Andrea Ramolo: Vibe, songwriting and stunning voice

ANDREA RAMOLO “NUDA” (FONTANA NORTH)

This thirtysomething Toronto songwriter hangs out with (apologies to Mott the Hoople) all the old dudes, CanRock veterans from the Cowboy Junkies, Junkhouse, Skydiggers, Blue Peter, and others. It’s incredibly easy to see why they all bring their top game to her third solo album (not counting two she made as one half of the folk duo Scarlett Jane): she’s got “the spook,” that late-night, bluestinged, atmospheric torch song that seems right at home anywhere in southwestern Ontario, a lineage that runs from Daniel Lanois to Mary Margaret O’Hara to Crash Vegas to Royal City to Fiver.

Her vibe and her songwriting is one thing: Ramolo’s stunning voice is a whole other affair. Just in case the guest list on the album threatens to distract from the main event — many of those guests regularly convene as members of Lee Harvey Osmond, and in many ways Nuda sounds like that same band with a female singer — Ramolo includes a bonus disc of solo demos, “Da Sola,” that is every bit as stunning. Producers Michael Timmins (“Nuda”) and Faye Blais (“Da Sola”) deserve equal credit for providing a warm sonic cushion for all of Ramolo’s strengths to be on full display.

Throw it on late at night, turn it up loud, and chase it with a glass of your finest red.

Stream: “You’re Everywhere,” “Hey Hey Hey,” “Edge of Love”

GORILLAZ “HUMANZ” (WARNER)

Cinephiles routinely bitch about how superhero films have hijacked Hollywood, sucking up all the talent and spending endless sums on empty, soulless spectacles where special effects trump any script.

What would the musical equivalent be? Gorillaz.

Damon Albarn has always been a man of impeccable taste and minimal talent, and that gap is always the most obvious in his work with Gorillaz. How else could he mess up with these collaborators? From hip-hop: Vince Staples, De La Soul, Danny Brown, Pusha T, D.R.A.M. and more. From R&B: Kelela, Peven Everett, Anthony Hamilton, Benjamin Clementine and more. From the icon file: Mavis Staples, Grace Jones, and . . . Carly Simon?! Surely some good could come of all this, no?

Hardly. The highlights are lukewarm at best, with most guests either phoning it in or rendered barely recognizable — if you manage to somehow make Grace Jones and/or Mavis Staples merely blend into the background of a track, you’re clearly doing something wrong. I hope they got a decent paycheque for wasting their time. (“I’m gonna take you for a ride,” Jones sings — I hope she did.)

Albarn’s tracks don’t work as pop or hip-hop or R&B or anything between; they’re just messy and dull. There’s no Dan the Automator or Danger Mouse around this time to save his ass. And the less said about his voice — especially juxtaposed with the imported talent — the better.

Stream: “Ascension” featuring Vince Staples, “Submission” featuring Kelela and Danny Brown, “Andromeda” featuring D.R.A.M.

NEW FRIES “MORE EP” (TELEPHONE EXPLOSION)

The two women who formed Toronto band New Fries, guitarist Annie Spadafora and drummer Jenny Gitman, claim to not have been musicians before starting the band. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not, but they have a fire within and an incredibly intuitive sense of rhythm and, in the case of Spadafora, a phenomenally expressive voice, making her the kind of punk rock singer who — like Kathleen Hanna or Karen O — has unusually strong pitch while dancing around the notes. Backing them up are two veterans with Guelph roots: keyboardist Ryan Carley (Ohbijou) and bassist Tim Fagan, who were part of another explosive band more than a decade ago, called We’re Marching On. That combustible combination of innocence and experience makes their “More EP,” produced by Holy F—k’s Graham Walsh (Operators, Sam Roberts), easily one of the most refreshing records to come out of Ontario in the past 12 months. Hope you caught them at last month’s Kazoo Festival in Guelph; not sure when they’ll be back in the area again.

Stream: “Jz III,” “Gertrude Stein Greeting Card from Pape/ Danforth,” “Mary Poppins Pockets”

STEVE STRONGMAN “NO TIME LIKE NOW” (SONIC UNYON)

This man should need no introduction to Kitchener-Waterloo audiences. Long revered and widely acclaimed as a bluesman, with Junos and Maple Blues Awards under his belt, he also has a long history with his co-writer/coproducer Rob Szabo as the core of Plasticine in the early 2000s (and a long-running Christmas show as a duo at the Starlight, now in its 12th year).

His fifth solo album pulls no punches: this is full-throttle barroom blues at maximum volume, complete with gospel choirs, falsetto vocals and — Randy Bachman? The legend shows up on a reworking of “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” Not that he’s needed: Strongman and the ace players he has behind him here have everything well under control. No time like now, indeed.

Stream: “No Time Like Now,” “Love Love Love,” “Good Times”