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Laura Marling
album reviews
Alas I Cannot Swim 9½ ( 2008 )
Ghosts / Old Stone / Tap At My Window / Failure / You're No God / Cross Your Fingers / Crawled Out Of The Sea / My Manic And I / Night Terror / The Captain And Hourglass / Shine / Your Only Doll
Laura Marling's father, also a musician, would play her Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan albums during her formative years, pressing home the point that said artists made 'real' music. It's hard to ignore such powerful influences when you embrace them, but Laura has her own style and sound. Any comparisons with Joni Mitchell, for example, are misplaced. Both artists are genuine singer/songwriters, yet their styles are certainly different. Let's take 'The Captain And The Hourglass', just one of many album highlights. It's so well put together. Opening with an acoustic guitar pattern, her vocals enter immediately setting out the lyrical story-telling. Her voice is warm and sounds authentic in a number of genres simultaneously. There are hints of folk and hints of country. Around the minute mark, a simple piano part adds texture. Towards the two minute mark, her acoustic playing picks up a notch with renewed purpose, strings faint in the background to be hardly heard. Again, texture is added. A violin enters, a fiddle sails thrillingly away. The song has layers added along the way and ends up an instant classic and an utter triumph. She doesn't labour the point, the song ends. You don't want repetition; you want to be left yearning for more. Yes, in essence, Laura Marling has emerged with Duffy and Adele as the hyped artists for 2008. The difference with Laura Marling is such hype becomes irrelevant and no longer hype at all when it emerges that all the kind words are fully justified. She keeps things simple across the album as a whole, you just 'know', somewhere in your subconscious that these are real songs in the truest sense. She has substance and you instantly want to move forward two or three years so you can have the third and maybe fourth Laura Marling album as well as everything else we all hope now she will provide. It's ok to say that, it seems she's one of her own worst critics, never satisfied. It's such a creative urge all the great artists possess.
'My Manic And I' is again folk, country and lots of things we don't yet have a name for. Laura Marling music, I suppose. Imagine a crowded record shop, music blaring, the usual chart stuff. There's hustle and bustle as customers talk above the din, trying to hear themselves and each other. Suddenly, Laura Marling comes on, perhaps 'Failure'. It sounds so unlike the current chart fare, a few discerning customers stop talking and try to listen. Strings permeate through and a few more customers stop talking. A hush of sorts suddenly descends and it's weird, as if the whole shop is concentrating. Again, Laura does a kind of attractive acoustic folk pattern and I can hear Joni touches during 'Failure', 'Night Terror' as well. Yet, she doesn't overplay it or repeat herself; the song is there to tell the story. It ends and you want to hear it again. Speaking of 'Night Terror', I mean, these songs are almost too good to be true for a new artist and she's only eighteen as well. Makes you sick, doesn't it?? We may already have an album of the year and if we don't, I really look forward to whatever albums turn out to be better, because then 2008 will have been a belter.
I listen to Laura Marling and think Richard Thompson, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Polly Harvey, and Eliza Carthy. I listen to the way the strings just shine majestically to add suspense to 'Night Terror'. I clock on that we've twelve songs lasting thirty eight minutes. People forgot somewhere along the line that vinyl albums were forty minutes not just because that was the best fitting length for a vinyl album, but also because forty minutes is also is the best length for most albums to be, anyway. 'Cross Your Fingers' has a bass line, drums. She varies things up with a melody that could easily be played on the radio and would likely gain Laura a concert hall full of listeners. This song has propulsion amidst the grace and artistry and genuine soul. 'Ghosts' kicks off the album as it means to go on. It's a song that demands to be listened to and just sounds so utterly gorgeous and brilliant, that don't use the excuse that I’ve recently got married as the reason I’m praising this album to the hilt. I choose my times and occasions sometimes to review albums. I might review Jack Johnson when I’m feeling particularly annoyed and vile, for example, because if I review Jack Johnson in a generous frame of mind, I’ll be forgiving him some of his sins. I naturally therefore, on the other hand, review Laura Marling when I’m feeling very happy and this album keeps me feeling happy. Does that make sense? Simple message, buy this thing. Get this one legally and enjoy, she deserves your support.
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| Readers Comments Jamie Hall jjay75@gmail.com She is incredible. Theres so much depth to everything she's writing. Its just astounding in every way, by anyones standards. Want to say thank you for introducing me to her music :) kieran donnan This folk musician was seventeen when she released her My Manic and I E.P. Now I am older than she is, yet she certainly struck a chord with me with this album. She has all the creative qualities of youth and she knows exactly what words to choose at the right moment on some occasions, when to play down her strumming, and best of all she sells her album with mementos of every song and a ticket to see her perform live. Of course this is a limited offer but it demonstrates a very wholesome and colorful side to this new musician. The new single Ghosts, which I heard only a few weeks before I heard the album, is a brighter shade than her earlier release. It has all those characteristic entwined qualities; helplessness, optimism, playfulness and yet a sad sort of melancholy that's further yet balanced with the occasional twinkling glockenspiel. The lyrics- as ever- are lovely and are almost a dialog between two broken-hearted people who lean on each other for a time. It! is of course very sad yet the music makes the whole story uplifting in a curious sense. Marling's music epitomizes the feelings of someone struggling to realize the world they are in, especially in Failure, where despite the title it is a very reassuring piece, with swirling violins and Marling's words quite soothing to hear: “Don't cry child; you got so much more to live for; don't cry child; you've got something I would die for; and if it comes to the rain; just be glad you'll smile again; because so many don't...” You're No God and Cross Your Fingers, certainly lift the album somewhat, the latter more so for certain. It is a quirky, melodic piece with Marling dreaming up ways to bring her lover back to life (in a manner of speaking- that is to fill him with hope again), crossing fingers and holding toes in an attempt to instill some life back into the things which seem to be buckling under pressure. The interlude that follows has some refreshi! ng brass and is quite appropriate for what follows. I! mention ed the My Manic and I E.P. earlier and following the interlude two songs from the said release appear. They are my least likely choices, though My Manic and I is very much the song that brought her to the surface of the music consciousness so I may be wrong. New Romantic is missing here and I find that very much a pity and a loss for this album, as it would have been fitting after the interlude. However, the two selections will suffice and they carry on to the end quite cohesively. Although there are some more highlights I will leave that for the reader to discover for themselves. Your Only Doll (Dora) closes the album just as effectively as Ghosts welcomed us into this impressive debut. Birds twitter in the background as Marling asks what she can do with a ghost who refuses to be hers, linking back to the first piece. Her honest voice resounds, yet it seems she us leaving us in a wilderness by ourselves; there are no answers for her to give and what more is there t! o expect. An honest musician who I imagine will become a much larger presence as she grows older. She is very much welcome in a society which wholly subscribes to flimsy pop music with little reference to inner emotions. |
this page last updated 11/03/08
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