Lara Yule Singh's sophomore album, The Great Divine, is full of relaxing happiness that will make you feel like you're a kid again. This feeling is captured right from the beginning with the cover art, which looks like a children's book with a picture of a little girl holding the hand of a bear. It doesn't stop there, though, with the theme extending throughout with Yule Singh's sweet and innocent vocals begging us to be in a good mood from start to finish. The peak of happiness comes on the track "Umbrella Built For Two" when she uses her keyboard skills to bring an upbeat sound to this experimental folk journey that is as relaxing as a warm bath. The Great Divine has the ability to put you at ease enough to sleep, but it won't because it's too interesting to sleep through.

Jamie Reinhart

Happy, uplifting music is in woefully short supply these days.

We seem to be inundated with heart-broken rockers, angst-ridden punks, macho rappers, and sexed-up pop stars.

Lara Yule Singh could be the answer to all their-and our own-problems. Her folk-pop debut, Something In the Still, will instantly put a smile on your face and lower your blood pressure after a day of signing autographs or surviving another rush hour commute.

Don't let the soothing rush of waves or the babble of children's voices give you the wrong impression. Something In the Still is not a New Age album, but a delightfully quirky recording on par with efforts by Calgary's Chad VanGaalen and freak-folk star Devendra Banhart.

It's child-like, but not childish or cloying, buoyed by the soothing rush of waves, joyful instruments-banjos, melodicas, $1 xylophones-and gentle, hypnotic piano and guitar arrangements. Yule Singh's bright voice is the real kicker, fille with wide-eye wonderment and old-soul confidence as she sings about happiness, angry girls and conquering self-doubt.

"All my life I was trying to sound like Sinead O'Connor or Ani Difranco," says the 31 year-old musician.

"When I was 17, someone told me, 'Lara, stop trying to sound like artists you like, sound like yourself.' It still took me years of evolving to really know how to be myself and be OK with it."

As she hints, Yule Singh wasn't always as calm and composed as her songs.

She was a discontented rebel for much of her teens and 20s, always arguing with her parents and music teachers at Grant MacEwan. She started questioning her Christian faith when she was a child, but didn't know how or where else to find answers.

After graduating from college with degrees in recording and composition, she discovered the writings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher, who taught Yule Singh to take control of her life by understanding the crucial difference between hate and fear.

"Anger or hatred is something you can project on someone else,"she says.

"But with fear, there's no one else involved. It's just me either loving or fearing something. So, that (realization) was huge and started opening up from there. the more I looked, the more I saw, the more I found, the more I knew I wanted to be at peace."

Eternal happiness didn't instantly follow. Shortly after getting married in 2001, Yule Singh fell ill. Understandably, she doesn't want to discuss the details, but she says she didn't know if she was going to live or die.

When she finally recovered, she quickly returned to her music. (Yule Singh sang with pop-folk artist Joel Kroeker in the late '90s.) She started writing her own tunes, performing at open stages, and recording Something In the Still at home. It was released in May and spent 10 weeks on CKUA's charts.

A second disc is in the works.

"I used to be really perfectionistic about recording," she says.

"I would do takes 50, 100 times and never be happy. Now, I can sing a song once and even if I was out of tune in this part or that, I can say, 'That's good.' It's just like putting on your shoes. It's something you do and it doesn't have to be anything more or less than that. It's a wonderful thing-and so is tying your shoes and going outside."

Yule Singh performs Sunday at the Stanley A. Milner Library. The show starts at 2 pm.

Sandra Sperounes, Journal Music Writer

I first heard Lara Yule Singh on myspace. It was the third track from her debut album something in the still. The song, titled happiness, is one of those short and catchy gems that stand out by being simple. The melody line puts all the focus of the song on Singh’s unmistakable voice chirping in staccato lockstep with the rhythms being subtly hammered out in the background.

It wasn’t until yesterday, months after having first heard the song, that I got the album in the mail. As soon as I’d opened the envelope it had come in, I had started singing the song to myself. It’s not everyday that I grant random myspace songs such longevity in my memory.

Happiness aside. We all know that it’s the cute short and catchy variety that overstay their welcome before the rest of the album evn gets its fair chance, so onto the rest of it, shall we? Of the nine tracks on something in the still, there’s only one that I really don’t care for. Where the day takes you is a bit too rooted in feel good folk music to seem at home with the overall feel of the album, but there are definitely more good songs than questionable ones here.

Things start out with Sway, which is lyrically wonderful and has a sound that carries you through it’s four and a half minutes with a bit of a bounce in it’s step. Water to Wine feels like formal dance mixed with fairy tale. The vocals throughout both climb and descend in pitch as quickly as each word comes and goes. The music follows suit. This constant juxtaposition pulling you up and down the scale through the course of the album will most definitely keep you interested, even when the shine of a catchy tune begins to fade. Lara Yule Singh’s debut album, something in the still, can be purchased at cdbaby.com

Reviewed by Daniel at alongandbittersuicide.com

This is one of those records that I really really like, it’s just really hard to write about. So I hate to only give her a short review, but I don’t know what else to say.

I honestly do like it, it’s in my personal permanent rotation, I just don't know what to say about it. It’s so unique. Her voice is very sweet, girly almost. Bordering on Joanna Newsome-like. I know that some don’t like that. Heck, *I* don’t always like it. But I’m charmed by Lara.

The melodies are so interesting and ear wormy (that’s a good thing, it means they get stuck in your ears).

What else can I say? Uncle! It’s really cool. Check it out.

Reviewed by Amy at collectedsounds.com