reviews / 2007

BASIA BULAT - Oh, My Darling

Name: BASIA BULAT – Oh, My Darling
Item: Oh, My Darling
Rating: 7
Author: Roberto Mandolini

2007 (Rough Trade)

folk-pop

by Roberto Mandolini

It may be the blonde hair, the delicacy with which she recounts the heart's torments, or that still-young but already assured moon-voice that make the very young Basia one of the most credible heirs to the immense Joni Mitchell. This doesn't necessarily have to be the starting point for an analysis of the debut album by a young Canadian singer-songwriter, but the comparison is simply meant as an extra incentive to go seek out this record. One that, we're certain, had it come out thirty years ago only to be rediscovered today by whichever Jim O'Rourke happened to stumble upon it, would have had the experts at Mojo screaming miracle.

Indeed, right from the cover of "Oh My Darling", Basia seems to have stepped out of another era: that démodé elfin hat and her makeup-free gaze project her into a distant past that today, after the unexpected success of a hippie like Devendra Banhart, feels more current than ever. But compared to the crowd around Michael Gira's protégé, Basia Bulat seems to keep her distance. At least when it comes to eccentricities, which perhaps end with her hat. Her music is anything but naive or eccentric.

The songs on "Oh My Darling" were arranged and recorded following the rules of the best Anglo-Saxon folk, complete with an orchestra trailing the piano lines. Even though the recording sessions took place at the now super-famous Hotel2Tango in Montreal, home to Silver Mt Zion and Arcade Fire, Bulat's debut could just as easily have been born within the legendary walls of London's Apple Studios, with Joe Boyd (Incredible String Band, Martin Carthy, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, etc.) offering advice. The album's incipit leaves no doubt about Basia's sincerity: in "Before I Knew" she sings, with disenchanted clarity, of her heart's torments: “Oh, it was the first time I fell in love/ the first time I felt my heart/ it was the first time I sang out loud all through the night/ but before I knew I was lost, before I knew I was a prisioner/ and I still can’t find a way to make it right”.

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12/04/2007

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Roberto Mandolini, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

1. Before I Knew
2. I Was a Daughter
3. Little Waltz
4. December
5. Snakes and Ladders
6. Oh, My Darling
7. Little One
8. Why Can't It Be Mine
9. The Pilgriming Vine
10. La Da Da
11. Birds of Paradise
12. A Secret

BASIA BULAT on the web

Official website

Basia Bulat on OndaRock

Monograph

Basia Bulat

I Wanted to Be Natalie Merchant

The trajectory of a young Canadian singer-songwriter, from the intimate folk of her early days to the lure of an elegant, luminous pop sound: one of the most interesting voices of her generation, but also a delightful craftswoman of song. With holy cards of Joni Mitchell and the singer of 10,000 Maniacs on her nightstand.