In 1992 R.E.M. released 'Automatic For The People' 18 months after their big commercial breakthrough album 'Out Of Time'. I recall at the time some shock was expressed by observers unable to countenance how a big act could produce a follow up album so quickly. "They managed it because they didn't tour 'Out Of Time'" was the general conclusion. U2 won similar praise for releasing 'Zooropa' a mere two years after its predecessor; "EP sessions that got unexpectedly creative" came the consensus of explanation. Nowadays, and I don't know if it's down to the collapse of major label marketing strategies or advances in recording technologies or just a general speeding up of processes brought by the internet, but a 3-4 year gap between albums is no longer taken as standard. This is great news too, that Beatles work rate of creating two albums worth of material per year is the output I still believe new acts should work towards, especially in their first ten years. I mean obviously bands like Coldplay still indulge in that extended time lapse but then they've got to come up with a multitude of gimmicks to deflect attention from their piss-poor music. Laura Marling is by no means alone in following up a great 2010 album with another this year (take The Roots yesterday doing exactly the same thing, and there's others in this years list) but she's worthy of praise because not only has she followed up quickly but she's also topped the earlier effort. This time around the sound is slowly beginning to branch out, although the influence of that golden late 60s early 70s period I spoke of last year continues to resonate with one beloved Canadian singer-songwriter shining through. With the intimacy of those gently plucked nylon guitar strings, then the distant, angelic and choral female backing vocals drifting behind the up-close and occasionally semi-spoken Laura Marling dialogue this is pure early Leonard Cohen. Short of recording on analogue in a Montreal bedsit it's hard to reckon how she could possibly get any closer to that classic sound. In fact she's pulled it off with such aplomb over the last two records now that I wouldn't be surprised if she leaves it behind in the future. Indeed there are pointers here that a change is about to happen. Take the albums midway diversion into crunching electric guitars and snarled delivery on 'The Beast', here already is a side to Marling we have yet to see much of. On opener 'The Muse' the Cohen/Dylan-esque vocalising is still deployed but there's Jazz piano breaks and a frantic air of guitar picking urgency. The record concludes on a pretty jubilant note too, with the words "all my rage has gone" repeated around the most uplifting foot-stomping refrain of her career. Three albums in now and still impossibly young, the potential in Laura Marling is a rare thing indeed and we're very lucky to have both her and her music.
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