Laura Marling - i Speak because i can.

i decided to write a review, one because i love this album, but frankly because i need the practice.

Having quietly created one of 2008’s great albums, with the same unpretentious nature Marling now at the grand age of 20 returns with a darker collection of songs which imply she is recollecting on a new found maturity. Attention is likely to be brought to the effect her split from fellow folk up-start Charlie Fink of Noah and the Whale fame has had on the record, but this would be to under value the scope of emotion that Marling is able to create in such simple structures.
Whilst Alas I cannot Swim had its successes in its natural tone of first discovering heart ache and break, here the melancholy is given an urgent passion evoked in the building crescendos of opener Devil’s Spoke that mix raw guitar chords with a whirling atmosphere of banjo’s that only relents to hear Marling crow out from the depths of her heart ‘and I hold your face away from mine’. Maybe that heart break isn’t too far from the surface of some tracks.
The arrangement on Goodbye England has a gentler tone, departing from the rough desperate anger that emerges elsewhere, Marling here is at her most picturesque- like the English countryside she is describing, the melody is quaint and conjures up images of idyllic walks on frosty mornings in mitten gloves. Hope in the Air is a selection of rich piano chords which combine effortlessly with the passion in her voice to give honesty to the yearning that is describing.


Whilst her musical depth may have developed, it is still the delicate touch she has with her song writing that allows much of her seemingly easy brilliance to show. This is a record that tells of experience past her years, both in content and structure, a truly great emerging folk talent.


the dress she is wearing on the cover also reminds me of this beauty i found on the because magazine website the other day. Rick Owens Silk Print Dress. image from because magazine website

The beautiful simplicity of this dress is similar to the beauty of Marling's record, but she probably just beats him there.


Currently Listening to: as well as the above, still XX. i think i need to get a temporary ban from this record, it's unhealthy how many times i have listened to it. it is however, perfect depressed bath music.

Currently Fretting over: what to do with my summer. to go to leeds festival? my 14,15,16,17 and 18 year old selves would hate me right now for not buying a friday day ticket for the libertines. actually, scrap that,my currently 19 year old self hates me for not being in the country for it.

H&M, Garden Collection

Being a store that i had currently lost faith in due its incredibly high hit and miss nature, things that are just too european to bear, i was pleasantly surprised by the well, very pleasant, pretty selection of clothes on offer in this environmentally aware collection for spring (although it is now nearly april and snow is predicted!!). teaming of bold floral prints in brash colours alongside natural shades forming ladylike silhouette's, the lack of focus on the floral prints is particularly pleasing to me - so bored of this look espeically in its smock format. the neutral pastle pinks imply a more feminine fall collection as previewed in many of the rtw fall shows - celine a massive highlight. my personal favourite and latest purchase is these elegant high waisted shorts.

worn with a classic white shirt with an open neck line or polo shirt for day time attire, it cries out summer in the 1920's in the West egg. i don't think i'll ever get enough of Gatsby chic.

ode to a can of soup

when living in a shared house there cannot help but be issues with cleanliness. my house is the height of student slum chic. in a really awful way. washing up is an activity apparently too challenging for any of us to carry out, this leads to some strange eating habits, cereal out of a mug, stew out of the tray meant for the scales. people of course never admit to washing up being theres (honestly, i swear NONE of it is mine!) but there is a tell tale trace that leads dirty plates back to my door. orange soup stains.

i simply cannot get enough heinz tomato soup in and more often than not around my mouth. yes, it is a frighteningly unnatural colour for food, yes a whole can in one go does make me feel slightly nauseous (i have MAJOR beef with whoever designed the standard can size. this issue also involves my current love of baked beans.) and yes, im aware its sickly smell permeates through the whole of my house much to my flatmates disgust (not so much soup fans). but it is my one and only, tried and tested hangover cure. perhaps not so much cure, but the only thing i can and want to stomach after one my own special brand of gut wrenching, head-in-vice type hangovers where i truly feel sometimes the world is torturing me and it is enjoying doing so. i get horrendous hangovers. the actual worst. heniz tomato soup is my one saviour, and for that, i thank them.
but it is quite apparent thats it's my dirty mess that is left to congeal on the coffee table, a sign to each of my housemates that i am 1. suffering profusely and 2.will no doubt complain about it to them in a bid to aquire pity for my own disgustingly self inflicted situation. and that washing up, is frankly as likely as me sticking to the vow of 'only going out for quiet drinks'. the forever present silver lining i find in these situations is that i know just how much i will enjoy my creamy liquid dinner.

Currently Listening to: Foals - This Orient. I think i have just listened to this song for the 10th time in a row. a more mature sound than Antidotes, and progressive in it's sense of arrangement. i like. 'it's your heart that gives you, this western feeling'.

