John K. Samson, best known as the wordy lead singer of Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans, is releasing his newest album, Winter Wheat, on October 21 via ANTI-. I got a stream of it and it’s a wonderful record, full of all the literate idiosyncrasy we expect from Samson.

And for those who missed it, his last album, 2012’s Provincial, was also great.

Ontario-based experimental-folk-naturalist project Man meets Bear released its latest album this week, the wonderful, impressionistic I Want to Be a Gallant Rider Like My Father Was Before Me. Gallant Rider…‘s songs take the form of ambient, meditative soundscapes. The album showcases a change of focus, but not a change of sound for project mastermind Soren Brothers, as Gallant Rider… continues to haunt the same primeval psychic space he explored on previous albums, but without much approaching pop song formats.