Singer/songwriter Laura Marling shines in her intimate eighth LP ‘Patterns in Repeat,’ her most focused record to date.
Stream: ‘Patterns in Repeat’ – Laura Marling
When Laura Marling announced her new record, Patterns in Repeat, it was like you could feel the rumblings that reverberated through the music community.
The Grammy-nominated artist returned in late October with her eighth studio LP, charting the birth of her daughter last year, and her newfound reflections on motherhood, artistry, and balancing the two.
Marling’s songwriting contains a magic that cannot be described, but only felt. Leading up to the record’s release, she released weekly newsletters as part of her new Substack series, The Tarot of Songwriting.
Like everyone else, I fully ate this up – I jumped at the chance to peek into the inner workings of her songwriting. The series uses tarot cards as a source of contemplation, and in the introductory entry, she states, “I’d like to encourage those who might be interested to use songwriting this way – as a means to understand the patterns that rattle ever outward from some unknowable depth at the core of our being.”
As Patterns in Repeat enters the stratosphere, it is true that the record holds contemplative musings on her time as an artist, and reckonings with early motherhood – exploring the unknowable depth of her being.
Sparked from the birth of her daughter last year, Patterns in Repeat was crafted in Marling’s own home studio, and the record is perhaps the artist’s most focused to date.
Its power lies in its sonic fragility, while its expansive musings lie in its minimal approach. As one of the most respected and acclaimed songwriters of our generation, Marling’s songwriting flair remains as succinct as ever; her distilled lyrical nuance overlays crisp production and masterful arrangements, ruminating on heavy topics such as self-exploration, family, love and human relationships with a lightness of being.
Listening to Patterns in Repeat is like entering Marling’s own intimate bubble, feeling the solace and safety she’s built there for her daughter. The record presents an emotional soundscape that traces Marling’s reckoning with motherhood, and the questions that arose about her career as a result; but it also reflects on that of her own existence, her family, and how to fit these existing duties into her new life as a mother. Her sound remains true in the new record, as crisp clean vocals drive forth photo-quality production and orchestral arrangements.
Murmurs of footsteps and the voice of Marling’s daughter in the background welcome us to the record’s opening track, “Child of Mine.” The intimacy of Marling’s vocals and soft production qualities arise as she sings, “You and your dad are dancing in the kitchen,” setting the scene before inviting us into her moment. It’s a revelation of beauty in a moment of mundanity. It is as if we are watching with her, subsumed in a bubble where joy is in everything.
She brings us into a beautiful portrait of time passing with “Patterns,” backed by Marling’s quintessential plucked nylon guitar patterns. Reflective “Your Girl” pipelines to “No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can,” laid atop broken chords on piano. The grainy quality of the piano pushes it to the periphery as Marling’s vocals arrive with a shimmering clarity, before orchestral arrangements enter to fill out the spaces.
“The Shadows” takes a turn in the minor scheme, her storytelling prepping us for the record’s interlude, dominated by exuberant soundscapes that sound almost like a fairytale. “Caroline” exhibits a more playful side to Marling, as she strings together la la la’s and “something somethings” atop masterful production.
In “Looking Back,” she sings, “Looking back that’s all I do” on repeat, as if arriving at a realization. The song rises in its instrumentals and fades away as she comes to her own acceptance of the fact. “Lullaby,” as the name suggests, is Marling’s cradle song, as she croons, “sleep my angel, you’re safe with me.” Titular track ‘Patterns in Repeat’ plays on its title, as guitar plays over the same chord structural rhythm, before rounding out and bidding us goodbye with “Lullaby (Instrumental).”
Patterns in Repeat is a lush soundscape of soothing melodies and intimate musicalities, keeping a lock on time on Marling’s present moment – and it is a treat to be very generously let into her world.
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Stream: “Patterns” – Laura Marling
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© Tamsin Topolski
© Tamsin TopolskiPatterns in Repeat
an album by Laura Marling
