Consumer Guide Album

Pony: Velveteen [Take This to Heart, 2023]
Thirty-one-year-old Torontonian alt-rocker Sam Bielanski is not only pretty and smart but writes songs that are both and sings them like she knows it. The memorable tunes are easily negotiable, the lyrics concise and credible if too often frustrated--so much so they make you wonder whether she's too eager, too demanding, or, more likely as I calculate the demographics, a well-meaning mark who has trouble distinguishing between male confidence and male chauvinism. That's sure the way one called "Sucker Punch" makes it seem, although without ever suggesting that he literally hit her even if catching her when she fell proved beyond his capabilities. Inspirational Verse insofar as it's in control verbally: "My boyfriend is dead/I met him when I moved into a haunted house/Lingering in bed/It's all his fault I turned into a ghost." A-