Hi, everyone. Deepthony Breathtano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Laura Marling album, Patterns in Repeat.

Contemporary UK folk singer and songwriter, Laura Marling. She is back with her first full-length album in four years, which would make this her eighth, I believe. It's a record that, personally, I was really excited for, not just because her last, Song for our Daughter, was so good. Really her best so far, in my opinion. But Marling was also open enough to share in some really massive life changes she was about to embark on on this record, specifically motherhood. But the deeper cuts on this record also contained devastating stories of affairs, breakups, or depictions of women going their own way or wrestling with the difficulties of not fitting in. All the tracks on this record were delivered with a very simple, intimate stark presentation; I presume because these songs were captured in part in Marling's home studio, and maybe it's something else driving that sound.

Either way, the sound of this record marked a new direction, one that was almost predictive because if you remember, this album originally dropped very early in 2020, and it sounded like a pandemic album before a lot of what we would know to be pandemic albums during that time period would sound. All of this resulted in music that had a stillness and serenity about it that actually made the lyrical content of these tracks hit a lot harder, in my opinion, than it had on previous Marling records – ones that, by comparison, might have been a bit more visceral or layered.

Look, as a songwriter, I think Marling did have a very respectable 2010s run that anybody who was into this music should most definitely check out, especially if mature, skillful singing and poetic lyrics are your thing. But personally, I'm especially excited for this new chapter here because the writing has been so good, the production has been so organic, and I think Marling has found some real power in the simplicity of this direction, too. And Patterns in Repeat does carry on a lot of what made its predecessor so great.

Marling's vocals continue to sound stellar. They're deep, they're smoky, they're experienced, they're packed with conviction, and the combination of tranquil classical guitars and strings still continue to do the job. The writing and storytelling is incredibly moving and thoughtful, with a handful of moments that once again see Marlene giving us a glimpse into this new stage of her life. It still also sounds like a great deal of this record was captured at home. You can very much hear a toddler making some sound in the opening moments of "No One's Gonna Love You Like I Can". Also, birds chirping in the very final moments of "Patterns" as well, which is colored with all the psychedelic effects and echoes.

Which all gives you a sense of the very warm, relaxed, and maybe sometimes weary conditions under which this album was created, like with the baby sounds and quiet exchanges that open up the track, "Child of Mine". And this track is essentially a mother's love distilled, as Marling lyrically details the homey family life she now finds herself in, along with the ways in which she's made herself strong as a motherly figure. And with the faint woodwinds, the sweet guitars, as well as the very chilly nocturnal vocal harmonies, Marling also continues to do a lot with a little, sonically and instrumentally. I wouldn't say this track is just a drab, sleepy slice of life moment, though, because it does have a very emotionally powerful finish as these refrains and really lush string sections pile on.

And as I said, there are other moments on this record that mark this new chapter of Marling's life, like "Lullaby", which is literally what it says it is. It's a gentle, gorgeous, acoustic number about holding your baby, singing it to sleep. The vocal layers on this track are so pretty and calming and sentimental that I don't know if I should drift off to sleep or cry.

Now, there are other reflections on these life changes within this record, but sometimes they are explored in more abstract and philosophical ways, like on "Patterns", where you get all of these steady, mesmerizing finger-picked guitar patterns, over which Marling speeds through these images of life moving forward, years passing by. From here, we zoom out to an even wider picture that shows this very pivotal moment in one person's life, becoming a parent, starting a family, is really a part of a really long, never-ending mosaic or pattern of sorts that extends not just into the past, but into the future, too.

Then later on the album, we have a reprise of this on the title track, where we have returning melodies and lyrical themes from the opening track, from "Patterns", of course. Narratively here, Marlene continues further into this cycle of growing up, falling in love, again and again, having your own kids. But the lyrics on this one are framed in a way to where it reads like a letter to somebody, especially in the final moments of the track where she really wants to make clear that this journey of motherhood was done out of love, that nothing was lost in the process here, and she's essentially passing down a part of herself to her child.

What's also interesting is that musically, while in the past, I have caught very, very, very big like Joni Mitchell vibes on a lot of Marling's work, this time around, I'm getting Paul McCartney on this track in the vocal melodies, in the guitar work, which is not a bad thing at all. I also want to note this track is the last full song on the record as it is followed by the closer that is an instrumental version of the song "Lullaby". While I do find it to be a bit unceremonious as a finisher, I do think it is cool that the album's flow does come full circle in a certain way. There is a pattern there. There is a sense of self-reference and self-awareness.

There are other thematic continuations that Laura brings on to this record: love. However, she's taking a very different approach with it than she did with her last LP because she's not writing quite as much about breaking up, really more about being in love. Case in point, I guarantee the song "No One's Gonna Love You Like I Can" is the biggest, sweetest, lovesick gut punch that you are going to hear on a singer-songwriter record in 2024. That track is just jaw-droppingly gorgeous and wonderful.

There are other moments on the record that express deep and intense feelings of love as well, but more from a perspective of longing and missing someone. It's like we're now on this album sitting through the aftermath of all of the breakups and separations on Song for our Daughter.

There's "Your Girl" where Marling's lyrics see a protagonist reminiscing, thinking they'll always be that person's girl, even though the relationship that's being referenced is obviously over and the ex on some level is being observed from afar. Their life has been turned around. And once again, on the vocal melodies and on the guitar work, I'm getting big Paul McCartney vibes.

Marling is also looking back on the track, "Looking Back", a song whose lyrics really contrasts hard with the need to escape the desperation to get away on many of the tracks from Song for Our Daughter. And now on this track, Marling is dropping bars like, "I wonder if you think of me / Perhaps somewhere in the dark / Love can be recovered." It's a lovely song, an enchanting ballad, and further proof that nobody is impervious to feelings of romantic nostalgia, which the song "Caroline" is also very much about, but also acting on those feelings, as this song is very much about somebody busting back into your life after they left it, like a distant memory come to life again, or in the ingenious chorus of the song, like a tune you can barely remember.

And while this does bring up some fond memories, I suppose, the re-entry of this person becomes an interruption of sorts. As the protagonist on this track has gotten older, they've been married, they have grown children at this point. And in the context of all of these changes, this person asks their ex essentially to just not call again, go away.

On the song "The Shadows", Marling is also singing about missing someone. It's another leaving type song, but this is handily one of the most dramatic she's ever done in this vein. Or at least it tries to be with very theatrical pacing, slowly strummed chords, the way she's singing on the track, really eating up every bit of space instrumentally, every naked, empty moment like Leonard Cohen does with the grand finesse that he did in his prime. It's just a question as to whether or not it works as well as it could with the instrumental, with the production just coming across so dry. It doesn't sound as big or as theatrical as it could. It's not quite what it's implying it is.

And with that, the only other song that's really left is the instrumental interlude, smack dab in the middle of the record, which is this minimal repetitive organ piece that is very much a switch up in this tracklist. I mean, it's not like the rest of the record is filled with organ passages like this. While I do think it is a bit of an awkward fit of sorts, you can really get lost in this passage that's going on here. In a way, it certainly does help along the progress of all of these densely narrative tracks.

But yeah, once again, with Patterns in Repeat, this is very much a continuation of everything that made Song for Our Daughter great: the music, the performances, and a really graceful series of continuations and inverses of a lot of the themes of that record. While there were a few tracks that paled in comparison to others, and I was not super crazy about the ending, it's still a very holistic and thoughtful album, and certainly one of the best singer-singer songwriter projects you're going to hear in 2024, which is why I'm feeling a strong 8 to light 9 on it.

Anthony Fantano. Laura Marling. Forever.