Laura Veirs
Year of Meteors
(Nonesuch)
First Appeared in The Music Box, September 2005, Volume 12, #9
Written by John Metzger
Laura Veirs hails from Seattle, but she just as easily could have climbed
down the side of a snow-capped, Scandinavian mountain. Her songs exude a sense
of icy detachment to which the road tales outlined on her fifth outing Year
of Meteors are remarkably well-suited. Although the 12-track set deals with
the usual subjects of folk-rock troubadours — that is, relationships, distance,
separation, and yearning — Veirs finds new ways to express them by placing her
poetic turns-of-phrase within the kaleidoscopic textures of her atmospheric
arrangements. The jagged guitars and sawing viola that slice through Black
Gold Blues lend the tune an ominous angst, while the fragile loneliness of
Spelunking’s acoustic melody is as haunted as it is beautiful. Elsewhere,
the electronic flourishes that grace Fire Snakes seem to crystallize like
frozen droplets of water upon a cold windowpane; Galaxies’ cosmic journey
is fueled by its spiraling effects and wispy vocals; and Veirs nearly is
consumed by the seductive chill of the heroin-laced Parisian Dream. In
lesser hands, much of Year of Meteors might have drifted towards being
plaintively precious, but in encasing her material within an array of strange
nuances and unsettling sounds, Veirs maintains an edgy, off-kilter energy that
is truly intoxicating. 
Of Further Interest...
Jessi Colter - Out of the Ashes
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Year of Meteors is available from Barnes & Noble.
To order, Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005 The Music Box