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The colourful oxymoronic names of both Jennifer Castle and her second solo album, Pink City, are excellent windows into the music she conjures. 'Conjure' is definitely the right word here: there is a consistent element of the fantastic throughout, which is occasionally punctured by the everyday. It's a bit like being lulled into a daydream until your elbow slips off the desk, jolting you back to reality, but without the uncomfortably furtive glance around the office to see if anyone saw your mishap.

The title of the third track 'Sparta' will no doubt inspire thoughts of scantily-clad muscled Alpha-males fighting off a Persian hoard. It is a pleasant surprise to realise it actually refers to the historic, small Ontarian village of the same name. Presumably it is a place of significance for the Canadian singer-songwriter. Meanwhile, opening track 'Truth Is The Freshest Fruit' begins "Golden Gates/ San Francisco/ Let your young hair down" thus combining an allusion to Rapunzel with an unusually modern metaphor.

All the while, Ms. Castle sings with a honey-with-a-hint-of-whiskey voice which rises and falls in true folk fashion. There are moments of Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling and even Florence Welch (possibly without her machine).

Some of the songs focus on a figure, such as in 'Broken Vase' where "he'll be there at the easel, capturing the detail, of a broken vase." Again, it's an ordinary image with an interesting twist on perception and art. Forgive me for using my Literature degree (I'll just dust it off, it's not often deployed) but this seems like a modernist recurrence. 'Pink City' works with the traditions it grew through in order to reinterpret it in a modern context. The reference to the Classics such as 'Sparta' is a similar example of reworking existing pre-conceptions. Canadians have a history with modernism, the country is 'new' and as such is forced to create its own. Of course, anyone can be a folk singer if they want to, but it is a borrowed tradition, arguably mostly strongly from England and America. The first is the colonial mother-state and the second, the overbearing neighbour. Lecture aside, the point is that the poise of the album is an intelligent one. It borders tradition and modernity snugly.

If you do not finish the 10-track, former Castlemusic artist's LP with "I'm finding new romance at last" stuck in your head, start again until you do. Pink City's eponymous finale is a soft and beautifully written ending to a wondrous release. A gorgeous saxophone quails during an elegiac ending, adding to the previously well-used pipes and harmonica.

Pink City is a richly lyrical and instrumental tapestry weaving new life into traditional folk music by placing it in a Canadian backdrop which typifies her interpretation.
