Oh, My Darling!

Basia BulatOh, My Darling!Joni Mitchell, heyday era (1970-75), is about as good as a singer/songwriter gets, especially considering the grace and staying power of her Blue and Court and Spark albums. As good as Neko Case, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos and other similar folk-based female popsters have been over the years, there hasn’t really been another Joni-level female folk album since The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Not to imply that Basia Bulat and her debut album, Oh, My Darling, are better than the Cases, Cats, Apples and Amoses out there, but Darling quite possibly is the closest thing the current generation has to its own Blue.

Let’s get one thing straight before going any further: Case, Cat, Apple and Amos all have better albums than Darling, no doubt about that. That said, Darling is a better debut than any of the aforementioned artists managed, and probably a better debut than just about anyone of Bulat’s ilk since Joanna Newsom released The Milk-Eyed Mender. Thirteen organically produced and played pop songs are held together by  Bulat’s deep but very feminine vocals, which at once quiver, fall and soar, sounding far too developed for anything on a debut record. Likewise, Darling’s compositions are very clever, sounding almost as if Bulat first recorded her acoustic guitar and vocal parts before heaping on layers of strings, harmonica, autoharp, ukulele, piano, flute and percussion after months of tinkering. It’s a cut-and-paste sounding folk record, one that is elegantly written at a level of maturity and sophistication rarely achieved by a 24 year old.

Opening with the ukulele-driven, 72-second masterpiece “Before I Knew,” Bulat immediately sounds distinctive and exciting, though in a very modest, warm manner. Next up is “I Was a Daughter,” which opens with acoustic guitar, sparse piano licks and handclap percussion before exploding into a true orchestral epic, again held together only by Bulat’s remarkable vocals. An album that was long in the works, Bulat released singles to radio, recorded videos and sold rights to her songs to television commercials in the year or so leading up to the U.S. release of Darling.

This means that - at least to folks who listen to KEXP, watch Volkswagon commercials or surf YouTube incessantly - that much of the material on Darling has likely already hit your eardrums a few times. The ballad-y, made-for-fall “Little Waltz” could be heard while watching a white VW drive through fall leaves; “In the Night,” a popular high-concept video, has been available for viewing on YouTube for a while now, looking almost like a long lost Michel Gondry video; “Snakes and Ladders” and “Little One,” both amazing and elaborately composed songs, have been running on college radio for a year or more now; and a number of Darling’s other tracks have had live performances posted on YouTube for some time now, as the album was release 10 months earlier to the UK market.

The real surprise here is the versatility Bulat offers throughout the duration of her lean, mean record. No two songs sound too much alike and every last one of ‘em arrive fully baked. At 24 the Canadian-born Bulat has released  a unique batch of songs that position her as a future star of the folk-pop genre. Mitchell released Ladies of the Canyon at 27 and Blue at 28, giving Bulat a few good years to come up with a recording that lives up to the promise of songs like “The Pilgriming Vine,” “In the Night” and “I Was a Daughter.” Fingers crossed, Bulat is the leader of the next generation of songwriters, female, Canadian or otherwise.   7.5/10

Written by G. William Locke