Laura Veirs – Carbon Glacier (2004)

The first time I heard about Laura Veirs was when I had just started dating my wife and she bought her album Troubled by the Fire. I liked that album, but I wasn't completely convinced about Laura Veirs until I heard Carbon Glacier which I borrowed from the library. This album is probably darker than any other Veirs album and that's probably why I like it so much. It took me quite a long time to find it anywhere, so I didn't by it until years later here in London. If I had to choose now, I would probably say that The Triumphs and Travails of Orphan Mae is my favourite Laura Veirs album, but Carbon Glacier is way up there among the best Veirs albums. Laura Veirs is a singer-songwriter, who makes modern Americana folk with great storytelling and amazing sounds. She's one of my favourite folk singer-songwriters of the 00's. More recently, the sounds on her albums have gone a bit more towards normal indie rock.



I had a pleasure to see Laura Veirs live at the Islington Assembly Hall a couple of years ago. She was really amazing live. She was witty and skilful and I liked the selection of songs she played. More than anything else, I was surprised about how good her guitar playing was. Despite being recognised as a folk artist, she played some kick-ass guitar solos. All in all, she had a very nice energetic show and I really would like to see her again at some point.

The album starts with nice acoustic picking in the song Ether Sings. This song is a clear opening song, because it sets the mood, but doesn't yet reveal all the tricks that are coming later on. The second song Icebound Stream has some interesting rhythms that are not very common in pop music. It already has some melancholic melodies that run throughout the album with some weeping, yet dry violins. The third song, Rapture, is probably the most well-known song on this album and also probably my favourite. It has apparently played in Grey's Anatomy in one episode. What I really like about it is its dramatically melancholic melody. Lonely Angel Dust slows things down even further and there are some fairly lo-fi sounds in this sonnet-like folk piece. The Cloud Room cranks up the volume and brings out electric instruments. There is some strange space-sound in the background as well. Wind Is Blowing Stars is one of the most traditional Americana folk songs on the album. It's mostly just played by picking an acoustic guitar. Shadow Blues is one of the best songs on the album. It's very slow, very melancholic and very hypnotic. There's a guy with a very deep voice singing backing vocals in this song, but I have no idea who he is. He kind of sounds like Mark Lanegan. Anne Bonny Rag has sounds familiar from fun fairs or Western saloons along with some great guitar picking. Snow Camping is a nice bluesy sad song with great melodies. Chimney Sweeping Man has a very hypnotic sound with some random piano sounds and echoey doubled vocals in the background. Salvage a Smile has great noisy electric guitars that set the sound apart from the rest of the mainly acoustic sounds of the album. There's almost like a hidden track on the album, since the second to last song, Blackened Anchor starts off silent and is not more than just some noise that resembles echoey and electric bag pipes. This eerie song follows to the closing song Riptide, which is delightfully lighter sounding song with some excellent acoustic picking.

Apparently there are no music videos for any songs on this album, but I do want to link some video to show the brilliance of Laura Veirs, so here is a live performance of hers performing Ether Sings. It's not of the greatest quality, but at least it shows how brilliant she is in picking acoustic guitar.

This is the first of Laura Veirs albums in this blog, but there are numerous other albums coming later on. I am a big fan of Laura Veirs and I immensely listening to any of her records.

Listen to the album on Spotify.