Pop music and break-ups go hand in hand; their shared history is one of shoulders cried on and empowering fresh starts. Basia Bulat’s ‘Good Advice’ is another for the annals of post-split records and deserves its place as a pocket-sized triumph of sparkling melody.
Bulat drove from Montréal to Kentucky, just shy of a thousand miles if you’re counting, to work on the album with Jim James of My Morning Jacket and the pairing has brought out good things in both of them. ‘Good Advice’ is focused and beautifully executed, something that suits James, but also bright and instrumentally adventurous, which works wonders for Bulat’s snappy writing and vocal dexterity.
There is a golden hue to ‘Good Advice’, a sort of retro sheen that gives it a different feel to ‘Tall Tall Shadow’, on which Bulat began to branch out further from her folk beginnings.
Here she discusses a different sort of loss in similar broad strokes, aiming not for an exploration of personal minutiae but the sort of sentiments that might ring true for an anonymous someone a further thousand miles away. “When I say that I don’t need help and I promise I will be fine,” she sings moments into the album’s first song, La La Lie. “I lie to myself.”
The opener sets out a compelling blueprint. This is a record heavy on layered keys and whirling organs, with Bulat’s powerful, idiosyncratic vocals backed by a team of Louisville singers and her hooks arriving in surprising, unusual garb. Long Goodbye tumbles from rapid-fire, wordy chorus to a bassy slink, while Let Me In twists a gospel refrain through spacious, popping synths.
Fool, released as one of the album’s two singles, is perhaps the best distillation of its appeal, moving in and out of an irresistible strut in its verses and a billowing chorus, lofted by a layer of fuzz. The Garden, which immediately follows it, is initially as spare as Bulat alone with her autoharp before becoming quite grand in its own understated way.
‘Good Advice’ might seem like something of a throwback on first listen, and it is. This time around that just means that it’s a pop record with charm, soul and no little heartbreak on its side.
Basia Bulat Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed April 13 2016 - LONDON Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen
Thu April 14 2016 - MANCHESTER Soup Kitchen
Fri April 15 2016 - GLASGOW Broadcast
Sat April 16 2016 - LEEDS Headrow House
Sun April 17 2016 - DUBLIN Workmans Club
Tue April 19 2016 - BRIGHTON Hope and Ruin
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