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.

Charlotte Cardin is at her most arresting when it's just her and the piano, and the new ballad "Lonely With our Love" is the perfect vehicle for her show-stopping vocals. Always one to spill her heart out in song, Cardin grapples with the tension of feeling lonely and isolated in the company of someone you love — neither person is at fault, but an insurmountable distance looms that cannot be bridged. Cardin wrote it with songwriter and producer Gabe Simon and shared in a press release that "it was one of those rare, magical sessions where the song just unfolded on its own. We wanted to capture that complex, paradoxical feeling of being alone together." The single is a sneak peek at her upcoming EP, A Week in Nashville, out May 17, and follows Une semaine à Paris, an EP she released in late 2023. It would be quite the treat if Cardin continues hopping around the world, dropping gems based on her time in different cities. — Kelsey Adams

Longtime friends River Tiber and Justin Nozuka tap into the sultry energy of summer nights on "Tell Her," a sensual slow jam that crackles with lust. "I've been up all night, dreaming in August," Nozuka sings, his voice oozing with yearning. The pair have performed together over the years, but "Tell Her" and its B-side, "Stranger," are their first official collaborations. The result is musical synergy from beginning to end, with River Tiber's experimental production complementing Nozuka's bright vocals. "I recorded the sounds of late summer in Toronto and incorporated them into the production; cicadas singing, a rainstorm, jets overhead from the air show," the producer notes in a press release. With the city as its sonic backdrop, the song captures the hazy heat of Toronto after hours. "It reminds me of a simpler time in the city," River Tiber adds. — Natalie Harmsen

The race is on for song of the summer, and Lu Kala dropped a front-runner last week with "Who's Gonna." "Say you want a queen, better level up," asserts the twice Juno-nominated singer, listing all the things a potential partner needs to do to get her attention. The addictive bass line officially opens the door to Lu Kala's funk era, and an unexpected sax solo brings the song home. The Congolese Canadian singer recently revealed that she co-wrote Katy Perry's upcoming single, which Perry called "one of my biggest songs that has yet to come out." If "Who's Gonna" is any indication, Lu Kala may be competing with herself on two song-of-the-summer contenders. — Holly Gordon

On Orville Peck's latest album, Stampede: Vol. 1, the masked crooner stretches his country range with seven different duets. The artist, whose real name is Daniel Pitout, enlists heavyweights like Willie Nelson and Elton John for bright new renditions of their respective songs, "Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other" (a Ned Sublette song Nelson first covered in 2006) and "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)." But elsewhere, Pitout challenges himself a bit more, like on the Spanish collaboration "Miénteme" or when he plays with the contrasting vocal tones between himself and Noah Cyrus on "How Far Will We Take It?" The most exciting experiment on the album might be "Chemical Sunset" though, an apocalyptic jazz-inspired number that pushes both Pitout and his duet partner, Allison Russell, into sinister new territory. The duo waltz into the end of days as they repeat the same verses to each other, singing, "When the night comes, when the night comes/ Will you sing this song?" After beautifully harmonizing with one another, Pitout knows that he's found his match, adding over the tracking's slow marching beat: "I can see it in your eyes/ You're not afraid to die/ Can I walk by your side?" — Melody Lau

It was something of a shock when Valley announced earlier this year that guitarist Mickey Brandolino was leaving the group to pursue a career as a producer. The beloved pop quartet is now a trio, and "When You Know Someone" is their first song in this iteration. A press release names Bruce Springsteen and the Killers as influences, and you can hear echoes of the former, especially, in the song's guitar-forward propulsion and drummer Karah James' harmonica, a fun addition to the Valley soundscape that helps compensate for the band's diminished roster. And while Brandolino's departure had been announced as amicable, it's hard not to read the chorus as a message to him: "Jump ship right there in mid-ocean/ 'Nother sinking hand means one less that I'm holding/ Your secret life cut me open." If their emotions are in fact running high, this foray into arena-rock seems to be providing a catharsis. — Robert Rowat

Mas Aya's upcoming album, Coming and Going, explores many themes including the fluidity of life, as the artist, née Brandon Miguel Valdivia, reflects on the new ventures he's recently embarked on, like fatherhood and moving out of the city (Toronto) to the suburbs (London, Ont.), as he says via press release. The lead single, "Tú y Yo," featuring a spellbinding vocal from Valdivia's partner, Lido Pimienta, taps into that nebulous sense of wandering through life's changes. Pimienta's improvised lyrics dance over Valdivia's wistful and airy production that incorporates ambient, spiritual jazz and nature sounds recorded near his parent's house. The phrases "I'm missing you" and "I'm changing, too" take on multiple meanings as she stretches vowels and repeats them, bidding farewell to a past self. — KA