Monday, October 3, 2011

Many trains and many miles brought you to me (Laura Marling)

We had been in the Dubai Mall during my birthday last Saturday. I had bought three CDs from Virgin.

We had reached the car and I was asking Jacky which of the three she could bare to listen to on the way home (an hour and a half drive).

We have (I said) a melodic prog metal band (Stratovarius); a hard rock band (the Chickenfoot CD of the previous post); or a kind of folky female singer (Laura Marling). Pick one!

A no brainer for Jacky!

We listened in wonder to Laura's second album - I Speak Because I Can - about three times right through on the drive home.

It's a rare, rare piece of music that captures both of us. Bon Iver's first album is the only one that comes to mind immediately. So Laura is in very good company.

She is a real original. There are fragmented suggestions of iconoclasts like Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Patti Smith at times and she is clearly linked to a long English folk song tradition but really this is a fully formed original and timeless new voice.



She has a new album out. Only 10 songs (I love the less is more stance). In an interview in Uncut she said there were three songs that she cut at the last minute because they didn't actually add anything new to the collection that wasn't present in the other 10 songs (something along those lines). Fantastic.

It's been added to the list (along with the first album).

Great (and scary) thing is that she is only 21 years old.

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