The Pelican’s Perch

I’ll admit to knowing very little about Laura Veirs, but once Dylan told me her new album Saltbreakers was a winner, of course I had to check it out. Boy was he right. The very first song, “Pink Light”, comes out of the gate with a catchy little guitar riff and soon after bursts into the full band.

Her sound is somewhat hard to explain, as it’s not as poppy as Regina Spektor, but also not as electronic or sassy as The Blow, even though Laura Veirs does sound eerily similar to The Blow’s singer Khaela Maricich, with a little Emily Haines thrown in as well. The second song on the album may be it’s most ambitious. “Ocean Night Song” takes a page from Incubus’ “Aqueous Transmission” and turns a simple acoustic guitar riff into a sprawling oriental string fest. My favorite song on the entire album may be the title track “Saltbreakers”.

The song starts with wobbly gutars and high pitched riffs over it much like Modest Mouse and is a pretty laid back until the chorus when a choir of men suddenly show up to sing behind Laura as she sings “Saltbreaker!” and they respond “Crashing in the night, crashing all around my eyes!” Then, as is evident in nearly every song, a string section enters to add even more to the song.

Saltbreaker comes out March 28th in Europe and April 10th in the US. I realize that a long, long away for most of you, but believe me when I say it’ll be worth it. I can’t get enough of the album and I doubt you’ll be able to either. Enjoy the few mp3’s below that I could find and I’ll be sure to remind you next month about this release.

Her site / Her myspace / Nonesuch Records

• Pink Light (middle of post)
• Saltbreaker (4th mp3 down)