Skip this one if you’ve had enough posts about singer-songwriters. To introduce Laura, I’ll use one of each of the following: adjective; comparison; example. Then we’ll have some telling detail. She’s sort of folky. She reminds me more of Basia Bulat than of anyone else. Here’s the video for “New Romantic.”
Here are three things, beside her music, that make me like her. First, when she wasn’t allowed in to one of her own shows, she played for people outside, issuing the following apology. I’m sorry you have to listen in the gutter next to two sex shops. The reason she wasn’t allowed in is that she was only 17 at the time (she’s now 18).
Second is this part of a Guardian interview.
“People don’t appreciate music any more,” she says, suddenly verging on anger. “They don’t adore it. They don’t buy vinyl and just love it. They love their laptops like their best friend, but they don’t love a record for its sound quality and its artwork. I wanted to do something about it.”
She… produced a special edition of it [her album], called Songbox. Inside a wooden box, fans will find the album, a gig ticket and 12 mementoes to represent each song, including a board game. Listeners must work out which song each memento is for. “I wanted to show, in a physical way, how much work goes into an album,” she says. With her own career now building momentum, Marling feels that this is a good time for new artists.
Having quoted that, it would be silly of me to link to an MP3 download of the album in question: Alas I Cannot Swim.
Third, she’s from near Reading, which is the last place in England I lived.