Laura Marling 'Song For Our Daughter': album review

Earlier this year, Laura Marling released her seventh studio album 'Song For Our Daughter'; an album which, like her 2015 album 'Short Movie', was almost entirely self-produced at Marling's home studio in north London. Originally, Song For Our Daughter was due for release at the end of the summer. But, in light on the Corona Virus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, Marling decided to release the album early, seeing lockdown as a better time than any to listen to some good music.

Song For Our Daughter comes after six critically acclaimed albums, a Brit Award, a Grammy and three Mercury Prize nominations for Marling, though its fair to say that this is her best work yet, with Marling winning the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year as a result.

With it's ten tracks, Song For Our Daughter is. masterclass in songwriting and draws from a wealth of experience as Marling takes her listeners by the hand, guiding them through heartbreaks, fading love affairs and the experiences that have shaped her into the woman she's become. Having started out in the music industry aged just sixteen (she emerged out of west London's nu-folk scene alongside acts such as Johnny Flynn and Mumford & Sons in the early noughts), Marling's experience growing up in the limelight is prominent throughout the album, perhaps most evidently so in the title track; Song For Our Daughter, which Marling has described as a "message" to her younger self. With it's raw and honest lyricism, the song is rich in reassurance and bound to resonate with female listeners. Marling sings; "With your clothes on the floor, taking advice from some old balding bore, you'll ask yourself did I want this at all?...There's blood on the floor, maybe now you'll believe her for sure." However, she manages to stay true to her slightly enigmatic self all the while, never giving too much away.

The album as a whole poses as an ode to womanhood, growing up and becoming, with Marling playing with the concept of a fictional daughter to reflect this. It's a concept she claims to have borrowed from Maya Angelou's book 'Letter to my Daughter', in which Angelou writes of the life experiences which have impacted the ways in which she parents her child; a concept ever-present throughout the album, with Marling seemingly passing down her aged wisdom.

In a similar vein to Song For Our Daughter, the album's third track 'Strange Girl' also revolves around ideas of growing into your own person. Marling sings of a young girl who is conflicted and fickle, yet to find her own identity. She grapples with different personas until she finds on that fits; an experience Marling narrates from a position in which she is able to rely on the benefit of hindsight."Build yourself a garden and have something to attend, cut off all relations 'cause you couldn't stand your friends, announce yourself a socialist to have something to defend, oh young girl please don't bullshit me."

Marling claims to have a sisterly relationship with her younger self, a feeling heightened by her unique experience of having seven studio albums clearly documenting various periods of her life thus far. That relationship is evident in the reflective nature of the album, it being almost a haven of reassurance for young women, rich in rationality.

Female experience is a common theme in Marling's work. Just three years ago she released her sixth studio album, 'Semper Femina', on which she flipped the male-gaze and sang in admiration of women, gaining her first Grammy nomination in the Best Folk Album category. However, she seems to have topped previous work with Song For Our Daughter, which has female experience woven into the foundations of each and every song.

Perhaps one of the most beautifully written tracks is 'Fortune', on which Marling sings of a dissatisfied woman, desperate to escape the "unbearable pain" of her life. The song was inspired by the Victorian tradition of keeping a 'running away' fund, something Marling's own mother did, collecting coins in a jar above the washing machine. "It added up to like £350, by no means enough to run away with" Marling told the BBC. "But that was her collection over a lifetime and I just though that was so tragic in a perfect way, that generations attempt at carving out their own little bit of freedom." 

It's a song Marling has said was written very quickly, commenting that it simply "fell out." Although, she has said that she is thankful it was written this way, having not been picked over, as it now possesses the "honesty" of being written in such a way.

Musically, the album is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell - an ever-present influence on Marling's work - not least in the eloquent lyricism and focus on storytelling, but also in the light breezy guitar which backs each song, with the exception of Blow by Blow with it's beautifully simplistic piano. There are also elements of folk rock - a nod to Neil Young - and at times enchanting simplicity, pulling listener's focus to the poetic lyrics and powerful storytelling.

Throughout the album Marling toys with a far greater pop melody than ever before, most notably so in 'Strange Girl' and the album's opening track 'Alexandra'; Marlin'g response to the Leonard Cohen classic 'Alexandra Leaving.' However, though a step in a slightly different direction than fans may be used to, Marling manages to maintain her charming uniqueness all the while. With laminated echoing backing vocals, the occasional tap of a metronome, and beautifully told stories, her music is as compelling as ever.

You can listen to Laura Marling's new album, Song For Our Daughter, here