Laura Marling IMO

[source]

Last night I came home to find a comment on my Mercury Music Prize post telling me I was 'a big ignorant' for writing off Laura Marling in half a sentence.

I was tempted to start a bLoG wAAAAAAAAr !!11 with Ashley Taunton of likesounds, but instead realised -
Actually.. I have been a little bit ignorant of Laura Marling.


[source]

Before last night, I never even bothered to give I Speak Because I Can the briefest of spins on Spotify. This is because of one mediocre day in Amsterdam 2008, I watched Laura Marling at Lowlands Festival and I found her pretty boring.

The thing that irks me the most about Laura Marling is that she is one of the most successful female folk singer-songwriters; but why?
She doesn't sound much different from the hundreds of female-fronted folk outfits that arise out of the rural folk music-inspiring corners of England.
WearsTheTrousers.com do a great job of reviewing and promoting female artists and 60% of the bands they host SOUND LIKE LAURA MARLING. She wasn't the first female folk singer and she isn't the last, so why is she getting special treatment?


Lowlands Festival, Amsterdam, August 2008

I listened to I Speak Because I Can last night for the first time. I must admit, there were some moments on the record where I was completely enthralled by the 20-year-old's delicate tenderness, regardless of how much I tried to fight it. There were some remarkable 10/10 moments where she was dark, haunting and quirky; breaking away from the grain of female folk music always sounding like that bit in Titanic when Kate Winslets dances in the lower class cabins.
Or Norah Jones.

But these moments were few, and in my opinion mostly achieved by the astounding production of the album courtesy of Ethan Jones (Rufus Wainwright, Kings of Leon).
The album is made up of a familiar folk sound, overworked over the years by so many artists and Marling's voice - although breaktaking at times - could easily be mistaken for just another female folk singer.

So Ashley, I agree with you (to an extent) that I was ignorant to write off Laura Marling's album in half a sentence. Here, I have written her off in a blog post.
IT'S AN OKAY ALBUM but in my opinion it lacks so much in terms of originality, HITS, innovation and just plain, oomph.

Kitty Empire of the Guardian sums Marling up quite well;

"Marling remains a frustratingly polite songwriter rather than one who really skewers you through the solar plexus."

I Speak Because I Can is not a bad album, but neither is it worthy of the Mercury Music Prize.

Regardless of them being the trigger of this rant, I would like you to know that I still think likesounds are bloody amazing and I hope they still love me too after this.

Peace! x