Laura Marling | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Singer/songwriter Laura Marling was only 16 years old when she emerged on the British indie scene in 2007 thanks to a handful of infectious singles made available on her MySpace profile. Endowed with a husky voice, an acoustic guitar, and a gift for building quirky, hooky folk songs (characteristics that find her compared favorably to artists like Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, and Martha Wainwright), Marling quickly made a name for herself throughout England thanks to a heavy touring schedule and a few high-profile gigs, not the least of which included an appearance at the 2006 City Showcase: Spotlight London and as the opening act for Jamie T. Although she was still without a label one year later, her debut EP, My Manic and I, was slated for independent release in the late fall of 2007. This status didnt last for long, however, because in early 2008, signed to Virgin, Marling issued Alas I Cannot Swim, which also came as part of a multimedia Songbox package. In 2010, Marling released her sophomore album, I Speak Because I Can, which debuted at number three on the U.K. albums chart and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Marling completed a working holiday tour of the U.S. in 2012, where she played a host of solo shows as she traveled through the States, and announced her fourth album, Once I Was an Eagle, while in California. The record appeared a year later and was her third to be nominated for the coveted Mercury Prize. Following the albums release, Marling relocated to L.A. in a bid to settle in one place after moving multiple times while releasing four albums in five years, each with accompanying tours. Plans for a fifth release were initially shelved in early 2013, but by 2014 Marling had completed new material and returned to London to record the album. The resulting Short Movie arrived in spring 2015. Just as Short Movie introduced a heavier sound via the addition of electric guitar, Marling further distanced herself from her folk beginnings on her sixth studio album. Semper Femina, her sixth LP, was co-produced by Blake Mills and released in early 2017 on Marlings own More Alarming label. The album featured a darker, smokier vibe than her previous efforts. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 9 Title: Alas I Cannot Swim Released: 2008-02-11 Tracks: 12 Duration: 38:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Ghosts (03:01) 2 Old Stone (02:59) 3 Tap at My Window (02:47) 4 Failure (03:21) 5 Youre No God (02:27) 6 Cross Your Fingers (02:23) 7 Crawled Out of the Sea (interlude) (01:16) 8 My Manic and I (03:56) 9 Night Terror (03:09) 10 The Captain and the Hourglass (03:09) 11 Shine (02:38) 12 Your Only Doll (Dora) / Alas, I Cannot Swim (07:18) |
| Alas I Cannot Swim : Allmusic album Review : Due to her youth (16 when she first hit Myspace, 17 when signed to an imprint of EMI, and 18 when her debut album came out), perky-cute looks and extremely British diction, singer/songwriter Laura Marling got a lot of comparisons to Lily Allen in her early buzz, but the quietly compelling Alas I Cannot Swim is not at all a frothy pop confection. A folk-tinged AAA pop record based on Marlings alluringly husky voice and graceful acoustic guitar, Alas I Cannot Swim would be more aptly compared to the likes of Feist, Keren Ann, or Regina Spektor. (In the albums press kit, Marling reveals her primary influence to be Bonnie "Prince" Billy, which also seems appropriate.) Although not to draw too forbidding a comparison, opening track and first single "Ghosts" is most strongly reminiscent of Joni Mitchell circa For the Roses, both in Marlings expressive vocal phrasing and the expert shifts in the arrangement between solo acoustic passages and full-band sections, not to mention an excellently deployed string section. That old-school 70s singer/songwriter vibe predominates throughout the album, in fact. Theres one straight-up pop song here, the deceptively chipper-sounding "Cross Your Fingers" ("...hold your toes/Were all gonna die when the building blows" continues the sweetly sung chorus), but aside from that, Alas I Cannot Swim is the kind of album that takes a couple of listens for its charms to completely sink in. Rather than swath every track in prominent, ear-grabbing hooks, Marling and producer Charlie Fink choose to keep the decorations off in the distance on songs like "The Captain and Hourglass," where swells of pedal steel stay buried deep in the mix under Marlings hypnotic guitar line and quietly insistent vocals. Theres every chance that Laura Marling will get lost in the shuffle as the unexpected commercial success of Feists The Reminder leads major labels to unleash hordes of similarly talented female singer/songwriters, but Alas I Cannot Swim is far better than the average coffee house-endorsed girly pop. