ALBUM REVIEW: Laura Veirs – My Echo

Bella Union

Released: 23.10.20

Laura Veirs sings in a restrained, icy voice, capturing the currents stirring deep beneath the surface of things. With My Echo, her eleventh album in twenty years of recording, the Portland-based songwriter recollects her life as if it had happened to another. A natural diarist, she examines the cold splinters of experience with a sense of detachment and bemused incredulity.

The muted colours and sparse mood of the album (Veirs’ amplified nylon-string guitar dominates) dimly recall Lou Reed and John Cale’s crepuscular Songs for Drella, and the secretiveness of early Cat Power. Veirs steadily puts distance between herself and the world – but I like best the moments of vertigo and unguarded directness as evidenced on End Times and Vapor Trails, which also features Karl Blau.