RADIO SWAN IS DOWN

Different albums can serve specific purposes in one's life and they can also mean different things to different people. Radio Swan is an amazing album that already has a special purpose to me: this is a modern day meditation, a form of therapy for walking around in this world, both literally and figuratively. If you love to put on the headphones when you go out to walk, run, or ski, and you want the music that can help you escape the unwanted blabbering of your running thoughts as well as the noise of other people around you, this album is perfect. If you want music that will slowly creep into the grey of your thoughts and feelings, and color them as it drives you physically as well, look no further. Radio Swan inhabits but doesn't take over, it colors but it doesn't smother you, it helps you escape and feel better but it never compromises or panders. I hate to make comparisons to an album this special so I do so with the disclaimer that these are loose comparisons, Laura is a band all its own. You may hear bits of Sigur Ros in their sound but Laura is warmer and has very few vocals. You may hear bits of Kayo, but Laura is more uplifting, less crushing, more nuanced, and again lacks the tortured vocal of KD. You may even hear the influence of space rock and pop music that I hear in places. There are lots of surprises that reveal themselves over many plays. But my favorite thing about Radio Swan is simply its emotion and the way that it demands silence from my thinking mind. As in meditation, if you can actually quiet your mind while you listen to this, you have a much better chance of gaining something meaningful as it washes over you. Play it on headphones while taking a brisk walk on a cold winter day when you can see your breath, turn it up loud and see where it takes you.

Everything unfolds very slowly here and there is always an array of sounds coming and going, melodies that entice you like a siren but vanish just before you find her. You just can't always process everything that is going on but you don't need to. What I like about this album is that there is so much textural variance it doesn't kill you with heaviness or bore you with minimalism. You are given one interesting idea after another to chew on, you are always challenged and entertained by the care and skill taken in layering all of the many sounds and moods.

As mentioned a track by track is as pointless as comparisons to other bands is, but just a few brief notes: "Radio Swan is Down part 1" features some really nice cello over cascading guitar fuzz and slow, brooding drum beats. It crescendos to a harrowing ending of chaos that pulls you in for the long ride. "Is there no help" begins with spacey samples, clean picked guitar notes and then crunchy chords. Like the first song this builds and gets heavier as it goes. "I hope" has some vocalizations that remind me of Adrian Belew and the song has an accessible heavy pop approach. "Numbers Stations" is a wall of sound plain and simple. "Every Light" is a real favorite, with very expressive use of clean guitar and samples, quite uplifting. "Lake Vostok Beachfront" is a very short, quiet, and contemplative guitar solo that is pure fog, pure ambiance. "It's kind of like the innocent smiles you get at the start of a relationship before you f*ck everything up" wins the Fiona Apple song title award for 2006. But despite the precious title it's another killer track, my favorite. It has a little bit of jazzy snap to the rhythm at first but the guitars are once again drowning you in a very spacey slurry occasional augmented by perfect keyboard accompaniments. "Radio Swan part 2" is all bleary-eyed atmosphere with the cello returning and a song so sad you'll weep at the kitchen table as you sit there alone in your underwear nursing that hangover and doing a resin scrape. (Just joking of course.) But you'll weep with hope because even the sadness here is tempered with light. Strange unintelligible vocals are sprinkled throughout adding to the mystery. I agree with Ruben that there is a slight drop in quality to the last three tracks-it's almost like Radio Swan part 2 should have closed the album which would have been perfect-and then these last three songs would be bonus tracks. They don't suck but they just aren't as amazing as the rest. More laid back and detached.

If you've been turned off by things like Kayo or Sigur or others, thinking none of these groups are musically fulfilling enough, you might give the genre one more try with Laura. This is not music you listen to in common circumstances like singing along in the car or having beers with people over. This is music to be alone to. This is stunningly beautiful music for people with an open musical mind and essential for fans of the genre.

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