With third album, Edwards finally blooms ESSENTIAL "Oil Man's War" It's hard not to get swept up in the bursting emotion of Kathleen Edwards's third album, so why bother resisting? She is a Canadian folk-rocker who lures you in with melodic song-stories about hard-bitten lives, then holds you there with her gorgeously bittersweet voice. This album sounds a lot like the addictive "Back to Me" from 2005, unfolding as a series of haunting, hook-filled portraits punctuated by the good-humored joshing that defines her new single, 'The Cheapest Key." But "Asking for Flowers" shows Edwards maturing as a songwriter and a singer, too. Her ordinary characters - the guy dodging the draft in the poignant "Oil Man's War," the woman done wrong in the title cut - are subtly placed in a socio-political context so that the album has a broader scope. And her voice is slightly less rough this time out and a little prettier, but still far from the constraints of perfection. She locks in on the song, not the singing. There's something deeply satisfying about hearing an artist at her peak, carefully produced (by Jim Scott) with rolling piano and rich harmonies and yet never buried in production. Edwards brings on none of the filler that watered down her earlier albums as she moves steadily from scathing to soothing, from rocking country to Gothic sketches, from strength to strength. Matthew Gilbert boston.com				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews