Song for Our Daughter

The daughter in Song for Our Daughter did not exist. Laura Marling conceived her seventh album as a set of confidences addressed to an imaginary child, partly inspired by Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter. That device gave Marling a useful distance from herself: advice, warning and tenderness could be directed outward while still exposing questions she found harder to address privately. The result is an album of unusual calm, not because its subjects are uncomplicated, but because the writing has learned how little it needs to say to leave a mark.

Marling co-produced the record with Ethan Johns, beginning with demos made in the basement of her London home before recording primarily at Monnow Valley in Wales, with further work at Johns’s Three Crows studio. The arrangements are deliberately spare. Acoustic guitar, light percussion and piano provide the frame, while Rob Moose’s strings and carefully layered harmonies appear when the songs need expansion rather than as a permanent gloss. “Held Down” demonstrates that balance beautifully, building vocal layers around a song that still feels close enough to touch.

The album is rich in literary and musical echoes without becoming a puzzle. “Alexandra” was inspired by Leonard Cohen’s “Alexandra Leaving”; “The End of the Affair” takes its title from Graham Greene’s novel; “Blow by Blow” pays homage to Paul McCartney. “Fortune” turns towards the idea of a mother’s private escape fund, while the title track examines innocence and the burdens handed between generations. The closing “For You” is notably direct, using an original laptop demo as part of the finished recording and allowing intimacy to outrank polish.

Song for Our Daughter was originally planned for later in 2020, but Marling brought its release forward to April during the first months of the pandemic. It was subsequently shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. Those accolades make sense, but the record’s appeal is quieter. It rewards attention to phrasing, restraint and the small changes in arrangement around Marling’s voice. These songs do not insist on wisdom. They sound like someone testing what wisdom might mean when offered to another person.