Labels: Asian Man Records
Review by: Thomas Strawbridge
I went to a show to see my friend play a while back, and partway through a fruitless session on the quiz machine Laura Stevenson started up – we finished up sharpish because we liked what we heard. This was basically a solo show, but one of the Cans was with her providing occasional extra guitars. Still, it was excellent and I was actually pretty excited to get this for review.
Laura Stevenson (and the Cans) plays fragile acoustic songs over which other instruments occasionally appear – a trumpet here, violin there, the odd bit of banjo or bass or mandolin. Over all of this Laura Stevenson’s dreamy, almost ethereal vocals tell poignant tales of small events. A couple of the tracks have a more normal electric band backing, but these have a rough lo-fi style which works perfectly. The press sheet compares this to Regina Spektor and Joanna Newsom, and I guess this isn’t very far from that but far enough to have replaced twee with simple warmth. I’m keeping this – it is lovely.