Good advice

"So do we need yet another ironic pop star playing a character and casting a sideways glance at relationships? Well, it turns out that, when they're as talented as Matt Maltese, we certainly do. Bad Contestant is an album that certainly invites comparisons - his voice alone is reminiscent of Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker and, maybe more problematically these days, Morrissey - but his songs are stamped with his own personality ... The biggest problem with ironic pop is that it can sometimes be too arch, and too knowing. Maltese gets around this by never letting a raised eyebrow overshadow his heart. Bad Contestant is full of strange little pop songs that can delight and subvert in equal measure and makes for a pretty startling debut, all in al".

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"It may be her most mainstream album to date, but as ever with Bulat there's a subversive and inventive edge lurking under the surface. Whether she'll eventually break out of cult status with Good Advice is unclear at this point, but she certainly has the songs, and the talent, to do so".

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"Compared with Canadian indie-folkie Basia Bulat's first three albums, her latest feels supercharged. While Bulat's previous sound was lovely, always tasteful, mostly mournful, here she comes arrestingly alive, invigorated firstly by the roiling emotions and rich material of a raw breakup and secondly by warm, glowing production from My Morning Jacket's Jim James, who brings out previously lurking pop and soul tendencies".

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