She's touring her newest album 'Amateurs' across the country in 2023.
Along with the release of Amateurs set to be released on November 4, she has announced her biggest headline shows ever, with album launches in February 2023 featuring a full band plus a string section led by Erkki Veltheim (Gurrumul, Archie Roach). Catch her when she performs in Melbourne for a show at Melbourne Recital Centre on February 10. She’ll also be performing solo at Chapter’s 30th birthday show Chapterfest 30 next week.
Laura Jean Amateurs Album Tour 2023
- February 10 – Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne
- February 11 – Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
- February 24 – Factory Theatre, Sydney
Check out Melbourne’s most comprehensive gig guide here.
Amateurs is a stunning, string-laden album, set at a mystical midway point between the deep synth-pop of Laura’s previous album Devotion and the folkier sounds of her earlier work. It features backing vocals from Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams on three songs. Laura worked with producer Tim Bruniges in Stanmore and St Peters on Gadigal Country in-between the long 2020-2021 lockdowns. Erkki Veltheim’s string arrangements, recorded by Devotion producer John Lee in Naarm/Melbourne, are gorgeous and otherworldly.
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Amateurs is an album about anti-art and anti-intellectual culture in Australia. It sees Laura 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.
“Amateur means to do something for love, not money, and somehow it’s become a dirty word, shorthand for a failure,” Laura 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.”
2018 album Devotion had superlative reviews from Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs Bear and elsewhere, and made it into end of year lists for Spin, Idolator, Apple Music and more. Laura also acquired some high-profile fans such as Lorde and actor Brie Larson. She did two UK/Europe tours around that album with Courtney Barnett and Aldous Harding.
Laura has twice been shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize and has recorded with Australian icons Adalita, Paul Kelly, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and The Drones, as well as Norwegian art-pop star Jenny Hval.
Tickets are on sale now. Grab them by heading here.
