Artist Spotlight: Laura Marling

That’s my extremely low-budget attempt at trying to make these anniversary week posts all shiny. Anyways, here is the first of four (maybe more, but probably four, and what the heck am I rhyming for?) commemorative posts, all with some type of connection to music or artists I shared in my first month of blogging here. Today, celebrating one of my first Songs of the Day, the beautiful “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)”, we turn the Artist Spotlight onto…

Laura Marling!

Laura is an immensely talented English singer-songwriter who’s only 21 years old. To say the maturity of someone’s music belies their years has become a bit of a cliche when it comes to younger musicians, but with Laura, it’s absolutely the truth. I was literally shocked to find out her age when I was looking her up on Wikipedia a year or so ago, after I had fallen hard for her songs. I could not believe that this kind of beautiful music was coming from someone scarcely a year or so older than I am. Age shouldn’t be a factor when it comes to good music, really, but looking at Laura’s body of work, it’s incredibly impressive that a 21-year-old could have come this far, so early in her life. It never fails to boggle my mind.

“Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” was one of the Laura Marling songs I found, right after I first started checking out her music, seeing her name around the Internet (due to her Mercury Prize nominations and general positive buzz) and being curious about just how good she was. I have of course already posted about it, but it doesn’t hurt to share it again…

Her second album, “I Speak Because I Can,” which that song came from, is an absolute gem (no wonder it attracted Mercury Prize attention…P.S., the Mercury Prize is one of Britain’s most prestigious music awards, given to the best album of the year from the UK and Ireland. Laura has been shortlisted for her first two albums). It’s strikingly unique, but also warm and familiar. Here’s the firecracker opening track, called “Devil’s Spoke” (sorry the sound isn’t perfect…I would have linked the official video but her label inexplicably removed its US availability on YouTube):

Here’s another beautiful cut from that album, “Rambling Man.” It shows off her knack for starting off songs soft and fragile at times, then bringing in the full band to create an amazing atmosphere:

And one more of my big favorites, the title track, naturally called “I Speak Because I Can.” It’s sweeping, beautifully evocative, and absolutely addicting, all in one. (I love the line: “I speak because I can, to anyone I trust enough to listen/You speak because you can, to anyone who will hear what you say.”)

I actually wasn’t familiar with Laura’s first album until just recently. It was actually the first album I came in contact with…a good friend of mine recommended Laura’s music to me, and I was hooked…but one of the songs had the F-word in it (I’m one of those pesky people that doesn’t listen to those kinds of songs…sorry), and for some reason I was a dork and it took me a while to dive into Laura’s music again, after I checked out “I Speak Because I Can.” Anyways, just recently, I decided to take another look at “Alas, I Cannot Swim,” her debut album (in fact, right now, I’m listening to clips from it for the first time), and it’s just as terrific. Here’s one of my absolute favorites from it, a gorgeous song called “Ghosts.” The lyrics are riveting and poetic, and the instrumentation is just perfect:

Here’s another great song from her debut that I may have just listened to (part of) for the first time, called “My Manic & I.” I’ll be listening to the whole song soon, probably about the same time as you.

Laura’s music is folk with an edge…there’s the traditional guitar/vocal framework that has helped shape the world of folk music for many years now, but she also adds something new, almost intangible to the mix that really makes her music shine. It’s not quite modernized folk…it feels very old-school in many ways…but perhaps it’s reimagined folk in a sense. Here’s a lively number from her new album (“A Creature I Don’t Know”), called “The Muse.” There’s a bit of jazz influence in there, which I love.

And finally, an absolute tour de force also from her latest album. It absolutely blew me away on first listen…and to be honest, my reaction hasn’t really changed after listening to it quite a few times. It starts off in one place…and ends up somewhere entirely new and even more amazing. Here’s “Sophia”:

Laura is an artist full of depth, life, and beauty. I’m happy to finally be able to share much more of her music with you. Thanks for reading, and be sure to comment and enter the giveaway! Happy Anniversary Week.

Two Songs of the Day: “Young Love” and “Fine Line”

My usual recap of “The Sing-Off” (which, let’s face it, tends to take over this blog a bit when it’s on, though I’ll hopefully be able to remedy that now that I have some more free time) will most likely come tomorrow morning as once again I won’t be able to watch it live (darn lack of DVR!) and I’ll have to catch it via Hulu again, but getting back to our regularly scheduled programming, here’s two songs of the day, coincidentally by two British acts. One of them will probably be new to you, and as for the other, if you haven’t heard of them, you haven’t just been living under a rock, you’ve been living under a rock AND you hit your head on it on the way in. First off…

“Young Love” by Mystery Jets (feat. Laura Marling)!

