Laura Marling "Sophia"

Here's the flip side of something I wrote about a week ago . . .

This is a tune that suffers by premature judgment.

I had sampled this song a number of times, mostly based on the enthusiastic reviews Laura Marling has been receiving.

But I didn't feel too moved by what I was hearing.

Here's the thing. The first 60 seconds is pretty unmoving. It's low key, a little thin. Nice enough, but not a strong radio single.

Sixty seconds in, you start to hear a few interesting (seemingly unrelated) influences---Judy Collins, Nick Drake, among others---but the song still hasn't proven to be a standout.

A full 3 minutes into the song, drums appear and the songs propels forward. And that's where the song proves itself.

Her voice takes on a new level of urgency, and you suddenly realized that all the elements are coalescing---the melodic bass, the background vocals, the beat the beat the beat.

The build was slow, but it did build to some something super-strong, worthy of the glowing press.

So the question is, in a radio/singles world, is someone going to stick with the tune for 3 minutes before it gets to somewhere?

I mean, Eric Lindell's awesome new single in only 2 minutes total.

At a minimum, I am now moved to delve into the record further.

What do you think?


See the video on Youtube.