Laura Marling – A Creature I Don't Know (2011)

Laura Marling is one of the most interesting new folk artists in the scene. I've only started listening to her music quite recently, but I really enjoy all of her albums I've listened to. I've been fortunate enough to find some of her CDs for very affordable prices recently. I bought this CD with just a couple of pounds from Fopp, a record store in Covent Garden. It's a cardboard case which I always prefer to plastic cases, because they look more authentic and don't break as easily. The CD cover is just a sketch drawing that's not particularly interesting, but I still prefer a nice cardboard cover. Laura Marling is a British singer-songwriter who makes lively and modern songs that draw influences from Americana folk scene. It's not purist folk though and there are some more modern pop and rock elements on her albums as well.



This Marling's third album is quite straightforward when it comes to the sounds. This album does mainly just use normal folk and rock instruments. I personally like the banjo and fiddle very much and both of those instruments can be heard on the album. As is the case with most folk artists, Marling's vocals are the main instrument. Her voice extends to many different purposes from quiet and sentimental to more aggressive expression. She's also good at using high folk vibratos for which I think Joan Baez was most well known in the folk scene. Marling's vibrato is not quite as distinctive, but it's still quite good.

Laura Marling has also made quite a few music videos, that usually just show her playing her guitar. It's nice though to see clearly how she plays those songs. Here's one example, Sophia, from this album. It's nice to see the facial expressions while she plays. Watching her music videos is like watching an intimate gig of hers.

Some of Marling's most melancholic and quiet songs remind me of the Finnish artist Mirel Wagner that I've listened to quite a lot lately. Night After Night especially could just as easily be her song. It's very different from songs like I Was Just A Card, that actually reminds me of some of the songs on Jeff Buckley's Grace album. I like the fact that Marling clearly hasn't just put the best songs first and let the rest of the album fall. Sophia, for example, was the first single off the album, but it's second to last on the album. The Beast gives the listener something more raw than what you can hear on the rest of the album. The guitars have really raw overdrive and the vocals sound quite frustrated even if they keep the volume down. This is the kind of music that for example Sharon Van Etten has made in her albums.

I feel like the best feature of Laura Marling is her versatility. I really like modern wave of folk music, but many of the songs sound very similar. Marling's songs have enough versatility to draw attention of different types of listeners.

Listen to the album on Spotify.