Music
Review
Laura Marling at Hackney Church, 29/10/24
The first of the singer-songwriter's four London shows feels like both a comeback and a farewell
“I’m a little rusty,” Laura Marling admits early on during her first headline gig in nearly three years. Instantly a member of the crowd shouts some boisterous words of encouragement. “I wasn’t fishing…but I appreciate that,” she replies, embracing the communal warmth her music conjures.
Tuesday evening’s show, the first of four in the gorgeous St John at Hackney Church, is something of a farewell as well as a comeback for Marling. Speaking to The Guardian earlier this year, she toyed with the idea of “winding” her career down and said she had nothing left to “prove to myself”, while new album Patterns In Repeat ends with her telling her young daughter “I want you to know that I gave it up willingly”.
There is no evidence of rust or jaded lack of adventure onstage though. She starts the show alone and opens with a rapid run-through of sprawling songs from 2013’s beloved Once I Was An Eagle without stopping for applause. After that “test of faith” opening comes the jaunty ‘Alas, I Cannot Swim’ from her 2008 debut and the prickly ‘Nouel’ from 2017’s Semper Femina. “So much changes as you get older,” she reflects, but this is more than a trip down memory lane.
The recently released Patterns In Repeat was recorded at Marling’s house, with homey sounds of domestic bliss and direct poetry about becoming a mother making it her most revealing record yet. Several lamps are used to recreate that vibe onstage and while a local choir or a string section might not make up your typical living room furniture, adding a richness to the tender tracks.
At various points during the gig, she admidts she felt nervous, says there is a whole lot of imposter syndrome from playing piano and completely forgets the opening line to closing song ‘For You’. There is also her twisting, enthralling music which conjures a magic all of its own.
From the wide-eyed ‘Child Of Mine’ through the heart-on-the-sleeve surrender of ‘Your Girl’, Marling’s latest era is all about celebration. There is a real sense of joy as she switches between the dreamy theatrics of ‘The Shadows’ and the playful ‘Caroline’, while the audience follows along in hushed awe.
Aided by older songs that championed hope, belief and risk-taking, it is a gorgeous show that confidently welcoms the future and all its possibilities… even if Marling promises nothing about her own. The audience is too wrapped up in the lush present to worry about all that, though.