For the Canadian-American soul-jazz collective Busty and the Bass, collaboration has always been at the forefront of their music. Formed at the Schulich School of Music in Montreal over a decade ago, the group’s collaborative spirit remains at the heart of their most recent studio album, Forever Never Cares. Over the years, the group has joined forces with prominent artists such as P-Funk founder George Clinton, Macy Gray, Earth, Wind & Fire, Illa J, Terrace Martin, and Amber Navran of Moonchild. Despite such a strong history of partnerships, their third album reshaped the band’s creative formula and redefined how they worked together a decade into their career. Two previous studio albums, Uncommon Good (2017) and Eddie (2020), saw the band experiment with various genres, effortlessly changing styles song to song, from soul to funk to pop. Forever Never Cares finds the collective both broadening and distilling their influences into a unified sound that is entirely their own. The album sounds, at once, of a bygone era and completely modern, featuring dynamic live performances, expansive arrangements, and a wide array of vocal approaches including the heartfelt expressiveness of founding member Alistair Blu, the otherworldly falsetto of Jordan Brown, the smokey soul of Katie Tupper, and the playfulness of Magi Merlin. The moment you think you know which direction the album is going, it takes another unexpected turn, but you are always delighted by the eventual destination.