Laura Veirs – Temple Songs

What does it sound like?:

I first became aware of Laura Veirs when Carbon Glacier was released over 20 years ago. If I’m honest, I heard one song on the radio, and bought the album of the strength of its striking black and white woodcut style cover. I hated it at first, but after a few listens it became an addictive sound – muted, spare, slightly jazzy, vaguely dissonant. Indie-folk, neo-folk, whatever, Laura Veirs hasn’t strayed far from that palette in subsequent years. The Case/Lang/Veirs album from 2016 was an unexpected collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang. Arguably Laura Veirs was least well known of the three, but her songs were probably the best ones to feature on it.

Temple Songs is her 13th album of original material, or thereabouts. Only 2013’s Warp & Weft had a harder edged, more electric sound, with the use of fuzzy guitars fleshing out the general calmness of the songs into something sharper and more angular. Having said that, although Temple Songs’ 11 songs – none much longer than 3 minutes, clocking in at 28 minutes in total – generally start quietly with strummed acoustic guitar, most are expanded with other instrumentation; electric guitars, drums, and saxophone played by “Filthy Lucre” on ‘Pulse’ and ‘Out from Undercover’. The aforementioned gentleman turns out to be Laura Veirs’ husband Morgan Luker, just one of the changes Veirs has made in her life since her divorce from longtime musical partner Tucker Martine. That fleshing out of her sound is most effective on songs like ‘No Masters’ that begins quietly enough but which fades out on washes of scuzzy electric guitar. None of this breaks the overall mood of the album, which is reflective, mesmeric and warmly ambient. It’s no great departure from previous work, but somehow all the better for that. Recorded by Veirs on her own using just two microphones and a laptop, it has an appropriately minimalist homemade appeal.

What does it all *mean*?

If you have liked previous albums by Laura Veirs, expect no great leaps forward here; if you’re happy with that then you’ll know what to expect and probably won’t be disappointed.

Goes well with…

Contemplation, a calm and serene antidote to 2026.

Release Date:

August 2026

Might suit people who like…

Neko Case, Iron & Wine, Sharon Van Etten and all Laura Veirs’ previous albums.

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