Basia Bulat—Heart of My Own VVVV

In September 2007, Basia Bulat was still playing tunes from her debut album Oh My Darling on U of T’s Back Campus. Within a year, however, she’d been short-listed for the Polaris Prize, signed by Secret City Records (home of Patrick Watson and Miracle Fortress), and showered with critical acclaim. Luckily there’s no trace of a sophomore slump on Heart of My Own as Bulat explores new sounds while maintaining her unique voice both sonically and lyrically.

Bulat’s once-trademark ukulele has been eschewed in favour of more tunes driven by autoharp, lending a sense of optimism to “Run” and creating optimal ambience on “If It Rains.” Heart of My Own also shows more of a Celtic influence, notably on the rollicking pace of opening track “Go On” and the album’s gorgeously deliberate title track, both of which provide a sense of meandering through lush highland landscapes.

The most energetic songs, however, remain the true stand-outs: early blog offering “Gold Rush” is endlessly replayable while “If Only You” benefits from a lighthearted, almost jaunty trumpet line. Coupled with a carryover of Bulat’s proven songwriting prowess—her plaintive confessionals are rife with addresses to a yet-unknown “you”—this album provides an optimal balance of experimentation with the voice we’ve come to love. Catch her CD pre-release on January 16 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church. The only thing that could make this album better would be to hear it performed in such an acoustically-appropriate space.—Shoshana Wasser

Katy Perry—Katy Perry Unplugged V

Has any other zeitgeist singer managed to pander as egregiously as Ms. Perry (as she prefers to be called these days)? Beginning with “I Kissed a Girl,” the album starts unexpectedly with a jarring rearrangement of the eponymous hit. It’s so different I am left wondering if I accidentally opened up a lounge song that came with Windows Media Player.

The joke’s on me. This isn’t some random jam band, but rather Perry’s desperate attempt at getting cred. And who can blame her? Who wouldn’t feel insecure if their only claim to fame was a faux gay anthem that served as the impetus for straight girls to make out at res parties?

Trudging along from one clumsy re-imagining to another, the songs struggle to retain the qualities that made them hits in the first place. The soaring melodies of hit ballad “Thinking of You” don’t translate well into lounge reinterpretation and are underwhelmed by Perry’s over-reliance on vocal histrionics beyond her pay grade. The most blatant vocal misstep occurs on “Brick by Brick” where she occasionally veers into feeble Bjork imitations. (These come off as well as Bjork homeland, Iceland, fared during the current recession.)

Katy Perry Unplugged comes in at a meagre seven tracks, omitting most notably her best song, “Hot ’N’ Cold.” Conveniently, the DVD component of the CD comes with 10 videos of live tracks and an exclusive interview. I guess EMI and MTV understand how important the visual component is to the Katy Perry experience.—JP Kaczur