Year of Meteors

1	Fire Snakes 2005 4:57
2	Galaxies 2005 3:35
3	Secret Someones 2005 5:16
4	Magnetized 2005 2:37
5	Parisian Dream 2005 3:05
6	Rialto 2005 4:00
7	Through the Glow 2005 2:42
8	Cool Water 2005 2:52
9	Spelunking 2005 3:06
10	Black Gold Blues 2005 3:11
11	Where Gravity Is Dead 2005 3:40
12	Lake Swimming 2005 6:54
13	[Untitled Track] 2005 1:39

Barnes & Noble

Somewhere between the haunted soul purging of Cat Power's Chan Marshall and the restrained delivery of Suzanne Vega lies the potency of singer-songwriter Laura Veirs. Following up her critically celebrated Carbon Glacier, the onetime geology major joins bittersweet melodies with lyrics that draw on unusual, and unusually acute, imagery from the natural world. The Seattle tunesmith's songs sparkle with meteors and stars, slithering sea snakes and soaring birds. On "Magnetized," a spare reverie of a past love sketched out by picked acoustic guitar and dour piano, Veirs remembers being "slain by your zirconium smile / I was slain by your olivine eyes." But she keenly balances the dark with the light, so for every cool, smoky tune like "Spelunking" ("If I took you darling / to the caverns of my heart / would you light the lamp dear?"), there's a relatively upbeat number such as the gorgeous "Galaxies," which captures match-strike-kindling passion ("When we kiss / bears and boulders vibrate through the air"), or "Secret Someones," which recalls the jazzy pop of the Sea & Cake. Some of the production flourishes -- courtesy Veirs's drummer, Tucker Martine -- strengthen her post-rock connection. "Fire Snakes," for example, makes synthetic twitters sound remarkably organic; it's one of three tunes to benefit from viola player Eyvind Kang's presence. His sawing unspools the tune of "Parisian Dream" and underscores the disjointed mood on "Black Gold Blues," which could be a kinder, gentler version of PJ Harvey. Strikingly original yet sumptuously welcoming, Year of Meteors should open up new galaxies for this ascendant talent. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

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 Seattle-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 like a less-stylized version of the Suzanne Vega's 1992 Mitchell Froom-produced 99.9 F°. 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. Reverend Lee Power