album of the week: 1.4

Laura Veirs

July Flame

Raven Marching Band Records (2010)

why you'll love it: vet singer songwriter that doesn't use gimmicks

why you'll hate it: very unmemorable and slow

if there is one musician out there that didn't need to mellow out, it's Laura Veirs. She's already is obscure as someone can be with about 4 albums under one's belt. It's surprising that she would produce something as modest as this. Even compared to her already humble style, July Flame makes very little of a splash. It comes and goes; leaving nothing undisturbed.

I suppose if one were to pen the ultimate album for wallflowers everywhere, this would be quite successful. Laura demands nothing in her lyrics, and confronts nobody; only observes and makes polite requests. "Summer is The Champion" appears to be the only full-band song on the album, with the subtle catchiness of her previous works.

I'm not a lyrics person. I've used this excuse before. Because of this, the album comes off as quite redundant by about 2/3s through. This is a shame because I think the songs are honestly good. Almost all of them I wouldn't skip if I had my iPod on shuffle. But the last half of this album is a chore to get through because of the lack of variance in the songs.

Laura Veirs is a criminally underrated songwriter, and sadly, this album doesn't show enough sides of her for her talent to be fully appreciated by any newcomers.