Haley Blais is a Vancouver-based singer-songwriter who has turned out defiant scream-into-your-pillow pop songs since 2014. Wisecrack (Released September 15, 2023), her sophomore album, was conceived as a conceptual record about the formation of new families amidst the dissolution of her parent’s relationship; Wisecrack is textured and wryly poetic, oscillating somewhere between cherished childhood memories and the creation of a new self. The existential, everyday worries we all contain but rarely share are laid bare across eleven songs exquisitely performed with profundity, grace, and humour. Tongue-in-cheek lines like “I want my therapist to think I’m cool” give the melancholic mood a biting edge. “Can I be responsible for things that I did years ago? / I guess it could be good for just a laugh”, Blais sings — that’s Wisecrack in a nutshell. Funny and raw at the same time.