There is a story about waking up in your room in the dark hours of the morning with only the streetlight outside for company. There is a story of a rabbit falling down a mole’s burrow, losing its sight and developing magical hearing powers. But was the rabbit a girl all along?
Welcome to the tales of Laura Jean, where the fantastical is earthed by the painful beauty of everyday life. Where strange lyrical concepts are accompanied by imagined chords and timings, intricately crafted.
Laura Jean’s craft has certainly caught much attention, in the past 24 months she has released two acclaimed EP’s and supported artists of the calibre of Richard Buckner, M. Ward, Faun Fables, Ian Brown (Gomez), Augie March, Ben Lee, Claire Bowditch, Sarah Blasko, and throughout June will be touring her debut album across Australia with Jen Cloher. ‘Our Swan Song’ is nothing short of extraordinary. An absolute labour of love, Laura Jean and engineer Simon Grounds have worked on the album over the last 18 months, and together with the sympathetic arrangements of Wally Gunn, have created a classic of the acoustic songwriter genre.
Rather than a collection of songs, the album has a complete unified flow. Listening to the album is like a wonderful dream, the orchestral instrumentation weaving in and out highlighting Laura’s emotive delivery, her sublime guitar skills, her deft percussion touches and piano flourishes. Fans of the classic and timeless 70’s Asylum Records period will find much to rejoice in this album, also fans of Emiliana Torrini, Beth Orton, Gillian Welch and Brian Wilson will all find a similar joy amongst the incredible musicianship of Laura Jean.
