The Lookout

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Discreet but perfect, since the late 1990s Laura Veirs has been regularly putting out ethereal folk albums with a faint tinge of pop, rock and Americana... Sometimes, her granite writing reaches real peaks, like on her great 2004 work Carbon Glacier. Like Jolie Holland, Veirs is from the race of literary songwriters, granddaughters of Joni Mitchell who refused to cut ties with their teacher.

After a fine parenthetical sortie with her sisters KD Lang and Neko Case, Laura Veirs has returned to solitary work with the touching The Lookout. Solitary, but not really alone, because, as ever, she has put the thing together in close collaboration with her husband, Tucker Martine. Once again, the excellent producer and multi-instrumentalist has produced a dreamy backdrop (Seven Falls represents a triumph of good taste) to complement her rather sombre, dreamlike songs, performed with colleagues Karl Blau, Steve Moore, Eli Moore, Eyvind Kang and Martine himself, but also special guests Sufjan Stevens and Jim James.

Veirs speaks on The Lookout saying it "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. 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.” And so we get a taste of little vignettes, which are always very much in touch with what’s fundamental, and evoke the fragility of the precious things in life. Her voice, vaulting and enchanting makes the music even more entrancing. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz