As if right on cue, Laura Marling comes just when we need her most with an offering to us in the form of a new single and the early release of her seventh studio album, Song For Our Daughter. The LP is set for release on Friday 10th April via Chrysalis/Partisan and is preceded by her latest single that dropped yesterday, ‘Held Down’.
Explaining her reasoning for bringing forward the album’s release, Laura said:
“My new album ‘Song For Our Daughter’ is coming out this week, ahead of our planned schedule. In light of the change to all our circumstances, I saw no reason to hold back on something that, at the very least, might entertain, and at its best, provide some sense of union.
“It’s strange to watch the facade of our daily lives dissolve away, leaving only the essentials; those we love and our worry for them. An album, stripped of everything that modernity and ownership does to it, is essentially a piece of me, and I’d like for you to have it. I’d like for you, perhaps, to hear a strange story about the fragmentary, nonsensical experience of trauma and an enduring quest to understand what it is to be a woman in this society. When I listen back to it now, it makes more sense to me then when I wrote it. My writing, as ever, was months, years, in front of my conscious mind. It was there all along, guiding me gently through the chaos of living. And that, in itself, describes the sentiment of the album – how would I guide my daughter, arm her and prepare her for life and all of its nuance? I’m older now, old enough to have a daughter of my own, and I feel acutely the responsibility to defend The Girl. The Girl that might be lost, torn from innocence prematurely or unwittingly fragmented by forces that dominate society. I want to stand behind her and whisper in her ear all the confidences and affirmations I had found so difficult to provide myself. This album is that strange whisper; a little distorted, a little out of sequence, such is life.
“I want you to have it.”
The single is quintessentially Laura Marling, her unique vocals make their way along the strong acoustic guitar strums throughout. Beautiful harmonies filter through the track, all completed by Laura herself, recorded at home. These harmonies and triads are reminiscent of her work on LUMP, her musical project with Mike Lindsay, and signal to a slightly more unexpected Laura with melodic pop aspects we have not necessarily seen before.
This record comes with a lusher sound than we have previously heard with other Laura Marling records, with broader sweeps and an abundance of strings by Rob Moose (working previously with Bon Iver, The National, Antony and the Johnsons). “I wanted to indulge in that,”, she says. “I just wanted to let him go free.” Laura wanted the spaciousness she had found with LUMP “where you’re in an aural world rather than sitting watching something; or like a really great Bill Callahan album where it feels as if he’s in the centre of your brain.”
New tour dates will be announced soon, with Laura’s previously announced US, UK and European tour dates having been postponed.
