Laura is a singer-songwriter from Hertfordshire, UK. Her quirky narrative style and relatable lyrics combine storytelling with the use of vivid imagery, producing songs with lighthearted insights into life’s trials & tribulations.
Laura initially learned to play the drums, and proceeded to launch a successful YouTube drummer interview series & vlog called “Drum Quest”. Then in the lockdown of 2020 she taught herself the guitar and discovered her passion for songwriting.
After a jam packed year of performing her songs at gigs, local radio and small festivals, Laura has just recorded her first two singles, “Midlife Crisis” (a lighthearted look at the desire to escape!) and now “Little Grey” (a tribute to Laura’s dear old car), which she is excited to share with you.
Midlife Crisis is one of the most charming and unpretentious songs that we’ve listened to this year. Laura describes herself as a drummer who started learning guitar during lockdown. A woman who, when she isn’t writing songs, she’s looking after her two teenage girls.
Midlife Crisis is an earworm that will stay with you. Laura’s comedy genius and regional accent make this track utterly delightful and lyrically one which will pull at your heartstrings as you listen to Laura’s midlife plight.
This is a song where the tempo rises and falls to match the lyrics, with slight pauses for comic effect in all the right places. You can hear Dannan grinning to herself and almost bursting into laughter as she presents each line with glee and more than a touch of cheekiness.
Midlife Crisis is an intimate, almost spoken word, song. It is a quirky and humble rant about life. It is raw and open. We think it’s a bold but wise decision to keep the song uncluttered and with no additional instrumentation: the vocals and lightly strummed guitar are all that is needed here.
Honestly, it felt as if a Pam Ayres poem had been set to music! We absolutely loved everything about this song and could imagine Dannan collecting together a bunch of songs along the same lines and becoming a huge hit at W.I. meetings up and down the country. This is British charm at its finest and any lyricist who can rhyme lacking, cracking, distracting, comfort snacking has our vote!!!
Little Grey comes straight in with Laura’s charming voice. Intimate and inviting, her voice is raw and unaffected. You can clearly hear her accent in the song and each lyric is delivered with care and precision.
The production on this song is lo-fi and that is half the charm of it. An endearing performance where the guitar strums away in the background, and the voice, almost a poem set to music, fills your ears as you enjoy every word clearly. There are no additions, no harmonies, no extra instruments. This is Laura Dannan doing what she does best, and we love it.
Little Grey brought out an emotional response in all of the team here at Send Me Your Ears. A love song with a truly unexpected subject matter. The concept reminded us of Queen’s, Delilah, in that you are quite a long way into the song before you realise that Freddie is singing about his cat; “And then you make me slightly mad when you pee all over my Chippendale Suite.” It’s not until this point in the song that you realise this is no ordinary love song!
Little Grey is the same. For a while, we thought it might be about a dog who’d passed away or had to be given up. The song oozes emotion and heartfelt feelings of loss and regret. We were pretty much welling up before we realised that Little Grey is about Laura’s car. The moment you do realise that (we never like to read a biography before we listen), the song takes on a slightly lighter feeling in your head, but the emotion is very real nonetheless.
“The diesel inside you wasn’t so green so I swapped you for an electric blue.”