Laura Marling only turned 30 in
February, but these days she’s something of a veteran. Song for Our
Daughter is her seventh record, and that’s not counting collaborative
side projects like 2018’s Lump or her excellent early work as a teenager
with Noah and the Whale. And it’s not just the volume of work she
has produced but the maturity of it: here, Marling entirely
convinces as the weary troubadour, the voice of bitter experience. She is now
in supreme control of her material; this latest collection of minimal folk
songs (minimal even by her own previous standards of layer-stripping) are
absolutely watertight. The lyrics and emoting are, as ever with Marling, just as important as the
music, with the construct of the metaphorical ‘daughter’ whom she addresses
framing things nicely. Song for Our Daughter is now, I think,
my favourite album by Marling, overtaking her
outstanding debut, 2008’s Alas, I Cannot Swim, in my estimation. If
you’ve not heard it, I’d recommend listening to the version of ‘Fortune’ – just
voice and acoustic guitar – that she played live via Zoom on The Adam Buxton
Podcast. It will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.