Laura Gibson

Goners, the fifth album from acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Laura Gibson, found its name in the first line she wrote in the bleak beginning of 2017: If we're already goners, why wait any longer, for something to crack open.

Much of Goners explores the loss of her father as a teenager, and her wrestling with the decision of whether to become a parent herself. "My days are charged. Potential future grief forces me to reckon with past grief. These were two points on a map of grief. I wanted to explore the territory between them." Gibson co-produced the songs with engineer and friend John Askew, with whom she'd also collaborated on her 2016 album, Empire Builder, in his Portland, OR, studio. They began as simple demos, but Gibson kept returning to the studio to tinker, until she realized these demos had become a record. She ditched her guitar on half the songs and instead played piano and Wurlitzer. "There was a lot of experimentation, stacking vocals and using tape loops to transform sounds. We were landing on arrangements that seemed impossible to recreate and so we kept moving forward."

It marks the first record Gibson made after completing a MFA in writing, and her language has never felt more alive, her storytelling sharper, her imagination looser. Perhaps Goners' most cathartic moment comes in a song about avoiding catharsis. On the moving final track, "I don't want your voice to move me," Gibson sings, Honey, all I know of hope is throwing stones into the void.