For someone who is, by all accounts, a more-than-competent musician and a hugely successful songwriter, James Blunt is a surprisingly polarizing figure. When some people hear his defining hit, “Beautiful,” they hear a touching love song. Others react like there’s a miniature orchestra scraping hundreds of chalkboards deep within their eardrums. If you’re one of the latter, and are being dragged to Blunt’s Saddledome show by one of the former, worry not! So long as you get to the ’dome early enough, you’ll be treated to the song stylings of Luke Doucet, Canada’s finest alt-country tunesmith. Just let Doucet’s tales of lost love, drug-addled siblings and other equally heartbreaking material take over your mind, and Blunt’s set will be over before you know it.

Toronto’s The Bicycles are every bit as saccharine as Blunt (their debut was called The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly, after all), but they mix their sappiness with the sort of melodies that The Monkees would kill for. With Edmonton’s Hot Panda and Halifax’s Sleepless Nights on the bill, Broken City’s Thursday night line-up is nothing to sneer at.

Sleepless Nights aren’t the only Haligonians in town on Thursday, either. Pop darling Jenn Grant will be at The Marquee Room that night, along with Doucet’s Six Shooter label-mate Justin Rutledge. Rutledge is known for his sophisticated lyrics (he edited a literary journal back in his college days), while Grant has earned hefty praise for her 2007 full-length debut, Orchestra for the Moon.

Unlike Rutledge, Calgary’s Ramblin’ Ambassadors aren’t known for crafting clever lyrics. In fact, they haven’t got much use for fancy words, preferring to ride a wave of surf rock and spaghetti western riffs into a realm of instrumental bliss. Calgary’s psychobilly scenesters Eve Hell and the Razors are also on the bill, but the big name at this one is Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dolls, a Vancouver outfit that provides some of the raunchiest rock this side of the swingingest beach party you ever missed out on. They’ll all be assembled on Friday, November 21 at Broken City.