This song is by British indie band Mystery Jets, and I actually found out about it in a roundabout way…I was looking up “Way Back Into Love” (kind of what serves as the theme song from a very fun film, “Music & Lyrics,” which starred Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore) on Wikipedia for some reason (is there ever ANY explainable reason I look up something on Wikipedia? Probably not), and the article mentioned something about the chorus for this song might have borrowed/stolen the melody from “Way Back Into Love.” Luckily, the article also mentioned that “Young Love” featured an artist I absolutely adore, Laura Marling, and upon reading that I knew I had to check the song out. (My curiosity combined with my Laura Marling love to lead me to that point.) It’s a catchy, lively song that combines some nice elements of both the modern and the old-school, and it’s made even better by Laura’s amazing appearance towards the latter half. (It’s already a great song on its own, but Laura’s effortlessly alluring vocals put it over the top.) The melody in the chorus does admittedly sound a bit similar to “Way Back Into Love,” but none of that gets in the way of what ends up being an utterly infectious, terrific song. (Also, this reminds me I need to check out more of Mystery Jets’ music.) Now, to a fairly recent song by an English music legend…

“Fine Line” by Paul McCartney!

At the time I discovered this song, I was already somewhat familiar with Sir Paul’s 2005 comeback album of sorts, “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,” but I hadn’t listened to anywhere near all the songs on it, which is why this firecracker of an opening track passed me by until a few months ago. I think this was another song that came out thanks to a random Wikipedia search (I was maybe looking up Paul McCartney singles, perhaps? I’m not sure), funnily enough. (I also heard it playing at work a few days after I had downloaded it, which was an interesting coincidence.) This album signaled an artistic rebirth in many ways for Paul (it was a critical and commercial success and continued to show he had lots of life beyond his work with the Beatles), and this song is a sign of that revitalization. Paul sounds great, the songwriting is top-notch, and it’s just an energetic, addicting tune.

See you soon with more posts, including (but not limited to) my Episode 5 “Sing-Off” recap. As is always the case…thanks for reading!

My Best Songs of 2010

Like I presume most of you do, I enjoy looking at end-of-the-year “best-of” lists (of which there are countless numbers, all across the Internets). They’re just interesting and fun, and when they’re written by someone with good taste, they’re especially great to read. That said…I’m not good at ranking things…or choosing a specific, small number of favorites…or making best-of lists…at least when it comes to music. (And movies. And TV.) But thankfully in the case of music, my iTunes kind of does it for me. About two years ago, I made a few auto-playlists…one of them with my Top 40 most-played songs, one later with my Top 100 most-played songs, and just for overkill’s sake (:)), one with my Top 200 most-played songs. And so that’s where I got this best of 2010 list from…I went through the Top 200 list and picked the 43 songs in it that were officially added to my music library in 2010. (A majority of them were released in 2010, but a few of them are from previous years.) It goes without saying that all of them are highly recommended. (P.S.: I’m calling this “my best songs of 2010″ because I don’t want to call it “the best songs of 2010.” Music is a highly subjective thing to look at most of the time, and everyone has their different favorites. Plus, after all, this is a very scientific best-of list. I couldn’t have picked them manually myself, even if I tried.) So now…my top 43 songs of the year. (P.P.S.: I like random stats in most cases. A lot. So you’ll be treated to a few key ones for each song on the list, along with some at the end. What can I say, I’m a nerd sometimes. Well, all the time. But it shows itself especially strong only some of the time. )

