Lara MacMillan

Stratford-based singer/songwriter Lara MacMillan impressed with her 2009 debut album, Miss Mercury. The potential shown there is fully realized on this compelling self-titled sophomore album. MacMillan has a persuasively dramatic vocal style and is an eloquent wordsmith. She is musically eclectic, drawing on cabaret, pop and folk elements here, and using horns and strings. Assisting the cause is producer/guitarist Dean Drouillard (Royal Wood) and an elite grouping of T.O. players including Mark McIntyre, Roger Travassos, Drew Jurecka, and Bryden Baird. MacMillan launched the disc at Hugh’s Room in Toronto recently and has an upcoming date at MacKenzie Hall in Windsor on Nov. 23, with more to follow.

Kerry Doole - New Canadian Music

Transcribed from Radio Broadcast - Journalist Errol Nazareth Reviewing:


It doesn’t happen very often but I love when I can relate to nearly every song on a record. And what makes the listening experience even more special is that I find myself empathizing with the artist on the tracks that don’t strike a deep chord within.

This was the case when I heard Lara MacMillan’s self-titled second album. Her songs boast drama, sharp observations, joy and pain. And she’s a gifted vignettist who transports you to cafes, beaches, city streets and bars that inspire this collection of originals. Lonely Alayna, for example, is dedicated to a waitress working a bar in Parkdale and Victory Café seats us at a table in the Mirvish Village Restaurant where a break-up is going down.

Dean Drouillard, a Toronto based Juno nominated producer who worked on the album says, “There is classic songwriting here, sometimes reminiscent of Carole King, Burt Bacharach and James Taylor but modern references like Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann also come to mind.”

In an interview Lara described the album as an homage to the time she spent in Toronto and some of the challenges faced by a person living on their own in the big city.

Another selling point is how Lara uses her voice as an instrument. This versatility is evident on tunes like All Your Black Colours and GunsR4ever where you can hear the spite or in ballads like Lonely Alayna and Goodbye Tennessee where her tenderness shines. There are cellos, trumpets, violins, French horns and strings on this record making it hard to categorize but hey, that’s fine with me the music and stories speak volumes. - CBC Radio One - Big City Small World - Radio broadcast December 14th, 2013 at 5pm

“With the release of her debut, “Miss Mercury”, Lara MacMillan opens the door to a fascinating musical journey at its very root.”
- J. Edward Sumerau, Metro Spirit

By Fish Altieri
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 4:54 PM EDT

New York is still the place for musicians to come to be seen and heard. A case in point is singer/songwriter Lara Macmillan from Toronto who came to apartment sit for a friend and made sure to hit all the main venues like The Bitter End, The Living Room and other places of singer/songwriter interest. Her songs reveal a tender winsome quality with wry lyrics. She’s already got a following in Canada and hopes to follow suit in New York City. First things first though; releas-ing her new CD! You can check her out at www.myspace.com/laramacmillan and hear such key tracks as the great “Mettle in You” and the unique “Miss Mercury”. - The Bronx Times

One looks at a CD cover and wonders “what is this like?” If one was to mix up elements of Paul McCartney, Ben Folds, Norah Jones, Nikka Costa, Elton John, Carole King and Flaming Lips, you may or may not come to an equation that leads to Lara MacMillan.

MacMillan is a singer/musician/songwriter whose love of the pop form is obvious in each of the album’s eleven songs, from the way the songs are written and arranged, to how they are performed. They are meant to be catchy but not always in the usual ways, but some of the best pop music is about the journey and not the destination. In a song like “I’m Losing You” she talks about heading down a path of solitude, only to find the bumps on the road being bigger than normal.

Other songs touch on self love, self hate, personal reflection and rejection, and hopefully solace in the arms of someone deserving, as described in “We Don’t Need Words”:

It doesn’t sound manufactured, it truly sounds human, and hearing MacMillan makes one want to reflect on their own experiences as they hear perhaps their own stories through her. The album is balanced between songs of loss and wanting to be found, and by the end one feels as if they’ve found someone with a talent for making great, moving music. In other words, she knows what she wants to say and does it in her own way, without fear of anything. In a better world, MacMillan will become an artist others (male or female) will look up to. - This is Book’s Music

“Kudos don’t nearly do this ingenue justice…We Don’t Need Words is one of the top five ballads of all time. Five stars.” - Cashbox Magazine (CLA)

“Untraditional pop that doesn’t worry about the proper moves, observing convention or cliché, she knows how to properly mix-master a variety of styles and make them all come out right in the end. A smart take on creativity that moves in an unexpected direction with unexpected velocity and simply bowl you over.” - Chris Spector: Midwest Record Recap, Issue: Volume 32/Number 260