Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

Laura Marling – Semper Femina

  • Dork
  • March 9, 2017
Label:
Released:
Rating:

Laura Marling - Semper Femina

Marling is artful at remaining cloaked.

Label: More Alarming Records
Released: 10th March 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Womanhood is a topic that Laura Marling embraces; her sixth album takes its title from an excerpt from Virgil‘s poem Aeneid – “varium et mutabile semper femina” – meaning “woman is always a fickle and changeable thing.” She reclaimed this phrase and took ‘Semper Femina’ (‘Always a Woman’) for her art, even getting the phrase inked on her thigh.

She sings in narratives throughout, but there is always a longing to discover something. Atop the palm-muted notes of ‘Always This Way’, she ponders: “I’d like to know if she had to go / or if she made a point to.”

More questions are asked on the melodically finger-picked ‘Wild Once’, about a time forgotten, where “You will sit down to explain it / And you’re constantly asking ‘Why?’”
‘Nouel’, meanwhile, is a bard-like adoration to the divine titular character, taking Virgil’s line in its final verse: “I do well to serve Nouel / My only guiding star / Fickle and changeable / Semper femina.” It could be Marling personifying women and womanhood; her comments on the creative process of the album hint at this: “It’s me looking specifically at women and feeling great empathy towards them and by proxy towards myself.”

For all the candid moments on ‘Semper Femina’, the mystery that shrouds it feels like the coy singer-songwriter still doesn’t want to reveal quite everything. In every track there is a vulnerability, but Marling is artful in remaining cloaked. Connor McDonnell

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Features

Fall Out Boy: “Going deep with people that care feels so much more important than going wide”

  • March 24, 2023
View Post
  • Features

Sabrina Carpenter: Pop hits

  • March 22, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Ben Howard has announced a huge 2023 UK and European tour

  • March 20, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Music News
    Ed Sheeran has dropped his new single, ‘Eyes Closed’ – Watch
    • Music News
    MAY-A has shared a new single, ‘Your Funeral’
    • Music News
    BLOXX are back with a new EP, and early teaser-track ‘Television Promises’
    • Music News
    boygenius have announced a few global listening events, plus a Banquet out-store show
    • Music News
    Jimin has released his debut solo album, ‘Face’

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.