Basia Bulat

Plenty of attention is paid to the distinct, honeyed vibrato of Toronto, ON-raised folk artist Basia Bulat, and with good reason. Since the release of her debut LP, Oh, My Darling in 2007, Bulat's voice has emerged above an eclectic mix of sounds, from handclaps to organ sighs, auto-harp trills and percussive swells. Tall Tall Shadow (the long-awaited follow-up to 2010's Heart of My Own) sees Bulat lifting her voice once again — high above the fussy introduction of electronic elements — to a place where joy and despair mingle in heady measures. The elegant turbulence of Bulat's sonant delivery renders the synthetic sounds on the title track and "Promise Not To Think About Love" mere flights of fancy, contrasting the raw focus of "It Can't Be You," which pits fervent Andean charango finger-picking against Bulat's beautifully hurried "oohs" in a battle against her challenged emotions. As such, underwhelming jabs at reverberated, sludgy guitar and synth chords serve as reminders that when Bulat asks her listener to "Come to my mind," on sparsely arranged lullaby "Paris or Amsterdam," she need only whisper.