I Speak Because I Can

Laura Marling’s third studio album reveals that the young singer/songwriter surely possesses an old soul. She inflects with the matured depth of a world-weary tunesmith on the opening “Devil’s Spoke,” a slice of timeless Americana where banjo, guitar, bass, drums and Marling’s smoky inflections all come. The spare “Made By Maid” utilizes only an acoustic guitar and Marling’s voice to play as though she was waxing on the muse’s point of view from Neil Young’s “A Man Needs a Maid.” Producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon) gives I Speak Because I Can an exquisite mix where negative space accompanies Marling’s restraint, giving more room to those uplifting moments as heard halfway through “Rambling Man,” where everything is suddenly played and sung all at once. It’s like the sun bursting through a break in the clouds. Backed by Mumford & Sons, the album’s standout “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” plays with a lilting elegance enveloped in hushed string arrangements and sublime woodwinds.