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 9 Title: Night Terror Released: 2008-10-26 Tracks: 4 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Night Terror (?) 2 Alpha Shallows (?) 3 Night Terror (live) (?) 4 Your Only Doll (Dora) (live) (?) |
 | Album: 3 of 9 Title: I Speak Because I Can Released: 2010-03-22 Tracks: 10 Duration: 37:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Devils Spoke (03:39) 2 Made by Maid (02:51) 3 Rambling Man (03:16) 4 Blackberry Stone (03:28) 5 Alpha Shallows (03:42) 6 Goodbye England (Covered in Snow) (03:45) 7 Hope in the Air (04:32) 8 What He Wrote (04:07) 9 Darkness Descends (03:40) 10 I Speak Because I Can (03:59) |
| I Speak Because I Can : Allmusic album Review : British folksinger Laura Marling’s 2008 debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, showed more depth and maturity than one would expect from a (then) 18-year-old. Marling’s expressive, smoky voice and penchant for lyrical matter that didn’t reference clubbing landed her a well-earned Mercury Prize nomination, as well as a considerable amount of hype concerning her follow-up. Released in 2010, I Speak Because I Can delivers on nearly every level, upping both the production value (thanks to Ryan Adams and Kings of Leon producer Ethan Johns and fellow indie folk darlings Mumford & Sons) and the songwriting. Love, death, and heartbreak are hardly new subjects when it comes to folk music, but they refresh themselves so often in our lives that their relevance becomes tenfold with each new bite, scrape, or blow to the head, a notion that Marling explores with both guarded wisdom and elegant petulance on standout cuts like "Devil’s Spoke," "Made by Maid," "Rambling Man," and "Goodbye England." At its heart, I Speak Because I Can is a stoic, bare-bones singer/songwriter record, which makes the tastefully peppered bursts of explosive percussion, banjo, mandolin, and backing vocals from the Mumford gentlemen all the more effective and not just window dressing to cover up a cookie-cutter storefront. That said, it’s Marling’s enigmatic voice (think Florence & the Machine and Fiona Apple), clever phrasing (think Joni Mitchell), and adherence to the alternately warm and wintry vibe of late-60s/early-70s classic rock and folk (think Led Zeppelin III) that listeners will keep coming back to, regardless of the packaging. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 9 Title: Dharohar Project, Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons Released: 2010-07-02 Tracks: 4 Duration: 19:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Devils Spoke / Sneh Ko Marg (06:30) 2 To Darkness / Kripa (04:23) 3 Anmol Rishtey (03:55) 4 Mehendi Rachi (04:57) |
 | Album: 5 of 9 Title: iTunes Festival: London 2010 Released: 2010-07-05 Tracks: 8 Duration: 34:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Mala Ramaniya (05:05) 2 Sakhiri Mere (03:11) 3 Rambling Man (03:25) 4 I Speak Because I Can (04:15) 5 Roll Away Your Stone (04:10) 6 The Cave (03:57) 7 Devils Spoke / Sneh Ko Marg (06:28) 8 To Darkness / Kripa (04:22) |
 | Album: 6 of 9 Title: A Creature I Don’t Know Released: 2011-09-12 Tracks: 10 Duration: 41:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Muse (03:40) 2 I Was Just a Card (03:30) 3 Don’t Ask Me Why (03:58) 4 Salinas (04:37) 5 The Beast (05:44) 6 Night After Night (05:08) 7 My Friends (03:58) 8 Rest in the Bed (03:08) 9 Sophia (04:51) 10 All My Rage (02:47) |
