Basia Bulat ‎- Oh, My Darling (2007)

This London, Ontario-based singer-songwriter is both a neo-madrigal folkie and a muted soul whisperer; at its best, her debut album for Rough Trade is an attractive admixture of aristocratic lilt and snapping rhythm.

The cover image of Basia Bulat's debut record tells you all you need to know about what's contained inside. Then again, maybe it doesn't tell you anything. Bulat is starkly front and center, donning a floppy hat and a youthful Mona Lisa expression, the sort onto which one might project any number of emotions, feelings, or personalities. A sense of aloof confidence is present, butting up against a naïve cuteness. The music on the disc under the picture shape-shifts as much, at times offering a neo-madrigal folkie or a muted soul whisperer; elsewhere, a lavender-colored soft-folk puree-blender shows up. Bulat further vacillates, like her countrywoman Feist, between little-girl sweetness and womanly wisdom, yet her specific blend of the two sensibilities more closely recalls Lilith Fair than Let it Die.

Bulat's voice is a soft, smoky coffeeshop flutter, most prominently recalling mid-Nineties AAA queens Natalie Merchant and Sarah McLachlan. Ergo, much of Oh, My Darling rings with the same sort of baroque femininity those women mastered. Several songs are coated in a thick lacquer of piano and bowed strings, most prominently "Snakes and Ladders", an attractive admixture of aristocratic lilt and snapping rhythm which rates as one of this year's most soundtrack-ready singles. The song's anxious piano motif and string section combination could score a melodramatic montage where a woman's integrity remains intact despite the numerous obstacles in her way. Within the current atmosphere of music promotion, that equates to "radio-friendly."