While previously enjoying music by K.D. Lang, Laura Veirs and Neko Case, I'd never felt compelled to buy any of their records. That grouping of names - case/lang/veirs (all lower case, all equal billing) - wasn't on my list of dream collaborations and even when it was announced that the trio were to release an album together it stirred little emotion in me, other than surprise to see Lang's name used in its correct musical context rather than as a punchline below a Stewart Lee article: "K.D. Lang's let himself go".
It's been a most welcome surprise, then, that I have absolutely fallen for this record and that it has rarely left my turntable these past few months. The three voices off-set and compliment one another beautifully, on songs that flit between folk, Americana and classic Laurel Canyon pop. Laura's Veirs' "Song for Judee", a fine example of the later style, is a tribute to the singer-songwriter Judee Sill who cut some splendid records in the early 70s ("you wrote "The Kiss", and it is beautiful", Veirs correctly acknowledges) and perhaps could have gone on to become a Joni Mitchell or Neil Young-level star if it weren't for her health problems and addictions. Instead, Sill died from an overdose at the age of 35, depicted here in heart-wrenching detail ("you never really got a break from the car wrecks and the pain...they found you with a needle in your arm, beloved books strewn 'round at your feet").
Laura Veirs was apparently the driving force behind the project and she has a writing credit on every song here. The result? Possibly the strongest A Side of any LP so far this year, and a B Side - beginning with the magnificent, sweeping "Best Kept Secret" - that isn't far behind. The Lang-led tracks ("Honey and Smoke", "Blue Fires", "Why Do We Fight") are a total revelation, her voice all deep and honeyed and smoked. Neko Case's two cowrites, "Supermoon" and "Down I-5", while occasionally washing over me during play throughs, do add a moodiness, another texture to the record.
I could imagine some dismissing case/lang/veirs as too grown-up, too tasteful, too Uncut-subscribing-dad (if the album had just a little more star-power, it would clean up at next year's Grammys...it still might), but they would be missing out: it really is very, very good indeed.
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