Carolyn Mark: Nothing Is Free

Carolyn Mark's fellow Corn Sister Neko Case has a bigger voice and a higher profile, but Mark offers bigger laughs and deeper pathos. Nothing Is Free, the fifth solo album from the Victoria, B.C. country-folksinger, sometimes delivers both simultaneously: It opens, "Seen the business end of the sunrise." She's equally effective at either extreme: "What if I told you I could be distant without even going away" she asks on "The 1 That Got Away (With It)," only to give in to her own voracious appetites on "1 Thing"—"One of anything's just a half," she reasons. On headphones at 3 a.m., the nuances of her whiskey-finished voice sink in even deeper.