Laura Marling (facebook/twitter) left herself with a difficult task to follow up the runaway critical and commercial success that was her debut I Speak Because I Can, but you wouldn’t know that upon hearing A Creature I Don’t Know. Even at 21 it seems she can brush off the weight of expectation with just pure talent – something she showed off in abundance at her intimate launch party at The Crypts at Marylebone One a couple of weeks ago.
The album is simple, stark even in places, as it ducks and dives through elements of blues to traditional folk – but each song sounds complete. There is no unnecessary over-production that has blemished many a pop-record, it is just her and her band. There is real beauty in the simplicity in songs such as Night After Night that are just Marling and her guitar – slow, soft, and emotive.
This album does not follow in the footsteps of the various faux-folk or pop-folk albums we’ve seen in recent years. Rest In Bed is Marling opening her hymn book of simple celtic folk traditions, it isn’t nostalgic so much as medieval in tone – almost tribal but breathtaking in its crescendos.
My favourite on the album, however, is when Marling demonstrates her ability to turn her hand to sounds a little less subtle on The Beast. It’s aggressive, electric, and should be well out of Marling’s comfort zone, but she steps out from the shadows fighting.
The whole album is Marling stepping away from the easy soft melodies on which she built her debut, and instead embracing her influences from both home and abroad, of folk and bluegrass, of this century and past. It is a statement of her musical credibility, setting herself a long way ahead of the pack.
A Creature I Don’t Know is out now on Virgin Records.
[BUY] Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know on VINYL @ Rough Trade
[BUY] Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know on CD @ Rough Trade | Amazon
[BUY] Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know on MP3 @ Amazon | iTunes
Laura Marling – Sophia by ListenBeforeYouBuy
Laura Marling – Rest In the Bed (on WNYC’s Spinning On Air)
