The Lookout

On her first solo release since her supergroup outing with k.d. lang and Neko Case, Laura Veirs strips things down to the bare essentials, framing her evocative lyrics in as sparse a production as possible. Aside from the psychedelic guitar fest that breaks out halfway through "The Canyon", <i>The Lookout</i> alternates between gentle, breezy folk-rock cuts, like "Seven Falls", and spartan ballads, like the piano-based "The Meadow". Veirs' cover of the Grateful Dead's dreamy folk-psych nugget "Mountains of the Moon" fits right in.