Album Review: Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle

Laura Marling, the darling of the literary indie folk scene, resurges from her two-year recording slumber to bombard us yet again with her wordy webs of songs that muse on the intricacies and irreverences of womanhood.

Produced by Ethan Jones, who's also worked with Marling's inspiration, the alt.country rocker Ryan Adams, Once I Was An Eagle drags us all a little deeper into Marling's rabbit hole.

Opener Take The Night Off sees the 23-year-old, with her floaty almost apathetic vocals, calling her lover's bluff, “You said you're gonna leave babe/Be gone from me”. The title track is something of a lesson in Marling's steely will towards romance, a light strum on the acoustic interspersed with strings and drums as she wails in the background, “I will not be a victim of romance”. Master Hunter takes a lighter turn, heavy percussions drowning out those acoustics, with Marling's voice now coy as she spites though a smile, “Well, if you want a woman who can call your name/It ain't me babe”.

It seems Marling has a fascination with the devil, christening yet another song with the prince of darkness's name (following 2010's brilliant Devil's Spoke) with Devil's Resting Place. The heavy tub-tub of drums give the track a sense of foreboding danger – Marling choosing this time to stay in her heavy lower register, her sound seeping through gritted teeth in a deep whisper.

Once I Was An Eagle allows Marling to show off all her prophetic talents as one of this generation's greatest songwriters, but the tunes lack the versatility of her earlier releases, giving the album a 'this song sounds kinda like the last one' feel.