New music by Ellevator, Talma, Editors, Littless and Sarah Cripps added to our mix

Ellevator is a pop-rock band from Hamilton, Ontario, whose debut EP hasn't been released yet but is already getting attention from the likes of CBC Radio and Canadianbeats. We're featuring the single "New Survival," written by lead singer Nabi Sue Bersche. "I spent a lot of years trying to live up to other people’s high-hopes," Bersche says. "The song is about finding the person underneath all the noise and learning to live with them, even if I don’t always like them.”

We've previously featured London alt-rock band Talma and their single "Lifeline." Their second EP, Out To Sea, arrived recently and we're picking up on the opening track, "In Circles." Guitarist James Creed wrote the song "about the sense of apathy we can experience when returning to a routine lifestyle after time away from it all - the everyday, the mundane" - and the possibility to "step away from paths well-known and chase a new sense of meaning."

Birmingham, UK's Editors are out with their sixth album, Violence. As a reviewer on musicOMH put it,the title "suggests the perpetual gloom-mongers are about to explore new depths of darkness," but the album has "an emotional richness ... that brings some light to where there was once only darkness." Our featured track is, in fact, called "Darkness at the Door," but amid the obscurity of its lyrics there are suggestions that friendship can add that bit of light. 

Jumping back across the Atlantic to Philadelphia, we revisit Littless. Several weeks ago we started spinning "Better Left Unsaid" from the indie band's debut album, Less Precious, and now we're featuring "I've Been Waiting." Littles is the project of keyboardist Kyle Graham from another Philadelphia indie outfit, Hemming. It has an electro-pop sound grounded by sharp percussion and topped with multi-tracked vocals by Hemming's Candice Martello.

And we're dipping again into the self-titled album by Sarah Cripps, the Toronto singer-songwriter whose previous work was more country/roots oriented but who has shifted more toward a pop-alternative sound. We're adding "Caroline," which mixes layered vocals and keys with a pounding bass line and reminds us just a bit of the Christine McVie/Fleetwood Mac sound.