Charlotte Cornfield is a songwriter’s songwriter. Not just a storyteller, Cornfield weaves wakeful words and worlds into conversational and comprehensible slices of life. Her lyrics find her skateboarding, playing Pac-Man, or going to see The Magnetic Fields in Montreal. Her catalogue is immensely rewarding to attentive listeners, as is her live performance. Cornfield warmly wraps listeners in lyrics like the perfectly seasoned chicken inside of a roti from Jerk King on Bloor and Dufferin.

Her previous recording, the elegantly Canadian title High in the Minuses, was an indie rock safe haven, placing Pavement-era guitar jangle next to kitchen-piano belladry, and the recording before that, The Shape of Your Name has an Albertan legacy, with half of the record recorded at the Banff Centre with ‘Berta producers Graham Lessard and Shawn Everett. Her latest is Could Have Done Anything, a ruminative but sure-footed entry in her oeuvre. Working with Josh Kaufman, a central figure in the indie supergroup Bonny Light Horsemen, the two adorned the songs with a higher-fidelity dressing, pianos, synths, organs, and scratchy guitars. It’s an elegant addition to an already stacked catalogue.

A new parent, we can’t wait to see how her songs continue to speak true to the newness and nuance of life and culture. Supported by some of the freshest tastemakers in music including Polyvinyl, Double Double Whammy, and Next Door Records in Canada, Charlotte Cornfield is an artist whose vinyl will impress your friends sitting on side B on your record player, and whose catalogue you might want to start investing in now while it’s still a manageable size, because you’ll want to own them all.

- Liam Prost