ALBUM REVIEW: Laura Marling, I Speak Because I Can

Laura Marling first emerged as a backing vocalist, on Noah & The Whale’s debut hit 5 Years Time. She released her debut album, Alas I Cannot Swim, which was produced by her then boyfriend, Charlie Fink of Noah & The Whale, to much acclaim.

I Speak Because I Can, the follow up to the Mercury-nominated 2008 album, more than lives up to its predecessor, as Marling continues to demonstrate why she’s such an exciting singer-songwriter.

Marling is more mature, darker, and sophisticated, her songs, simple yet complex, which twist and turn as you listen. With ominous titles such as ‘Darkness Descends’ and ‘Devil's Spoke’ ending up jauntily rolling along with cheery banjo-picking.

On tracks such as ‘Hope In The Air’, and the gorgeous ‘Made By Maid’ and ‘Rambling Man’, Marling writes in the voice of traditional folk ballads, streaked with elements of reproach and revenge.

Marling has broadened her musical approach with the help of Producer Ethan Johns, most effectively on the lovely ‘Goodbye England’, the finest moment of the album, where organ and strings accompany her hymn to an "England covered in snow".

There have been other female artists who have travelled similar territory in recent years but few have done so with such grace. I Speak Because I Can, divulges its gems gradually making it something very special indeed.

Track listing:

1. Devil's Spoke
2. Made By Maid
3. Rambling Man
4. Blackberry Stone
5. Alpha Shallows
6. Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
7. Hope In The Air
8. What He Wrote
9. Darkness Descends
10. I Speak Because I Can