Crashing into your headphones with the dense One Two Three, ex-Immaculate Machine/current New Pornographers’ vocalist/keyboardist Kathryn Calder’s second solo disc in a year is another brilliant offering. The hipster approved Who Are You? and the spunky Walking In My Sleep are beautiful pop tunes, led by Calder’s effortless vocals, which have improved quite a bit since her days in Immaculate Machine. Much more fleshed out than last year’s Are You My Mother? album, the lush, layered instruments weave around Calder’s voice like 1,000 coloured scarves. Whether it’s on the new wave re-invention of Right Book or doing her best Christine Fellows (Five More Years), Calder’s career has insurance post-Pornos.

Published in Volume 66, Number 6 of The Uniter (October 5, 2011)