Laura Marling - Short Movie

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An outstanding album

I think this is absolutely outstanding. I confess that until now I have viewed Laura Marling's work with rather more respect than enjoyment; I know this is a failing in me and no reflection on Laura Marling, but although I could see that Once I Was An Eagle was musically very good, it never really reached inside and touched me. Short Movie does.

This is a collection of musically varied but intimate songs. Lyrically she is on great form from the start with couplets like:
"I can't be your horse any more
You're not the warrior I've been looking for"
and the whole album is imbued with similarly atmospheric and intelligent lyrics, from the driving, spiky, semi-spoken Strange to the beautiful love song Divine. There's a freshness and intelligence about the whole thing which I love.

Musically it is just as good. There's a real variety of style: jazzy in Gurdjieff's Daughter, mellow and folky in Walk Alone, rocky in False Hope and so on. Laura Marling is very much her own woman, but I hear echoes of Suzanne Vega in the modality of quite a few of these songs, the spirit of Joni Mitchell is strong in How Can I, and False Hope wouldn't be out of place on a Chrissie Hynde or a Pretenders album - and I mean all this as the highest praise.

The production is excellent, giving just the right feel to each song, the band is sensitive and tight, Laura Marling's voice is in great shape, she delivers her songs beautifully and there's some terrific guitar work, too. My one reservation is that she seems to have adopted an American accent in places (very noticeably on Strange) which I find a little disconcerting from a native Englishwoman. That's a tiny thing, though, and overall I think this is a first-rate album, full of musical and lyrical class. Very warmly recommended.