruel to mention that we’re halfway through 2026. Depending on the type of year you’re having, that could be an alarming or welcomed thought. No doubt you’ve had a soundtrack throughout it all, good or bad or in-between.
Canadian songwriters, artists, and bands with releases in the first half of the year showed us their vulnerable, crass, delicate, or profound sides, with some reflecting on the broader ideas and urgent issues that come with living in this incredibly difficult, unbalanced world.
Words + Music / Parole et Musique editors Sarah MacDonald and Catherine Genest rounded up their five picks each for the best of the year so far.
Sarah’s picks
1. Deux places au cimetière — Grand Eugène
Grand Eugène’s Deux places au cimetière is a delicate but not precious lo-fi offering exploring love from all of the familiar angles. There is a velvety coolness across the entire debut that features whispered, breathy vocals. To me, this record begs to be listened to under a disco ball, light pinging off and illuminating a parquet dancefloor, dreaming of the love that got away.
2. When a Flower Doesn’t Grow — Softcult
The Kitchener, Ontario I grew up in didn’t sound as cool as Softcult’s debut When a Flower Doesn’t Grow but I am exceedingly glad we have this record as an example for what’s possible from this suburban area. When a Flower Doesn’t Grow clashes, broods, and wails. This self-produced, self-recorded record has a cleansing sound (if a wall of noise or thrashing is catharsis for you.) But Softcult’s singer Mercedes Arn-Horn’s soft vocals on the title track pack just as much of an emotional wallop. If the current era could be summarized by any song or sound, “Tired” makes a compelling case.
3. VIVICA — VIVICA
Alter egos provide such an exciting shake-up in pop music. They can also say the things we’re afraid to. Sometimes the truth is more real and important when told from a character. On VIVICA, both the album and character by multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya, crassness rules, but so does freedom, sensuality, and raw power. The record is a compelling story of a body that wants, while being rooted in a hell of a dirty dance party awash in pulsing beats, repetitive and mesmerizing choruses, and some dreamy synths.
4. Laughter in Summer — Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s Laughter in Summer is a record that, at least to me, exhibits in equal parts hopeful lushness and difficult melancholy. There is something about the East Coast cult icon’s latest (if not last) offering that is like a rainbow in a thunderstorm. Laughter in Summer, made with Glenn-Copeland’s wife, Elizabeth, is nostalgic, soft, and stunning in its simplicity.
5. Vol. II — Angine de Poitrine
Honestly? Virality aside, this album rips. That’s all you need to know.
Catherine’s picks
1. t.o.m.ou la trajectoire des perséides — Alphonse Bisaillon
Alphonse Bisaillon presents himself as a timeless character; building bridges between styles and generations, between “la chanson française” and dubstep, between Québ vernacular and Franglais. Beyond the quality of his musical vision, he stands out for his powerful—bordering on defiant—lyrics that take aim at the ideological and economic right. Everything he creates seems coloured by his heightened social conscience.
2. Alouette!— Les Louanges
Les Louanges, a.k.a. Lévis native Vincent Roberge, is one of the standard-bearers of Québec’s renewed identity wave, a subject he tackles with panache through the vaguely jazzy, R&B-tinged sonic aesthetic that is uniquely his own—and that, three albums in, remains difficult to capture or sum up in words. In short, Les Louanges sounds like Les Louanges; it’s practically a musical genre unto itself.
3. Portrait de l’invisible — Lysandre
As a backing vocalist and pianist, Lysandre has accompanied Klô Pelgagand Ping Pong Go, among many others. Her virtuosity as both a performer and instrumentalist is well established, and the scope of her talent as a songwriter is just as impressive. She isn’t afraid to lay herself bare, and she does so with remarkable skill.
4. My World is the Sun— Dominique Fils-Aimé
There is something celestial, almost spiritual, about this musical offering. Throughout this fifth album, Dominique Fils-Aimé’s voice resonates like incantations carrying the weight of the world. To that added depth comes a deep root system growing in the soil of soul and jazz, complex disciplines that seem to flow naturally through her.
5. Les fleurs préférées de ma mère— Mantisse
He first came to prominence as part of his former group, LaF, which was excellent and recently played its final-ever show during Les Francos. Fortunately, Mantisse has more than one trick in his bag and the future looks as bright as ever for him. As a solo artist, Thomas Thivierge-Gauthier ventures into poetry-driven folk, a musical palette that suits him just as beautifully.