Laura Marling Teams w/Ethan Johns

Fruits of the collaboration will come to bear in April.

By Blurt Staff

UK songstress Laura Marling will release her sophomore album, I Speak Because I Can, on Astralwerks Records on April 6^th. Produced by Ethan Johns - Ryan Adams' producer and collaborator - it's the followup to Marling's Mercury Prize-nominated debut, Alas I Cannot Swim. 

Recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in outside London, the album features the talents of her backing band Mumford & Sons, who have been getting a good deal lately for their own album Sigh No More (not all of it good - see the Pitchfork review here).

According to the label, I Speak Because I Can "reveals a new side to Laura Marling, whose debut was released when she was only seventeen years old.  Its ten songs are imbued with a new richness, ripeness and sophistication, marked by homespun tales and sparse instrumentation.... It showcases not only Marling's ability to tell one hell of a story, but her incredible guitar playing, which has grown more intricate since her first album."

The Ethan Johns connection, incidentally, isn't random, as Marling has noted before that a lot of records he's worked on in the past (by Adams, along with Ray LaMontagne, Kings of Leon, Emmylou Harris, Sarabeth Tucek and more) had a big influence on her growing up. She says she's "long admired his way of working - his use of reels; his quiet, traditional methods of production; the warmth found within the records he produced."

Marling will return to the studio with Ethan Johns within the next few months to work on a second album of new material that will be released in the fall of 2010.  More details on this record will be announced upon its completion.

Marling's already announced a string of UK dates for April; details at her MySpace page.

Track Listing:

1.  Devil's Spoke      

2.  Made By Maid     

3.  Rambling Man     

4.  Blackberry stone 

5.  Alpha Shallows   

6.  Goodbye England         

7.  Hope In The Air            

8.  What He Wrote   

9.  Darkness Descends     

10.  I Speak Because I Can