Found Light (Expanded Edition)

Album review

When Laura Veirs decided to break up with her husband, she probably wasn't thinking about how it would change the way she makes music. That said, it posed creative challenges most people moving on from divorce don't have to think about. Veirs' spouse was Tucker Martine, the noted indie producer who had been at the controls of albums by My Morning Jacket, the Decemberists, the Jayhawks, Bill Frisell, and all of Veirs' releases from her 2001 breakthrough, The Triumphs and Travails of Orphan Mae, and onward. Ending her marriage had the side effect of Veirs having to find a new ally in the studio, and 2022's Found Light, her first album since her split with Martine, is the sound of an artist making their way into new territory, sometimes wary, though more often excited about the new possibilities she's been afforded. For Found Light, Veirs recruited Shahzad Ismaily, a producer and multi-instrumentalist whose credits run from Sam Amidon and Jolie Holland to Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, and with Ismaily co-producing with Veirs as well as playing many of the instruments, Found Light has a sound and feel that's different from what we've heard from her in the past two decades. The breathy, sometimes bittersweet tone of her vocals is essentially unchanged, but on numbers like "Eucalyptus" and "Ring Song," she allows her emotions to subtly but clearly reflect her disappointment and anger, and on "Time Will Show You," she imagines moments with new lovers in a way that's unashamedly erotic. When Veirs was recording with Martine, he would insist that she record her guitar and vocal parts separately, while Ismaily allowed her to accompany herself as she sang, and if the audible difference is subtle, the feel is more organic, and captures her in the moment, especially on numbers where he and his musicians explore the space of the music. It feels like creative interplay among equals rather than skilled players backing the star, as they all get caught up in the gravity of the music. And if the closer, "Winter Windows," is hardly a punk rock onslaught, the force of her singing and the scrappy energy of her electric guitar feels, in this context, like glorious, unfettered release as she lets herself be swept up in the liberation of not giving a damn what anyone thinks. Found Light is recognizably the work of Laura Veirs, but with a freedom and sense of creative possibility that hasn't always been part of her music in the past. It's an engaging new chapter in the career of a gifted songwriter.
© Mark Deming /TiVo