Big Freeze

The Big Freeze is New York-based songwriter Laura Stevenson"s fourth solo album and first full-length in four years. Recorded in her childhood home during the dead of winter, the record -- named for the universe-chilling opposite the big bang -- is a departure for Stevenson. Though her pedigree is in punk, Freeze has little in the way of distortion. Instead her voice and guitar are in clear focus, embellished with sparse arrangements that flatter the organic beauty of her melodies. It is quiet and haunting. Easily her darkest record, but without a doubt her most powerful.