With a voice that feels both intimate and ageless, Laura Marling pairs reflective songwriting and nimble acoustic guitar work to summon the hushed, fireside atmosphere of late-1960s and early-1970s folk and rock. She first stepped forward in 2008 with Alas I Cannot Swim and swiftly gained notice inside the rising West London folk community that also included Mumford & Sons, Noah & the Whale, and Johnny Flynn. In 2011 she received the Brit Award for Best Female Solo Artist and has since earned several Mercury Prize nominations. Her sixth album, Semper Femina, brought a 2018 Grammy nomination; like the two records that preceded it, the set blended her pastoral English folk style with the sunlit haze of Laurel Canyon. She later joined producer Mike Lindsay to form the duo Lump, then issued the 2020 release Song for Our Daughter, which collected further Grammy and Mercury Prize nominations. Although the album’s title drew inspiration from Maya Angelou, Marling did not become a mother until three years afterward, an experience that shaped her eighth album, Patterns in Repeat, which appeared in 2024.
Laura Marling was only sixteen when she first surfaced on the British indie circuit in 2007, propelled by a set of catchy singles posted to her online profile. Possessing both a poetic vocal delivery and an instinct for crafting folk songs that sound timeless—qualities that have prompted favorable comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, and Martha Wainwright—she built momentum across England through relentless live performances and notable early shows, among them a slot at the 2006 City Showcase: Spotlight London and support dates for Jamie T.
Still unsigned a year later, she prepared her debut EP, My Manic and I, for independent release in late 2007. That arrangement changed quickly: in early 2008, now on Virgin, she delivered the widely praised Alas I Cannot Swim, also offered as part of a multimedia Songbox package. Her sophomore album, I Speak Because I Can, followed in 2010, entering the U.K. albums chart at number three and earning a Mercury Music Prize nomination. During 2012 she undertook a working holiday tour of the United States, performing solo shows while traveling and revealing plans for her fourth album, Once I Was an Eagle, while in California. Released the next year, the record earned her third Mercury Prize nomination.
After Once I Was an Eagle appeared, Marling moved to Los Angeles, hoping to establish a fixed base following repeated relocations and four albums released inside five years, each accompanied by extensive touring. Early ideas for a fifth album were set aside in 2013, yet by 2014 she had written fresh material and returned to London to record. The resulting Short Movie reached listeners in March 2015. Where that album introduced electric guitar and a weightier texture, her subsequent long-player, Semper Femina, moved even farther from her folk origins; co-produced by Blake Mills and issued in early 2017 on her own More Alarming imprint, it carried a darker, more smoldering mood and secured a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. She then teamed with producer Mike Lindsay for the self-titled 2018 debut of their collaborative project Lump.
Marling re-emerged in 2020 with her seventh studio album and first release on Chrysalis/Partisan, Song for Our Daughter, shaped by Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter and co-produced with Ethan Johns. The record climbed to number six on the U.K. chart and again placed her on the Mercury Prize shortlist while earning another Best Folk Album Grammy nomination. In June 2021 she reunited with Mike Lindsay for Animal, the second Lump album.
She welcomed her first child in early 2023 and soon began balancing new parenthood with musical work. Writing, recording, and producing her eighth album at her London home studio, she enlisted longtime engineer Dom Monks as co-producer and Rob Moose for additional contributions. Patterns in Repeat was completed and released on Chrysalis/Partisan in October 2024.
