Following the release of her 5th studio album Short Movie, Laura Marling has embarked on a European tour, gracing Birmingham with her performance on the 27th April 2015.
At around 9PM Laura Marling came up onto the stage and opened with ‘Howl’ a beautiful, yet melancholic song, typical of the artist. Dressed in all white, with white hair, Marling looked ethereal; this only added to her commanding the stage and capturing the full attention of the crowd (only one phone in sight taking photos!). After Howl, Marling moved on to play one of her older songs ‘Take The Night Off’. About 3 seconds later one of her guitar strings snapped, possibly a disaster for most musicians but Marling simply laughed it off and swapped guitars. After the rocky start she carried on playing, and the song carried on through to ‘I Was An Eagle’. This would be familiar to anyone who’s listened to her 4th studio album, Once I Was An Eagle, and it works even more beautifully live than recorded.
If you’re a Marling fan you will know that Short Movie is the album that Marling ‘went electric’ (think Bob Dylan). Despite a few more guitar issues, Marling’s transition into electric is not far off being sublime. While Marling played a good handful of her old songs – ‘What He Wrote’, ‘Master Hunter’, ‘Sophia’, etc. – it was the new songs in which she really showed how much she’s grown as a musician. ‘False Hope’, one of the singles from her album is where her talent truly shone through. Her voice is deeper, richer, and more assured than ever before and is an absolutely incredible experience to see live. There are few musicians that can capture the full attention of the audience when playing live so much so that people take their eyes off, of them to take a few photos on their phone, Marling most certainly is one of those rare gems.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCdT_dcmUI&w=740&h=422]
Known for speaking very little her live shows or even making much eye contact, Marling definitely did stick to this tradition, broken only by a few ‘weird facts’ about marine creatures (this was an distraction from one of the guitar issues) this only made her seem slightly more human and less like a goddess sent from the heavens. She’s sometimes been criticized for this sort of ‘stand offish’ way of performing but maybe it’s with this particular album rather than doing that it elevates her to an almost shamanic level. Another moment of speaking was to explain she wouldn’t be doing an encore, but she was playing a new song that didn’t make it onto the record. This song is called ‘Daisy’ and I won’t divulge much in case of spoiling it for anyone that’s going to see Marling on any of the tour dates, but I will leave it as it wasn’t kept off for not being good enough, it was simply through lack of space (Marling explained why she was playing it). Daisy is, like most of Marling’s work, very poetic, and very beautiful.
Because Marling doesn’t play encores, the end really was the end. She finished the show with her single ‘Short Movie’. The live version of this track is so powerful and absorbing, it was the perfect way to end an already immaculate performance. While I absolutely adore the studio album, it cannot compare to hear the songs live, they’re so full of energy and raw power that is really incredible. Long gone are Marling’s days of sounding sweet as sugar as she did when she first started her career almost ten years ago, today Marling’s voice is deep, powerful and enchanting. Like a fine wine (sorry, I had to) Marling has gotten better and better with age. This show, and indeed the rest of her tour, will only show just how good she really, really is and how kind time has been for her as an artist growing. If you get the chance to see her you will not be at all disappointed, but rather be left feeling in absolute awe.
Words by Selene Mortimore