Feel It Break by Austra

Feel It Break, the 2011 debut from Toronto's Austra, is synth-pop with a chill in its bones, produced by the band itself and built around Katie Stelmanis, the composer and singer who founded the project, with Maya Postepski on drums. Stelmanis's voice is the draw, huge and operatic, soaring over cold, pulsing electronics, and critics duly reached for Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Fever Ray, Zola Jesus and Depeche Mode.

The singles were "Beat and the Pulse", "Lose It" and "Spellwork". The album made the shortlist for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize and picked up a Juno nomination for Electronic Album of the Year. A deluxe edition followed, packed with B-sides including "Young and Gay", Stelmanis's salute to Will Munro, the Toronto artist and activist who had died, covers of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" and Roy Orbison's "Crying", and a "Beat and the Pulse" remix by Slipknot's Shawn "Clown" Crahan. Olympia came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.