The idea of reviewing the latest album from the artist you proudly declare as your ‘all time favourite’ is a ridiculous one. I’ve managed to write about my love for Laura Marling’s music on this website multiple times and even reviewed her second collaborative record, the brilliant Animal by LUMP, but I go into these words quite nervous about having objectivity.
Of course, there is very little point being objective when it comes to the music we love and seconds into the eighth studio album from Laura Marling, I’m losing myself in all of the reasons her music is so important to me. On first listen, I is perhaps the most straightforwardly ‘Laura Marling’ album ever released. These 11 songs capture Laura’s songwriting, creative spirit and wholly unique performance as succinctly as anything could.
Songs like ‘Your Girl’, ‘Child of Mine’ or ‘Caroline’ play to Laura’s strengths as an acoustic songwriter and lyricist. It’s lazy of me to say, but if you liked the previous records this is more of the same, but stripped back and raw. Spending some more time to really sit with this music though has uncovered the uniqueness that makes Patterns In Repeat stand out just a little bit more than you might think at first.
Lead single ‘Patterns’ seems to expand and evolve for me as a listener every time I go back to it, the delicate lyrics against lucious instrumentation almost moreish. Its ‘sequel’ song ‘Patterns in Repeat’ recalls my favourite Laura Marling album Once I Was An Eagle. Not just due to its repeating and re-emerging motifs from earlier in the album, but for literally interpolating the melody of ‘Breathe’ from that prior album. The first time I heard this I felt such a poignancy in returning and the cycle of music from an artist like Laura Marling. ‘Breathe’ holds a very close place for me as a music fan and hearing it recontextualised and repeating over a decade on feels like a direct message from Laura to her fans, as well as the person she was back in the early 2010s.
To me, Patterns In Repeat is an album of self identity and self reflection. ‘Looking Back’ defines this feeling, I’m not sure we’ve ever heard Laura reflect on her own life as directly as she does here. ‘Now Iʼm a prisoner in this chair, Confined to younger faces, My memories are not with them But off in distant places’. The gorgeous string arrangements continue here too, even on what is by far the most stripped back album Laura Marling has released since her debut.
‘The Shadows’ stands at the centre of this album full of emotion and lyrical depth that only emerges more and more on every listen. It’s perhaps strange then that the interlude ‘Time Passages’ takes us far from the sound of the rest of this album. It’s the most experimental moment here and at first did feel extremely jarring to me, but sort of works as a palette cleansing moment of daring musicality.
Artistic development is such an interesting idea when you consider artists like Laura Marling who to an outsider seem so fully formed and confident in their artistic talents and intention. It’s easy to imagine the Laura of 2011 ‘could’ create Patterns In Repeat in a way that you couldn’t with records like LUMP or Short Movie. But, a few listens in, this idea dissipated. The maturity of songwriting that defined Song For Our Daughter is now joined by a delicate touch and lyrical directness in part thanks to the new context that Laura Marling occupies as an artist and as a parent.
By opening herself up and fully embracing her new life and the way she now is choosing to navigate her own creativity alongside it is what makes Patterns In Repeat one of Laura Marling’s most affecting works. Lyrically, there feels like more of herself in these songs than ever before and its simplicity allows for the beautiful glimpses of strings and orchestration to shine even brighter than they otherwise would. Perhaps not her most daring record, or her most ambitious, but Patterns In Repeat is intimate, raw and poignant.
Words by Sam Atkins
Picky Bastards 
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