I gave up on Canola2 a while ago for similar reasons. I loved it, but the latest beta seemed to introduce more problems than it solved.

Currently I am flicking between the Nokia media player, with the Now Playing Notification utiity, which is great, but the interface is slow.

The other player I am using currently is Quasar. Nice player,but occasioanlly buggy and a fiddly interface for on the move.