Laura Marling - BBC Proms 2020 (2020)

I may have mentioned before that I'm a massive Laura Marling fan, having followed her from the very start of her career, and I've loved everything she's ever done. When I heard that she'd been selected to play a set as part of this year's Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, with orchestral arrangements by the pioneering un-conducted 12 Ensemble, I couldn't wait to hear it. It was broadcast on Sunday, and was every bit as good as I hoped it would be, and so for anyone who missed it here is an audio rip that you can download and listen to at your leisure. I'm sure that anyone who saw it would have come away a fan, even if they didn't really know her work. 

Track listing

01 The Suite: Take The Night Off / I Was An Eagle / You Know / Breathe
02 Tap At My Window
03 Fortune
04 The Valley
05 What He Wrote
06 Song For Our Daughter
07 For You
08 Blow By Blow
09 The End Of The Affair
10 Still Crazy After All These Years
11 Wild Fire
12 I Hope We Can Meet Again
13 How Can I?
14 Daisy
15 Once
16 Salinas
17 Next Time
18 Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)

The players:
Laura Marling (singer, guitar)
Nick Pini (bass)
12 Ensemble

Laura Marling - To Be A Woman (2019)

To celebrate the release of a new album by the wonderful Laura Marling, here is another collection of rare and hard to find singles, radio sessions and TV appearances. 'Flicker And Fail' was a limited edition 7" single issued for Record Store Day 2012, and despite queuing outside the  record store from 8.30a.m. I never did get a copy. Laura recorded 'Like A Rolling Stone' with Eddie Berman for his 2016 album 'Polyhymnia', but when the album came out the song was noticeable by its absence, so can only currently be heard on Youtube. 'Blues Run The Game' / 'The Needle And The Damage Done' was a limited edition 7" single released on Jack White's Third Man Records in 2010, and this time I did manage to get my hands on a copy, on import from the U.S. 'Daisy' / 'David' was a free 7" single which was included in the Director's Cut of the 2014 'Short Movie' album, and neither song really deserved to be left off the original record. Laura recorded a couple of live tracks for the eTown radio show in 2014, neither of which have ever shown up on an album, although 'Born To Love' was initially considered for 'Short Movie', and 'Colorado Girl' is a lovely cover of the Townes Van Zandt song. In 2017 she recorded covers of songs by Bob Dylan and Nick Cave for inclusion in the fourth series of the UK TV series 'Peaky Blinders', and in the same year she was included in the Spotify Singles record club, with a 7" single which paired an acoustic version of the 'Semper Femina' song 'Wild Fire' with a similarly stripped-back version of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Kathy's Song'. We end the album with her take on Mary Hopkins' 'Those Were The Days', released as part of a collection of songs inspired by the film 'Roma'. So enjoy this album of rarities by one of the UK's best singer/songwriters, and then go out and buy her brilliant new album 'Song For Our Daughter'.

Track listing

01 Flicker And Fail (Record Store Day 7" single 2012)
02 To Be A Woman (b-side of 'Flicker And Fail')
03 Bron Y Aur (from the free CD 'Physical Grafitti Redrawn' with Mojo magazine 2015)
04 Like A Rolling Stone (unreleased duet with Eddie Berman 2014) 
05 Blues Run The Game (limited single on Third Man Records 2010)
06 The Needle And The Damage Done (b-side of 'Blues Run The Game')
07 Daisy (from the free 7" single with 'Short Movie' 2014)
08 David (from the free 7" single with 'Short Movie' 2014)
09 Born To Love (recorded for the eTown radio show 2014)
10 Colorado Girl (recorded for the eTown radio show 2014)
11 A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (recorded for 'Peaky Blinders' 2017)
12 Red Right Hand (recorded for 'Peaky Blinders' 2017)
13 Wild Fire (Spotify Singles Vol. 7 2017)
14 Kathy's Song (b-side of 'Wild Fire')
15 Those Were The Days (from 'Music Inspired By The Film "Roma" 2019)

Solstice Tidings: An Alternative Christmas Album (2019)

If, like me, you've heard the same dozen Christmas songs over and over on the radio and in the shops over the past few weeks, then here's an album to take the edge off the festive period. They're still Christmas/Winter-themed songs, but by some of my favourite bands (most of them already have a post on the site), and the majority are in the alternative genre, with just a couple of more mainstream acts, but with songs that tend not to make it to the ubiquitous Christmas compilation albums. Low issued one of the best ever Christmas albums in 2010, and I was tempted to include the up-beat 'Just Like Christmas', but instead I went for a lesser-known song from it, although do check out the whole thing as it's a classic. Cheap Trick, Ramones, The Flaming Lips, Sparks and AC/DC give us a cynical or left-field viewpoint of the holiday, while the offerings from Squeeze, Smashing Pumpkins and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are surprisingly restrained. Galaxie 500's take on Yoko One's 'Listen, The Snow Is Falling' is simply breath-taking, and I've also included songs by two of my favourite current singer/songwriters, with  'Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)' from Laura Marling and 'Winter Song' from Billie Marten. I hope that this hour-long collection of little-heard Christmas songs adds some joy to your holiday. 

Track listing

01 Christmas Christmas - Cheap Trick
02 A Christmas Song - Jethro Tull
03 Christmas Was Better In The 80's - The Futureheads
04 Listen, The Snow Is Falling - Galaxie 500
05 Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) - Ramones
06 Christmas Time - The Smashing Pumpkins
07 If You Were Born Today (Song For Little Baby Jesus) - Low
08 All I Want For Christmas - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
09 Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
10 Winter Song - Billie Marten
11 Christmas At The Zoo - The Flaming Lips
12 Father Christmas - The Kinks
13 Home For Christmas - Kate Bush
14 Thank God It's Not Christmas - Sparks
15 Christmas Day - Squeeze
16 (We Wish You) A Protein Christmas - The Fall
17 There Ain't No Santa Claus On The Evening Stage - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
18 Mistress For Christmas - AC/DC
19 Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) - Laura Marling

Laura Marling - Studio Sessions B Sides Live (2000)

Another very early compilation was one I put together of Laura Marling tracks, also posted on Limewire before her first album. I downloaded the first two and then promptly forgot that I had them until I stumbled on them some years later and realised just how good they were. I trawled the net and found another dozen songs that had never made it to CD to add to them, and burned them to a disc. For the cover I googled 'Laura Marling' and this picture came up, and even though it wasn't her I liked it so much that I used it anyway. I gave the album to a Laura Marling fansite some years ago, and so you may have already seen it around, but I haven't spotted it for some time so here it is again.

Track listing

01 Candlelight

02 Ghosts That Broke My Heart

03 Love Me Then Leave Me

04 The Man Who Sings About Romance

05 I'm A Fly

06 Karma

07 Soulless Child

08 Anywhere With Meaning

09 I Know You!!

10 Mexico

11 Such A Shame

12 Mary

13 It's Only My Opinion

14 Oh Mama How Far I've Come

15 5 Years

I'm still  huge fan of Laura, and I consider that some of these songs stand up well against her later work.