It's hard to get a handle on Basia Bulat's beguiling debut single "In the Night," in part because her words and intentions can be difficult to discern and in part because the song's arrangement springs from about 50 years' worth of pop music at once. What's easier to suss out is that this is one of 2008's great singles — a criminally under-appreciated gem that deserves acknowledgement alongside the best of Amy Winehouse, not to mention far ahead of the track Leona Lewis has been flogging at the top of the pop charts for the past month.
Unabashedly cheerful, "In the Night" is a perfect slab of shimmering girl-group pop, but it's no mere throwback gimmick. A young singer-songwriter from Toronto, Bulat invests the track with graceful effervescence and an innate understanding of momentum. Adding breezy little joys along the way — an increasingly layered chorus, the introduction of a clanging piano, subtly soaring background vocals — "In the Night" wraps up in exactly three perfect minutes. The only way to improve on it is to play it again.
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This story originally ran on May 13, 2008.
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