The Lookout
On her first solo release since her supergroup outing with k.d. lang and Neko Case, Laura Veirs strips things down to the bare essentials, framing her evocative lyrics in as sparse a production as possible. Aside from the psychedelic guitar fest that breaks out halfway through \"The Canyon,\" *The Lookout* alternates between gentle, breezy folk-rock cuts, like \"Seven Falls,\" and spartan ballads, like the piano-based \"The Meadow.\" Veirs\' cover of the Grateful Dead\'s dreamy folk-psych nugget \"Mountains of the Moon\" fits right in.
A prolific songwriter for over twenty years, Laura Veirs proves the depth of her musical skill on her tenth solo album, The Lookout. Here is a batch of inimitable, churning, exquisite folk-pop songs; a concept album about the fragility of precious things. Produced by Grammy-nominated Tucker Martine, Veirs’ longtime collaborator, The Lookout is a soundtrack for turbulent times, full of allusions to protectors: the camper stoking a watch fire, a mother tending her children, a sailor in a crows nest and a lightning rod channeling energy. “The Lookout is about the need to pay attention to the fleeting beauty of life and to not be complacent; it’s about the importance of looking out for each other,” says Veirs. “I’m addressing what’s happening around me with the chaos of post-election America, the racial divides in our country, and a personal reckoning with the realities of midlife: I have friends who’ve died; I struggle with how to balance life as an artist with parenting young children.” Written and produced on the heels of Veirs’ acclaimed album with Neko Case and kd Lang (case/lang/veirs), The Lookout integrates the fluency of collaboration with Veirs’ notorious work ethic. The twelve songs on the album are the result of a years’ worth of daily writing in her attic studio in Portland, Ore.
Some of the finer fruits of one of the most dependable singer-songwriters working today.
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Folk luminary Laura Veirs returns with her tenth studio album emerging from between the twin poles of Trump and #metoo.
The Lookout is Laura Veirs' tenth album, and first to follow her 2016 collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang, case/lang/veirs. It finds...
So prolific has Laura Veirs been over the past two decades, it's easy to forget the last solo album came five years back, although that hasn't stopped her working.
'The Lookout' by Laura Veirs: Laura Veirs creates personal but imaginative folk in our review of 'The Lookout'