Cold Specks

With her richly weathered voice and impassioned songwriting, Cold Specks' Al Spx writes songs that live up to her self-described style of "doom soul." Her mix of folk, soul, blues, and gospel was at its most rustic on 2012's I Predict a Graceful Expulsion -- her first, but not last, album to be nominated for the Polaris Music Prize -- but Spx brought different shades to her signature sound on her later releases. Post-rock and no wave added edge to 2014's Neuroplasticity, while 2017's Fool's Paradise incorporated her Somali roots. On 2025's Light for the Midnight, she transformed her most difficult struggles into universal songs about change and resilience.