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Veirs' new album July Flame sends us on hikes through dreamy landscapes evoked by her uniquely tangy voice, casting minimal instrumentation in glistening arrangements to captivate the melancholy imagination.
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All of these songs build from more simple riffs to fleeting layers and orchestral flourishes, with an impressive array of backup vocal and instruments. Sweet and sour in perfectly produced measure, July Flame will easily be one of the best albums of the year.
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July Flame is carefully composed, ever-deepening, glinting and glowing in new ways each time it’s played; there’s an inkling of something greater coming just around the bend, but for now it’s Veirs’ finest work.
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Laura Veirs makes an excellent case for herself as one of the most under-recognised singer-songwriters working today and the album's summery soul lingers long after first listen.
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It has such an unassuming, homespun quality that you're constantly surprised by how expansive and richly textured its songs are.
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MojoUnlike some other nu-folkies, this feels organic and unforced; one reason why her albums, and this in particular, have such resonance. [Jan 2010, p.92]
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UncutThis is a vivid song cycle that's part ecstasy, part-sadness--but unfailingly lovely. [Jan 2010, p.119]
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Slight discrepancies aside, July Flame triumphs when the music is stripped and Veirs' reflective folk-pop and country-folk songwriting comes to the fore. As it transpires, July Flame is a treasure trove for the wistful daydreamer.
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Here is a winsome, lady-driven response to the wood-chopping likes of Midlake, Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket that remains refreshingly sweet.
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Q MagazineAlways an engaging songwriter with a strong mystical and elemental bent, the seamlessly flowing July Flame now adds an increased accessibility to her armoury. [Feb 2010, p. 112]
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FilterIt turns out Veirs hasn't actually abandoned instrumentations, she's just trying out a new kind. And what she ends up with is her best, most sophisticated record to date. [Holiday 2009, p.93]
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July Flame is ultimately a record that's easy to get into and just as easy to stay with.
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With Martine's fine-grain arrangements giving texture to Veirs's accounts of paddling down rivers and dreaming of silver silos. It's all exceedingly lovely stuff.
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The album showcases Veirs’ warm vocals, deft guitar picking and country-inflected songwriting. It’s not all so stripped down as to be dull, however, and songs like the title track are intricately woven tapestries of strings, woodwind and cooing backing vocals.
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It’s full of layered folk and indie-rock bucolia and plain-spoken but stretchy-thinking language, wherein everyday energies or objects transubstantiate into other, metaphorically richer ones.
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There are no wasted notes anywhere on July Flame, neither in Martine's production nor Veirs' tightly written (but still expressionistically poetic) compositions.
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With [Jim] James, Veirs has proven that she's capable of breaking out of this pattern. Now she just needs to learn to do it on her own.
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Under The RadarJuly Flame is a sparser effort than some of Veirs' past releases, and while there is no shortage of quality songs here, some of the most winning moments comes when the arrangements are a bit denser. [Holiday, 2009, p.77]
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With summer so far away, this record’s only downside is that it lacks a hit song to help it last until July.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 20 out of 23
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Mixed: 0 out of 23
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Negative: 3 out of 23
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Aug 14, 2013
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SeanC.Jan 15, 2010
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Sep 16, 2013