ABSOLUTE TREAT (FORMERLY DILETTANTE) ANNOUNCE NEW EP, SHATTERED LOVE

ABSOLUTE TREAT, THE NEW MONIKER OF DILETTANTE, TO RELEASE NEW EP, SHATTERED LOVE, MAY 14, 2025 VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS 

LISTEN / SHARE “MAIN STREET” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MAIN STREET” HERE

PRE-SAVE SHATTERED LOVE HERE

Photo Credit : Heather Saitz // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Absolute Treat is the new moniker of the Toronto-based, multi-hyphenate pop group formerly known as Dilettante. Having fully shed the hazy, lo-fi trappings of their previous project (as enveloping and winningly moody as it was), the band – Natalie Panacci (vocals), Julia Wittmann (vocals; guitar) and bandmates Zachary Stuckey (bass) and Bradley Connor (drums) – have since turned their attention to the dance floor, teasing out threads of inspiration from the intersecting points where disco, pop, rock, and slinky R&B meet. 

In 2022, they released their debut album, Dilettante, which UK publication Backseat Mafia described as having “indelible melodies and mountain high anthems." This established them as a versatile band that can play anything from moody ballads (“Blue”) to spangly uptempo bops (“Bonnie”). It also led to their inclusion in Exclaim! Magazine’s Class of 2023, opening slots for bands such as Born Ruffians and The Darcys, and performances at festivals such as Toronto Pride and River & Sky. 

Following the name change and a 2025 re-release of Dilettante on their new label, Victory Pool, Absolute Treat have returned with their latest EP, Shattered Love, where they have refined their dynamic sound, delivering the polish and energy of seasoned pop powerhouses. 

Today, the band shares the EP’s first single, "Main Street", a track that “came from a moment of deep sadness and isolation,” says Panacci. “I was walking down a main street in my neighbourhood in the West End of Toronto, crying and overwhelmed by emotions, completely disconnected from myself. I was afraid to be seen by anyone I knew because I felt so bad. Instead of hiding in the backstreets, I sat down and wrote the first half of the lyrics in the song. Over the next year—through heartbreak, reflection, and the process of rebuilding myself, I rewrote the lyrics and the song was ready to record. It captures that feeling of being lost in your own life, but also the hope that, one day, things will change.”

LISTEN / SHARE “MAIN STREET” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MAIN STREET” HERE

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MORE ABOUT SHATTERED LOVE
Shattered Love is a collection of songs that distill the essence of some of pop music's finest writers and producers from the '70s and '80s. The album is replete with spot-the-influence moments, but never in a way that pops one out of the tight, concise listening experience Absolute Treat have constructed. It's all perfectly sublimated and stylishly executed. 

“The Sun” opens up the EP with a surefooted anthem that uncannily recalls choice elements of late '70s funk/disco progenitors Chic; on which, co-leader Julia Wittmann's guitar playing shines throughout, but makes an especially strong initial impact on this tune. The vocals positively radiate; it's hard not to imagine hearing them amongst the spinning dapples of disco-ball reflections and sweaty bodies in a crowded club; with its cascading melody lines in the verses and singalong-worthy harmonies in the choruses, this opening track reads as something of a mission statement for Shattered Love. A dramatic dropout mid-song, a saxophone solo hits and grungy guitar riff slides in underneath, bringing the song home for a final round of that ridiculously catchy chorus. 

Title track, “Shattered Love” paints a luridly vivid portrait of the streets of Toronto while sounding like a long-lost Prince b-side with its mysterious synthesizers, chopping guitar work, and minimal, deeply funky rhythm section. Never staying in one place for long, the hooky chorus in this tune incorporates a more sultry vocal approach before Panacci belts out a raw, insistent refrain of the song's title.

Shattered Love closes with a lovely track called “Slow”, which may very well be the vocal showcase on the album. Shimmering with layers of cascading synth adornments both Wittmann and Panacci truly belting it out in the song's final moments. From here the tune gently winds down, and it'll be no surprise when you find yourself reaching for the “play” button again as soon as it's over.

