during my lunch break i like to split my time wandering through the dual catacombs known popularly as borders and amoeba music. while at borders i often wander the back stacks, lost in oversized coffee table books of art by obscure artists, in a sea of graphic novels, each one a new world just waiting for me to populate it, or better yet in the maze of travel books and guides, each giving me a new beach to dream about and a beautiful ruin to fawn over.but it's at amoeba that i really come alive. rows and rows and rows of music i've never heard of, musicians i've never considered. and during these excursions into new musical territories i like to try my hand at a little treasure hunting. a few weeks ago i set down my shovel, pushed back some dirt, and found a glittering diamond in the rough: basia bulat.now, like most diamonds, it is both gorgeous and cliched, romantic and sentimental, shimmering and sweet. sometimes she errs on the treacly side, but for the most part her voice glistens and trills, the light chamber orchestra harmonizing more or less perfectly with her little lullabies. and that's really what they are, little songs to go with your quiet little saturday, little songs hummed in your ear by the person sharing your bed. the album is far from perfect. some tracks are so sacchrine that i can feel a diabetic seizure creeping up on me. but on average it's a lovely collection of tunes that make you wish he'd stop humming in your ear and get onto more active pursuits.
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