According to allmusic.com, 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”.
I discovered her through a Timesonline article which features a stream of her new album entitled I Speak Because I Can.
Unfortunately, my cynicism with new talent – it’s all been done before, hasn't it? – prevented me from appreciating Marling at first. Surely, she sounds like Dolores O’Riordan (of the Cranberries), or Patti Smith when she was much younger, or Mark Knopfler in drag…And how wrong I was!
Well, she’s none or all of the above. I Speak Because I Can contains 11 tracks of poetically lilting folk tunes, covering a wide range of emotional themes. Some of the songs contain sorrowful, sometimes even raw, insights, as the pain of loss in What We Wrote (“…beg him to stay in my cold wooden grip…”), unspeakable despair of Hope In The Air (“…No hope in the air, no hope in the water, not even for me your last serving daughter…), the exploration of loneliness in Devil Spoke, or the angst of discovering identity and self-esteem in Blackberry Stone.
Unlike Ellie Goulding, Laura Marling has not been billed as one of the top acts to watch in 2010, but is well worth a listen. According to her web site, I Speak Because I Can “will be available in the new iTunes LP format (a sort of modern twist on the classic vinyl format)”. Apparently, the iTunes LP version of I Speak Because I Can will “open up a digital album dashboard where you’ll be able to listen as normal, but also watch the HD video for ‘Devil’s Spoke’, view the album cover artwork and the lyrics, complete with illustrations, for all of the tracks, as well as read the album credits”.
Laura Marling follows close on the heels of a crop of young female talent from the UK in recent years, in the fine tradition of Dido, Katie Melua, Joss Stone, Norah Jones and Lily Allen, and the music scene is so much better for it.
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