December 30, 2009

Music: Heart of My Own (Basia Bulat)

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January/February 2010 Issue

No, that’s not Tracy Chapman, though Basia Bulat‘s seductive sophomore album displays a similar graceful intensity. This crafty Canadian folkie turns seemingly simple songs into engrossing accounts of desire and regret. “Don’t you need me any more?” she asks in “Once More, for the Dollhouse,” a spare banjo seconding her stark plaint, while on “Sugar and Spice” she announces, “I’ve done myself in.” Elsewhere, “If It Rains” combines a sleepy groove and gospel-style backing singers to echo sultry ’60s soul. Always tasteful yet never bland, Heart of My Own is a soulful antidote to the lovesick blues.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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