Laura Marling graces The Zoo

Words: Leah Holdsworth
Photos: Kate Scantleton

I missed Laura Marling the first trip she made to Australia. Stopping only for a brief stint at Splendour in the Grass and as well as for sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne, her tour was short but indisputably touching for those who encountered her presence. However, I was blessed this time, as the lovely Laura found time to land her feet briefly in Brisbane town, playing a gig at one of my favoured venues, the aptly named Zoo in Fortitude Valley. Suffice it to say, I was eager for her performance. But in many ways I was pleasantly surprised by a slight shift in style. It became clear, as she walked out onto the stage and debuted with a new song, ‘Devil’s Spoke’, that many things had changed in between her two journeys to this country.

At the sweet age of nineteen (although closer perhaps to the age of twenty, I feel certain Laura Marling would hasten to add); and myself the age of twenty, I felt that Laura Marling and I had travelled the treacherous journey from girl to woman together. Her debut album, ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’, spoke whimsically of her youth and heartache. To me, Marling seemed to be painfully aware of her own naïveté. And, although the songs were quite pretty, her lyrics and musical undertones felt full of pathos. Songs such as ‘My Manic and I’ and ‘Ghosts’ were sincere confessions of her experiences as a young doomed lover, that I shared. Indeed, I wasn’t alone; many young women seemed to feel this similar connection to the young folk singer.

However, singing with a sense of purpose on stage at the Zoo, Marling gave the distinct impression that she had undergone some inner transformation. On the surface, her soft girly features had shifted and changed into more angular and womanly ones, and within herself she appeared to gain a higher sense of wisdom and knowledge. Her musical style had also appeared to have taken a slight turn. A slightly Celtic sounding influence was apparent on such songs as ‘Devil’s Spoke’ and ‘I Speak Because I Can’.

More broadly, she held a strong presence that she was also quite happy to share with her band mates, one of whom were recognisably from another band, Mumford and Sons. Although itself fast becoming a band to respect within its own right, the band members had recorded and backed Laura live since her debut album. With this in mind, the band as a whole conveyed a familiarity, almost akin to a family.

Overall, her performance was a consciously balanced blend between old treasured songs, and new, interesting ones that had me more than curious to hear her second album, ‘I Speak Because I Can’, in full. The album is to be released in Australia on March 19th.