★★★★★
Though it wasn't as heavy as the brooding grunge it shared Modern Rock airwaves with at the time, the peppier alterna-pop of the '90s often cut just as deep. Acts like the Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, and Matthew Sweet disguised depressive sentiments in plain sight by pairing them with chiming guitars and tuneful fuzz--you could sing along to some of their songs for weeks before even noticing they might be a cry for help...
- pitchfork.com
2015-11-03
★★★★★
This Brooklyn artist continues to move away from her lo-fi folk roots on her fourth album with a strong set of punkish, '90s-influenced rock with crunchy guitars, forceful rhythms and effervescent pop melodies juxtaposed with often self-lacerating lyrics. 10/16/2015
-
- kexp.org
2015-10-17
★★★★★
With Scotland in the wet and windy grip of a weather bomb, turnout at Electric Circus wasn't bad for a cold Tuesday night not long before Christmas. Billed simply as "Laura Stevenson (full band)," the Cans apparently now absent from gig listings as they were from the spine of last year's full length, Wheel, Laura and band took the stage at 9 p.m. As they launched into "Triangle" from that record, the benefits of touring with a full band behind her were immediately apparent...
- www.punknews.org
2014-12-12
★★★★★
Laura Stevenson was born with musical blood in her veins. Stevenson's grandparents are both notable musicians. Her grandfather Harry Simeone wrote the Christmas classics "Little Drummer Boy" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and her grandmother sang in Benny Goodman's band. Holy crap! For Laura, after singing with multiple choral groups in high school (can you say a cappella nerd?), she joined up with the punk community, eventually landing in a keyboard role with Bomb the Music Industry...
- www.punknews.org
2013-05-01
★★★★★
On punk-turned-country-leaning chronicler Laura Stevenson's first album, 2010's A Record, she was frank about her tendency to obscure her feelings. The precious, old-timey piano waltz of "Beets United" found her intoning, in her sweet vinegar voice, "I need to stop singing in code/ To start ringing true because true rings only." But it's taken her until her third LP-- the second for Don Giovanni-- to feel she's reached that point. She's also dropped .....
- pitchfork.com
2013-04-29
★★★★★
Naming your album Wheel is basically like opening up a never-ending jar of metaphors: metaphors for the cyclical nature of all things, for life and death, for infinity, and, of course, for literal forward movement. Even though they are varied, all these concepts have somehow wiggled their way onto Laura Stevenson's third studio release, the aptly titled, Wheel.
The first thing that peaks the ear is the sheer accuracy and depth of Stevenson's voice...
- www.cmj.com
2013-04-27
★★★★★
"Some day in the not too distant future, America will dip its corners deeper into the ocean, the waves ever grinding at its shores as tectonic plates shift and sink." This is the press release for Laura Stevenson's Wheel, and it's so evocative I wish I could finish it off myself. I have my ideas, of course--I think we all do, mostly about the scenes that envelop us or the evacuation that saves us--but the idea of ending Stevenson's own personal apocalypse is futile...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
This Long Island singer-songwriter's impressive third album moves considerably beyond her lo-fi folk roots. Featuring a more muscular and cleanly produced sound, Wheel is a smart, eclectic blend of expansive folk-pop and crunchy indie-rock, highlighted by a variety of impressively crafted songs and Stevenson's expressive vocals.
- kexp.org
2013-04-20
Loading...
