Music : Alas I Cannot Swim

Rating: - Neverending magic...
I'll admit that I shyed away from this album initially since it's not the genre of music I'd usually listen to but after one listen I couldn't have been more impressed.

The lyrics are clever and original; the melodies catchy and her voice is simply stunning.

Not a day has passed where I have failed to give at least one track on this album a listen and it's hard to stop when the songs are just so magical and captivating!
I love each and every song on the album but I think "Ghosts", "Captain and The Hourglass", "Failure" and "My Manic and I" are just that little bit extra special. Would also highly recommend giving "New Romantic" (which isn't on the album) a listen if you haven't done so already.

A brilliant young talent (can't believe she's less than a year older than me!) but her lyrics speak beyond her years and I hope she continues to bring us these refreshingly beautiful songs.

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Rating: - Talent to burn
I usually try to be cool, focused and objective in my reviews but, for Laura Marling's debut album, I'll make an exception. 'Cool, focused and objective' can all take a backseat while their more emotional cousin 'dribbly wide-eyed adoration' takes the wheel, puts his foot down and heads for the sunlit hills. "Alas I Cannot Swim" is gorgeous, clever, moving and absolutely packed with the most exquisite melodies. If there has been a better album released in the past twelve months then, well, I for one haven't heard it.

Absolutely everything works in harmony on this album. The lyrics are dark, inventive ("He wants to die in a lake in Geneva/The mountains can cover the shape of his nose") and haunting, focusing on the impossibility of everlasting love; failure; the cold comforts of religious faith and lonliness. The melodies are gorgeously beautiful in a way that's almost indecent - to put it in very blunt and simple terms 'Alas I Cannot Swim' is absolutely packed with good old fashioned tunes, at least a couple of which ('The Captain and the Hourglass' and 'Your Only Doll (Dora)') sound so catchy and elegant that you can't quite believe they haven't been around for years. Oh yes, as if that wasn't enough Laura Marling's voice is wonderful: clear, beautiful and yet with an emotional fragility that highlights the haunted depths of her lyrics. And then there's more - she's comfortable writing and performing songs in numerous different styles and tempos. From the almost pop song "Ghosts", to the tortured depths of "Night Terror" to the near sea-shanty "Crawled out of the sea (interlude)" - perhaps the most casually brilliant throw-away minute and a half of music recorded in the last year - to the melancholy ballad "The Captain and the Hourglass" Marling carries it all off with talent to burn.

Enough already. If Laura Marling isn't well on her way to being recognised as a major and original talent then there is no justice in the world. She is - dribbly wide-eyed adoration coming up - absolutely fabulous. Buy the album, catch her live if you can - she is absolutely spellbinding on stage - and cherish every moment of what will hopefully be a long career. Alas I Cannot Swim - the best album I have heard for a very, very long time.

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Rating: - "The real deal"
Although Laura Marling is not courting the public or mainstream media (like other singer/songwriters see Adele, Lily Allen or Kate Nash), her voice is so strong and unique that hopefully it is only inevitable that she becomes better known and doesnt just dissappear under the tide of comercialised female singers that all sound the same and demand attention and fame.

For the people who have heard her and know how good she is, it is worth having a listen to "Noah and the whale" where she adds backing vocals to some entertaining folk-pop songs.

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Rating: - Awesome and relaxing
I have an intresting music collection to say the least ranging from the likes of paramore & My chemical romance to the feeling via infernal. Thus i know a bit about modern music(not just the mainstream before you object ;)..anywho). And this album is awesome give it a few listens to sink in & your gone, she has a lovely voice and the songs are beautifully written. All round class.

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Rating: - A stunning talent is born
This is just a great, great record. I saw Laura Marling support Rufus Wainwright last year, and didn't think she was anything special, but since then she seems to have completely re-invented herself. For a young woman of 18, her lyrics are incredibly mature and engaging - just compare her to someone like Kate Nash and her mockney warbling about boy troubles, and you despair of the gulf between their public profiles. Sometimes they have a quite nightmarish quality to them - literally on Night Terror, but also in the dark fable The Captain and the Hourglass ('behind every tree is a cutting machine' gives me the shivers). They can also be very funny, though (Failure laments another musician's waste of talent: 'he lost poetic ethic, and his songs are pathetic'). Marling's beautiful voice adds real emotional heft, too. Just listen to her on Your Only Doll, where a young woman suffers at the hands of an abusive partner - not autobiographical, I hope, but she conjures a whole, benighted life with complete conviction and tragic power in the space of four minutes. Likewise, on the gorgeous 'Tap at My Window', where the character berates her progenitors - 'Father I love you, but how can you watch as I push her away/ I cannot forgive you for bringing me up this way' - Marling inhabits this so completely that you worry what her own parents make of it.

Combine all this with wonderful tunes, superb arrangements, and a healthy sprinking of magic dust that makes the whole album rise above its estimable parts, and you have one of the finest debut albums of the decade. I can only hope that word of mouth will eventually bring this record the global success it so richly deserves.

PS Don't miss the lovely, trad-folk title track hidden at the end.