CD: Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
CD: Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
Hampshire-born folk prodigy keeps the quality controls set to max
The music-buying public must sometimes get tired of critics declaiming that modern songwriting is as good as ever. As good as The Stones, or Al Green, or Joni Mitchell? Really? Laura Marling’s first two albums do a lot to shore up the critics’ case.
Listening to the album for the first time reminds me of when I took possession of the last. Not in the way it sounds, but in the way it subtly defies your expectations. There is more texture, the honey-dew melodies are fewer in number, and Marling’s dark romantic intensity, although still present, is presented less intimately. That Marling has taken a couple of detours into folk-jazz (“The Muse”, “I Was Just a Card”) is hardly surprising, but that she’s also moved into, almost, out and out rock (“The Beast”) is bound to raise a few eyebrows.
Marling claims that this album is the most “her” so far. Artists are obliged to say that. What the new album does show, however, is a gorgeous progression based around her core strengths of melody and a voice that sounds like the breeze in Paris’s Left Bank. But it’s not all forward motion. There are familiar moments too. “Night after Night”, the album’s highlight, borrows more than a little from Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” yet rises above the musical reference to conjure up her most darkly beautiful, bittersweet torch song since “Goodbye England”.
Fans will probably have heard the single “Sophia” by now, which lilts like a beautifully matured tequila-soaked Mexican folk song before morphing into Seventies country-rock. It also includes Marling’s most exquisite vocal to date. But overall the album is no better nor worse than those that preceded it. And that really is the highest praise.
- Find A Creature I Don't Know on Amazon
- Download A Creature I Don't Know on iTunes
- Book tickets for Laura Marling on tour in October
Watch Laura Marling perform her new single "Sophia"
rating
Explore topics
Share this article
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
Add comment