My album on repeat right now (it’s true, we bought a record player in 2024!) is Bleachers’ ‘Gone Now’ from 2017. I’m not always very current with music (you can’t keep up with everything) so I missed the early boat on Bleachers as a talent, but of all his albums – including his 2024 ‘A Stranger Desired’ – I find this one the most interesting and joyful (even if a lot of the songs are sadly nostalgic). He does have a sorta pop-ish John Hughes-era thing going on (I’ve heard his music described this way) but I’m especially interested in the album’s lightly anthemic waves and street-preacher call outs and the way he samples his own lyrics across songs. ‘Everybody’s Lost Somebody’ is my favourite song.
— Aislinn Hunter is a poet and novelist living on the unceded and ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Her most recent book of poetry is Linger, Still (Gaspereau Press). She was the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2025.
You can read Aislinn Hunter's poetry in Issue 302 Winter 2024. Order the issue now:
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