Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Drake became a global superstar by baring his soul, expressing personal truths about relationships rather than boasting about guns and drugs. His fifth album, named after his zodiac sign, continues the tradition, with the biggest revelation being his admission of fatherhood on two separate tracks. On “Emotionless,” Drake raps: “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid.” “We only met two times," he says of Sophie Brussaux, the Frenchwoman who’s rumored to be the mother of his son, before expressing angst about being a single parent. Elsewhere, Drake takes aim at his rivals in the hip-hop world on “Survival” and sums up his success on “Sandra Rose” with the lin...

By now, the world is familiar with the artistry of England’s Florence Welch, the powerful vocalist-frontwoman of the popular indie-rock band that bears her name. She’s partial to laying down her massive, layered gospel voices over soaring orchestral synths and booming percussive flourishes. Less familiar is the more subdued side of the London-born singer. On her band’s fourth album, Welch strips her music back to its bare essentials. “Grace,” a touching tribute to her younger sister, is just piano and vocals. “No Choir,” as the title suggests, also eschews anything but voice and keyboards. There are tracks with lusher instrumentation, including “Hunger,” a confessional about her teenage eati...

Canada’s Cowboy Junkies have become one of the world’s most revered bands by whispering while others screamed. The group’s quiet brilliance first gained global acclaim with 1988’s The Trinity Session and the quartet’s subdued rock and country-folk sound has remained remarkably consistent ever since, with occasional segues into noisier moments. On its fine 16 th album, the Junkies—singer Margo Timmins, her brothers Michael and Peter and family friend Alan Anton—shift between loud and soft sounds and personal and social subjects. “The Things We Do to Each Other” is a pulsing, politically charged number that warns how fear can easily turn to hate. “Sing Me a Song” is a 1960s-style rocker, compl...