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LAURA MARLING
T
he opening track on Laura Marling’s sixth
studio record is so evocative you can’t blame
yourself for having a visceral reaction. Titled
Soothing
, it’s super carnal, with a sauntering
beat and small guitar licks which creep down
chromatically in teasing scutters. Marling’s voice
is vulnerable and commanding at once. The clip
features two women in PVC outfits performing
some sort of sensual ritual, watched by an
austere group of biddies.
There’s something very
The
Handmaid’s Tale
about it, indicating
the hidden and taboo, and Marling
says as much – but that’s all. “It’s a
collection of different images from
a dream,” she says. “Everything in
there is from a dream and has some
symbolic reference to it.”
Marling is taciturn with her
explanations about the impetus
behind most of
Semper Femina
’s
tracks; while we already know that
a phrase from the epic poem by Virgil,
Aeneid
,
is responsible for the record’s title, Marling
expands on another work of literature which
inspired stand-out cut
Nouel
. The track's lyrics
include lines from Virgil's poem, an allusion
to Aesop's fable about the thorn in the lion's
paw, and traditional poetic devices. “A lot of the
images in that particular song [are] from
When
Women Were Birds
, which is a book by a writer
called Terry Tempest Williams," Marling explains.
"It’s a beautiful book about her mother dying,
and what sort of things she remembered about
her mother as she was dying, and then when
W
ith their debut album
In The Court
Of The Crimson King
, English prog-
rock group King Crimson were quickly
recognised as one of the most radical
– and later influential – bands in the
genre’s history; their irreverent adoption
of jazz and symphonic flairs over the
blues-based patterns that defined rock
music before them was unprecedented.
Their debut’s cover features a painting
by computer programmer Barry Godber,
the original of which was recovered by
King Crimson lead guitarist Robert Fripp
in the mid-‘90s from the band’s label
HQ. “They kept it exposed to bright
light, at the risk of ruining it, so I ended
up removing it,” Fripp said in 1995. He
describes the featured visage as “the
Schizoid Man”, the protagonist of the
album’s single
21st Century Schizoid
Man
(sung by lead vocalist Greg Lake,
later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer). In
a December 1969 performance of
the track, Fripp told the audience the
song is about Spiro Agnew, the 39th
Vice President of the United States
(under President Richard Nixon). Agnew
resigned from office in 1973 amid
investigations of flagrant corruption
and the burgeoning Watergate scandal,
which prompted the first ever use of
the 25th Amendment (which details
succession to a Presidential office when
its current holder is “incapacitated”).
Agnew pleaded no contest to the
criminal charges brought against him and
was disbarred by the Maryland judiciary,
who declared him “morally obtuse.”
WHAT'S THE
STORY?
We have a look back
at the fascinating tales
behind some of our
favourite album covers.
THIS MONTH:
In The Court
Of The Crimson King,
King
Crimson (1969)
03
NEWS
MUSIC
H
e's definitely on a steady course, the
famous Mr. Ed. More adored than
any ungulate I can think of (except a
baby tapir?), Ed Sheeran has wrapped up his
Australian promotional tour and left us with the
wonderful
÷
divide
; we spoke to President of
Warner Music's artist services and label arm,
Tony Harlow – the man behind Ed's first ever
Australian promo tour – for our cover feature.
There're also interviews with Holy Holy, The
Waifs, All Our Exes Live In Texas, James Mercer
of The Shins, and more. Enjoy.
Zo
ë
Radas (Music Editor)
she died. It’s just a beautiful book about the
lineage of women in her family, basically."
Lyricism aside there are also some very
intriguing sonic details on the album; while
Marling credits her drummer, engineer and
producer with many of the designs, she admits
their approaches encouraged her own ideas.
“Blake [Mills, producer] will take a snare hit and
put … the microphone behind the piano so that it
catches the strings of the piano, and then
put that through reverb,” she explains of
the ethereal effects on
Next Time
. “It’s all
crazy f-cking stuff. They deal with that kind
of musical experimentation, which is really,
really good because it pushes me to do
more innovative stuff.”
It’s still very important to her, however,
to be able to recreate these things live.
“The consistency through all of my
records has been recording all together
in a room," she says. "And I think that’s
important – it’s important to me. I think
it makes music sound alive, and I can hear
when it’s not recorded like that, and it just
doesn’t sound living to me. I want to be able
to accurately do what we did in the studio on
stage, which can be a bit limiting. For instance,
we couldn’t afford to take a string quartet on
tour, which would’ve been amazing for this
album, ‘cause the strings are so amazing. But it’s
not possible. So we’re doing the arrangement
so that my backing singers sing the string
arrangement.” That promises to be a spectacular
experience; no Australian dates have been
announced yet, but we can believe in the dream.
INTERVIEW
Semper
Femina
by
Laura Marling
is out March 10
via Kobalt.