Laura Veirs - Year of Meteors (2005)

On Year Of Meteors (2005), familiar surroundings come into sharper focus as the lyrical themes of the sky and outer space now seem mysterious, magical and new. Veirs’ lyrical allusions to the natural world are disarmingly dreamlike yet scientifically precise. Using synergistic elements of contemporary folk, Americana, alternative rock and laptop style electronics, she creates an amalgam that remains her own. There's an elegantly sad quality, a jagged yearning, forcing you to be silent witness to this exquisite, seductive pain. With soft electronic rhythms and tape loops bubbling underneath, her impassive voice lays out rich melodies that build and explode around standout tracks like “Galaxies” and “Parisian Dreams.”

With its brooding intellectualism, intricate arrangements, and clever wordplay, Laura Veirs' 2004 debut on Nonesuch, Carbon Glacier, found its way on to a great many critic's "best-of" lists (and rightfully so). The Portland-based singer/songwriter once again pays homage to her geology background with Years of Meteors, a diverse collection of meandering pop songs that parallel her most recent European/American tour. Transience is the common theme here, and Veirs sets her enviable verbal skills to task on standout tracks like "Magnetize," "Parisian Dream," and "Secret Someone" -- the latter boasts a divine bit of travel-weary imagery: "A smile would melt me to an asphalt strip/where all would travel/where all would tread and trip." As with Glacier, Veirs employs her trusted backup band, the Tortured Souls, to flesh out the material. Led by drummer/producer Tucker Martine, they sound like a tightly knit group now, trading tasteful licks and never overplaying. Flashes of viola, upright bass, and ultra-compressed percussion float in and out. That Veirs manages to keep the mood so sparse while so much is going on is impressive in its own right, but it's that old reliable brooding intellectualism, the intricate arrangements, and the clever wordplay that will keep listeners glued to each and every track.