2013 | Songwriter of the Year (Sponsored by SiriusXM Canada) | Hannah Georgas | | The JUNO Awards

“I want to press reset,” Hannah Georgas sings in “Robotic,” a driving and purposeful song from her self-titled new album. And she’s done just that. A few years ago, when Georgas was first toting her guitar through the Vancouver music scene, she was known for her acoustic leanings. Then, the more intricate production of her nascent recordings, in combination with her luscious voice, helped raise inevitable comparisons to Canada’s most favoured musical export, Feist. But with Hannah Georgas, she’s found bold new ways to marry her essential singer-songwriter sensibility to elaborate studio soundscapes, while significantly upping the playfulness factor. It’s an album of rich, emotionally resonant synth-pop that isn’t afraid to walk a fine line between vintage new wave and contemporary ethereality, easily gliding from tongue-in-cheek come-ons to hauntingly emotional head trips. One thing you’ll never accuse it of being is robotic.