CD Review: Laura Meyer

WOMAN.ca Takes A Listen To Laura Meyer

alt In an industry that constantly celebrates youth and beauty, American singer-songwriter Laura Meyer keeps telling us that’s exactly what she isn’t.

With a sound like a mix of Taylor Swift’s angry aunt, Meyer makes no qualms about portraying all the angst and disappointments of a life well-lived. She makes messes then writes songs about it. Which is all well and good if Ryan Adams wasn’t already doing that. And if Lucinda Williams, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash hadn’t already given this generation of artists the blueprint of how to do it.

Meyer is no doubt a talented singer and musician but does the world really need another song about motel rooms, let alone three? I think not. In her sequence of songs titled Motel Room Blues #1, #2 and #3 she deals with the inherent loneliness of being on the road.

Interestingly, all these songs end in some kind of death wish, which after the second time you begin wishing that it would come true. I have no doubt that Meyer has interesting things to say and an interesting way of saying them. Songs like "Fake" are a great example of a simple folk song with a killer emotional twist.

With lyrics like “They aren’t as good as you/Because they’re only faking/And if anyone could ever fake it/Well it would be you” hint at something more interesting beneath the cliches. Fake is also the most well-sung song on the album because she’s not playing with emotions that are already well-worn. In Fake it finally feels personal. Unfortunately that is the only occurrence of something genuine throughout her songs.

For all the promise of this album, it feels merely proficient. It winds up being a mish-mash of inspirations and ideas, and while none of them are bad, not of them stand out.

In Motel Room Blues #3, she asks, "did God forget about me?"

We can't answer that Laura, but we're pretty sure the world will soon enough.

Photo source.

Hilary Lauren Fox
		About the author:
		Sometimes she's a redhead, sometimes she's a blonde. Some days it's H&M, and on other days, it's Chanel. What ever the mood, she is a woman who is passionate about the arts, fashion and social media. Born in Toronto, Hilary Lauren Fox is an only child to artist parents - mom was an illustrator and pattern maker, dad was a painter. Rather then studying the arts as her parents hoped for, Hilary opted for a degree in psychology with dreams of working in a clinical setting. But after graduating she realized that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that the arts was in her blood, applying her education within the art and fashion world.
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