RADAR: Great Aunt Ida

Great Aunt Ida is one Ida Nilson, a Toronto songwriter who returned to the studio this year after a five year hiatus and now delivers Nuclearization, her third album of modest, melodic (sm)art/pop arriving up north December 6 (US TBD). With her girlish, low-voltage vocals and simple straightforward way with a song, it takes a minute or two to settle in on Nilson's particular ingratiating appeal -- what may on the surface appear as slightly twee and precious gets more interesting and detailed the further in you go, even in the course of a single song. Nilson and co-producer Dave Draves (Kathleen Edwards) find interesting ways to dress up the rather basic song structures with some decorative orchestral touches but it is Nuclearization's effortless simplicity that makes you notice the lovely piano twists and turns of "Easy Street" or the simmering tension and lonesome pedal steel embelishments of "Balloons."

Great Aunt Ida - "Easy Street" (from Nuclearization)

Great Aunt Ida - "Balloons" (from Nuclearization)