Dream City is the follow up to Cannon Bros.’ 2011 Polaris Prize nominated Firecracker/Cloudglow, a jangly, riffy tour de force that demanded attention and rightfully received it. Since that album came and went and stuck in our collective brains, Cannon Bros. have largely gone quiet, busy with other projects that have been successful in their own right, so it was one hell of a nice surprise to have this absolute stunner of an album dropped on my lap. Dream City picks up where Firecracker/Cloudglow left off in terms of hooky, fuzzy riffs and gorgeous simplicity. The opening track, Can’t Sleep, might be the catchiest song to come out of Winnipeg in years, and those kind of earworms are peppered throughout the rest of the album’s short and sweet 19 tracks (the whole album rings in at a breezy 40 minutes, which seems even shorter when you’re changing songs every two minutes). The thing that separates this album from their first, however, is the added depth and structure that each song has. The best example of this is “Totally Crushed,” a rollicking, playful, punky power pop anthem that swerves between a traditionally jangly Cannon Bros. riff, bass and drum driven verses, and sugary chorus melodies. This theme repeats itself throughout the album with the brief but neck breaking title track, the grungy “July,” and album closer “Ghost in the Wind.” The added substance and matured songwriting capabilities make this album easily one of my favourites of 2015, an improvement on an already excellent formula. From start to finish, this is one of the most pleasant listens you’ll experience this year. I have to say, too, writing this review and listening to this album on repeat for the past couple of weeks has made me really miss this band. It’s about time we get them back. (Disintegration Records, disintegration.ca) Jordan Cayer