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SHATTERED LOVE TRACKLIST
01 The Sun
02 Shattered Love
03 Main Street
04 The Door
05 Slow

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ROSE COUSINS RELEASE NEW ALBUM, SHARES VIDEO FOR “NEEDED YOU”

ROSE COUSINS’ NEW ALBUM, CONDITIONS OF LOVE - VOL 1, OUT TODAY VIA NETTWERK

BUY / STREAM CONDITIONS OF LOVE - VOL 1 HERE

WATCH / SHARE “NEEDED YOU” HERE

2025 CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN MARCH 29, MORE TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED TODAY 

“On her new album, Conditions of Love - Vol. 1, Rose Cousins returns to her own first love — the piano — to craft 10 testaments to the human heart in all its glorious, inane complexity. The record delivers Cousins' trademark capacity for wry wit and emotional gravitas, but her archness never serves as a way to keep a distance between herself and her lyrics. Cousins knows how to find the light in the dark, she knows survival, and she's crafting whole worlds here."
CBC Music, Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2025

“Rose Cousins is here to tell us about love. Vol. 1 of that treatise promises more of Cousins's deftly rendered, soul-inflected pop music. Light as air but deep as space, lead single "I Believe in Love (and it's very hard)" makes a simple declaration sound like the bravest thing you could ever admit.” Exclaim!, Most Anticipated Albums of 2025

Photo Credit : Lindsay Duncan // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, acclaimed multi-JUNO Award winning singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rose Cousins releases her new album Conditions of Love - Vol 1. To help celebrate the occasion, Cousins is sharing the video for “Needed You”, a song that “speaks to the scars of childhood,” she says. “A loving lament to those moments when we most needed love and it wasn’t available. Time passes and we figure out how to survive in the world we are born into. Later, out in the world on our own, we begin to see ourselves as two separate people: who we needed to be as a child, and the adult we have become, away from our family dynamic.

“Generational pain is real. You can run screaming from your childhood only to get to midlife and there it is, still waiting to be held, acknowledged. I don’t know that there’s a way to reconcile the emotional past. I know we can get stuck choosing between authenticity and connection. Love is constantly trying to endure and persist in endless conditions, whether our needs are getting met or not. We do the best we can.

“In the end, Conditions of Love - Vol 1  journeys through longing and lands in a place of acceptance, perhaps the only real way forward.”

WATCH / SHARE “NEEDED YOU” HERE

MORE ABOUT CONDITIONS OF LOVE - VOL 1
On her new album, Rose holds her listeners’ hands as she guides them on a journey through the "conditions of love." Ever the emotional explorer, the Nova-Scotia-based artist seeks truth, in all its imperfection, in the depths of humans’ most complicated of emotions: love. The journey results in a striking clarity, and it’s the gift of that clarity that brings on surprising tears.  

Rose shares, “Love feels great and makes us ridiculous. It's tiring and intense, joyful and devastating. Falling in love, being in love and staying in love are all such different things. Being human is emotionally complicated enough without attempting to relate to another who is just as complex, and in the most vulnerable of arenas: romance. Love is wondrous and absurd (and very hard). Humour helps.” 

WATCH / SHARE “K’S WALTZ” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “DENOUEMENT” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VISUALIZER) HERE

Co-produced with trusted friend and longtime bandmate Joshua Van Tassel, Conditions of Love - Vol. 1 sees Rose return to her first love, the piano. “Piano is where I feel the most connected. It’s the best partner in expressing the emotion I’m mining,” she shares. She first introduced the upcoming body of work with the gorgeous, piano-driven ballad “Forget Me Not,” followed by the slow-burning, nostalgic “Borrowed Light,” and the uplifting, “I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard),” which Rose has called the cornerstone of the upcoming album.  

WATCH / SHARE “THAT’S HOW LONG (I’VE WAITED FOR YOUR LOVE)” HERE

Rose Cousins’ songwriting plumbs the depths of the human condition. Her work has garnered her two JUNO Awards (2013’s We Have Made a Spark & 2021’s Bravado), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, eleven East Coast Music Awards and one Grammy Award nomination (2018’s Natural Conclusion), along with praise from the likes of the CBC, No Depression, LA Times, Associated Press, Billboard, Folk Alley, and NPR, who raved “Cousins’ disarmingly fluid vocal tone has the ability to convey the most internalized feelings without an ounce of fuss.” Over the years, she has shared stages with Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jann Arden, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Henry and Anais Mitchell, and her music has fittingly underscored scenes from notable TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Fire Country, Batwoman and Heartland. 

WATCH / SHARE “I BELIEVE IN LOVE (AND IT’S VERY HARD)” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “BORROWED LIGHT” HERE

