Customer Reviews
Neverending magic... - By: Sophia S., 09 Aug 2008 
I'll admit that I shyed away from this album initially since it's not the genre of music I'd usually listen to but after one listen I couldn't have been more impressed.
The lyrics are clever & original; the melodies catchy & her voice is simply stunning.
Not a day has passed where I have failed to give at least one track on this album a listen & it's hard to stop when the songs are just so magical & captivating!
I love each & every song on the album but I think "Ghosts", "Captain & The Hourglass", "Failure" & "My Manic & I" are just that little bit extra special. Would also highly recommend giving "New Romantic" (which isn't on the album) a listen if you haven't done so already.
A brilliant young talent (can't believe she's less than a year older than me!) but her lyrics speak beyond her years & I hope she continues to bring us these refreshingly beautiful songs.
Talent to burn - By: Gregory S. Buzwell, 29 Jun 2008 I usually try to be cool, focused & objectivein my reviews but, for Laura Marling's debut album, I'll make an exception. 'Cool, focused & objective' can all take a backseat while their more emotional cousin 'dribbly wide-eyed adoration' takes the wheel, puts his foot down & heads for the sunlit hills. "Alas I Cannot Swim" is gorgeous, clever, moving & absolutely packed with the most exquisite melodies. If there has been a better album releasedin the past twelve months then, well, I for one haven't heard it.
Absolutely everything worksin harmony on this album. The lyrics are dark, inventive ("He wants to diein a lakein Geneva/The mountains can cover the shape of his nose") & haunting, focusing on the impossibility of everlasting love; failure; the cold comforts of religious faith & lonliness. The melodies are gorgeously beautifulin a way that's almost indecent - to put itin very blunt & simple terms 'Alas I Cannot Swim' is absolutely packed with good old fashioned tunes, at least a couple of which ('The Captain & the Hourglass' & 'Your Only Doll (Dora)') sound so catchy & elegant that you can't quite believe they haven't been around for years. Oh yes, as if that wasn't enough Laura Marling's voice is wonderful: clear, beautiful & yet with an emotional fragility that highlights the haunted depths of her lyrics. And then there's more - she's comfortable writing & performing songsin numerous different styles & tempos. From the almost pop song "Ghosts", to the tortured depths of "Night Terror" to the near sea-shanty "Crawled out of the sea (interlude)" - perhaps the most casually brilliant throw-away minute & a half of music recordedin the last year - to the melancholy ballad "The Captain & the Hourglass" Marling carries it all off with talent to burn.
Enough already. If Laura Marling isn't well on her way to being recognised as a major & original talent then there is no justicein the world. She is - dribbly wide-eyed adoration coming up - absolutely fabulous. Buy the album, catch her live if you can - she is absolutely spellbinding on stage - & cherish every moment of what will hopefully be a long career. Alas I Cannot Swim - the best album I have heard for a very, very long time.
"The real deal" - By: P. Ferguson, 27 May 2008 Although Laura Marling is not courting the public or mainstream media (like other singer/songwriters see Adele, Lily Allen or Kate Nash), her voice is so strong & unique that hopefully it is only inevitable that she becomes better known & doesnt just dissappear under the tide of comercialised female singers that all sound the same & demand attention & fame.
For the people who have heard her & know how good she is, it is worth having a listen to "Noah & the whale" where she adds backing vocals to some entertaining folk-pop songs.
Awesome and relaxing - By: Daniel Millar, 27 Apr 2008 I have an intresting music collection to say the least ranging from the likes of paramore & My chemical romance to the feeling via infernal. Thus i know a bit about modern music(not just the mainstream before you object ;)..anywho). And this album is awesome give it a few listens to sinkin & your gone, she has a lovely voice & the songs are beautifully written. All round class.
A stunning talent is born - By: Young Offender, 25 Apr 2008 This is just a great, great record. I saw Laura Marling support Rufus Wainwright last year, & didn't think she was anything special, but since then she seems to have completely re-invented herself. For a young woman of 18, her lyrics are incredibly mature & engaging - just compare her to someone like Kate Nash & her mockney warbling about boy troubles, & you despair of the gulf between their public profiles. Sometimes they have a quite nightmarish quality to them - literally on Night Terror, but alsoin the dark fable The Captain & the Hourglass ('behind every tree is a cutting machine' gives me the shivers). They can also be very funny, though (Failure laments another musician's waste of talent: 'he lost poetic ethic, & his songs are pathetic'). Marling's beautiful voice adds real emotional heft, too. Just listen to her on Your Only Doll, where a young woman suffers at the hands of an abusive partner - not autobiographical, I hope, but she conjures a whole, benighted life with complete conviction & tragic powerin the space of four minutes. Likewise, on the gorgeous 'Tap at My Window', where the character berates her progenitors - 'Father I love you, but how can you watch as I push her away/ I cannot forgive you for bringing me up this way' - Marling inhabits this so completely that you worry what her own parents make of it.
Combine all this with wonderful tunes, superb arrangements, & a healthy sprinking of magic dust that makes the whole album rise above its estimable parts, & you have one of the finest debut albums of the decade. I can only hope that word of mouth will eventually bring this record the global success it so richly deserves.
PS Don't miss the lovely, trad-folk title track hidden at the end.
