Already an established star in her native Canada, folk singer Basia Bulat relocates from Montreal to Louisville for her fourth album, enlisting My Morning Jacket’s Jim James for production and toning down her trademark autoharp in favour of dazzling, technicolour pop. As pain and sorrow spill from her mouth – “I’m still your fool,” sings Bulat with the sorrowful stoicism of a classic country crooner – rhinestone-encrusted melodrama and misery cascade around her, synthesised gospel colliding with the stately majesty of Grizzly Bear or Beach House. Perhaps its origins lie in the harmonic sensibility of Abba at their most defiant and deflated. Similarly to The Winner Takes It All, which begins with a contradiction (“I don’t wanna talk … ”, before much talking ensues), Bulat is often found in a frazzled state of flux: “I don’t wait in line!” she proclaims on Time, before adding, “But I can hold on to some time for you … call me when you’ve got the time.”
