January 6, 2012

Laura Gibson - 'La Grande'

Flashes of folk with whispers of Llana Del Rey

Album Info

Release Date: January 9, 2012
Producer: Adam Selzer, Laura Gibson
Label: City Slang
Fact: Gibson sang vocal harmonies on the 'Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke' EP

8 / 10 Based in Portland, Oregon – a Stateside Shangri-la of yummy mummies who craft their own fixed-gear bicycles out of tampon strings and tofu-based meat substitutes – Laura Gibson has created an album that her holier-than-thou hipster neighbours will devour, but which also transcends said hordes of ironic bobble-hat wearers. Squeaking with the glamour of a rusty gramophone, ‘The Rushing Dark’ flashes with delicate splendour and, alongside ‘Time Is Not’, evokes moonlit, cobbled Parisian streets and carafes of elderflower wine. Sure, there are flashes of folk in the mix, but this is far removed from Laura Marling’s weighty world-weariness. Gibson’s lacy touch pitches ‘Skin, Warming Skin’ somewhere between the spooky and the sublime. With quietly melodramatic piano and strings, album closer ‘Feather Lungs’ contains whispers of Lana Del Rey – but, have no doubt about it, Gibson’s voice is 100 per cent her own.

Leonie Cooper

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