The album shows us the despair one has to face but maintains a healthy optimism.

Laura Marling has evolved in such an incredible way since her first album. After initial success in the popular UK indie-folk scene of the late-2000s, Marling seemed to move away from the public eye while maintaining a loyal underground following. Over the years she has put out album after album of critically acclaimed work. After falling in love with Marling’s last record Semper Femina I couldn’t wait to hear her latest one. 

By comparison, Song For Our Daughter demonstrates just how talented she truly is. This may be Laura’s most direct album – it sincerely feels like she’s speaking to you personally throughout, with no excess in the arrangement. Instead, everything seems to fall perfectly into place with an effortlessness befitting an artist so comfortable with her own sound. 

The motif underpinning this album is a desire to communicate with her fictional daughter, exploring the hardships and difficulties that she is likely to face, while drawing upon personal experience to lend the project a noticeable sincerity. Comparison to Semper Femina only exacerbates the personal, almost intimate, exploration of theme on this album in a way that makes the project feel truly cohesive. This album shines a sombre light on Marling; but not without a palpable strength and underlying sense of optimism throughout.

Opening with “Alexandra”, a powerful song that really kicks the album off to an incredible start, Marling’s stripped back production on this track accentuates the deep emotional impact of the instrumentation. This is without even considering the hauntingly beautiful double-tracked vocals of the track. Lyrically, lines such as “Why should I die so you can live?” depict an acute feeling of restriction on the singer’s behalf, and her imagery throughout the track conveys the affirming message that your energy is yours — and certainly not anybody else’s to waste.

The lead single “Held Down” is an incredible window into Marling’s perspective. The harmonies and arrangement on this track are beautiful especially the way Marling stacks her vocals throughout the verses echoing “Run”, “Wrong” and “Down”. Like much of the album it feels like everything is in its rightful place. “Strange Girl” is an upbeat jam that breathes some welcome optimism in to the record, with the track taking the album in a slightly more cheerful direction with its tinkling keys and fun lyrics.

“Only the Strong” and “Blow By Blow” have an almost spiritual quality to them. Both seeming to have strong mantras about universal sadnesses, with realist lyrics such as “love is a sickness cured by time”. The emotional weight of the piano alone on the latter track is absolutely devastating. In the lyrics you can really feel the sense that Laura is trying to give her daughter (or perhaps us, as listeners) strength.

The titular track opens intimately with just Laura and a guitar, paving the way for what may be the most emotionally powerful piece of music on the record. Marling’s vocal talent shines here and truly captivates. The second the piano and strings kick in you can sense the maturity that Marling has reached as an artist. The lyrics on this track are deeply poignant. The song crescendos into lush strings that leave you heartbroken before withering away. The arrangements throughout this album and specifically this track are unquestionably enchanting.

“Fortune” is a song that would fit well on her previous album Semper Femina. Marling’s songwriting has a real emotive power and warmth that few artists rarely capture. I was really curious to find out who produced this record, as it felt quite similar to the work Blake Mills had done on her previous album. In the end I found that Ethan Johns, a long time collaborator of Marling’s, produced it. But Johns is far from the only other musician whose fingerprints are visible: the beautiful string arrangements can be credited to Bob Moose (Bon Iver, The National), for example.

Despite his lack of a producer credit, I was right to suspect Blake Mills involvement. As it turns out he has a writing credit on “The End of The Affair”, one of the more melancholic tracks on the album. Here, Marling softly builds in to a crescendo of “I love you, goodbye” which feels tailor-made to pull on the listener’s heartstrings. 

Towards the end of the album you start to feel a bit of a Paul McCartney/Paul Simon influence on the tracks. Despite the beauty of these tracks, there is a comparable simplicity here. “Hope We Meet Again” is a stunning song with broken guitar almost reminiscent of The Beatles’ “Blackbird”. The closing track “For You” would sound at home on the White Album with its lazily descending vocals and humble lyrics. This piece of music leaves the album on a sweet note, instilling the listener with a contemplative and meditative feeling. There is a strong sense of love and warmth in this track, exemplified in describing her fictitious daughter as a “miracle”. 

Marling throughout this album shows a deep understanding of herself as an artist and her philosophies. The album shows us the despair one has to face but maintains a healthy optimism in places, with music that feels spiritual at times in being so emotive and so gorgeous. For the budding singer/songwriter, Marling is a true inspiration, tightly orchestrating her album with an exemplary sonic landscape without room for waste. Yet she’s also able to provide a keen emotionality through the meaningful advice woven throughout the project. As such, the album cements her place as a true master of her own sound and stands as a testament to the extent of her growth as an artist since her last album, let alone her first.