Is there a better contemporary English folk songwriter than Laura Marling?
The aristocratic singer's latest release, ‘Semper Femina’, comes two years after ‘Short Movie’ - a fine record written during her residency in Los Angeles - and nine after her precocious debut, ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’. After six albums, most singer-songwriters might be easing off but, at 27, Marling’s output retains profound energy and defiance while showcasing real songwriting expertise that is hard to identify elsewhere.
Wild Fire embodies these qualities, shuffling and swinging like Jeff Buckley’s Lover, You Should've Come Over in its confrontational yet confessional sex appeal. That energy is something often eschewed in favour of folksy sentimentality in Marling’s earlier work, but the effect here is compelling.
Elsewhere, more outright pop elements are deployed on Always This Way and Don’t Pass Me By. These are songs that use vintage recording effects with cheerful discipline; it’s music that has a good time while clearly taking itself very seriously.
The album opener and lead single, Soothing, is another song rooted in serious sincerity. It’s a slow, thoughtful musing on the nature of intimacy, with pared back percussion and strings that swell into a kind of ecstatic withdrawal. It’s a tantric dance that makes for perfect Sunday morning listening loaded with emotional complexity.
The second single, Next Time, is less interesting. Here, the cantering guitar riff seems to summarise why Marling’s work can be distinctive but also a little easy to ignore. It has a lightness of touch that marks out her sophistication as a writer and a person, but it also fails to connect somehow. That may be a problem with the acoustic folk genre as opposed to the writing itself.
But then again, maybe not. Marling is a singer who identifies Neil Young and Joni Mitchell as key influences and, though all three writers have varied catalogues, their music is unified by a seriousness and pseudo-religious piety that require a certain mood from the listener. It's occasionally cheerful, but it's not terribly fun. Let's put it this way: if you stick on 'Semper Femina' when a sexual partner is in the room, you’d better be ready for a serious conversation about where the relationship is going. If, however, you are angling for that conversation, then this is exactly the album you need.
Laura Marling Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue March 14 2017 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
Thu March 16 2017 - BRIGHTON Brighton Dome
Fri March 17 2017 - LONDON Roundhouse
Sat March 18 2017 - SALISBURY Salisbury City Hall
Tue March 21 2017 - LONDON Roundhouse
Wed March 22 2017 - BURY ST EDMUNDS Apex
Fri March 24 2017 - STOCKTON ARC
Sat March 25 2017 - WREXHAM Central Station
Sun March 26 2017 - EXETER Lemon Grove
Tue March 28 2017 - NORWICH Waterfront
Fri July 07 2017 - TYNEMOUTH Tynemouth Priory and Castle
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