Short Movie is Laura Marling’s fifth album in seven years, and following on from 2013’s masterpiece Once, I Was An Eagle there was always going to be a certain level of expectation around this release. An expectation which, unfortunately, Short Movie doesn’t quite manage to live up to.
You see, for this album Laura Marling has made one big, obvious change: she has switched from acoustic to electric guitar. Sadly, this change isn’t as effective, or as impressive, as it initially seems – a lot of these songs are exactly the same as those that she has been writing for years. As a result, although many of the tracks here are perfectly decent, such as the sinister ‘Howl’ and ‘I Feel Your Love’, which is elevated by its atmospheric use of strings, more often than not the various songs sound as if they are begging to be played in her traditional, folk style, making the electric guitar sound come across as jading, discordant and forced.
On top of this, from the slow-burning opener ‘Warrior’ it is obvious Short Movie is filled with songs that don’t seem to go anywhere. The dark, opening track dredges on for five minutes, presenting the listener with no stylistic change throughout, and offering little else to hold any interest – something which is seen far too often over the course of the album.
All this is not to say Short Movie is a bad album by any means. When the new, electric-guitar based sound works, it really works – most notably on the soaring singles ‘Short Movie’ and ‘False Hope’. On top of this, Laura Marling’s lyrical talents certainly haven’t faltered; even on the weaker tracks that can’t seem to find their legs, her brilliant lyrics and faultless vocals pull them through.
The album is perhaps at its strongest on some of the slower, more subdued tracks, such as ‘Walk Alone’, the aptly titled ‘Divine’, and the poignant, beautiful, stunning ‘How Can I’. Short Movie is a competent album, there’s no doubt about that. But from Laura Marling we’ve come to expect so much more.
