A Storm Hits The City

Laura Marling “False Hope”

Laura Marling’s music is so rooted in pastoral English folk that it’s mildly disconcerting to hear her do a straight-up rock song like this. But then, the jagged rhythm and tense mood of this song suits the lyrics’ urban setting, or at least a non-city person’s experience of time spent hidden away in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It’s interesting to hear Marling’s guitar playing reduced to something so blunt – her strength on previous records and throughout Short Movie is in gorgeous finger-picked parts that convey melody just as much as the tactile aspects of fingers hitting and plucking strings. That physical quality is definitely there in this song, but unlike most of her songs, which are recorded in a way that feels alarmingly intimate, there’s a bit of distance and atmosphere. Again, it makes sense – this is really a song about feeling like you’re just outside the experience of living your life. Of course this is the song where things are just a bit off.

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