Eora/Sydney chanteuse Laura Jean has just released the third single from her forthcoming album ‘Amateurs’ entitled ‘A Funny Thing Happened’, and it is another deliciously cool and ethereal track, showcasing her unerring ear for melody and velvet soft vocals.
The song evocatively and poignantly explores the idea of unrealised dreams – as Jean explains:
My mum started doing amateur musical theatre when I was about five,. All she wanted was to be a singer. She is a nurse and I became the singer. I wonder about the dreams we have for our life and how many of them are passed down genetically and how many stem from our upbringing. What happens to a dream when you turn away from it? When you have a kid? This song is abstract with snapshots of different scenes that are somehow related. I put in a moment from my childhood when mum got her first part, I’ll never forget her coming home from her audition screaming ‘I got in!’ We were all very excited for her.
The thread of melancholia runs through the crystalline, jangling guitars and echoing rhythms while Jean’s voice softly swims across the cyclical movements of the instrumentation, punctuated by a mesmerising and serpentine saxophone riff that slides between the verses.
The accompanying video, directed and shot by Nina Renee, is just as transfixing
‘A Funny Thing Happened’ is available now to download and stream here.
The new album ‘Amateurs’ is out on 4 November 2022 through Chapter Music. It is an album about anti-art and anti-intellectual culture in Australia and the western world. It sees Jean questioning her role as a songwriter and examining the reality of her choices to prioritise art over other parts of her life. It is also a warmhearted, humorous and sonically breathtaking album. Jean says:
These songs arise from my acceptance that I will always be an ‘amateur’. At the same time, I was fuelled by a desire to create something inordinately luxurious and beautiful.
You can pre-order the album through the link below:
Jean will be on the road soon too – details below.
Thursday October 13, 630pm & 8.15pm
Sydney – Phoenix Central Park
free ticket ballot now closed
Saturday October 15
Castlemaine – Theatre Royal
with Grand Salvo
tickets
Saturday November 5, 3pm
Chapterfest 30 – Melbourne – Northcote Theatre
with NO ZU, Gregor, Sweet Whirl, Teether & Kuya Neil, The Cannanes, Native Cats and Essendon Airport
tickets
Feature Photograph: Rochelle Marie Adam
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