Pondering the sweet absurdity that is parenthood, indie folk songstress Laura Marling returns with a beautiful, compelling, and highly evocative song “Patterns” – the lead single off her upcoming eighth studio album, ‘Patterns in Repeat.’
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Stream: “Patterns” – Laura Marling
It’s no big mystery that life itself is cyclical.
Each and every one of us was born into existence. Many of us have and will continue the cycle in bringing life into existence; it’s a pattern as old as time that is profound yet incredibly relatable. The feeling of having a child is difficult to describe, but rarely is its essence captured in music as thoughtfully as it is by Laura Marling.
Detailing a life into song is nothing new for Laura Marling. The indie folk singer’s discography features dozens of compelling tracks about love, connection, and a genuine curiosity about life. Marling’s last project, the incredibly heartfelt Song for Our Daughter showcases the artist as perhaps her most evocative. With the project being dedicated to an imaginary daughter, Marling’s storytelling on the project is so tangible and full of love that it’s hard to imagine the subject of the music was not yet in existence; a testament to the singer’s songwriting prowess.
Zena, you’ve squared your toes
But your friendly nose, hangs around
You’re still a ballerina, everybody knows
But your feet are on the ground
But as the years go by and points comply
With ever more relief
Then patterns in repeat can begin
Fast-forward four years and Laura Marling has taken the step into motherhood. With a young daughter being the subject of new music, the artist is cataloging her next life chapter with Patterns in Repeat (releasing October 25 via Chrysalis/Partisan), a much anticipated installment in the singer’s already beautiful catalog. Capturing her newfound love, Laura Marling shares “Patterns,” a stark, colorful, and immensely beautiful homage to motherhood and the profound purpose it serves in life.
To have your children, your flock of birds
Your branch among the wood
You’ll try to tell them, but you’re lost for words
‘Cause it’s so absurd, how good
Like light rain on a windowpane, a soft cascade of acoustic guitar breaks the silence.
The guitar pattern is played with an impressive precision and even more incredible sensitivity which elicits a warm and cozy backdrop for the singer. Marling’s vocals are faint yet incredibly clear, her delivery capturing a sense of warmth from the very first note. The artist sings ever so fondly of her daughter’s “squared toes,” and “friendly nose,” displaying a succinct sweetness in her love for her kin.
And as those years go by
They’ll look upon you
Kindly like a friend
A pattern in repeat
And never ends
Slowly but surely, the music builds layers and begins to blossom like a flower in a garden. Shimmering harmonies accompany the satisfying chorus as Marling’s message drifts towards the metaphysical. The artist’s words shape an image of wooden branches of a family tree, the artist gladly assuming her role in her own lineage. As time “leaps by,” Marling views her daughter’s future as a stark, reflective shadow of her own. A life where she may one day grow her own branch and accept her fate as a “pattern in repeat.”
Pullеd for meaning, I arched my back
And then from thе black you were born
Forward leaning at first, abstract
You soon contract into form
And now the time leaps by and starts to fly
And only then can I see
That we’re patterns in repeat
And we’ll always be
“Over the course of nine months, I had happily prepared myself for the fact that my life as a songwriter would be put on hold while I adjusted to life as a new parent,” Marling shared upon her song’s release. “How delighted then was I to discover that for the first few months of a baby’s life, you can bounce them in a bouncer and play guitar all day. For the first time in my life, I was able to gaze into another human’s eyes as I wrote.”
“Of course, new parents feel like they discovered that feeling – one of the very finest that life has to offer, of looking into the eyes of your child and feeling the enormity of the picture as a whole, the enormity of a precarious life, celestial, fragile and extraordinary, taking its place among the comparatively banal constellation of a family. This banal constellation seems to have dominated the writing of Patterns in Repeat – the drama of the domestic sphere, the frail threads that bind a family together, the good intentions we hold onto for our progeny and the many and various ways they get lost in time. So much complexity in the banal, the caged, the everyday.”
“Being as I am, 34 years old, now 15 years and 8 albums into a life in song, I am unable to escape the fact that each record has served as a time-stamped chapter of my life (though some have appeared more a premonition). Now, here we are, following a youth spent desperately trying to understand what it is to be a woman, I am at the brow of the hill, with an entirely new and enormous perspective surrounding me.”
On first listen, “Patterns” is just a beautiful song, yet with continued exposure it becomes clear it is so much more.
Its message is timeless. Marling’s words resonate with a serene meaning. Like any great track, the artist succeeds at crafting music that captures an essence rarely captured in art while remaining incredibly layered.
Akin to its message, “Patterns” is thoughtful, emotional, and hugely, infinitesimally gratifying.
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Stream: “Patterns” – Laura Marling
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© Tamsin Topolski
© Tamsin Topolski
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