The Mercury Prize-nominated songstress brings forward the release of her seventh solo LP – and provides the perfect antidote to the self-isolation blues ****½ Four-and-a-half stars
There haven’t been many things to smile about recently, but the arrival this week of a brand new Laura Marling album is certainly cause for celebration and jubilation. Originally slated for a summer release, the three-time Mercury Prize-nominated songwriter’s seventh studio LP, Song For Our Daughter, has been brought forward due to a certain you-know-what. “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,” Marling announced in an accompanying press release.
Besides her album release, however, the Hampshire-raised songstress has been shaking up her itinerary in other, more colourful ways. In the aftermath of touring her last LP, 2017’s sublime Semper Femina, Marling decided she needed a change of scenery. Over a decade into her career, the 30-year-old singer was acutely conscious of being, she says, “like a writer who’ll write the same book over and over again,” and resolved to flex her artistic muscles.
She most certainly fulfilled those intentions. In 2017, she collaborated with the theatre director Robert Icke on an acclaimed production of the historical play Mary Stuart. She also formed a new band, LUMP, with Mike Lindsay from Tunng, recording and touring an album of dissonant melodic beauty. And, outside of music, Marling enrolled in a Masters degree in Psychoanalysis.
Marling’s seventh studio LP, Song For Our Daughter, certainly shows the benefits of those extracurricular activities. It’s a record with many familiar trademarks – gorgeous vocals, hypnotic fingerpicking and singalong melodies – but there’s an added lushness here too, as shown by the abundance of strings and broad sonic sweeps. Album opener ‘Alexandra’ instantly sets the mood, all cascading guitars, gospel-infused melodies and a vocal performance of real unfettered exuberance. It’s followed by the recent single ‘Held Down’, a track whose sonic spaciousness and supple rhythms clearly nod to her work with LUMP. The Nick Drake-ish ‘Fortune’, meanwhile, demonstrates Marling’s peerless talent for song arrangement, gentle guitar arpeggios slowly building towards a string-soaked epiphany. Elsewhere, the mournful piano lament of ‘Blow By Blow’ bears testament to the influence of solo Paul McCartney – an artist whose back catalogue Marling has recently reappraised having previously been more of a Lennon fanatic.
Lyrically, also, there’s been a notable shift in perspective with Marling’s songwriting. Having turned 30 in February, she recently admitted to “feeling in a different position in my life. And whether there is a responsibility to be a certain way or to consider things about the next generation.”
Indeed, as reflected in that album title, Song For Our Daughter is a record which – rather aptly, given the current coronavirus pandemic – ruminates heavily upon the shifting, deleterious nature of society, about the world which future generations will have to face. “Lately, I’ve been thinking about our daughter growing old / All of the bullshit that she might be told,” she intones on the stunning title track. She’s never been afraid to show her vulnerabilities but here, as sung from the perspective of someone considering the delicate susceptibilities of the young, Marling has never sounded so impactful nor heart-wrenching.
As uncompromising as ever, but still showing hidden depths of complexity, Laura Marling’s seventh album is another outstanding entry in a career that’s never failed to confound expectations. It’s a record to provide comfort and succour not just for these dark, uncertain times – but for many, many years to come.
