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music: essential tracks

Melissa Lauren

ROCK

Sixteen Saltines

Jack White, from the forthcoming Blunderbuss; streaming at here.

He eats more than one dozen crackers, and then he licks his fingers. Whoa! Crunchy and punky with a blistering old-school guitar solo and just enough cowbell – rock 'n' roll hoochie koo, and then some.

POP/JAZZ

Good to You

Melissa Lauren, from The Other Side; streaming here.

"I won't rest until I am my best for you." The Toronto chanteuse can now put up her feet – she's lovely with her strummy and breezy elegance, which seems absolutely good to us.

ROCK

Sliabh Aughty

By Eric Chenaux, from Guitar & Voice (Constellation); streaming here.

Move over Rover and Jimi Hendrix, let Montreal's Eric Chenaux take over. The experimental guitarist adventures solo for more than eight minutes of droning, hymn-like psychedelia – like a bagpipe on a star-spangled burn or the dying last words of a lava lamp.

BLUES

Revolution

Dr. John, from the forthcoming Locked Down; streaming here.

You say you wanna a revolution, but Dr. John worries about solutions, confusions and religious delusions on a night-tripping track produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. Freaky retro R&B, with a Motown beat, a swamp-riding baritone sax and a Farfisa solo out of this world.



ROCK

Lightning Bolt

Joel Plaskett Emergency, from the forthcoming Scrappy Happiness; streaming here.

Eureka, the Nova Scotian trio has rediscovered electricity with a lean, chugging track that completes Plaskett's 10-week, 10-song-making odyssey. He drives a rusty car at night, wonders about Jimmy Ruffin and hits a rug-baffled basement studio, where he plugs into a rather heavy current.

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