Album Review: Laura Marling, 'I Speak Because I Can'

Laura Marling strikes you as someone not just from another era but from another world. Elfin faced and pixie framed; to place her in the ancient, woodland-covered England of her songs would probably be to see the 20 year old burnt at the stake as a witch, such is her uncanny talent. Here, like some 21st century Emily Dickinson, she transfigures herself variously from daughter, to lover, to wife or mother; yet, crucially, a sense that these songs are deeply personal to her prevails. Album opener 'Devil's Spoke' sounds like a delirious incantation after which you half expect the youngster to collapse in exhaustion; but instead she follows with nine (albeit slower) tracks that are at once enchanting and haunting. 'Rambling Man' is probably her finest contribution to music thus far- on first listening it sounds like Joan Baez covering a Dylan standard- though the brilliant lyrics- 'beaten, battered and cold/ my children will live just to grow old'- are all her own. The infectious 'Blackberry Stone' is brilliant too, whilst the Beirut-ish Balkan breakdown on 'Alpha Shallows' and the bluegrassy fast-pace of 'Darkness Descends' tick that all important versatility box for the snottier critics. And then, like that devil-spoked wheel, the album is bought full-circle with closer 'I Speak Because I Can'- a slower but still just as epic version of 'Devil's Spoke'. This is undeniably great, great music; and the strides she has made musically and lyrically from her already accomplished début offering are vast. Frighteningly too, this is probably not her magnum opus. Like they used to with witches; we would do very well to keep an eye on Laura Marling. 9/10