Lovely Laura
Looking back on things now, Laura’s “We Should Keep this Secret” doesn’t seem like such an unexpected choice for Beat Magazine’s 2004 Local Single of the Year. Sure, it’s not particularly emblematic of a year dominated by continuing post-post-punk/neu-rock hype and another generation of band names prefixed with the definite article, “the”, but it’s a beautiful example of post-rock at it’s finest: surprisingly simple, not too self-conscious, and perhaps most importantly for Beat’s singles reviewer, uncharacteristically brief.
“We are Mapping Your Dreams” (the title track of Laura’s latest album) sees the band return to the routinely slated “soft-loud-soft-loud-soft” progression employed by (forgive me) more derivative post-rockers, but once again, Laura extend a familiar, if not overdone, formula to new heights. A few post-rock crimes are committed here: the guitar line is almost catchy, interesting melodies are not repeated to point of becoming annoying and reverb, delay and other filters are only used when entirely necessary. When it all reaches fortissimo, fairly apparent Explosions in the Sky and International Karate influences surface, but such comparisons are best left alone: Laura rock just that little bit harder.
- Laura
- We Are Mapping Your Dreams
- from Mapping Your Dreams
- No longer available
Buy the album online.