Even before culty Canadian psych-folk band Eric's
Trip broke up, singer-bassist Julie Doiron had begun penning her own quiet,
stripped-bare songs and releasing them as Broken Girl. (That moniker should
give some indication of the mood.) Doiron's first disc under her own name,
1997's Loneliest In The Morning, was released on Sub Pop into a climate that
didn't seem terribly receptive to such gentleness. But it was a fantastic album
then, and it's a fantastic album now that it's been reissued by the label that
brought the world Bon Iver, whose fans might be more willing to take a chance
on a record that features little more than gentle guitar and voice. Loneliest is
overwhelmingly sad, but Doiron capably translates her melancholy into beauty
rather than a pity party: "Tell You Again" and "Sweeter" are transcendently
simple and never morose. This edition adds a few extra tracks, including a
couple recorded with Doiron's fellow Canadians The Wooden Stars to provide a
taste of what she sounds like with a fuller lineup.