Currently Dreading: the return of monday morning. filing and losing an hours sleep.

carriages, almost claridge's

to celebrate the 53rd year of my dear father's birthday we tried something new. venturing out to knasborough restaurant Carriages brought for me a variety of culinary surprises, on with differing appeals it has to be said. Dressed with washer woman hair, in my favourite thrown-on-if-ever-lost-for-what-to-wear-top after a hard days graft i was more than ready for a meal out which didn't mean scraping the linings of my pockets at the end of the night and considering the prices instead of the food.
for starter, i chose the mouthwatering combination of lambchops coated in cajun flavouring with a delicious mint and cumin yoghurt dressing. as tzatziz is my current favourite thing ever this dish had its obvious appeal, and i was so pleased it in no way disappointed. 2 juicy lamb chops in my belly and i was a happy chappy.
enticed into my main course by the rare opportunity for duck, i took the dressing of kumquats and redcurrents in my stride. i learnt however, there was only so much of this sickly combination ones stridge can wade through. although lovely, i think i got more than my fare share of my kumquat five a day. five a month would be enough for me.
passing on pudding after snacking on a decadent chocolate cake after work whilst watching glee (actually mine and my dads favourite activity between the hours of 5-6 - he just loved the neil diamond cover) i chose a sample of the cheese board. 2 massive errors occured in this decision. one being a very very dodgy scottish cheese which tasted of vineger, and a mustard cheese which, strangely tasted of mustard. definatelylearnt i still hate mustard.
but overall,it was a delightful meal, in a cosy setting of wooden beams and warm red rustic walls. apparently also, when going out with the parents who should fit into that bracket of middle class middle aged alcoholic it was i instead who drank 3/4 of the wine. they are doing nothing to surpress the image they have of me.

pockets full of paperclips

when often considering fashion, i rarely like to think of its practical side. this i have come to realise, is a mistake in my current situation. today, i wore a pleasant mix of countryside folk chic, with brown workman boots, a twee plaid navy check skirt and simple black v neck jumper. an unremarkable outfit. the issue however lied in the mere fact of the lack of pockets i possessed. and no pockets meant no where to keep things (paper clips, irritating scraps of sticky paper, my mind because i obviously wasn't using it to do filing), funny that. a second unpractical fact is the existence of the clothes themselves when i was having to work somewhere hotter than the sun. really, even a thin jumper is unbearable at times. tights become a friend of the devil, creating a clammy second skin to encase my aching calves. the idea of scrubs has never been so appealing.

this got me thinking, that when it comes to fashion, if it's are only wanted for there practical necessity, does this mean they simply become clothes again? i see people wearing there hideous nhs regulation shoes, and wonder if that can really be consituted fashion, when in reality it is merely moulded plastic. i would love to say i never consider the practicality of the clothes i buy, but this would simply be a lie. i am forced into this against my will, well perhaps on the will of my bank manager and who ever it is who controls my overdraft limit. In topshop recently i was confronted by a very attractive cream silk (or imitation silk knowning topshop) smock shirt with a bow neck. attractive to say the least. for circa 50 pounds i had however to assess the situation.

1. where would i wear something that was cream.

2. what is the likelyhood of me spilling something on said cream top.

3. when something is more than 50% see-thru where is it socially acceptable to wear it?

the above 3 criteria instantaneously made my possible purchase void. i may be somewhat idiotic at times, but i am aware i am enough of a klutz to ruin that top within an hour of wearing it, and probably expose myself while doing so. this would consitute a social fail.

it would seem i should in the future, the only length my practical conceptions of fashion will reach is to take into account my desperate need for pockets. and my need to stay within my overdraft limit. in my head both as important as each other.



Currently eating: anything with gravy, i am currently under the influences of cravings for home comfort food.



Currently doing: working, eating, sleeping. repeat.

White Blank Page

a first.

on returning home, experiencing an existential crisis and deleting my facebook i have decided to take up this form of 21st century diary.Since most of the musing in my heads revolve around the two f's, i cannot think of a better thing to write about. both sumptuous, essential and BEAUTIFUL.

I started my full time job again, to pay for my taste for the finer things in life. In my head, i would dress something like Maggie Gyllenhaal in this:

Alas, as ever in my life reality does little to correspond to fantasy. A pencil skirt more tired than I am by the end of a day moving items out of alphabetical order into numerical does not flatter so well as it did when purchased 4 years ago. No enticing voluptuous curves, and heels would frankly kill me. must.try.harder. preppy chic tomorrow in the form of a high waisted belted soft grey silk skirt.

Food, on the other hand has seen a major turn up for the books as of late, and i won't lie to you, i feel that may have something to do with the lack of involvement i have had in cooking it. returning home to a somewhat dry chicken meal did lower my expectations, however the arrival of a meat pie on my table after a hard days work almost made me regress back to some earlier form of womanhood and feel it should have been my place in the kitchen making such delights. o father, how i admire your ability to make pastry that crispy yet not dry,melt in my mouth succulent meat and lashing of gravy. AND then a banoffe pie (with strawberries!). incredible. just a shame i'm on a diet. although that didn't stop me fridge raiding in my insomnia induced hunger. apparently after 3 months of not sleeping till 2, my body doesn't agree with school night bed times.

Currently Listening to: Zane Lowe (getting back into the radio this holiday)/I Speak because I can - Laura Marling (more on this later)

Currently reading: The Road - Cormac Mccarthy (my life, how i love.)/Reading in the Dark - Seamus Deane