Basia Bulat // Tall Tall Shadow
Well crafted, well played but ultimately a little too middle of the road to truly excite.
Released 3rd March 2014
Basia Bulat // Tall Tall Shadow (Secret City)
This is the third album from Polish-Canadian Basia Bulat. Originally released in her home country in September 2013, this now gets a full UK release.
In addition to writing the songs and singing, Bulat plays autoharp, guitar, charango and various keyed instruments. Bulat has a strong voice, reminiscent to All About Eve's Julianne Regan, Sandy Denny and Andrea Corr. She is at her best when singing at the deeper, lower part of her wide register.
Bulat says this was inspired equally by 'tragic loss and abundant joy' and, despite being routinely labelled as folk, this is in fact a dark but poppy country-rock.
'Tall Tall Shadow' hints at 'Rumours'-era Fleetwood Mac. 'Five, Four' is the closest this comes to pure folk. Deep, dark, slightly disturbing but ultimately uplifting, 'The City With No Rivers' is the highpoint, with Bulat abandoning the country rock-lite and becoming Sandy Denny singing Leonard Cohen.
The songs are very well crafted and well performed and I wanted to like it more than I do but the music is too middle of the road compared to the heartfelt lyrics. As it is, this makes good background music that will go down well in coffee shops and may sell millions.
6/10 Pavlis