ROSE COUSINS CANADIAN TOUR (MORE DATES TBA)
March 29 - Fredericton, NB @ Wilmot United Church
April 1 - Sherwood Park, AB @ Festival Place Theatre
April 2 - Calgary, AB @ National Music Centre
April 3 - Saskatoon, SK @ The Basement
April 5 - Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
April 7 - Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
April 8 - Kingston, ON @ The Broom Factory
April 9 - Peterborough, ON @ Market Hall Performing Arts Center
April 11 - Toronto, ON @ Masonic Temple - The Concert Hall
April 12 - Hamilton, ON @ The Westdale
April 13 - Ottawa, ON @ National Arts Centre
April 16 - Charlottetown, PE @ Confederation Centre Of The Arts
April 17 - Halifax, NS @ Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
April 18 - Moncton, NB @ Capitol Theatre (Moncton)
April 19 - Saint John, NB @ Imperial Theatre
June 13 - St John's, NL @ Majestic Theatre
October 3 - Pender Island, BC @ Pender Islands Community Hall
October 4 - Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom
October 6 - Vancouver, BC @ St. James Community Square, Mel Lehan Hall 
October 8 - Vernon, BC @ Vernon Performing Arts Centre
October 9 - Lake Country, BC @ Creekside Theatre

BUY / STREAM CONDITIONS OF LOVE - VOL 1 HERE

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

CONDITIONS OF LOVE - VOL 1 TRACKLIST
01 To Be Born (overture)
02 Forget Me Not
03 I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard)
04 Denouement
05 That’s How Long (I’ve waited for your love)
06 Needed You
07 Wolf and Man
08 K’s Waltz
09 Borrowed Light
10 How is this (the last time)

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HOUSEWIFE RELEASES NEW EP, GIRL OF THE HOUR, ALONGSIDE THE LOFTY NEW SINGLE “MATILDA”

WATCH / SHARE “MATILDA” HERE

BUY / STREAM GIRL OF THE HOUR HERE

PERFORMS IN VANCOUVER AT JUNOFEST ON MARCH 28

"slow-burning, glittery alt-pop " - THE LINE OF BEST FIT

“Housewife is a revelation…A glorious combination of Blondshell, Julia Jacklin and soaring US songwriter charm, it’s an emphatic introduction to an artist already screaming “future favourite”. - DORK
“'Divorce' sees the Toronto-based artist paint a vivid picture of someone whose world has fallen apart due to a break-up, via the mediums of mournful vocals, pensive grunge riffs, and palpable pop hooks.” - DIY MAG

“an addictive alt-pop anthem with shades of nostalgia and melancholia from a promising new talent.” - RECORD OF THE DAY

“ -Child of my own Divorce- That’s the most brilliant lyric I’ve ever heard….The lyrics are incredibly smart.” - LOS ANGELES TIMES

“‘King of Wands’ finds Fry once again showing off their layered songwriting and infectious melodicism, hitting on a careful combination of rollicking indie rock guitars and earworm hooks.” - UNDER THE RADAR MAGAZINE

“Toronto-based rising star Brighid Fry under her musical moniker consistently delivers pop-tinged indie-rock productions that weave through everything from messy situationships to climate change in empowering yet grounding tones.” - EARMILK

Photo Credit : Carly Boomer  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

After an incredible run of widely-praised releases including “I Lied”, “Wasn’t You”, “Life of the Party”, “Work Song” and “Divorce”, Housewife (Brighid Fry) has now released her eagerly-awaited new EP, Girl Of The Hour, highlighted by the lofty new single “Matilda”.

Girl Of The Hour follows the 2022 EP You’ll Be Forgiven continuing the sprawling indie-pop energy Housewife has become known for. Cementing the broad and immersive approach she has taken this past year, her newest collection continues to establish her as one of the more compelling voices in the modern alt-pop arena.

Rooted in both personal loss and universal grief, the lead offering “Matilda” is a song that transforms a seemingly simple event into a deeply emotional allegory. Inspired by the theft of her beloved bike, affectionately nicknamed Matilda, Housewife channels the bittersweet feeling of missing something that once brought freedom and joy.

Reflecting on the song’s meaning, she shares, “‘Matilda’ was inspired by my bike getting stolen a couple years ago. I was an avid cyclist for years and really loved that bike (and had nicknamed it Matilda). I remember a while after it got stolen, I was out on a day that was perfect biking weather and just getting hit with how much I miss cycling. Obviously, the song isn’t just about a bike, but also an allegory for grief and loss, and missing something or someone you can’t have anymore. I think everyone, cyclists or not, can relate to that grief, and the struggle of moving on from things in their past, as I still haven’t replaced the bike to this day.” 

WATCH / SHARE “MATILDA” HERE

MORE ABOUT HOUSEWIFE + GIRL OF THE HOUR
Filled with curiosity and questions of identity, Toronto’s Brighid Fry (she/ they) makes the sort of indie-leaning, exploratory music that it’s taken several years of early success and subsequent growth to reach. First breaking through in her teens as one half of Moscow Apartment, the duo swiftly won a Canadian Folk Music Award for their self-titled debut EP before changing their name and then becoming a solo project in 2022. As Brighid hit her twenties and stepped front and centre, the material that she was writing became increasingly more self-aware and personal, too.

