These days, the release of a new Basia Bulat record is something of an event. Her seventh record, Basia’s Palace, will be released later in February after she kicks off her North American tour at Block Heater, giving local audiences an early opportunity to hear some of new songs live. She says writing this album has been different than in the past owing to her family life. She took up Leonard Cohen’s famous habit of writing in the wee early morning hours before the kids woke up, using the quiet and the darkness to reflect and understand the journey of her life so far.

That journey has led an autoharp playing folk singer born in Etobicoke, ON to become one Canada’s most beloved indie pop artists. She’s always written personal songs full of big emotions delivered by her soulful vibrato voice. Always interested in experimenting and pushing for something different (in 2022 she showed up at the Calgary Folk Fest with a string quartet), it’s interesting in her first single “Baby” from the new album “can I be brave enough to believe in all this changing up my sleeve… Baby, baby, baby, I don’t learn.” A moment of personal self-doubt delivered with a delicious pop hook, sounding at once like yet another new direction, which is at the same time, vintage Bulat.

- Sean Myers