Artists Band

TOPS

TOPS is a Montreal band formed in 2011 by Jane Penny and David Carriere, childhood friends from Edmonton, with the drummer Riley Fleck, after their earlier group Silly Kissers broke up. Their first three albums, Tender Opposites (2012), Picture You Staring (2014) and Sugar at the Gate (2017), came out on Arbutus Records, and the band has always produced its own records. I Feel Alive followed in 2020, and Bury the Key, with the keyboardist Marta Cikojevic in the lineup, came out on Ghostly International in August 2025.

2 pieces on Earbuddy

On Earbuddy

Artist

Review Soft rock, Indie pop

TOPS Picture You Staring

TOPS made their second album themselves, over a year, in a former storeroom off the Arbutus office. One room and one palette hold it together and hold it back.

Elmo Phelge · 23 Oct 2026

Artist

Review Soft rock, Indie pop

TOPS Sugar at the Gate

TOPS spent 2016 in a house in Glendale and made their third album there, while Penny and Carriere's long relationship ran its course. It's a sharper record for it.

Elmo Phelge · 23 Oct 2026