Laura Jean

Australian singer-songwriter Laura Jean Engbert, known professionally as Laura Jean, first drew widespread critical attention with the 2006 release of her chamber-folk debut Our Swan Song. Early supporters included Snow Patrol and Bon Iver, and the Melbourne native later appeared on the shortlist for the Australian Music Prize with her self-titled 2014 album. Although initially identified with indie folk, she moved through successive stylistic phases, trading the sharper electric textures of 2011’s A Fool Who’ll for the luminous synth-pop of 2018’s Devotion. When she returned in 2022, Laura Jean wove pointed social commentary, dry wit, and expansive orchestral colors into Amateurs, her sixth album.

Two early self-released EPs preceded the 2006 debut. Our Swan Song received Triple J airplay and was reissued the following year by Scotland Yard. Those releases opened doors to national support slots and two onstage appearances with Snow Patrol during the Irish band’s Australian visits. Her second album, the self-discovery-themed conceptual work Eden Land, reached stores in 2009 and landed on multiple year-end Top Ten lists; around the same time she toured with Bon Iver and performed on the quiz program Rockwiz.

After lengthy international runs she withdrew to the countryside to write the heavier, guitar-led material that became 2011’s A Fool Who’ll. That year she also joined longtime associates Biddy Connor and Jen Sholakis to record an album as Sailor Days. For her fourth record she traveled to Bristol to work with producer John Parish, whose résumé includes PJ Harvey and Goldfrapp. The resulting self-titled set, issued in 2014, favored intimate, largely acoustic arrangements, earned another Australian Music Prize shortlist nod, and led to joint Australian and New Zealand tours with Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams. A 2016 vinyl reissue of the debut prompted an acoustic tour; soon afterward Laura Jean channeled an affinity for a vintage ’90s Kawai keyboard into the bright, synth-driven dream-pop of Devotion.

By the new decade she had shifted again, folding lush strings and orchestral detail into a refined blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Amateurs, released in November 2022, addressed anti-art and anti-intellectual currents with equal measures of humor and observation. Tim Bruniges produced the album, Erkki Veltheim supplied the string arrangements, and guest vocals were contributed by Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams.