HAMPSHIRE born fo
lk artist, 21-year-old Laura Marling, has eventually graced us with her latest album “A Creature I Don’t Know”, an album that shows great maturity, for a woman of her years.
A somewhat haunting album, this 10 track nu-folk delight, wreaks of influences from the likes of Leonard Cohen, Nico and the jazz of Joni Mitchell.
Graeme Thompson of Uncut wrote: “Laura Marling was born in Hampshire in 1990… Yet she might just as easily have been born in Brooklyn in 1950, or Liverpool in the 1980. From the moment Marling emerged, aged 18, with her remarkably assured debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, her music seemed to float high above the specifics of time, age and place.”
I can not think of a more apt description.
“A Creature I Don’t Know” has a theme from the start in the opening track, The Muse, which gets right into Laura’s psychic and her beastly intentions. The opening track took me back to a smokey jazz club I found myself sat in on the outskirts of Amsterdam. A relaxing tone, but with harrowing lyrics that really make you sit up and listen. The first track is probably a highlight of the album in my opinion.
From there songs vary between heavy folky tracks such as Sophia, and the monstrous The Beast, to agonising finger picked tracks like Rest In Bed which really show Laura’s stoic humour.
In a sense you could compare Laura at times to The Smiths, not in style, but in the way her lyrics can be a dark comedy, whilst singing them to a sunny heartwarming tune.
This album is more than worth a listen, but set yourself aside an hour to listen to the whole installment from the Brit Award winner.
Filed under: Film, Arts and Entertainment Tagged: | A creature i don't know, folk, Hampshire, jazz, Joni Mitchell, Laure Marling, Leonard Cohen, Liverpool, nu-folk, The Smiths, Uncut