| A Creature I Don’t Know : Allmusic album Review : Laura Marling, fresh off of a Mercury Prize nomination at the age of 20 for 2010’s I Speak Because I Can, knows that with critical acclaim comes great expectation. Her third studio album, the loose and languid A Creature I Don’t Know, both edifies her old-soul persona and diffuses it, offering up 11 slabs of retro Anglophile folk that manages to both push the envelope and seal it shut. Marlings vocal affectations, which are ultimately charming despite their frequent Joni Mitchell-isms, are far more apparent this time around, especially on the album’s first three tracks, all of which showcase a fervent singer/songwriter with a fiercely independent spirit who’s tempered by a strong familiarity with her parents’ record collection. That said, it’s a syllabus that’s been ingested and honed rather than spit out and glossed over, and most of the time, Marling makes a great case for all of those Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson comparisons. Brimming with life and lush with spanish guitar, rolling banjos, summer of love chord changes, and moor-bound tales of love gone bad, A Creature I Don’t Know is ultimately triumphant, due in great part to Marlings magnificent codeine voice, which sounds like it’s been pouring out of the radio for five decades, especially on stand-out cuts like “Sophia,” “The Beast,” “My Friends,” and “All My Rage.” Three albums in, the young singer/songwriter sounds brave and confident yet breakable and guarded, and while A Creature I Don’t Know may not be the bolt from the blue fans and critics were hoping for, it’s most certainly storm born. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 9 Title: Once I Was an Eagle Released: 2013-05-27 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:03:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Take the Night Off (04:12) 2 I Was an Eagle (04:21) 3 You Know (02:30) 4 Breathe (05:00) 5 Master Hunter (03:16) 6 Little Love Caster (05:52) 7 Devils Resting Place (03:14) 8 Interlude (02:16) 9 Undine (03:12) 10 Where Can I Go? (03:40) 11 Once (03:38) 12 Pray for Me (05:05) 13 When Were You Happy? (And How Long Has That Been) (03:53) 14 Love Be Brave (03:04) 15 Little Bird (05:40) 16 Saved These Words (04:27) |
| Once I Was an Eagle : Allmusic album Review : Once I Was an Eagle, the fourth long-player from Laura Marling, finds the spectral folk singer relocating to Los Angeles, abandoning her backing band, and delivering a cumbersome yet remarkably confident 16-track, 63-minute collection of alternately intimate and grandiose pre-, present, and post-relationship songs that more or less obliterate her reputation as a stage fright-ridden, pale English flower. The first four tracks, which begin with the languid "Take the Night Off" ("You should be gone beast/be gone from me/be gone from my mind at least/let a little lady be") essentially form a suite, seamlessly flowing in and out of each other like an impromptu, post-breakfast, tobacco smoke-filled rehearsal that just happened to occur amidst a sea of expensive microphones. Marlings reinvention as a Californian will do little to quell all of the Joni Mitchell comparisons which, lets face it, are pretty apt, but songs like "Breathe," "Master Hunter," "Pray for Me," and the quasi-mystical title cut introduce Indian ragas, open tunings, and cathartic, tabla-fueled breakdowns into the mix, suggesting a steady diet of Led Zeppelin III, Pink Floyds Meddle, and Pentangle as well, which adds to the albums dusty, Laurel Canyon patina. Elsewhere, Marling wanders into Gillian Welch territory on the dark and bluesy, fingerpicked "Undine," and the propulsive "Devils Resting Place" and sweet and soulful "Where Can I Go?" harken back to the youthful whimsy of 2010s I Speak Because I Can, but Once I Was an Eagle is neither whimsical nor particularly youthful, despite the fact that its creator was only 23 at the time of its conjuring. Marling is an old soul through and through, and her remarkably timeless voice, idiosyncratic lyrics, and increasingly impressive guitar chops help to elevate the albums less immediate moments, and while some may argue that her increasingly Americanized, Pacific coast folk-pop can feel a little like fan fiction, it doesnt make it any less enjoyable to sink your toes into. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 9 Title: Short Movie Released: 2015-03-23 Tracks: 13 Duration: 50:06 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Warrior (05:20) 2 False Hope (03:12) 3 I Feel Your Love (04:02) 4 Walk Alone (03:19) 5 Strange (03:17) 6 Don’t Let Me Bring You Down (03:10) 7 Easy (03:43) 8 Gurdjieff’s Daughter (04:22) 9 Divine (02:58) 10 How Can I (03:21) 11 Howl (05:05) 12 Short Movie (04:36) 13 Worship Me (03:36) |
