I'm in the middle of listening to "I Speak...". In my opinion it is a completely flawless album. I love it. It's been a while since I listened to it in it's entirety.

Laura's performance at the 6 Music Prom last night is on youtube already. A bit of a shame only one of the songs (Breathe) was with the orchestra but it sounded really good:

http://youtu.be/KvcVilQVV6w

The whole Prom was quite interesting. Cerys Matthews doing some medieval folk, some experimental classical music and The Stranglers performing some classic songs that sounded great with the orchestra.

Thanks for the link. I'll watch that when I get home later on!

So I was listening to recordings of a couple of gigs Laura did in Australia last month because there were new songs I wanted to hear, and she casually mentions that she's just finished writing the next album (!). In this audio clip from one of the gigs she talks about how the whole record was written in the same tuning (very interesting ). It was the gig a few days before where she said "I've just finished writing another record...you heard it here first".

Laura talks about tuning & next album (soundcloud)


And here are those new songs I was talking about which seem likely to be on the next album in one form or another:

'David'

'One Day Soon'


I also found this clip of Laura talking between songs about Emeli Sande very amusing. She often talks about her lack of stage banter but with her self-deprecating, dry sense of humour she is often very funny imo.

Laura is in awe of Emeli Sande (soundcloud)

In a recent interview on a US radio station Laura said that she'll be recording her next album before Christmas (after her current tour)....which is nice.

Also, two more new songs (I'm liking the lyrics of these):

Bleed Me Dry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0-tbc1IuY

Narrow Road - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkn_Qj3jR8Q

Just got out of Laura's gig in Gateshead. Wow! Anyone else going on her current tour are in for a treat. Those Joni Mitchell comparisons don't quite cut the mustard anymore. Whisper it but I think Laura's even better. Outstanding guitarist, superb vocals, and those songs! Funny, sad, angry, hilariously bitter, sometimes all in the same line. She's got far better stage presence than I was led to believe too. And this was her - in her own words 'On an off night.' I so hope she gets that mercury even if she doesn't give a toss.

I've seen a few reviews recently where people have said you need to see her live to truly appreciate her performance, such as this one.

Also, there's a new interview here which is quite a good read:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...interview.html

As much as I like the near-constant stream of new songs, if she does record/release the next one quite soon I don't think it would be a bad idea to take a step back after that and take longer with the sixth album as she is suggesting. Not too long though .

I'm glad to hear of the good reviews. I can't wait to see her live for the first time on Wednesday! Anyone else going to Shepherds Bush?

Live review of Laura's performance at The Lowry last night. Worth reading as it's by Gabriella Swerling who's an entertaining writer :

http://www.planetnotion.com/2013/10/...ry-manchester/

I'm very much looking forward to seeing Laura Marling this evening.

Enjoy! If you're lucky, you might get 'Ghosts.' We did. And this really, really shouldn't matter, but sitting that close to her I couldn't help but think 'Yum.'

Ghosts is a beautiful song. I was wondering if she'd be doing any of her old material. I always got the impression that she just sits and plays the entire album.

I'm looking forward to it either way.

She's been playing a mix of songs lately but mostly from the new album and I Speak Because I Can, which should be good for you as I know you really like that album. You'll have to let us know what it was like tomorrow .

One word: Breathtaking! I knew that I would enjoy the gig but wow, she's incredible.

Stage banter was funny too. She's very endearing.

The only thing that irritated me was the girl stood next to me who decided to watch the entire show through her phone. Unbelievably disrespectful.

There's always one isn't there? Glad you had a good time though. Always nice to see someone with the - actual - X Factor. Laura has it.

I had a tear or two when she performed "Goodbye England". I think it was more to do with her little speech about not living here anymore than did it along with the song, it's absolutely stunning. And to think that she wrote it as a teenager after a walk with her father.

She genuinely has something special.

EDIT: What did you all think of Nick Mulvey? I knew that I recognised the name yet had never heard his music before last night. I thought that he was good. I'll likely be picking up his EP soon.

Radio interview here for Acoustic Café. I only checked it out because it said she talks about her future plans but it turns out the whole interview is a good listen (the interviewer is much better than most and comes up with some interesting questions):

http://www.acafe.com/archives/media_...marling13.html

Goodbye England probably is her most moving song - so far. We didn't get that one, but hell I can't point out flaws after that gig.
Yeah, Nick Mulvey was very good. I didn't think he had anything like her level of charisma, but his guitar playing was terrific.

That was the first thing that I noticed when he came on stage.

Somebody was filming, though they shouldn't have been.

Master Hunter

Ordered Alas the other day!

I was chatting with an online friend about Laura's prolificacy and we decided to try to add up the number of songs she's written so far in her career (i.e. since she's been recording so not including those demos from when she was really young). We both came up with the same number so it should be accurate. Breakdown is:

albums - 48
eps/singles/bonus - 11
new/unreleased - 14

total = 73

yeah, that is kind of a lot for a 23 year old .

Ridiculous isn't it? The only comparison I can make with that is someone like Ryan Adams at the start if his career. Except some of his output from that period was awful. No, I think we're going to have to go back further to Dylan in his mid sixties pomp for this sort of pace, and this sort of quality. There seems to be no signs she's slowing down either.

Yes, it's not just the numbers but the consistency too. She said she's going to take a break but I doubt that will be for too long and I'm sure she'll still write a song or two during her 'time off' .

There's a new book out - Isle of Noises: Conversations with great British songwriters by Daniel Rachel in which Laura Marling is one of the 27 artists discussing their songwriting. Thanks to the power of the Interweb I've seen the 20 or so pages devoted to Laura but I'll be picking the book up anyway as I want to read what other artists like Ray Davies, Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page, Jarvis Cocker etc. have to say about songwriting too.

Although the author talks about her latest album in his introduction, the interview with Laura appears to be from a few years ago, quite soon after the release of A Creature I Don't Know. Shame it's not more recent but for the most part it doesn't really matter and it's a good read. As he says himself: In conversation Laura is honest and revealing, her analysis of her writing state of mind quite profound.

The thing I get most from reading about how Laura writes songs is that you couldn't really teach it to other people. She doesn't decide to write a song or come up with the parts separately. Things build up in her head and then it comes out all in one go in the form of a song when it's ready to. That's why she describes it as a subconscious process and sometimes hears something in one of her songs later that she didn't realise was there. I've seen a number of reviewers use the word 'preternatural' to describe her songwriting considering her age, and when you read about her approach and her lack of formal training, it does seem like an innate ability she has. I don't know how unusual her songwriting method is (maybe this book will tell me) but to an uncreative person like me it's impressive, like a sixth sense or something .