{"id":41959,"date":"2010-04-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/i-speak-because-i-can\/"},"modified":"2010-04-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T00:00:00","slug":"i-speak-because-i-can","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/i-speak-because-i-can\/","title":{"rendered":"I Speak Because I Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem with success as a young songwriter, particularly the kind of success that Laura Marling enjoyed (a nomination for the prestigious Mercury prize while still a teen), is the weight of expectation that follows. When your first album is nearly flawless, as was the case with Alas I Cannot Swim<\/i>, there must be a temptation to pack it all in; the pressure of matching it, let alone beating it, must have been overwhelming.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Yet Marling, aided by the wisdom of \u2018age\u2019, a relationship breakdown that was the catalyst for Noah and the Whale\u2019s First Days of Spring<\/i> (she split from frontman Charlie Fink, who was also heavily involved with her first album) and the experience of Ethan Jones as producer (Ryan Adams, Rufus Wainwright), has not just matched expectations with this follow up – she\u2019s exceeded them.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as though the material that forms the bulk of this album is particularly new. Most of the tracks have been floating around the Internet, in some bootleg form or another, for quite some time. But with the ramped up production and Marling\u2019s developing voice, some are barely recognizable when compared to their low-fi versions. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

What is clear is that this is a far more confident Marling. Her live shows in the Alas<\/i> era suggested she was very shy and insecure, as even the debut album title suggested. That same cannot be said about her follow up effort, I Speak Because I Can<\/i>. Whether the newfound confidence is simply as a result of a few more years on the road, her increased popularity \u2013 not just in her native England \u2013 or simply because she\u2019s now reached the ripe old age of 20, doesn\u2019t really matter. Whatever it is, the result is a record that will surely challenge for Mercury honors again.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The innocence of Alas<\/i> is gone. That much is clear from the opening track of the album, a radical departure from anything in Marling\u2019s prior catalog. The blues-tinged \u201cDevil\u2019s Spoke,\u201d also an early single from the album, is driven by an incessant banjo riff with more than a hint of an influence from another of her companions on the London nu-folk scene (and sometime backing band), Mumford And Sons. Marling\u2019s vocal part rages over a cacophony of noise: \u201cEye to eye \/ Nose to nose \/ Ripping off each other\u2019s clothes in a most peculiar way.\u201d It\u2019s a world away from the pretty folk-pop that brought her to prominence. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I Speak Because I Can<\/i> remains, at its core, a folk album, though. After the manic start to the record, Marling\u2019s lyrics (arguably her greatest asset) are given full space to shine in \u201cMade By Maid\u201d and the ensuing \u201cRambling Man.\u201d \u201cBut give me to a rambling man \/ Let it always be known that I was who I am,\u201d declares Marling, before again the banjo returns to add a rootsy-tinge to what was, in the early recordings, a straight folk tune. It\u2019s during this cut that you realize just how much Marling\u2019s vocals have developed, as the multitracked harmonies showcase her range and different styles. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

If Charlie Fink used Noah And The Whale\u2019s album as one longwinded Marling kiss off, \u201cBlackberry Stone\u201d could be viewed as her riposte. \u201cI\u2019d be sad that I never held your hand as you were lowered,\u201d she laments, \u201cBut I understand that I\u2019d never let it go,\u201d perhaps in reference to the final track, \u201cHold My Hand As I\u2019m Lowered,\u201d from Noah And The Whale\u2019s debut album. Again the arrangement is restrained enough to let her vocals, and lyrics, shine, with the violin providing a pretty counterpoint melody. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Many of Marling\u2019s songs are seemingly drawn from literature or poetry, but \u201cGoodbye England (Covered In Snow)\u201d is rare case where there\u2019s little ambiguity about meaning. It\u2019s simply a love letter to a wintery England, though Marling has revealed it was based on an experience of a childhood walk with her father, who asked her to bring him back to a particularly scenic snow-covered location before he died. As well as the song being pretty enough to make the idea of a freezing cold Britain sound appealing, it also provides the strongest lyric of the album: \u201cI tried to be a girl who likes to be used \/ But I\u2019m too good for that \/ There\u2019s a mind under this hat.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Marling has never shied away from writing about depressing topics \u2013 Alas<\/i> dealt with death and mental illness, just to name a few \u2013 and that trend continues on I Speak<\/i>. \u201cHope In The Air\u201d is morbid, both lyrically and sonically: \u201cOh why fear death, be scared of living,\u201d Marling declares, rather ominously.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The most haunting cut is undoubtedly \u201cWhat He Wrote,\u201d a song inspired by wartime love letters. The character appeals to Hera for forgiveness, having exchanged letters with a man despite being \u201cspoken for.\u201d The brutal honesty of the closing line \u2013 \u201cWe write \/ That\u2019s all right \/ I miss his smell\u201d \u2013 is affecting.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But even that can\u2019t compare to the opening verse of the title track, which doubles as the album closer. \u201cMy husband left me last night \/ Left me a poor and lonely wife \/ I cook the meals and he got the life \/ Now I\u2019m just old for the rest of my time,\u201d the character bemoans, before going on to regret never riding her bike \u201cdown to the sea.\u201d This is easily the finest track of the album; from the subject matter to the arrangement, it serves as a perfect closer to another work of astounding maturity.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It could be considered patronizing to constantly emphasize how young Marling is \u2013 and to a certain extent it is. But the simple fact is, there\u2019s not many in the world \u2013 irrespective of age \u2013 making music as beautiful, as thought-provoking and, in a weird way, as uplifting as this. Her young age just makes it all the more amazing. Long may she continue.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":30304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8332],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41959","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-laura-marling","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41959"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41959"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}