Still only 22, Brighid credits her liberal upbringing as helping to make this process of both artistic and self-discovery as seamless as possible. Having recently been diagnosed as autistic, she jokes that her neurodivergence was on display and understood from the first moments music entered her life as a child when, unlike most three-year-olds, she became obsessed with classical composers and begged her parents not just for a kid’s violin, but also a collection of busts of Bach, Beethoven and co. When the classical music fixation gave way to more contemporary tastes, she would join her family at the folk festivals they regularly attended, playing her first non-classical performance at a Greenpeace fundraiser.

WATCH / SHARE “DIVORCE” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

As well as offering Brighid an early introduction to the community that music can provide and the climate activism that would go on to become a big part of her life (in 2021, she helped to set up the Canadian branch of Music Declares Emergency), her family also provided a completely accepting place to explore her wider identity. As a “third generation queer”, she’s felt confident and comfortable with her own bisexuality since the age of 12. “My parents are bisexual; my grandma’s a lesbian; I grew up going to Pride so I never had a teary coming out,” she notes. In the two years since Housewife’s previous EP You’ll Be Forgiven, meanwhile, Brighid has spent time understanding that she is non-binary. “It took longer to figure that bit out, but I’ve never struggled with my identity,” she says.

On new EP, Girl Of The Hour, Housewife is addressing these facets more than ever - be that on the friend crush dilemma of first single “I Lied” or the musings on social perceptions that run through “Life of the Party”. But although these six tracks of earworm grunge-pop are a real time document of an artist growing and changing - figuring out some vital parts of themself along the way - the predominant vibe is one that’s playful and inquisitive. “Sometimes your friends are hot and that can get more complicated when there are no hard lines on what you are,” Brighid suggests. “That’s how my queerness ends up coming out in my music.”

WATCH / SHARE “WORK SONG” HERE

“Wasn’t You” laces fuzzy guitars with a relatable tale about fancying someone you wish you didn’t. “My problem with being bisexual isn’t about being attracted to women, it’s being attracted to men,” Brighid laughs - an idea intertwined with an acute awareness of the gender imbalance of prospective partners who “have been raised and socialised in a completely different way than me, and don’t have to deal with sexism and misogyny in the same way I do.”

On the aforementioned “I Lied”, she addresses another hurdle of being bisexual over the sort of buoyant indie-pop that nods to fellow queer heroes MUNA. “I’m always interested in this idea that straight men and women can’t be friends, or that you can’t be friends with someone you could be attracted to,” Brighid notes, “because if you’re bi then well, shit! Can’t I have any friends?!” Meanwhile, for the melancholy heartbreak of “Divorce”, Brighid sought out fellow songwriter Hank Compton during a writing session in order to make “the most devastating shit” they could.

WATCH / SHARE “LIFE OF THE PARTY” (LYRIC VIDEO) HERE

Largely moving away from the lighter folk of her early output and leaning into the more alternative influences that have been part of her life since attending a formative Girls Rock camp aged eight, “Life of the Party” fuses pop hooks with a grungey, cathartic musicality; a duality that fits the song perfectly. “People don’t pick up on the fact that I’m autistic automatically so they’ll think I'm this aloof, weird bitch,” Brighid says. “But then people also assume I’m this confident person who knows what they’re doing [because of my career]. I wanted to write a song about all these misconceptions about me and how hard it is to set people straight. People see me on stage and think that’s me, but it just never has been.”

“Matilda” is a song about losing her bike that’s also, of course, not just about losing her bike. “It’s about the aspect of needing to move on and dealing with loss that was informed by this other big loss in my life. But,” she notes, “I genuinely cried when I lost that bike.” Meanwhile “Work Song” - written with regular collaborator and JUNO Award winner Derek Hoffman - takes an upbeat, glass-half-full approach to self improvement, morphing dissatisfaction into a pop about getting better, both as a performer and a person.

On Girl Of The Hour, Brighid is fully leaning into the fresh territory she’s opened up as Housewife - from the newly limitless genre scope she’s allowing herself to explore to the increasingly personal, nuanced and curious topics that permeate the lyrics within them. More than ever, Brighid Fry knows herself and the result is a project that’s getting more confident in the idiosyncrasies of its own skin by the day. “Some people say that this music is political or it has very strong messaging and I think that’s great,” she says, “but really for me, it’s just a way to process life.”

HOUSEWIFE LIVE
March 28 - Vancouver, BC | JUNOfest | The Red Gate

BUY / STREAM GIRL OF THE HOUR HERE

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GIRL OF THE HOUR EP TRACK LISTING:
01 I Lied
02 Work Song
03 Life Of The Party
04 Matilda
05 Divorce
06 Wasn’t You

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