New Basia Bulat

This one almost passed me by. Or rather I sort of ignored the Rough Trade email of a few weeks back until today. I'm not sure why I did, because Oh My Darling by Basia Bulat was one of my favourite albums of last year. Now she's got some new songs out as part of a download-only single. They're funny beasts really, are download singles. If they're not pressed up on 7 inch or 12 inch vinyl (or maybe at a push, on CD) I can't really properly think of them as singles. Still, it's new Basia Bulat, so I'm not going to complain.

Main track In the Night picks up from where Basia's debut album Oh My Darling left off, all gentle strumming and that rolling drum rhythm which made songs like I Was a Daughter and The Pilgrimming Vine such top tunes. There's an expanded version of the album's opener Before I Knew, which is good but doesn't really improve on the brief, fragile beauty of the earlier version. Lastly, there's a cover of Sam Cooke's If I Could Touch the Hem of His Garment, which is lovely, but then again, it's hard to ruin a song as great as that.

I've posted the Sam Cooke cover below, but if you want another version of this and three more ace Basia Bulat songs, including a new untitled song, head over to Daytrotter and download her recent session.

Download: Basia Bulat - If I Could Touch the Hem of His Garment

Buy Oh My Darling at Rough Trade, and the rest of the download single at emusic.