Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can

Laura Marling’s debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, was a strong opening gambit, especially impressive in that it was apparently written when she was just 16. Afforded a sympathetic down-home production, it gave Marling the space to establish herself without the sort of sales pressure to which most budding artists are subjected. The approach has paid dividends, because on her second album, I Speak Because I Can, her talent comes into bloom quite wonderfully.

She’s had a change of hair colour, and the sense of an artist stepping out and up is reflected not just in her barnet, but on record too. Marling’s occasional lapses into teenage platitudes have been jettisoned and she is newly confident where once she was exceptionally shy. The result is an album of greater depth and resonance than her debut. These are very much folk melodies, and there are none of the forays into indie pop that peppered her debut – the one downside of this is that there’s nothing here that’s as giddily catchy and instantly hummable as the hidden title track on her debut.

It’s a more serious, weightier album, but the shift in tone is undeniably worth it –the Celtic rhythms on opener 'Devil’s Spoke' generate real momentum , while the superb Dylan-esque 'Ramblin’ Man' has a robustness and a swinging melody that is wholly appealing. But it’s centrepiece 'Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)' that steals the show – "I never love England more than when covered in snow" Marling sings, and the images of huddling up in coats and scarves on winter’s days recall Clearlake’s lamentably forgotten classic Cedars.

The British music scene is awash with female singer songwriters right now, but Laura Marling leaves most of them for dust. So many seem to feel the need to graft some sort of huge personality onto their records, but end up sounding forced and awkward. By contrast Marling’s style is relaxed and unaffected. She has a charm all of her own, and talent to burn with it: I Speak Because I Can is the proof.