Album Review: A Creature I Don't Know by Laura Marling

I'm new to Laura Marling so I looked her up and often what you see is people comparing her to Joni Mitchell. It's a natural connection because of her voice, but I think it's a flawed connection. Her song construction and exploration with lyrics reminds me more of Rickie Lee Jones. There is no doubt that her songs are heavily influenced by an older generation of female singer songwriters and in part that is the appeal of Laura Marling from what I can gather.

At a very young age, she's 22, Marling has a very mature sound, and since most artists hit their peak at 24 she has a good running start. I would expect that her next album will be her masterpiece and I'm interested to see what she comes up with. If you ever had your runs with Janis Ian, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell, etc. then you'll understand the appeal of an artist like Marling.

The biggest problem with this album is that she is obviously in an experimental phase and searching for her voice and so it is easy to get a bit lost at times while listening to this album. At times I found I had to make an effort to stay dialed in to the album and that's a problem she'll need to overcome. Still I found it to be a fun listen and plan on suggesting it to my wife as a possible album to throw on in the car.

If you're in the mood for some female singer songwriter stuff and you're reaching for that old Rickie Lee Jones album, pass over it and grab this one instead just for a change of pace.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.