In popular culture the music box often holds magical powers; there’s an allure to it; you know the tune through and through, but it maintains its charm, it’s forever young, and every time you open the box you can close your eyes, hear the tune, and it’ll take you to that place. Canadian singer-songwriter-producer Sarah Shafey’s full-length debut Tiny Music Box is no small achievement, holding all the power and mysticism of a music box on steroids.

The album opens with “C’est Demain” and immediately the mood is set; mixed up feet or not, Shafey is waltzing you through a journey, and she’ll keep you on your toes. In “After Dark but Early in the Morn” she sings, “Let’s dance the night away” and she two-steps you into a trance. There’s no fitting the songs of Tiny Music Box into a specific genre; the influences are evident and everywhere, from literally all over the globe, from a makeshift carnival, to the Wild West, to the pyramids of Egypt and beyond. Each song seems to holds a different mood, yet they seamlessly flow into one another with a natural ease.

Shafey’s voice is both sultry and sure, refined with a rapturing rasp that conjures up shades of Stevie Nicks; she’s just as much a shaman as she is a singer, and she uses her piano the way Picasso used his hands.

The songs standout like stars on the boundless sea in the dark of night. By the time the album closes with the epic “Good Intentions” everything’s a hazy blur. Tiny Music Box is like heading out on a road-trip with that free-willed friend; though at times it seems like they have no idea where they’re going, everything is calculated, and you’re going to end up where you belong: a better place. Tiny Music Box is that place, and Sarah Shafey’s the perfect person to take you.