There's a lot of Canadian talent out there and we're almost overburdened with TORO Woman prospects. But that's one thing we'll never complain about, so without further adieu we bring you a preview of two upcoming features.

There was a retro theme for our shoot with Lights (above, right), as shot by photographer Caitlin Cronenberg (above, left). The Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter had no trouble pulling off an edgy suburban look, and her young career continues to soar too: she's nominated for a Juno again in 2010, this time for Pop Album of the Year.

Our second upcoming TORO Woman can boast about her musical chops as well. Vancouver's Cory Lee is known for her R&B sound (that is, when she's not acting for the movie cameras) and our photo shoot with her played up the old-school charm of classic divas.

Browse through this gallery for a look behind the scenes.

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Episode 8 “Recon”

 Locke/Man in Black makes Sawyer rally up all candidates (Hurly, Jack, either Sun or Jin) not under his influence to bring them to him, to wrap them up in his irreverent gaze.

We also discover that Jacob and the Man in Black were actually a same-sex couple and that all events since the pilot episode are a result of their bitter divorce.  The creepy blonde kid running around the island with dirt on his face is actually their love-spawn. It is hinted in this episode that the child was conceived using magic.

MiB sends Sawyer to wrangle the kid, bring him back so father and son can sit down to a dinner of steak and beans, then roast marshmallows over a campfire whilst discussing  how to get off the island, and perhaps what they will do once off.  

Sun and Jin will reunite in this episode and, during a slow-motion sequence with tender-hearted piano score, their loving embrace will swiftly turn to a sexually-charged, carnal affair that is not suitable for children.

In the end, things will be disturbed. Guns will be pointed in the faces of old foes. People will sweat. More people will ask questions and will receive vague answers. Ben will make a brief appearance, but since the episode is not about him, he’ll say his few lines and spend the rest of the episode silent, with bulging eyes because he has a secret dexedrine addiction.

Are we right? You damn right.

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Ideally, a movie poster should inspire passing observers to do a double-take, saying to themselves “Hey, that looks like something I’d like to see.” But who’s going to see this oppressively vanilla print for Skateland (see below)? It’s like one of those bargain bin paintings you have in your house for years and years without noticing, until one day you’re like “Where did that come from?”

As if the hideous egg-white chasm taking up 3/5 of the frame wasn’t bad enough (with almost illegible review lines), they’ve managed to find the four least interesting-looking young people on the planet, sitting around in the least interesting way possible, apparently involved in some sort of roller rink in between bouts of casual staring and pensive stage-left staring (roller skating being the lamest of the three different kinds of skating). What is this, Old Navy: The Movie?

Morning commuter music this is not: the Montreal band Besnard Lake’s third album is a fine one to sleep to. This is meant as a compliment. Seriously. Great headphone/sleeping albums are hard to come by.

The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night resembles Pink Floyd’s Meddle (the best bed-time album of all time) but instead of a spaceship, you’re on a river raft floating past a blazing battle, with burning villages on either side. Smoke’s clouding all your vision.

But this isn’t a bleak album. Dark, yes, but there’s something comforting in the way the guitars float through the mix in each song, never aggressive, ever-constant, always humming.

The band takes its time building up each song, lulling the listener into world of dark-matter psychedelia. Roaring Night is built around atmosphere and space, with husband and wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas trading off lead vocal duties throughout.

Opener “Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent Pt.’s 1 & 2” is a shoegazing nine-minute monster of a song. After that, though, the album hardly roars at all, despite what the title suggests. When it does it’s not so much crunching rock & roll as ethereal wall of fuzz, bass and squalling guitars.

It’s an often thrilling music experience all the same, one designed for solitary listening.  Sitting in a reading chair in a dark room with a single lamp on, drinking a little whiskey might work. But trust us – Roaring Night is perfect for a combination of headphones and a fluffy pillow to lay your head on waiting for sleep to come.

Artist: Besnard Lakes

Album: Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night (Outside Music, 46 minutes)

Rating: 3.5/5

Some albums beg to be pirated. This collaboration between Shins frontman James Mercer and one-half-of-Gnarls-Barkley Danger Mouse (billed here as Brian Burton) garnered so much interest that impatient music fans were scouring the internet for a leak of the album as soon as the project was announced last September. They found what they were looking for.

Not at all surprisingly, the album sounds mash-up between The Shins and Gnarls Barkley, albeit a more experimental version of the former and a less frenzied version of the latter. Half the album’s songs are melodic, cerebral enough to mask Mercer’s sad-sack lyrics about breaking up and moving on. These are bogged down, however, by another five songs best suited for background music at Starbucks.

There aren’t many surprises here, nor is this a progression for either artist, leaving one to wonder (ahem: yours truly) why the collaboration is even necessary. But here it is anyway. Lead single “The High Road” is the perfect synthesis of Mercer and Burton’s respective sounds. The final three tracks, ending with “The Mall and the Misery”  are the darkest and strongest run of songs on the album. 

It’s a nice pay-off for having to sit through the mostly soggy middle. But if you’re of the iPod-equipped breed, you can just delete whatever they don’t like. It’s doubtful you paid for it anyway.

Artist: Broken Bells
Album: S/T (Columbia, 36 minutes)
Rating: 3/5