We’ve heard live previews and an official single, but now The New York Times and The Guardian are offering up Laura Marling’s third album, A Creature I Don’t Know, to hear in full. Follow the links above to stream the 10-track set, which at first picks up where I Speak Because I Can left off with its sophisticated, Joni-esque sense of melody over twisting chord changes steeped in decades of folk tradition before exploring a murkier, more modern sonic landscape on standout centerpiece “The Beast.”
With the distortion-laden thrill of that track’s chaotic closing section anchoring the middle of the LP, Marling rises from the abyss to familiar territory on four of her most confident and lyrically mature compositions to date: “Night After Night,” “My Friends,” Rest in the Bed,” and “Sophia.”
Performed alone in a quiet moment captured to tape after a full-band studio session, “Night After Night” recalls a few cuts off Leonard Cohen’s seminal 1967 debut with its deceptively subtle refrain, waltzing cadence, and dark undertones. “By the end of the take I was almost in tears,” said producer Ethan Johns.