3 out of 5

Label: Nonesuch

Producer: Tucker Martine

I took to Laura Veirs pretty quickly, digging on her husky vocals and overall moody song structure.  Most of her albums also show a willingness to dip into harsher or louder musical elements which, combined with her hubbie Tucker Martine’s flush production style, gives her poetic tales quite a range from bombastic to dainty.  And I will not deny the strength of the compositions here: besides the immediately noteworthy tracks (thanks to meaty central hook) like ‘Icebound Stream,’ Carbon Glacier also delivers morose folk like ‘Salvage a Smile’ or the hushed head-nodding of closer ‘Riptide.’  Throughout, Martine and Veirs weave electronics, acoustics, keys, glockenspiel, and various other pluckings, all without making any one sound a highlight of a track (and thus just kitsch).  Laura’s lyrics find a balance between story and picture, sad and sweet, matching the way she’ll allow her voice to dip into the lower, off-tune range that initially caught my ear before swinging up into major notes.  While she’s not nabbing any grammys for hitting every octave on the scale, Laura presents herself and her words with confidence and – thankfully – strays from the typical (sorry) chick music topics of love and relationships, at least directly, focusing her tales more on observations of the world and life.

‘Carbon Glacier’ sounds amazing and goes down easily.  Its runtime is well shuffled between ‘typical’ Veirs numbers – opener ‘Ether Sings’, a totally digestible 3 minute folk song with that unique minor tuning and lovely backing vocals – and surprisingly heavy songs like ‘The Cloud Room.’  There’s a bit of a lull toward the end (literally – the next to last track fades into quiet ocean sounds for a notable breath), but it swings back around on its last track to remind you of the artist’s defining traits.

How’d that review sound?  Pretty generic?  And thus my three stars.  While all of the songs here are absolutely professional, and I feel true sense of artistry from them, I rarely find myself returning to listen to ‘Carbon Glacier.’  The images of nature and mentions of culture are never quite as cold as the awesome album title and cover art suggest, and for every seemingly dark moment, a bridge or a few notes will tinkle in to raise your spirits.  Which I’m sure is ideal for many, but isn’t exactly what I was hoping for.  ‘Salvage a Smile’ comes closest to the kind of sorrow with a smile I’d be down with, and it’s a little frustrating that it seems to be hiding just beneath the surface of almost every song.  Often I’m able to somewhat step ‘outside’ of my own opinions (I think) and rate an album on its genre, but even then, ‘Carbon’ stalls for me around the middle.  It ‘sounds’ great but it doesn’t really make an impact one way or the other.  Veirs is very obviously a polished songsmith and her pairing with Martine serves her sounds perfectly.  Pushed toward a bit more minimalism or expression could make for a more robust album.