Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can

So ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’ didn’t win the Mercury Music Prize of 2008 that saw the then 18-year-old Laura Marling gain attention and recognition well before her year’s debut. The undertones of loss, optimism, love and sadness on her follow up, ‘I Speak Because I Can’, bare the same skin as the previous long player; the unbelievably private feel of the lyrical content, in songs such as ‘Blackberry Stone’, paints a picture of a character in a relationship unable to leave an uncertain partnership with a loved one.

‘Devil Spoke’ couldn’t be more fitting for the opening track - its fast / slow ol’ England feel and the abrupt change into ‘Made By Maid’ reminisce the last few cuts from ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’, towards the end of which it felt like Laura was starting to become a more melancholic, dark and questioning songwriter. It’s not all darkness and sorrow, however, with uplifting changes on the likes of ‘What He Wrote’ and ‘Goodbye England’.

‘I Speak…’ depicts a more established artist concentrating on getting more out of her field. Listening to the two albums back-to-back shows a woman in a transition; a cliche maybe, but it can’t be ignored. Tinkering on the edge of something more than just a young folk singer, Laura’s playing and writing has a new self-assurance to it.