Since debuting in the late 2000s,
Laura Jean has built her career on mercurial, folk-based songwriting with orchestral leanings and a strong intellectual bent. Her fifth LP, 2018's
Devotion, was a sleek left turn into glossy synth pop that saw her questioning matters of romance, relationships, and family. Arriving four years later was
Amateurs, an altogether more complex set that plays like an amalgam of the Sydney-based singer/songwriter's various musical guises. The album's core structure is largely guitar- and piano-based with occasional synth flourishes and elegant string sections throughout, courtesy of arranger
Erkki Veltheim. Thematically,
Amateurs -- both the album and its rather cunning title track -- revolves around what
Laura Jean describes as "anti-art and anti-intellectual culture in the modern world." Amid her wry commentary about opportunistic reality stars and pop-up entrepreneurs is a true affection for and identification with the concept of amateurism. That is to say, doing something unprofessionally, simply for the love of it. On the standout "Folk Festival," she contemplates her own career choices while nodding to one of her creative north stars, singing "Oh God I wish I was born in 1953, when I first heard Blue I should’ve been 18, I’d be so confused by a singer like me, in sympathy I’d buy a CD." Her admiration of
Joni Mitchell is apparent throughout the set, especially on the lovely
Blue-esque piano ballads "Market on the Sand" and "Rock n Roll Holiday." Her examinations -- both of self and pop culture -- are wrought with sophistication, poignancy, and a sense of humor, and her mix of adroit art-pop and cinematic grandeur make for an engaging listen. Her philosophy on amateurism is summed up quite beautifully on the closing track which declares "I want something to look forward to forever, that’s what magic is, something to look forward to forever and never ever getting it." Two decades and six albums into a critically admired, if not commercially lucrative career,
Laura Jean is still making challenging, personal music, for the love it. ~ Timothy Monger