I don’t know what kind of deal with the devil Laura Marling struck down at the crossroads before making this album but it’s worked. It probably involved a pact that will prevent her future acceptance by the hardcore folk crowd; you know the Daily Mail loving, rugby tops and sensible boating shoes brigade who rate the terminally lame yet polite folkies such as Kate Rusby and Show Of Hands. In return though Laura Marling has got to make one of the best folk albums of the 21st Century; one with Rock-balls that’ll frighten the life out of the staid traditionalists. It’s not that her previous work wasn’t any good, nor was it arts and craftsy knitwear folk but she hadn’t really stood out as being anything out of the ordinary either. This has all changed with ‘I Speak Because I Can’. Somewhere along the line Marling clearly drank from the fountain of early Fairport Convention, sat at the table of Nick Drake, summoned the essence of those first few Leonard Cohen albums and reached to the skies for some kind of perfect Folk-Rock nirvana. She’s made a great album basically and it’s brought with it some deserved high profile attention and praise. So much in fact that it’s doubtful her number 8 position in the Essex Boy Review chart will mean that much! The best I can do then is just point anyone yet to hear this marvellous album to the player below and recommend you check out the whole wonderful lot of it.Friday, 24 December 2010
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2010 No. 8 – LAURA MARLING – I Speak Because I Can
I don’t know what kind of deal with the devil Laura Marling struck down at the crossroads before making this album but it’s worked. It probably involved a pact that will prevent her future acceptance by the hardcore folk crowd; you know the Daily Mail loving, rugby tops and sensible boating shoes brigade who rate the terminally lame yet polite folkies such as Kate Rusby and Show Of Hands. In return though Laura Marling has got to make one of the best folk albums of the 21st Century; one with Rock-balls that’ll frighten the life out of the staid traditionalists. It’s not that her previous work wasn’t any good, nor was it arts and craftsy knitwear folk but she hadn’t really stood out as being anything out of the ordinary either. This has all changed with ‘I Speak Because I Can’. Somewhere along the line Marling clearly drank from the fountain of early Fairport Convention, sat at the table of Nick Drake, summoned the essence of those first few Leonard Cohen albums and reached to the skies for some kind of perfect Folk-Rock nirvana. She’s made a great album basically and it’s brought with it some deserved high profile attention and praise. So much in fact that it’s doubtful her number 8 position in the Essex Boy Review chart will mean that much! The best I can do then is just point anyone yet to hear this marvellous album to the player below and recommend you check out the whole wonderful lot of it.
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