On her first solo release since her supergroup outing with k.d. lang and Neko Case, Laura Veirs strips things down to the bare essentials, framing her evocative lyrics in as sparse a production as possible. Aside from the psychedelic guitar fest that breaks out halfway through "The Canyon," The Lookout alternates between gentle, breezy folk-rock cuts, like "Seven Falls," and spartan ballads, like the piano-based "The Meadow." Veirs' cover of the Grateful Dead's dreamy folk-psych nugget "Mountains of the Moon" fits right in.