Could she break out and be a superstar?

Laura Marling

By Bob Lefsetz – So, we need acts doing it their own way, waiting in the wings, until suddenly the mainstream catches on and they become superstars.

Could this happen to Laura Marling?

Possibly.

All I know is despite no discernible footprint in the public consciousness, I’ve been playing her album “I Speak Because I Can” incessantly. It’s what made music great. Cut in its own space, an aural trip to your inner being. Top Forty is about competing with the flash of television, of the news, elbowing for attention. But do Perez and those chasing the comets have it all wrong?

The instrumentation of “Devil’s Spoke” reminds one of the late sixties, of the heady days of Led Zeppelin, who were revered for their quietude as well as their bombast. “Devil’s Spoke” is akin to “Black Mountain Side”. With just a guitar, a voice and little more, you envision an entire landscape as the track unfolds. You’re not asking the track to show you, you’re enraptured, you go along for the ride.

And you can be passive, intellectual, debate the lyrics, the vocal, but that’s missing the point…it’s about the FEEL! This is a sound you want to hear live. You expect the act to be able to replicate it. You expect no dancing, only atmosphere.

“Devil’s Spoke” is a great opener. Not a hit, but an introduction, a carnival barker inviting you inside.

Having hooked you, Marling can go even more subtle with track number 2, “Made By Maid”.

But the cut that will close you is number 3, “Rambling Man”. The way it goes from intimacy to excitement, the way it’s hooky without selling out has you nodding your head, joining the pocket.

The album fades as it unfolds. But Laura Marling is for real. She’s trying to make a statement, she’s trying to make art. And it’s about the mainstream coming to artists like this as opposed to the opposite. It’s not about writing a single, getting caught up in the spin cycle, but establishing a tent off in the distance and waiting for listeners to find you, to be drawn in by the sound.

I’m disappointed that the National and the Hold Steady appear to have little cross-over potential. That’s my beef with their fans. Not the raw quality of the acts’ music, but the fact it can’t be embraced by the mainstream.

Laura Marling is closer than those two. Still, there’s nothing on “I Speak Because I Can” that could get Top Forty airplay, the album would not be embraced by all. But it’s only her second record in. You never know where an artist will go.

But you always know the culture demands honesty, truth and artistic exploration. It’s a need that never expires. The music business has avoided this in pursuit of guaranteed profits. But listening to “I Speak Because I Can” guarantees that I want to see Laura Marling live, and isn’t that the key, isn’t that the first step to establishing a career?