Laughter In Summer

Nine illuminating piano-backed movements.

Glenn's rich, wordless vocal melody becomes a trellis for the winding vine of Elizabeth's vibrato as she sings the arc of a blooming romance. The mood is joyfully bittersweet, basking in the glow of a shared life which, like all living things, must end. [Mar 2026, p.49]

At times it is bracing. .... But the piano ballads are often delightful. [Mar 2026, p.103]

Laughter in Summer serves as a summary of Copeland’s career, but it’s also a portrait of the artist in his last act: confident, generous, and unafraid.

There’s a stillness throughout Laughter in the Summer, a mood that can sometimes read as somber. The overarching feeling in these songs, however, is one of beaming gratitude, and that keeps the album feeling less like an expression of mourning and more a slow-moving outpouring of joy and acceptance.

Despite its many strengths, the rest of the album can’t help but feel like a gradual comedown from such a monumental start, but the sincerity and warmth of Glenn-Copeland’s deceptively simple songs is never in doubt.

The whole record contains this sense of purity, the songs sitting somewhere between hymns and nursery rhymes, not just in their simplicity but in the sense they seem to have always existed.

Imaginative, poignant and fundamentally, achingly human. [Feb 2026, p.30]

A powerful and uplifting experience. [Mar 2026, p.84]

At its best, Laughter In Summer is deeply affecting and genuinely beautiful. At its least compelling (“Children’s Anthem,” “Harbour”), it remains enjoyably wholesome, but falls well short of his finest work, where Glenn-Copeland’s simple lyrical sentiments were adorned with more engaging layers and textures. Still, it feels unreasonable to grumble.