Carbon Glacier

An innocent, earnest voice speaks confidently in crisp enunciation, usually quietly. The voice can be locally unsteady, but never without purpose, and it keeps a steady course through the music. Words rise to the surface through her enunciation and her apparent word craft, but I have no idea what the words mean. Settings vary a lot, but tend to larger contrasting atmospheres, building an engaging tension among noise, gauzy drifts of dreamy color, clear enunciation, and some fine finger-picking. Melodies are of a piece. Some verge on Sarah Harmer; most are more conventional with chunks of folk, country blues, but always informed by pop. She will grow on me. [39:27]Track detail:1. Ether sings. Square, steady rhythm, up-and-down, sing-song, clear-voiced, earnest voice seems to speak of a mystical world in flat, frank, straight-forward, clear terms. The contrast of many seemingly disjoint elements draws my attention--why do they work together? She is a clear-eyed girl next door with firm Rs.2. Ice bound stream. More of the same in more extreme form. Vaguely Asian timbres; hard, simple pulse; sing-song line. Frank, direct, crisp vocal delivery. I keep thinking of unicorns and fairies--why?3. Rapture. A quieter, slower, calmer, less disjoint, disorienting world brings to mind Stephin Merritt. Voice is at once fragile and sure of itself--just right. Interesting tension. Still a bit of New Age in sparkling arpeggios, but never simple enough to fade from attention/interest.4. Lonely angel dust. Simple, clear tune, words, wordplay. Childlike in the transparency of all, but never simplistic. That said, what do these words really mean?5. Cloud room. Booming rhythm, firmer rock bottom than above. But words and tune are still drifty, floating much like those above. Many layers of different tones coexist--boom-beat, zoned electronics, sound effects, disembodied back-up voices--with a simple, clear, direct voice in the middle of it all.6. Wind is blowing stars. Simple voice and simple guitar; the voice twists tones toward being out of tune, but never seems out of control. A similarly whiney solo violin voice enters briefly. Obscure words again, but she pours them out steadily with conviction.7. Shadow blues. A male voice shadows hers, together with two simple guitar lines. The song is slow, quiet, drifting, but engaging. She seems to sing in an empty space, perhaps only to herself. Slowly rolling. Quiet, gray, resigned feel of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly spaghetti Western music.8. Anne Bonny rag. Instrumental. Beautiful, simple Hot Tuna-style finger-picked guitar style, joined by comparable toy piano. Lightly rippling, light-hearted blues that a young Taj Mahal might have favored. Then murky New Orleans-style brass.9. Snow camping. Slow, quiet, confident. Is this the most conventional pop song yet, or am I just growing familiar? The innocence and earnestness of her voice contrasts with a resigned grayness and implied menance of Twin Peaks atmosphere. Scary, as though she is in danger and not aware of it.10. Chimney sweeping man. Elegant finger picking à la Claudia Schmidt. The song glides quietly in a gauzy atmosphere. She sings firmly and clearly--but what do the words mean?!--in a way that she will be heard through this hazy setting. Strong hints of Kate Bush.11. Salvage a smile. Harsher than anything yet, with electric guitars, some quietly screeching. This presses forward relentlessly, with her firm commitment right in the middle of it.12. Blackened amber. Instrumental. A long, slow, grimy, noisy build-up of gritty gauze, then quiet.13. Riptide. Firm, steady, quietly driving forward with a transparent texture and her voice dominant in it. Confident delivery of words that mean ... what? The setting is a steadily pulsed, finger-picked guitar with a dreamy schmear of quietly whiney textures.

I can't stop listening to this woman. I have my work albums and my home albums, and they're the real thing. I'm determined that Laura affords to keep writing and singing , so no ripping in my house. Ms Veirs gets every cent that's coming to her.Damn, where have I heard that voice before? Kate Rusby? ISB's Licorice? Kim Carnes, of 'Bette Davis eyes' fame? Iris DeMent? Nope - I've gone thru my entire collection, played her down the phone to pals, researched Amazon for any memory jogger, and zilch. I can only conclude that the divine Vox Veirs-ienne has been echoing siren-like inside me down the years, and is finally now made flesh.Yukk, what a cheesy remark. Exactly the sort of soppy reviewer rubbish that causes me to instantly click on and never go near the artiste in question again.Ignore my over-purpled prose and just lend this amazing talent an ear - you'll be chuffed you did. Try "Troubled by Fire", track 7, "Tiger Tattoos". Swoon to that quavery voice; listen stunned to the wondrous Bill Frisell's accompaniment (he works more miracles on tracks 9 and 11.)But don't fall for listening to #2 on the same album - "Bedroom Eyes". You'll play it again, and again, and then the whole album several times, and then you'll roam the streets for any store clued-up enough to stock the equally excellent single, "Cloud Room."A major talent whose future direction we can't even guess at save to say that it's going to be rewarding to watch her grow. And we caught her in the early days!

Her voice, the writing, the tunes, the arrangements are all pleasant but not individually mind-blowing. But there's something really uniquely wonderful about the combination. Three of the songs I don't like, so that knocks it to a four, but the rest of the CD is one that I can listen to endlessly.

I heard "Fire Snakes" on the Radio from the "Years of Meteors" album. Almost instantly new that I had to seek out this artist and see what else she had produced. Have purchased all her Albums and surprised to find so much I like from each one. Usually when an artist grabs me and I check out their other stuff, I never find anything that I like as much as the first song I heard. With Laura Veirs, I have too many favorites to list. If you hear a song from this artist that you like, you will probably be very happy with the rest of her work. At least that is what I found.