Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Last summer, Canada tuned in to watch the Tragically Hip’s last concert and bid adieu to its charismatic poetic frontman. Now Gord says goodbye with this poignant collection of 23 deeply personal songs. Like David Bowie’s and Leonard Cohen’s final recordings, the album is almost unbearably sad and made more powerful because the artist knew the end was coming. “Each song is about a person,” Gord explained before his death from brain cancer on Oct. 17. Some numbers are love letters to childhood buddies, former girlfriends and his bandmates in the Hip. “Bedtime,” a tender piano lullaby, describes the nightly ritual of putting one of his four children to sleep. “You and Me and the B’s,” with per...

His Harvest album was the biggest-seller of 1972, but Neil wasn’t happy. “‘Heart of Gold’ put me in the middle of the road,” he later wrote. “Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.” The ditch meant a trio of darker, abrasive albums that left some fans craving for more acoustic songs. This 10-song collection, recorded in 1976 but left in Neil’s vaults until now, sounds a lot like a companion to Harvest. It features stripped-down versions of “Pocahontas” and “Powderfinger” that he later recorded with Crazy Horse. “Campaigner” and “Human Highway” sound relevant all over again with their messages about political deception and mean spiritedness. The former cites Richard Nix...

How did Arcade Fire become a global band that mattered? By addressing big questions thoughtfully and passionately. Funeral examined death, Neon Bible tackled modern religion and The Suburbs took a hard look at urban life. On its last album, 2013’s Reflektor, the Montreal band led by the husband-and-wife team of Win Butler and Régine Chassange, dialed down the philosophical intensity and adopted an arsenal of grooves from synth-pop and disco to Haitian rara and Jamaican dub. For its fifth release Arcade Fire aims to marry the two, mixing earnest social commentary with dancefloor-ready beats. The title track is an ABBA-like number about consumption and the need for instant gratification. On “S...