Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 36:35 minutes | 412 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chrysalis Records
London folkie Laura Marling’s voice is a magical contradiction — tender but strong, earthy but maybe not of this earth. On her seventh album, she defends the stake claimed by previous releases Semper Femina and Once I Was an Eagle: Marling belongs in the company of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and James Taylor. Her voice — both the sound and words — is pure power on the irresistible “Strange Girl”: “Woke up in a country who refused to hold your hand/ Kept falling for narcissists who insist you call them man” she croons to a melody that winks at “Walk on the Wild Side.” Inspired by a “running away” fund her mother kept, “Fortune” finds freedom aloft strings so heartbreakingly sweet they’re fit for a Broadway ballad. The warm charms of “For You” — a home demo enriched by simple humming — could be from the 1930s or 2020. Woozy opener “Alexandra” is terrific, as are the spare and lovely “Only the Strong” and sleepy-eyed yet sweeping title track. – Shelly Ridenour
Read more
Laura Marling – Semper Femina (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:19 minutes | 461 MB | Genre: Alternative
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © More Alarming Records
Semper Femina, a Latin phrase borrowed from Virgil translating roughly to “always a woman,” was tattooed on Laura Marling’s 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 male’s 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), it’s a wonder of musical subtlety, backing off from the cinematic electric desert-scapes of 2015’s 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 Marling’s 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, Marling’s bluesy half-spoken incantations propel smart slow-burners like “Wild Fire” and album-closer “Nothing Not Nearly,” whose unique coda quotes Bach’s 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. ~ Timothy Monger
Read more
