Michael Barclay

The vaults are opening, ‘like an old friend checking in,’ on Downie’s extraordinarily productive final years. ‘Away Is Mine,’ a new solo album, is another gift.

The easy answer is: Don’t toke and drive. Just don’t.

Prolific even into her eighties, the documentarian has also been harbouring musical gifts that few knew about—until now, with a reissue of her stunning 1988 album

Adam Weymouth tracked the journey of the Chinook salmon by canoe—all 3,000 km of it—and returned with a new respect for the North.

Downie’s lyrics leapt out of radio playlists ‘because his use of language was so evocative, so rich with meaning and allusion’

The frontman of The Tragically Hip was an indelible presence on the Canadian cultural landscape

‘It was a communal experience of religious proportions.’ Canada’s musical luminaries remember the Tragically Hip’s final show.

Michael Barclay breaks down the diverse longlist of the 2017 Polaris Prize

One year ago, the announcement that Gord Downie had incurable brain cancer rocked the world—and the rock bands that cover the Hip

As Sleater-Kinney releases a new live album, Michael Barclay looks at what makes the best ones so good—and why they’ve largely grown obsolete

Four years after their breakout album, Vancouver rock duo Japandroids are back to strike a chord for their stratifying city

The xx became adored for their intimate sound. What will happen when they loudly shift away from their defining quiet?