1. Rain City–Lucy Schwartz (#2 on my most played, 53 plays, added Aug. 16)
2. Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)–Laura Marling (#8, 35 plays, added Oct. 28)
3. Flume–Peter Gabriel (#12, 33 plays, added Feb. 19)
4. I’d Do It All Again–Corinne Bailey Rae (#14, 32 plays, added Jan. 12)
5. Hengilas–Jonsi (#17, 32 plays, added Jun. 25)
6. Beggar’s Prayer–Emiliana Torrini (#24, 30 plays, added Jul. 19)
7. Mirrorball–Peter Gabriel (#30, 28 plays, added Apr. 27)
8. Something In The Water–Brooke Fraser (#33, 27 plays, added Aug. 20)
9. Hurricane Drunk–Florence + The Machine (#38, 27 plays, added Oct. 14)
10. King of Anything–Sara Bareilles (#44, 27 plays, added Sep. 6)
11. Sticks & Stones–Jonsi (#49, 26 plays, added Jun. 24)
12. Help Me! Help Me!–Lucy Schwartz (#53, 25 plays, added Jan. 19)
13. Your Song–Ellie Goulding (#59, 24 plays, added Dec. 16)
14. Virtual Insanity–Jamiroquai (#63, 24 plays, added Jul. 9)
15. 9,000 Days–Overtone w/Yollandi Nortjie (#64, 24 plays, added Jul. 24)
16. Are You Here–Corinne Bailey Rae (#69, 23 plays, added Jan. 26)
17. Drumming Song–Florence + The Machine (#70, 23 plays, added Oct. 14)
18. Telephone–Pomplamoose (#72, 23 plays, added Mar. 15)
19. You’ve Changed–Sia (#74, 23 plays, added Mar. 6)
20. Life In Letters–Lucy Schwartz (#79, 22 plays, added Oct. 22)
21. Those Days–Lucy Schwartz (#80, 22 plays, added Jan. 19)
22. Dear Laughing Doubters–Sondre Lerche (#84, 22 plays, added Aug. 31)
23. The Writer–Ellie Goulding (#93, 21 plays, added Dec. 16)
24. Gone Away–Lucy Schwartz (#98, 21 plays, added Oct. 22)
25. July Flame–Laura Veirs (#106, 20 plays, added Jan. 20)
26. When You Give Your Heart–Laura Veirs (#107, 20 plays, added Sep. 8 )
27. Graveyard–Lucy Schwartz (#117, 19 plays, added Aug. 10)
28. Playing In Traffic–Peter Eldridge (#122, 19 plays, added Aug. 12)
29. Starry Eyed–Ellie Goulding (#127, 18 plays, added Dec. 16)
30. Mixtape–Jamie Cullum (#130, 18 plays, added Feb. 11)
31. Airplanes–Local Natives (#135, 18 plays, added May 12)
32. Respect–Lucy Schwartz (#137, 18 plays, added Jan. 19)
33. The World Keeps You Waiting–New York Voices (#140, 18 plays, added Mar. 17)
34. My Body Is A Cage–Peter Gabriel (#141, 18 plays, added Apr. 27)
35. Uncharted–Sara Bareilles (#144, 18 plays, added Sep. 6)
36. Little Fly–Esperanza Spalding (#152, 17 plays, added Aug. 19)
37. Bird Song–Florence + The Machine (#154, 17 plays, added Oct. 14)
38. Mouse World–Theodore Shapiro (from the “Dinner For Schmucks” score) (#171, 17 plays, added Aug. 31)
39. The I Love You Song–Celia Keenan-Bolger, Lisa Howard, & Derrick Baskin (from “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) (#177, 16 plays, added Nov. 30)
40. The Sea–Corinne Bailey Rae (#178, 16 plays, added Jan. 26)
41. Dedicated To You–Kurt Elling (#191, 16 plays, added May 12)
42. Running Too Fast–Natalia LaFourcade (#194, 16 plays, added Sep. 4)
43. O Canada–Nikki Yanofsky (#196, 16 plays, added Feb. 11)

Lucy Schwartz by far makes the most appearances on this list, with 7 entries (including the top spot). Florence + The Machine, Peter Gabriel, Ellie Goulding, and Corinne Bailey Rae each follow with 3, and Sara Bareilles, Jonsi, and Laura Veirs are after that with 2. Ellie Goulding’s 3 entries are interesting, because I just got her songs less than 2 weeks ago…I guess they’ve just caught my fancy a lot. And finally, only 12 of the songs on this list are by either male solo artists, or primarily male bands/groups.

I was going to make the rest of this a little end-of-the-year speech, but I’ll leave that to my final artist spotlight (to be posted tomorrow). Thanks for reading! Make sure to subscribe (can we get at least one subscriber by the end of the year?), share, and check out all my other posts. See you tomorrow!

Song of the Day: “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)”

Before I get into this post, let’s all take a moment to banish the procrastination/other stuff that has kept me from posting another Artist Spotlight since Thursday. Banish! There. That should do it. How about I post it tomorrow, and give y’all another Song of the Day for now? Good? Good. Now to the song…

“Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” by Laura Marling!

There’s some songs that are just plain gorgeous and heartbreaking. This is one of them. The lyrics are haunting, the vocals are heartfelt and perfect, the instrumentation is lovely, and the melody & chords just beautifully complement it all. It’s a sad, evocative song, but it’s also uplifting and warm in a way. I really haven’t been able to stop listening to it lately. By the way, Laura Marling is a terrific British singer-songwriter whose last two albums have been nominated for the Mercury Prize…a pretty big deal and no small feat. I highly recommend her music (I will warn those of you like me who don’t like profanity that she gets a little salty on a few of her earlier songs…I can tell you for sure that her latest album, “I Speak Because I Can” is all clean, and all absolutely terrific music).