Singer/songwriter
Amy Millan (Sixteen Tons,
Stars and
Broken Social Scene) crafted a painterly debut with 2006's
Honey from the Tombs, a soft and wistful Sunday drive of a record that was equal parts folk and country, with a hint of indie rock despair. 2009's
Masters of the Burial opens the bedroom blinds a tad wider, bathing the room in a dusky glow that echoes late-period
Sam Phillips and ex-
Pulp guitarist-turned-modern-day
Roy Orbison Richard Hawley.
Millan offers up a sparse cover of the latter's "Run to Me" on
Burial, an 11-track postcard from "a room or two away from the edge" that showcases the Canadian's impossibly warm voice and simple but effective melodies. Joined here and there by fellow "Great White North" crooners
Evan Cranley, Dan and
Jenny Whiteley, Leslie Feist, and
Liam O'Neil,
Millan's "plain jane" delivery may be occasionally sleep inducing, but it's comfort, not boredom that delivers the serotonin. ~ James Christopher Monger