Leanne Hoffman's delicious slow jam, and 7 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:

• Brasstracks, Tobi and Fatherdude.
• Temia.
• Leanne Hoffman.
• City and Colour.
• Katie Tupper.
• Dizzy.
• Elyse Aeryn.
• Jessy Lanza.

Scroll down to find out why you need to listen. 

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

To hear more about these standout songs, tune in to CBC Music Mornings every Thursday with producer Ryan Chung and host Saroja Coelho, available via CBC Listen.

'Nobody's Fool,' Brasstracks, Tobi, Fatherdude

Here's a song that'll appeal to fans of Busty and the Bass and Brother Zulu — groups that successfully fuse vintage soul with contemporary hip-hop. On "Nobody's Fool," New York-based outfit Brasstracks enlists frequent collaborator Fatherdude (a highly versatile vocalist) and Toronto rapper Tobi (who graced their 2021 single "Good Luck for Real") for a sophisticated old-meets-new adventure in sound. Horns and organ anchor the song in tradition, and there are strains of 1950s doo-wop in the richly harmonized chorus. But the song never stagnates in throwback mode thanks to state-of-the-art production and Fatherdude's idiomatic phrasing and natural delivery. Tobi launches his verse in falsetto before settling into some serenely sung rap, proving yet again how he elevates each project he touches. — Robert Rowat

'Different,' Temia

"Bringing the heat, I'm hot like a furnace," British Canadian hip-hop artist Temia spits on "Different," her fierce U.K. drill track. It's an addictive, boisterous song that sounds like it was pulled straight from the streets of London, making it an immediately mesmerizing listen. The Vancouver-based rapper wields her words like knives: "I'm different, I just be playing my part/ spades out and I'm stacking my cards," she quips. The fast-paced beats paired with her immaculate flow give an air of imperturbable confidence. Laced with swagger, "Different" goes undeniably hard and sets Temia up as an MC to watch. — Natalie Harmsen

'Portuguese Tarts,' Leanne Hoffman

Leanne Hoffman's "Portuguese Tarts" is a delicious slow jam about greed and thanklessness that prompts repeat listens to fully unwrap. Over a sparse beat and light sprinkling of keys, the Halifax singer-songwriter takes her time on the verses, her delivery both catchy and calculated before she pauses for effect at each chorus, cooly singing the chilling lines: "I never take with permission/ never drinking with intention/ I am a flavourless fool/ always thinking 'bout my next meal while consuming you." Hoffman said, via press release, that the song is "about wanting so much that you can't see what you already have" — a perfectly addictive and unsettling single for today's times. In the accompanying video, directed by Alexa Fay, Hoffman is unblinking and insatiable, holding court on a clear plastic chair while having her cake and eating it too (and looking very much like St. Vincent circa 2017's Masseduction). Based off a poem written in Portugal, "Portuguese Tarts" was co-produced by Hoffman and Erin Costelo — and it will undoubtedly leave you hungry for more. — Holly Gordon

'Things we Choose to Care About,' City and Colour

For a split second, the opening chord on "The Things we Choose to Care About," a standout from City and Colour's latest album, sounds like Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You." But it's a fleeting moment of recognition, as things take a more folksy approach when Dallas Green starts singing and, as always, transforms his torment into something beautiful. Poetic and diaristic, his lyrics about grief are melancholy as he sings, "I'm longing for that place in my dreams/ where light brings life."

"This is probably one of the most deeply personal songs on the record. I've been trying to write this one for a long time — I started writing it years ago," he told Apple Music, explaining how much of the album explores the 2019 death of his friend and producer, Karl "Horse" Bareham. "And I almost think that I had to go through what I've just been through in order to finish it, in order to truly understand why I was writing that chorus," he added. It's a gorgeously pared-back track, with only guitar instrumentals, which allow Green's words — and exquisite vocals — to bear substantial weight. Prepare to embrace all your feelings. — NH

'Comfort,' Katie Tupper

Since she started releasing solo music in 2021, Katie Tupper has cemented her status in the new school of Canadian soul with each new release. The inherent sultry smokiness of her voice makes it so you could probably listen to her sing paragraphs out of an accounting textbook and still be enthralled. The second single from her upcoming EP, Where to Find Me, sees the indie-soul singer from Saskatoon taking a more optimistic standpoint on unrequited love than we typically hear: rather than staying stuck in the doldrums of rejection, she relishes the fact that she gets to have this person in her life at all — even if not in the exact way she dreams. "If all I am is one comfort of many, that's more than I can wish for," she sings rosily on the chorus. In a press release, Tupper shared that she wrote the song "as a way to work through some feelings I was having for someone really close to me. I knew that it wasn't possible to have anything more than a friendship and even that felt so lucky to have." — Kelsey Adams

'Open up Wide,' Dizzy 

Pop music has long carried a reputation for being nothing more than hooks, engineered and spoon-fed to mass audiences, but on Oshawa indie-pop band Dizzy's latest single, the members turn their resentment toward that misconception into actual text. "Open up wide/ gotta pay the rent," Katie Munshaw sings, using the notion of spoon-feeding as the basis for the song's pre-chorus, readying listeners as they head into its infectious chorus that repeats the word "head-banging" to describe what a catchy pop song is meant to make audiences do. "It's a tongue-and-cheek ode to a music industry we've never understood all that well," Munshaw said in a press release. On "Open up Wide," Dizzy plays by its own rules, and the fact that the song is also a dazzling pop gem is just the cherry on top. — Melody Lau 

'Out of Love,' Elyse Aeryn

Elyse Aeryn can undoubtedly craft a banger: her previous singles "Under my Skin" and "Cherries" are proof that she's more than comfortable belting out a barn-burner. But with the Cape Breton, N.S., singer-songwriter's debut album, Joy State of Mind, it's just as satisfying to sit in the quiet moments, and breakup song "Out of Love" brings out a different kind of swagger from Aeryn. Over a Blue Rodeo-reminiscent swing, she sings, "We fell out of love, one day at a time," kicking off an age-old story that Aeryn makes heartbreakingly personal. Detailing the often excruciatingly slow disappointment of reality not meeting expectation, Aeryn builds her story on a bed of rock-country that is compelling and soulful. As the engineer-turned-musician detailed in her press release: "I'm about to realize a dream [with this album release] that became clear when I could get quiet enough to hear my own voice, and confident enough to listen" — and we're definitely here for what Aeryn is digging up in that personal excavation. — HG

'Don't Leave me Now,' Jessy Lanza 

Over the past handful of years, electronic artist Jessy Lanza has moved from her hometown of Hamilton, Ont., to New York, then San Francisco, and now Los Angeles. Each move has influenced her music in some way, and that's true for her latest single, "Don't Leave me Now." While musically, the track feels akin to Lanza's past work — a confident, strutting beat bolsters Lanza's layered vocals — its lyrics are written in response to a scary moment in her early days in L.A. when she was almost hit by a car, triggering an episode of agoraphobia. Lanza channelled these events into "Don't Leave me Now," repeating the refrain, "I'm walking real slow/ and the cars go away." Sure, dance music can be fun, but it can also be a safe space to work through feelings — a practice of catharsis on the dance floor. — ML