Basia Bulat
Oh, My Darling (Rough Trade)
By Caroline Evans
Published: April 11th, 2008 | 12:32pm
Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat’s first album begins bare — a high guitar jangle and friendly handclaps on the short and sweet “Before I Knew” could herald an equally stripped-down, essentially playful, and by no means unsuccessful full-length. Instead, the album progresses to something with more substance, more emotion, and more musical meat.
By the second track, “I Was a Daughter,” minor progressions have replaced the jangle, and racing handclaps sound more ominous than friendly. Bulat and her band also make use of a variety of instruments: low cello drones contrast with watery piano and gentle violin plucks. Melancholy songs like “Snakes and Ladders” and “The Pilgriming Vine” (which, with its anthemic instrumental break, would sound remarkably at home on a Wes Anderson soundtrack) are also wonderfully full-bodied and lush.
The title track, however, is another scaled-back folk affair and clocks in at just less than a minute and a half and displays Bulat’s direct, old-fashioned way of storytelling: “There are two things I will carry in my pockets at the end / Oh, my darling, you are one of them.”
The album is not quite country, not quite folk, not quite orchestral-pop, but everything in between. A fantastic debut by a promising new artist.
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Issue #44
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GeorgeLang (over 4 years)
Superb debut from a singer who seems to be mining the same singer-songwriter vein as Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan, but with much more sweetness. Looking forward to hearing more. http://blog.newsok.com/staticblog