Released: March 22


Released on: Virgin Records



It’s barely been released but already I Speak Because I Can is already being painted as Marling's breakthrough and her grand artistic statement. Still not yet 20-years-old, Marling has slipped comfortably into her role as the great female hope of folk music and the sound of I Speak Because I Can reflects this. The differences between this album and her 2008 debut, Alas, I Cannot Swim are immediately apparent; where that album had a breeziness even in its anguished moments, I Speak Because I Can’s first track, ‘Devil’s Spoke’ opens with distant cries and discordant, wheezing organ and when Marling’s vocal and guitar crash in you can’t fail to notice the steel in her voice and the intensity of her playing.


I Speak… certainly feels like a statement of intent at times and, if you wish to see it this way, a ‘coming of age’ record. One of the things that hooked critics on Alas, I Cannot Swim was Marling’s lyrical prowess, her gift for painting a scene and then turning things on their head. Often this involved subverting tales of traditional romance. The girl who declared “It’s not like I believe in everlasting love” and “Honey, I was never going to change” was unlikely going to write an album of fawning love songs. However, it’s surprising to detect what seems to be a streak of ire running through I Speak… Where previously, Marling had an everygirl sweetness which added a twist to her declarations of independence, now there’s a defiance similar to Sinead O'Connor’s on I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, another breakthrough album from a female singer emerging from a folk background.

 
It’s tempting to see this newfound fire as evidence of a growing feminist attitude in Marling’s music. On the mournful ‘Hope in the Air’, she repeats that she is some timid man’s “last living daughter”. Meanwhile, ‘Made by Maid’, about a boy who blames his mother for his mistakes, concludes with Marling resignedly pleading “Forgive me/ I am only a maid”. Certainly, this makes some sense when you consider the album’s title in relation to the rootsy trad folk that makes up its contents. Unlike Alas, I Cannot Swim, which, although every inch a folk record, felt like it could comfortably soundtrack the quieter moments of Skins or Being Human, the songs on I Speak… only make sense if you picture their narratives unfolding on a windswept country field sometime in the 1800s.

 
Ultimately, how much you enjoy I Speak… will depend on how much fiddly, finger-picking trad folk you can stomach. If you do not have a strong constitution for this sort thing, it’s worth bearing in mind that I Speak… features a song called ‘Rambling Man’ which sounds exactly how you would expect a song with that title to sound (it even features a banjo). While Marling certainly excels at writing songs with all the familiar tropes of trad folk, her delivery is overly mannered and fussy and detracts from her vocal performance. Often, she sounds a little pent up and emotionally constipated. The languid soul which crept into her voice on Alas, I Cannot Swim highlight, ‘Tap at My Window’ is nowhere to be heard this time around.

 
If I Speak… is the hit it’s predicted to be, there will something satisfying about a record this true to its folk heritage breaking through, but it also would be nice if, for her third album, Marling loosens up and brings back some of the freewheelin’ charm of her first record.

 

4/10

Posted In Album Reviews, Mar 20 2010. Words - Richard