Spotlight: Laura Elliott Finds the 'Perfect Storm'

 

☆ BY Sydney Hayward ☆

 
 

A LOVELY VOICE, A WAY OF PAINTING WITH LYRICS, AND A GUITAR;  you could say she’s like a young Joni Mitchell. 

Laura Elliott is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter from a small suburb of upstate New York, who unites strangers together as she uses her voice to bring to life the sad truths that all of us feel as we go through this journey called life. Laura is the singer we need right now, as the past couple of years have left many of us feeling voiceless, exhausted and lacking motivation, yet feeling all of our emotions at once. 

But instead of wallowing in the feeling, Laura did what many of us are afraid to do. She took the last three years of her life, turned them into folklike guitar melodies with alluring honest lyrics and made an album. Not an EP, but a full album during a global pandemic. 

However, this is not Laura’s first foray into music as she grew up doing musical theatre from 5th grade to her last year of High School. As well as a fan of jazz music (she cites Billie Holiday as an early inspiration), Laura also does many covers on her Instagram, so her life is always filled with music. 

She began work on this album in 2017, as she went through a tough time at college that, as Laura stated, ‘made her feel like she was failing her family and failing herself’. To cope with all these feelings Laura wrote through the pain and felt better after doing so.

Something unique about the album is that it isn't just about a breakup, but also about how when we are trying so hard to ‘people please’, we sometimes forget to love ourselves. People Pleaser is not just an album but a journey of a relationship, the ones we have with others and the ones we have with ourselves. 

People Pleaser tells the story of Laura and her ex-partner in chronological order of how it happened, offering a unique listening experience from start to finish. It opens with track “Better off Alone”, setting the tone as she sings for someone to say their life is better without her, which gives a double meaning, as we also wonder if she is better off without them. Then we fade to “Blue” where Laura sings, “She looks so pretty in blue. You didn't notice that I'm wearing blue too”. 

Track “Grinding My Teeth” is a favourite of Laura’s (and ours!) and features some of the most relatable lyrics we’ve heard in a long time, as she sings about ‘waiting on someone who might never show.’ It really hits home as she states to this person “You know just how to hurt me”. 

The song “God Complex” begins with a soothing guitar and involves very well thought out lyrics that slightly change as Laura begins to ponder how her ex-partner has treated her. Accompanied with a video, this is displayed perfectly as she carries a stuffed bear around the city like she is carrying the weight of his issues and wonders whether it’s easier “to try and forgive and forget it” or to just “let this sh*t go” because of how it's making her feel.                            

It is safe to say the album feels like the different stages of grieving the loss of a relationship as Laura looks back on her time with this person and who she was when with them. The narrative transforms gracefully from being about a relationship to being reflective and focusing on taking care of oneself. 

Although this is her first album, Laura isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon as she also has a feature on Lizzy McAlpine's upcoming album, which drops on June 8.  She shares, “I have no idea when this happened, but one day she texted me. I was like, ‘hey’, she’s like ‘I really want you to be on my album. Will you write a second verse to it?’ I was like, ‘yeah, of course. I’m freaking out’”. 

The story behind the album cover is also a spontaneous one and came to be due to a couple of friends, a trip to an Airbnb and a mountain (that really hurt to sit on). Laura notes, “We went into it having no idea, but everything came together like a perfect storm” as many of the best things in life happen without planning. 

This album will be one that many people will be able to relate to. The pandemic made many of us feel like we’d forgotten how to love ourselves and practice self-care.  Just like any perfect storm People Pleaser let us know that, although life might be hard and there might be lightning and thunderstorms, everything is going to be okay;  because there is always sunshine after the rain. 

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