Laura Gibson

Beasts of Seasons (Souterrain Transmissions)

We have to say that we can’t abide the over-egged, selfconsciously literate whimsy that is The Decemberists’ stock-in-trade, so we aren’t too impressed that Portland’s Laura Gibson opened for their singer, Colin Meloy. We do, however, really like The Dodos and remember her hushed and melancholic tones from their ‘Visiter’ LP, so we’re glad that turned our attention to her UK debut.

Gibson’s slightly cracked and lilting, curiously old-timey vocal tone – so alluringly downbeat at times it’s almost as if she’s in conversation with herself – will resonate with fans of both Karen Dalton and young Laura Marling, as will her delicate, finger-picked guitar. But Gibson’s sparse, deceptively simple and understatedly dramatic songs are entirely her own. Tastefully decked out with mournful horns, pedal steel, marxophone and more, they summon sadness and, yes, death (Part Two of the record is entitled ‘Funeral Songs’), but, as with, say, Sufjan Stevens, Gibson’s tristesse is of the sweet, philosophically accepting and strangely comforting kind. A soft glowing treasure as the nights grow colder.

Sharon O’Connell