My Echo

Laura Veirs is far from the first singer/songwriter to make an album informed by the breakup of a romantic relationship. However, shes one of the few to make a breakup album produced by the person who inspired it. Veirs and noted indie producer Tucker Martine had been married for 19 years when they announced they were divorcing in November 2019, and 2020s My Echo was recorded with Martine at the controls (as he had done with most of her albums), created as their marriage was at the point of collapse. The non-album single I Was A Fool, which she debuted on Valentines Day 2020, was a more blunt and emotionally naked musical response to the end of her marriage; My Echo was recorded before I Was A Fool but released eight months afterwards, and its clear that that songs discontent was real and present as this material came together, even if it was less pointed. The opening song, Freedom Feeling, begins with the words, I dont know where I am going, but Ive got you by my side, but as the tune plays out, those words feel ominous rather than comforting, the sound of someone searching for a freedom they dont honestly feel. Elsewhere, Turquoise Walls finds her wrestling with the fear shes been betrayed, Burn Too Bright documents a moment where the distance between them becomes all to obvious in the studio, Brick Layer obsesses on the weaknesses that compromise her carefully constructed veneer of strength, and All The Things is a litany of the decay and collapse of things of her control. My Echo is all about the emotions that begin to break through the surface when love turns bad, and the soft emotional reserve of Veirs voice articulates the unease in her heart and soul with gestures that are subtle and telling at once; when she sings Come and rest awhile in my song/ Nothings wrong in I Sing to the Tall Man, she makes it obvious how false that is without tipping her hand with histrionics. And if Veirs and Martine were falling out as they made this, he gave her a lovely going-away present with My Echo, which is masterful in the ghostly beauty of its arrangements and spectral soundscapes. My Echo creates beauty out of fear and uncertainty, and its among Laura Veirs most personal and satisfying works to date. ~ Mark Deming

ニーコ・ケースとKD・ラングとのプロジェクト、ケース/ラング/ヴェアーズでも有名な彼女の新作は、元夫で本作のプロデューサーも務めたタッカー・マーティンとの別れという彼女のプライヴェートをテーマにした作品。エコーを多く使用してサイケ気味だった前作とは違い、いい意味で枯れた雰囲気のシリアスなアメリカーナ。落ち着いたムードのなか、淡々と曲が進んでいく流れがたまらなく良いですね。
bounce (C)赤瀧洋二