here we go "On the new album Ms. Marling sings about love, rage, desire, family, devils, angels, devotion, betrayal and the roles women play. In “Rest in the Bed” a woman speaks to an unborn child cradled in “the bed of my bones.” In “Salinas,” inspired by reading about John Steinbeck, Ms. Marling invents a mother who’s “the savior/Of six feet of bad behavior.”
Two recurring figures each get a song named after them. One is Sophia, the ancient goddess of wisdom sometimes seen as God’s female complement; Ms. Marling was drawn to the idea after being enthralled by Robertson Davies’s philosophical novel “The Rebel Angels.” (“I gave it to everyone I knew,” she groused, “and no one has read it.”) The other is the album’s centerpiece: “The Beast,” whose lustful snarl translates into layers of distorted electric guitar. So much for the nu-folk pigeonhole. “It was a bit like, people are going to think this is weird,” Ms. Marling said. “The electric guitar sound is like a character in the song, almost as important as the lyrics.”
The character of the Beast changes roles in the album, she added. “At some point it’s me, at some points it’s someone else, and at some points it’s not even a thing – it’s like a force,” she said. “I guess I didn’t really figure out what it was, and that’s why I ended up writing an album about it. The album is all about tugging and churning with goodness and darkness.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/arts/music/laura-marlings-british-folk-cd-creature-i-dont-know.html?pagewanted=2
here we go "On the new album Ms. Marling sings about love, rage, desire, family, devils, angels, devotion, betrayal and the roles women play. In “Rest in the Bed” a woman speaks to an unborn child cradled in “the bed of my bones.” In “Salinas,” inspired by reading about John Steinbeck, Ms. Marling invents a mother who’s “the savior/Of six feet of bad behavior.”
Two recurring figures each get a song named after them. One is Sophia, the ancient goddess of wisdom sometimes seen as God’s female complement; Ms. Marling was drawn to the idea after being enthralled by Robertson Davies’s philosophical novel “The Rebel Angels.” (“I gave it to everyone I knew,” she groused, “and no one has read it.”) The other is the album’s centerpiece: “The Beast,” whose lustful snarl translates into layers of distorted electric guitar. So much for the nu-folk pigeonhole. “It was a bit like, people are going to think this is weird,” Ms. Marling said. “The electric guitar sound is like a character in the song, almost as important as the lyrics.”
The character of the Beast changes roles in the album, she added. “At some point it’s me, at some points it’s someone else, and at some points it’s not even a thing – it’s like a force,” she said. “I guess I didn’t really figure out what it was, and that’s why I ended up writing an album about it. The album is all about tugging and churning with goodness and darkness.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/arts/music/laura-marlings-british-folk-cd-creature-i-dont-know.html?pagewanted=2