16 December 2025 (gig)
2 h
It’s a tragedy that Laura Stevenson’s latest record ‘Late Great’ is not showing up on more ‘Best of 2025’ lists. In such a consistent discography, ‘Late Great’ stands out as being Stevenson’s most affirming and touching record yet. Whilst it feels like the wider appetite for heart on your sleeve singer songwriters is beginning to wane, Stevenson’s songs always offer something different from the rest of the pack. Her latest batch of songs go one step further than capturing the feelings of lost love and broken relationships. They encapsulate you inside of them. The songs are so warm and inviting that you feel like you are part of them. These are songs that you feel in your guts. They hit you where it hurts most and then comfort you softly with a devastating precision. The realism within these songs only serves to make their lingering sense of hopefulness feel all the more sincere and affirming.
On stage at Leeds’ Headrow House on Tuesday night, it was lovely to hear Stevenson perform many of these new songs alongside plenty of old favourites. For a solo performer, Stevenson has an incredible range and is capable of delivering the soul shattering softness of a song like ‘Not Us’ right next to the defiant exclamations of set closer ‘Late Great’. It is the ultimate testament to the emotional power and songwriting craft on display here that these songs, stripped back from their band arrangements, still sound so full and dripping in life. It was impossible not to get the chills as the audience gathered together to softly sing along to the chorus of ‘Runner’ like a loving community choir. By stripping these songs down to their core elements, Stevenson invites special moments like this and allows the songs to reveal themselves in new and interesting ways.
One song that never needs to reveal itself in any other way though, because it is simply perfect, is 2019’s ‘Living Room, New York’. It is one of those holy songs that you can’t believe hasn’t already been written. It is capable of time travel as it sends you back into your own memories and experiences. The song might belong to Stevenson but there is more than enough room inside it for it to feel like it belongs to you too. As Stevenson’s vocals rise and fade over the course of two and a half beautiful minutes, it’s impossible not to feel the comforting chills felt by every other person in the room.
Stevenson is clearly a songwriter who cares for her songs. She performs them with such a gentle grace that every note feels deliberate and articulate. Being in that room on a cold December night felt grounding and peaceful. These aren’t feelings that are easy to find at this time of year. It’s the time of year that people become frantic. People get swept off their feet. Deadlines are looming. Presents need to be bought. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day as the year ticks away.
Laura Stevenson, however, can make time stand still. She possesses the ability to pull out the ultimate musical magic trick. She can pause the outside world and all the stresses and worries that come with it. In the upstairs room of Leeds’ Headrow House on Tuesday night, it felt like the world came to a freezing halt. Just for an hour. But that was enough.
