Looking back at 2025, I am amazed by the quality of newly recorded Canadian music that I was fortunate enough to feature on my radio show, podcast, and review for Great Dark Wonder. Many of these records have found a lasting place in my music library. Here are some recommendations for you to add to yours.
So much of the music that I was introduced to this year is too precious to rank in any fashion, but these five albums really stood out for various reasons, so let me introduce them to you.
Skydiggers, “Dreams & Second Chances” (released May 9, 2025)
This album showcased the veteran roots-rockers in fine form – energetic, vital and firing on all cylinders. Recorded during some downtime during their late 2024 tour, the band settled in for some impromptu recording at Tragically Hip’s Bathouse Studio, in the Kingston area. The band primed and tight from touring, hit the record button with invigorating, charged focus and developed fourteen astounding tracks in a short week of brainstorming and collaborative songwriting sessions. Skydiggers have a way of getting right inside your soul more effectively than any band I know, and this album is a prime example of all their stellar prowess as a recording unit and live band – these songs sound even better performed before a crowd. Songs about loved ones, lost friends and these troubled times in which we live are all set in music backdrops that will reel you in and keep you enthralled.
Planet Smashers, “On The Dancefloor” (released August 22, 2025)
From Montreal, the Planet Smashers blew the ceiling down and the rafters out with “On The Dancefloor,” with thirteen songs that never let up, they pull you up and out onto the floor – even if it’s only your living room, or bedroom, or kitchen, or outside patio. Hard hitting, sinuous and full of life, these songs will light you up from head to toe, with a kick-ass grin and heart full of joy. If this cruel world has got you down, then let the Planet Smashers jolt you back to life – life’s too short to let the sons of guns get you down. Moving effortlessly from biting social commentary to just plain old broken-hearted laments, every tune is meant to get you moving forward – out of that rut, out of that funk, with a relentless, pounding beat. “On The Dancefloor was the funnest of our 10 albums to record,” says Matt Collyer, band founder and guitarist. “I can’t wait to play these songs live!” This album is one I highly suggest you get and listen to every morning before you head to a job somewhere, or at least before coffee and the news. You will be forever grateful that the Planet Smashers stopped by.
Eddie Schwartz, “Film School” (released July 11, 2025)
Every once in a while, an artist releases a set of songs that touches your heart in ways that both surprise and delight, as only master songwriters do. Eddie Schwartz’s EP, “Film School,” literally took my breath away. I couldn’t get enough of these six songs. They all seem so special, so fully realized, so deeply soulful. It is one of those impressive albums, filled with songs that simply stay with you, like a call from a forgotten friend of long ago. Eddie Schwartz is known for his songwriting and hit making for other artists, and indeed he has toiled relentlessly for the song factories in Nashville. Yet there is something so personal, so intimate, so touching beyond cinematic, beyond words really, in the way the songs life you into some inner journey. This little EP left me in wonder, marveling at the skills a writer must have to create such gems – so full of heart and soul. Every time I revisit these songs, I am stunned by their beauty and perfect melodic precision, not one note is wasted, every phrase meant to open your heart and mind. I would definitely pick “Come To This” as a top single for 2025 even though it wasn’t released as one.
Suzie Ungerleider, “Among The Evergreens” (released June 6, 2025)
Jim Bryson suggested to Suzie Ungerleider that she might consider writing more from her heart. “Among The Evergreens,” her eleventh studio album (and reuniting her with Bryson) is a work of elegiac, personal portraits, drawn from her past to her present. Each one etched with such fine shades of intuition and discovery, longing and sorrow. From her youngest self to her role as mother, lover, and wife, Suzie underscores the bittersweet tangle of heartstrings that reverberate throughout life. Best listened to late at night, with lights down low, this album is a ravishing, exquisite experience. Bryson and Ungerleider spent over a year to produce this masterwork; the intensity of thought and nuanced embellishments shine through in every song. Walking down some street and you’ll get a phrase floating by, hanging, suspended like a treasured memory which is exactly what this album is about. You simply can’t listen to it enough times to ever tire of it. This is a must-have album for the year.
Clela Errington, “Walkin’ Each Other Home” (released October 22, 2025)
My final recommendation for this year’s astounding recorded albums comes courtesy of Clela Errington. Comprised mainly of newly arranged blues and country material and two originals, “Walkin’ Each Other Home” stands out for its authentic, resonant connection, that singer/guitarist Errington makes with the material. She embodies the essence of blues soul singing with song choices, some of which date back to the earliest of recorded music. In a voice-filled commanding authority, Clela plumbs the depths and intricacies of blues songs written long before her own time, making them sound as vital and prescient as if they were composed this year. More importantly, she has chosen to present tunes that are synchronized with the mood and sorrow of our times in a poignant, clear vocal that makes you proud to be human, moreover proud to be a courageous, self-defined woman. Produced by Jimmy Bowskill (Blue Rodeo / Brooks & Bowskill), with a collection of meritorious studio musicians, Clela and band recorded straight to tape as it were, the mood and feeling she drew out of the songs. It more than amply demonstrates the power that music holds in our life and the emotional revelations that they bring. Thematically, the songs are about standing up, standing tall and standing firm in your faith and love and outstretching a helping hand to bring us all back home safe and out of harm’s way. Marvelous collection of songs worthy of repeated listening.
I hope you’ll check some of these out. All the best for 2026.
Douglas McLean fell in love with music at a very early age and has worked as a musician and songwriter since his early teens. He has a deep love for the written word and has spent his life in pursuit of language as a means to convey what Van Morrison once called “the inarticulate speech of the heart”. He lives deep in the Almaguin Highlands with his wife and their dog. Douglas is active in local radio, recording, producing and writing, in and around Huntsville, Ontario.
His website is:
http://www.douglasmcleanmusic.com
