Laura Marling
(Astralwerks)
She emerged in 2008 as a contemporary British folkie, but Laura Marling's sophomore release isn't so simply described. If I Speak Because I Can is a folk record, it's only in the sense that Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen (or Feist or Joanna Newsom) are "folk" artists; the music begins there, but ends in other, more interesting places. Marling dresses her songs in such a multitude of costumes - lush strings, plucked banjo, thunderous drums - that the cumulative effect is a record pushing everywhere against its own boundaries.
"Rambling Man," for instance, opens as a straightforward acoustic lament, but soon deepens into a bottom-heavy personal anthem. I Speak, fittingly enough given the title, is a confident record in every detail, and at a brisk 35 minutes there's very little here that sounds extraneous. What's most interesting about the album is its sheer stylistic breadth. Soft balladeering segues into sinister thrumming, and Marling's self-assured, lyrically gripping performances knit even its most diverse parts together, so that I Speak, for all its variety, hangs together admirably well.
Standout Tracks: "Made By Maid," "Rambling Man" ERIC WAGGONER
