The well-worn adage that a country’s political situation is inversely proportional to its musical output still appears to ring true, in this case, the bewitching release by veteran North American punk turned troubadour Laura Veirs.
As with its cautionary title, ‘The Lookout’, released on Bella Union Records, is an admonitory concept album of sorts, part Americana, part new-age, part pop; the Oregon songstress railing against her country’s current chaos, creating a call to arms for love, togetherness plus awareness of the fragility of our existence, admittedly perhaps a little naïve but on listening to the twelve interwoven tracks here, Veirs manages to make it work on several levels, the lush velvety sound concealing the hard hitting words within.
Buoyed by the success of her recent collaboration with k.d. lang and Neko Case, their 2016 album ‘Case/Lang/Veirs’ grazing the Billboard Top 40 albums chart, Veirs has once more enlisted the support of Grammy nominated producer husband Tucker Martine, not to mention a collection of familiar friends including Karl Blau and Sufjan Stevens for her tenth solo album. Despite the abundance of material emanating from the Veirs pen, the quality control is also in abundance, every single one of the dozen songs fully deserving their place on ‘The Lookout’.
Indeed, the album’s opening trio draw the listener in, setting the bar formidably high, the fragile acoustic openings of ‘Margaret Sands’ drifting into soothingly mystic lo-fi in ‘Everyone Needs You’ before the exquisitely disarming country ballad ‘Seven Falls’ has you firmly in for the long haul, pedal steel guitar expertly making its presence felt. The aforementioned Sufjan Stevens joins Veirs on the deceptively catchy ‘Watch Fire’, the protectiveness theme continuing here and into the long-player’s title track, an ode to enduring love and companionship, arguably perfectly framing Veirs’ two-decades with Tucker.
If the present Washington administration is responsible for galvanising their country’s artistic community, in this case to produce a record as good as ‘The Lookout’, then the is cause for optimism. There’s also a chance that Martine’s Grammy duck could well be broken, no surprise that tickets for Veirs’ Leeds Brudenell appearance on 3rd June are already pretty thin on the ground.
Words - Mike Price
Laura Veirs will be touring the US and Europe throughout the Spring, reaching the UK for the below dates in June:
Saturday 2nd June – SHEFFIELD – The Hubs
Sunday 3rd June – LEEDS – Brudenell Social Club
Monday 4th June – NEWCASTLE – The Cluny
Tuesday 5th June – GLASGOW – Oran Mor
Wednesday 6th June – MANCHESTER – The Deaf Institute
Friday 8th June – LONDON – Union Chapel
Saturday 9th June – CARDIFF – St John The Evangelist
Sunday 10th June – BRISTOL – The Thekla
Monday 11th June – BRIGHTON – The Komedia