Songfacts®:

• "Laura" is Lush guitarist Emma Anderson's heartfelt tribute to New York singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. Steeped in New York imagery, she evokes Nyro's art as an emotional refuge during a difficult personal period through metaphors of pressing piano keys and singing through pain.
  
  Luckie's song
  Press the keys, I can be
  Where you belong
  
  This is a reference to "Luckie," a track from Nyro's 1968 album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. "Luckie" was a nickname used in Nyro's own circle.
• Anderson discovered Nyro's music while Lush were touring America and she picked up a copy of the 1969 Laura Nyro album New York Tendaberry in a secondhand record shop. She then bought Eli and the 13th Confession, and got drawn in.
  
  "I was going through a bad time with romantic stuff and the lyrics spoke to me about some of that," she told Uncut magazine. "And just the rawness of it. Even though the lyrics have quite a lot of pain in them, I really loved the imagery she came up with. The New York feel of it. Some of it even borders on Broadway musicals, the way tempos change, the whole pacing of it."
• Anderson described Nyro as "wondrous" on her Twitter in 2012. Other Anderson-penned Lush songs such as "When I Die" and "Single Girl" also echo Nyro's influence in their titles.
• Emma Anderson wrote "Laura," and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins produced and engineered the track. Lush had already worked with Guthrie on their Mad Love EP and felt confident he was the right match for the album.
  
  The production is noted for its heavily treated, effects-laden sound. "If you want Robin Guthrie to produce your record it's going to sound along those lines," Anderson told Noisey. "At the time in the press we were criticized that he swamped us with his effects, but I like how it sounds outer-spacey. There are obviously guitars, but the effects he used made them sound like synths."
  
  The relationship wasn't without tension: after completing Spooky, Guthrie reportedly made a cutting remark in the music press, saying Lush's ideas were "so far ahead of your capabilities."
• "Laura" was recorded for Lush's debut album, Spooky, and was one of the last Anderson penned for the album. "It was a difficult subject to write about, but it was obviously at the forefront of what was going on in my life," she told Uncut.
  
  "Laura" appears as track 11 of 12, near the very end of the album, giving it a reflective, closing-chapter feel that suits its intimate and admiring tone.
• Spooky reached #7 on the UK Albums chart and was ranked #27 on Pitchfork's "50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All-Time" in 2016. The album produced three singles - "Nothing Natural," "For Love," and "Superblast!" - but "Laura" was not released as a single, remaining an album deep cut treasured by fans.