2. Forest City Lovers, "Carriage" (2010)

Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Notable Songs: 'Tell Me Cancer', 'Pocketful of Rocks', 'Constellation'

Soft, folk-pop with a sharp lyrical edge, The Forest City Lovers are fronted by the lovely Kat Burns, whose latest album, Carriage, has lyrics that range from scathing attacks on hypocrites; the unsure nature of relationships; and love songs about being a tree.

There is an ethereal, ghostly quality to Burns' voice that echoes in the reverb soundscape crafted by the band behind her. This all combines to create the effect of a musical haunting - there is something spiritual and supernatural about the gentle acoustic chords and bare-bones electric approach.

This is very much a modern take on the old Canadian folk greats. Kat Burns is a modern-day Joni Mitchell, with an indie fashion sense and a throatier voice. While she can sing with acidic tinged beauty ("go tell your mother that you passed the test/befriended the good ones and fucked all the rest"), she still has her sense of humour, as in the final song, the poppy acoustic waltz 'If I Were a Tree' ("If I were a tree I'd give you wood/make you a dendrophiliac/I'd have a laugh because I could/oh my knots and twists are not for that").

As with all the great albums, there's a lot here. I've listened to it at least a dozen times, and I'm still blown away by the beauty to be found within.