Kathleen Edwards — Back To Me

That hazy, velvet croon of Ottawa's Kathleen Edwards helped put her debut album, Failer, on the adult alt.country map. Her sophomore record creates much of the same mood as its predecessor, though the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it approach can wear a bit thin — it's all a matter of how much of Edwards' weary sighing (as gorgeous as it is) can be stomached in one sitting.

Back To Me's 11 tracks of loneliness and relationships in limbo are stellar, lush and polished gems, if not surprising. She's in top form on the poignant and bare "Away" and strikes country-pop gold on both the brass-tinged "Somewhere Else" and the strings-and-slide build-up of "Copied Keys."

Yet it's when Edwards delivers a delicious, subtly seething vocal on "Independent Thief" that she shows world-weariness can be fought, even though the results usually end up the same way — grimly bittersweet.

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