Basia Bulat
Heart of My Own
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Label: Rough Trade
Heart of My Own is an immaculately recorded record. The second full-length from folksy Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat is extremely reverential of the genre and sound of her choice. Oft-photographed playing an autoharp, Bulat’s material walks a dead-center line between twangy country and traditional folk; while she touches on these elements in her songwriting, neither of these poles necessarily magnetize her toward a particular identity.
At its heart, this is the problem with Heart of My Own; for all her compositional and arranging chops, Bulat comes off as too polite in her songwriting and in her own vocals. The best I can do to describe her via the page is propose a sort of metaphorical chart with the forceful, country-tinged Neko Case on one end and the delicate, worldly folk of Isobel Campbell at the other- Bulat’s in the middle, strumming heartily on an acoustic guitar. I know, shame on me for comparing the young Bulat’s second record to the catalogs of these two veterans, yet understand that Case and Campbell are veterans because they’ve forged unique, individual voices with material that could only be called their own.
Bulat has her moments of promise. “Run” is rhythmically quick and driving with tambourines serving as the pulse amid acoustic chords and “Walk You Down,” with its minor keys, subtle shifts in percussion and backing vocals, provides a welcome respite from much of the record’s slow, methodical approach. Opener “Go On” has her getting louder, comparatively, and a little more accusatory with the listener. That is to say, that throughout much of the remainder of Heart of My Own, Bulat sounds too clinical, professional and much too polite to establish an identity of her own.
It’s on songs like “Sugar and Spice,” whose lyrics sport some heft, that the recording stays too reverential of the material at hand. Guitar arpeggios gently roll, strings sting and swell and Bulat trills handsomely, but there’s nothing here, or on the rest of the record, to set Heart of My Own apart from the next Starbucks compilation-ready recording artist.
by Chris Middleman
