Basia Bulat - Good Advice

Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Basia Bulat is releasing Good Advice, her fourth album, and I’m wondering how I have never heard of her? Her deep, powerful yet tender voice has an amazing range, from gentle soothing melodies to soaring, heartfelt vocal aerobics. Production from Jim James of My Morning Jacket showcases Basia’s (almost) unique voice in a dense, alt-sixties vibe, sparse yet lush. Opening with La La Lie, we get a wall of sound stomper and the scene is set for the end of relationship; On Long Goodbye she sings “And when I hear a goodbye in my mind, I play it again and again then deny it” and who hasn’t blanked the inevitable, only to face it when someone else decides it’s time? During the title track itself, she leaves us to fill in the context “Your good advice, I never asked for it”; perhaps we’ve been made to hear our own shortcomings? Or at least, a friend or lovers’ projection of what they want from you.  This is an album full of emotion; she plunges into your heart with lyrics that need no interpretation.  It is full of heartbreak, delivered joyously, ten songs perfectly arranged around a central theme. With its Gothic northern soul and psychedelic bleakness, I have thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful album.