That’s a wrap. Fantastic as it was, the year 2013 is behind us. And as sure as there will be a long winter and broken resolutions, 2014 is guaranteed to bring us another breakout star like Lorde, another YouTube record-smasher like Miley Cyrus, another Toronto band that breaks in the States like DIANA.
The wonderful part, though, is that we don’t know who or how or where.
We can hypothesize that Toronto will continue churning out talent. Local acts like Ryan Hemsworth and Jessy Lanza got big international ink this year with their debut albums.
And now that City Hall has solidified a partnership with Austin, making official what we already knew – that Toronto is a world-class destination for music – we’re poised for an even bigger 2014.
What exactly will Toronto Music City mean? More funding? More festivals? More support for budding artists?
Our existing DIY music incubators like Wavelength and Long Winter already have big plans for the first quarter. The former has seven shows scheduled through the end of February, the latter kicks off 2014 with its slickest incarnation yet – at the AGO.
And already, NXNE looks bigger and more relevant than ever, with St. Vincent, Run the Jewels, Danny Brown and Rhye set for major headlining gigs on the fest’s 20th anniversary.
Some other things we’d like to see happen: local emcee/producer Rich Kidd – who produced the just-dropped single What’s Real for Talib Kweli – finally releasing a solo studio LP Tasha the Amazon, after unanimous praise for her debut mixtape, Fidiyootdem, becoming the next fierce face of Toronto hip-hop.
We can’t wait to see what one of Toronto’s best live bands – the punk-rocking quartet Pup – does now that they’ve been signed with an American label and what, after last year’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor controversy, the Polaris Prize jurors will choose as Canada’s best 10 albums of the year.
And what’s the new year if not a time to dream big? Very big. Tops on our wish list of whispered-about but as yet unscheduled releases? New albums from Metallica, Adele, Kanye West and Jay Z (Watch The Throne Part Deux), Lamb of God, Dr. Dre and last but definitely not least, OutKast. If they can follow up Speakerboxxx/The Love Below with something half as good, it will be among the year’s best.
Until then, we have some very real dates to look forward to. Bruce Springsteen drops his 18th studio album January 14. Future’s long-awaited follow-up to Pluto is coming any minute now (he promises), and a whole album of unreleased Johnny Cash material has surfaced, landing March 24.
This year’s gonna be good. Listen up.
julial@nowtoronto.com | @julialeconte
