Based in Montreal, multi-instrumentalist Basia Bulat has carved a place among Canada’s finest contemporary singer-songwriters across five albums, starting with Oh, My. Darling back in 2007 and constantly honing and evolving her sound. The journey has seen her draw upon everything from punk to R&B to further her principle style of country and folk, working with different collaborators to ensure the well was constantly replenished and fresh.
Set for released next February via Secret City Records, the new Basia Bulat album Basia’s Palace continues the arc of progression, but also represents something of a retreat. An attempt by Bulat to reclaim the sanctuary of solitude amid a new home and a new family. To recreate a space in which she might return to herself. And with this inward turn comes reflection, a novel view on past events shaped by the knowledge of where they would eventually lead.
It is fitting then, that first single ‘Baby’ is something of a past experience in its own way. “I wrote this song many years ago but never could get the lyrics and performance quite right,” as Bulat explains. “I wanted to try it again after becoming a parent.” Judging by the result, the extra time and life experience paid off, the song taking a fundamental doubt and transforming it into something almost triumphant. Strings courtesy of GRAMMY-nominee Drew Jurecka (Dua Lipa, Alvvays, Metric) elevate things further as the track reaches towards dance pop in its buoyant energy. “[The song is] about how we can’t control how or when we’re going to evolve even when we desperately want to,” Bulat continues:
We keep making the same mistakes until we notice a pattern repeating, and even then, change is hard when we have to fully surrender to it. Could I make that predicament something I wanted to dance to? Could I sing the lyrics with joy instead of the sorrow I was channeling in the past? Nothing in my life has made me want to evolve faster, better, stronger than parenthood and the universe keeps throwing that desire back at me with a laugh and a wink, reminding me that things take time and to just love myself for being human.
Watch the video below directed by Nora Rosenthal and produced by Jennifer Law-Smith:
Basia’s Palace is out on the 21st February 2025 via Secret City Records.