Zweng's 'Toronto Tapes' Is a Brutally Honest Soundtrack to Self-Reinvention
- Curious For Music Team
- May 19
- 1 min read
Zweng is done pretending. After years of detours—through LA studios, psych-rock dives, and the trappings of a career teetering on collapse—the Sacramento-born musician has hit reset. The result? Toronto Tapes, an unfiltered, genre-blurring album born from sobriety, heartbreak, and a hard-earned will to begin again.
There’s no gloss here. Recorded at Kensington Sound Studios during a year of isolation in Toronto, the record walks a tightrope between vulnerability and grit. It kicks off with Good To Be Free, a chest-thumping anthem that owes a debt to Oasis but carries its own emotional weight. From there, Zweng spirals into reimagined covers and soul-bearing originals that trace a path through addiction, identity, and healing.
His version of Take On Me ditches the synths for something closer to a whispered apology. Goodbye To You is transformed into a funeral for a former self. Zweng isn’t just riffing on nostalgia—he’s using it to dig up emotional artifacts and confront what’s buried beneath them. It’s cathartic, but never melodramatic.
The standout moment might be Marianne, a gorgeously tender track written from the imagined voice of the father his mother never had. It’s the kind of songwriting that doesn’t scream—it just sits with you, quietly devastating. Changes, the album’s closer, doesn’t offer resolution, just acceptance. And maybe that’s enough.
With two more records on the way and a YouTube series in the pipeline, Zweng isn’t slowing down. But Toronto Tapes isn’t about the hustle—it’s about the healing. In a world full of posturing, it’s refreshing to hear someone simply mean it.
