Laura Jean

Our Swan Song

About the album

First time on vinyl! Limited edition 10th anniversary LP reissue of Laura Jean's debut album Our Swan Song. Each copy is hand signed and numbered, and comes with an insert featuring new liner notes, lyrics and photos. Released in 2006 by Unstable Ape Records, and reissued on CD by Scotland Yard in 2008, the lush, pastoral Our Swan Song announced Laura Jean as a powerful new voice in Australian music. Here's what Laura has to say about the album. "When I listen to Our Swan Song I hear different aspects of my early 20s experience jostling for space - I am revelling in my deeply romantic nature, guarding my budding sexuality with riddles and myth, then suddenly my pragmatism and strength burst through and I'm rioting against the limits placed upon me as a young female songwriter in the still primitive early 2000s Australian music industry. Always, the push and pull is tempered by a contemplative stillness that is ever present in my work.

On Our Swan Song this thematic jostling is evident in my voice, still relaxing into itself, and my songs, sometimes meanings obscured by youthful self-consciousness. Thankfully I have some experienced and generous collaborators. The playful and responsive double bass playing of Alex Miller is the voice that answers my questions, the dimensional arrangements of Wally Gunn provide a reverent atmosphere and the sensitive and strange production of Simon Grounds make the album hit a mark square on, albeit an idiosyncratic one.

I am so proud that after all these years and all those tears I am still here, speaking my heart, singing my song." - Laura Jean