Laura Marling to release seventh album on Friday, shares lead single "Held Down"

"Held Down" is the first taste of Marling's new 10-track album, and marks her first single since releasing LUMP with Tunng's Mike Lindsay in 2018.

Song For Our Daughter will be Marling's first solo album since 2017's Semper Femina.

Marling says of her new LP, "My new album Song For Our Daughter is coming out this week, ahead of our planned schedule. In light of the change to all our circumstances, I saw no reason to hold back on something that, at the very least, might entertain, and at its best, provide some sense of union."

She adds, "It’s strange to watch the facade of our daily lives dissolve away, leaving only the essentials; those we love and our worry for them. An album, stripped of everything that modernity and ownership does to it, is essentially a piece of me, and I’d like for you to have it. I’d like for you, perhaps, to hear a strange story about the fragmentary, nonsensical experience of trauma and an enduring quest to understand what it is to be a woman in this society. When I listen back to it now, it makes more sense to me then when I wrote it. My writing, as ever, was months, years, in front of my conscious mind. It was there all along, guiding me gently through the chaos of living. And that, in itself, describes the sentiment of the album - how would I guide my daughter, arm her and prepare her for life and all of its nuance? I’m older now, old enough to have a daughter of my own, and I feel acutely the responsibility to defend The Girl. The Girl that might be lost, torn from innocence prematurely or unwittingly fragmented by forces that dominate society. I want to stand behind her and whisper in her ear all the confidences and affirmations I had found so difficult to provide myself. This album is that strange whisper; a little distorted, a little out of sequence, such is life. I want you to have it."

Her new record is co-produced by Ethan Johns. She says of the recording process, "I demoed everything really heavily, and re-edited loads of stuff. So I did all of the arrangements, I knew all the musicians I wanted to work with. I mixed the record with Dom [Monks - engineer of several Marling albums]. And all of the backing vocals on this album I did at home because I wanted no one else’s opinion!"

Tracklist:

1. Alexandra
2. Held Down
3. Strange Girl
4. Only the Strong
5. Blow By Blow
6. Song For Our Daughter
7. Fortune
8. The End of the Affair
9. Hope We Meet Again
10. For You