I Speak Because I Can

'I Speak Because I Can' is Laura Marling's coming of age album, its 10 songs imbued with a new richness, ripeness and sophistication. It is also an album marked by its quintessential Englishness. For all its American instrumentation, its shades of Crosby Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, its American producer, these songs are no pale Americana interpretation; rather they are tales deeply rooted in England. Marling chose Ethan Johns to produce as she credits many of his earlier records (among them Ray LaMontagne, Kings of Leon, Emmylou Harris, Sarabeth Tucek) with kindling her interest in music, had long admired his way of working, his use of reels, his quiet, traditional methods of production. He gave her the space to find her own identity; the record reveals in a new maturity, and at points Marling's voice sounds a little harder, a little world-wearied.