British folksinger
Laura Marling’s 2008 debut,
Alas I Cannot Swim, showed more depth and maturity than one would expect from a (then) 18-year-old.
Marling’s expressive, smoky voice and penchant for lyrical matter that didn’t reference clubbing landed her a well-earned Mercury Prize nomination, as well as a considerable amount of hype concerning her follow-up. Released in 2010,
I Speak Because I Can delivers on nearly every level, upping both the production value (thanks to
Ryan Adams and
Kings of Leon producer
Ethan Johns and fellow indie folk darlings
Mumford & Sons) and the songwriting. Love, death, and heartbreak are hardly new subjects when it comes to folk music, but they refresh themselves so often in our lives that their relevance becomes tenfold with each new bite, scrape, or blow to the head, a notion that
Marling explores with both guarded wisdom and elegant petulance on standout cuts like "Devil’s Spoke," "Made by Maid," "Rambling Man," and "Goodbye England." At its heart,
I Speak Because I Can is a stoic, bare-bones singer/songwriter record, which makes the tastefully peppered bursts of explosive percussion, banjo, mandolin, and backing vocals from the
Mumford gentlemen all the more effective and not just window dressing to cover up a cookie-cutter storefront. That said, it’s
Marling’s enigmatic voice (think
Florence & the Machine and
Fiona Apple), clever phrasing (think
Joni Mitchell), and adherence to the alternately warm and wintry vibe of late-'60s/early-'70s classic rock and folk (think
Led Zeppelin III) that listeners will keep coming back to, regardless of the packaging. ~ James Christopher Monger