Berlin-based singer/songwriter, guitarist, photographer and JOVM mainstay Laura Carbone‘s first two albums 2016’s Sirens and 2018’s Empty Sea were released to rapturous critical praise, with both albums drawing comparisons to PJ Harvey, Shana Falana, Chelsea Wolfe, St. Vincent and others.
Carbone’s highly anticipated third album, The Cycle is slated for an April release. The Cycle is a concept album that explores the emotional turmoil, triumphs and transformative experiences that the album’s protagonist experiences through the course of the passing seasons of a year. Throughout the course of a calendar year, up until the album’s release, Carbone released a new single every season. Each single represents an experience or inspiration associated with that particular season and the story of the album’s protagonist.
Last year I wrote about album single “Horses,” a slow-burning song built around lush and shimmering acoustic guitar, Carbone’s expressive and yearning delivery, paired with a supple bass line and dramatic drumming. Sonically bringing PJ Harvey’s “You Said Something” to mind, the song is set in the fullness of summer. The song’s protagonist is experiencing the heat, humidity and passion of the season — when fields become gold and heatwaves and wildfires turn them into ash. But there’s a reminder that Mother Earth will restore and reclaim burnt ground in time.
The Cycle‘s final single “The Good” is slow-burning and breathtakingly gorgeous song featuring shimmering and reverb soaked guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line, gently padded drumming and bursts of soaring organ serving as a lush bed for Carbone’s expressive vocal. At its core, the song is rooted in the lived-in personal experience and hard-fought, harder-won wisdom of someone who has lived a full, messy and complicated life. And a result the song is profoundly empathetic and understanding examination of human behavior that seems to say “I’ve been there, too.”
Carbone explains that the track looks at our puzzling capacity for denial — not just of the truth, but of the embrace and love we owe ourselves.
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