| Short Movie : Allmusic album Review : Following in the dusty, sun-baked footsteps of 2013s mesmerizing Once I Was an Eagle, Laura Marlings fifth studio outing feels even more rooted in the California desert, doubling down on the formers penchant for pairing breezy, American west coast mysticism with bucolic, Sandy Denny-era English folk, but with a subtle shift in architecture. Marlings gift for gab and deft finger-picking are still front and center, but with the self-produced Short Movie, shes expanded her sonic palette by plugging in. While by no means a straight-up electric guitar album, Short Movie does bristle with a current of nervy energy, and that coffee-black, post-midnight buzz is the fuel that gives cuts like "False Hope," "Dont Let Me Bring You Down," "Gurdjieffs Daughter," and the hypnotic title track their swagger. That said, Marling is an unrepentant folkie, and those late-night blasts of tube-driven self-evaluation and raw verisimilitude eventually give way to bleary-eyed mornings spent assessing the wreckage, and the albums best moments arrive via the aged wood and steel of her trusty acoustic. The dreamy, psych-tinged opener "Warrior" invokes Nick Drakes "Road" with its bluesy, open tuning and refrain of "I cant be your horse anymore, youre not the warrior Im looking for," while the equally Drake-ian "Feel Your Love" offers up a less defensive, but no less weary stance toward potential suitors, positing "you must let me go before I get old, I need to find someone who really wants to be mine." Avoiding complacency has always been the light that guides the precocious singer/songwriter (only 25 at the time of release, this is Marlings fourth album in just five years), and Short Movie does little to temper that restlessness. It may lack the cohesion of her last outing, and her steadfast derision of anything resembling a hook can be taxing, but it makes up for its meandering with a strength of character that eludes many of her contemporaries. An old soul to say the least, Marling continues to evolve as both a musician and a writer, albeit subtly, and were all the better for it. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 9 Title: Semper Femina Released: 2017-03-10 Tracks: 18 Duration: 1:23:47 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Soothing (04:16) 2 The Valley (05:40) 3 Wild Fire (04:50) 4 Don’t Pass Me By (05:09) 5 Always This Way (04:33) 6 Wild Once (04:22) 7 Next Time (04:01) 8 Nouel (04:53) 9 Nothing, Not Nearly (04:31) 1 Soothing (live) (04:17) 2 The Valley (live) (05:32) 3 Wild Fire (live) (05:07) 4 Don’t Pass Me By (live) (05:18) 5 Always This Way (live) (04:07) 6 Wild Once (live) (04:09) 7 Next Time (live) (04:07) 8 Nouel (live) (05:23) 9 Nothing, Not Nearly (live) (03:28) |
| Semper Femina : Allmusic album Review : Semper Femina, a Latin phrase borrowed from Virgil translating roughly to "always a woman," was tattooed on Laura Marlings body long before it became the title of her sixth album. Like her adopted motto, this striking set gives the impression of a concept that was left to simmer a while before revealing itself in song. Initially intended as an exercise in writing about women from a males perspective, Marling soon found that the feelings she was expressing were, in reality, her own, and Semper Femina became the work of a woman writing intimately about women. Crafted in her adopted home of Los Angeles and produced by Blake Mills (Alabama Shakes, Jim James), its a wonder of musical subtlety, backing off from the cinematic electric desert-scapes of 2015s Short Movie and approaching the acoustic delicacy of earlier albums from a newfound perspective. A classic confessional songwriter, the British expat has found here the perfect balance of wounded introspection and confident observation, getting to the core of the matter with poetic candor on standouts like "The Valley" and the masterful "Next Time," the latter of which is easily one of the strongest cuts of her career. As with much of Marlings work, especially during her California period, the ghost of Joni Mitchell -- another transplanted flower who bloomed in Laurel Canyon -- can be heard on the richly melodic yet beautifully sparse fingerpicked ballad "Noell." Elsewhere, Marlings bluesy half-spoken incantations propel smart slow-burners like "Wild Fire" and album-closer "Nothing Not Nearly," whose unique coda quotes Bachs iconic "Cello Suite No. 1" before literally closing the studio door and fading out to birdsong. Having entered the limelight early, the 27-year-old singer/songwriter has now settled into a comfortable groove to on this finely honed career highlight. | ||