I first listened to Laura Veirs new album, The Lookout, in my car. I had it on rotation and just let the songs flow effortlessly from one into the other. My biggest problem was that I wanted to pull over and take in the lyrics. I mean really take in the lyrics, and the stories, and the characters that feature in her songs.

I suppose as I listen to artists’ music as they get older I am fascinated by how the themes in their lyrics change. Veirs writes about subjects that affect us all as we get older – friends dying, children growing up, living in a world that makes us feel more vulnerable when we should be feeling safer.

Produced by her husband Tucker Martine and featuring performances by Sufjan Stevens and Jim James of My Morning Jacket fame, The Lookout is set to become my favourite blanket on the coldest of winter nights. It is a wondrous album performed by an artist who seems to have been inhabited by the spirits of some of the greatest folk and pop artists of our time.

I have no doubt singer–songwriters of the future will speak and think of Laura Veirs as their muse. This is truly a beautiful album, one that should be heard by all.

Lou Fulco works as a bookseller at Readings Hawthorn.