SOUNDTRACK: LAURA MARLING-NonCOMM (May 18, 2017).
I enjoyed listening to the sets from NonCOMM back in May, so I dug into the archives and found out that a lot of sets are still available. I was especially happy to see this one from Laura Marling. The end of the blurb says:
You’ll have another chance to witness this fixating performance when Laura Marling comes to the TLA tomorrow night.
And that’s the show I saw.
After a hearty introduction from Bob Boilen, Laura Marling and crew swan-dived right into debut single, “Soothing,” off of her latest album, Semper Femina.
“Wild Fire” is an amazing example of her incredible voice as she speak-sings, whispers, coos and soars all over the verses which come together in the beautiful harmony of “meeeeeee” in the chorus. This song has a bunch of curses in it, but she kept it clean for this performance.
With a piercing yet still somehow soft gaze cutting through the crowd (I don’t know how she does the thing, but it’s true), Marling unleashed her otherworldly vocals — flawlessly ebbing and flowing with the track’s funkier rhythm.
“Always This Way” is a beautiful song off of Semper Femina. The guitar melody is delightful and, of course, her voice is outstanding.
“Next Time” has a simple, quiet, guitar melody which allows her voice to just wend all over this song. When the backing vocals come it it’s quiet angelic.
“Nothing, Not Nearly” has some wonderfully fast vocals that are as fun to try to figure out as they are to sing along to. It ends Semper Femina and is my favoirte song on the record. From the main melody to her wonderfully high notes this song is amazing.
She ended the set with “Once” from Once I Was an Eagle, the album that introduced me to her.
This song is very different from the others, but it still sounded great. When I saw her I wished she’d played ten songs from each album. Maybe some day I’ll see her do everything.
[READ: September 7, 2019] “The Stone”
This was an otherworldly story about an earthly object.
As a young girl, the main character’s family drove to an island in Lake Superior every summer. She was wandering in the brush one day when she felt sure someone was looking at her. There was no one there, but then she saw the stone.
It was smooth and black, half the size of a human skull and rain had carved what looked like two eye holes in it.
She was spooked at first but then was drawn to it. She brought it back to the vacation home and put it where she slept. But then she was sure one of her siblings would try to take it, so she hid it in her sleeping bag.
She brought home after the summer and put it in her room. Her mother saw it as she was getting them ready for school in September. Her mom asked if she’d found the rock the summer. She nodded and, after dinner, hid it in her room. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 