The American Laura Veirs has long been a favourite singer of mine. Although she is blessed with a beautiful tone to her voice it is really the complexity of her songwriting that so appeals. At first, the lyrics of the song ‘Freedom Feeling’ appear deceptively simple. It starts as a straightforward love song with her lover by her side. But it quickly moves into more confusing territory. The natural world that Veirs so often celebrates turns hostile.
Stumbling through the weeds, brings a strong association of Ophelia’s madness in Hamlet – a madness that can be seen as a desperate bid for freedom and self definition.
Veirs’s marriage to the music producer Tucker Martine collapsed around the time the song was written. If you listen closely you can hear an echo of this trauma – talking to statues, for example; a striking image of loneliness.
The singer’s journey for freedom never seems on safe or stable ground. That’s why this video is such a brilliant visual representation of the song. The future unknown – her dreams suspended.
