After falling in love with Laura Marling’s debut album, Alas I Cannot Swim, I was both eager and a little bit hesitant to listen to her sophomore effort. (What if it didn’t match up?) Turns out there was no need to be afraid. I Speak Because I Can is a natural evolution of Marling’s music, but the changes certainly aren’t extreme enough to lessen my infatuation with her music. Her latter album shows more restraint and is less whimsical in some ways than her debut, but it is still hauntingly beautiful.
Laura Marling
Just today, I wrote up Marling for NPR Music’s Song of the Day. You should check it out. The song I chose was “Hope in the Air.”
It may not be the obvious choice – her single is “Devil’s Spoke,” but it is the one that constantly runs through my head.
Be sure to check out the write-up on NPR.
Marling may be young (just 20), but she is more than just treading water now.
