laura marling - 'don't let me bring you down'

Tweet

Sunday afternoons were made for Ms Marling.

laura marling - 'soothing'

Tweet

So glad she's back. This is sublime.

laura marling - 'false hope'

Tweet

Last tune from me tonight and it's the first track from the very eagerly awaited new long player from Ms Marling. It sounds like she's upped the ante with a fast-paced, country-tinged edge to her music. 

laura marling - 'once'

Tweet

Here she is performing her new song at the Southbank. This woman is already a national treasure. A priceless one at that.

perfidious albion

Tweet

Listening to a Sinead O'Connor album on the train has got me thinking about England. The album was Collaborations and the song was 'Empire' originally a track on the very excellent album Clear by Bomb the Bass. Sinead sings it with the man who really should be Poet Laureate, Benjamin Zephaniah. The lyrics are as damning a statement about colonialism as you will ever hear.

Vampire, you're feed on the life of a pure heart
Vampire, you suck the life of goodness
Yes
Vampire, you're feed on the life of a pure heart
Vampire you suck the life of goodness

From now on I'll call you England

I've been racking my brains trying to think of other Anti-English tunes. I'm restricting this field to songs by non-English people as I've got no time for liberal self-loathing. Therefore no Genesis 'Selling England by the Pound', no Alabama 3, no Chumbawumba, no Flying Pickets. It also rules out (most of) the Pogues. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with many so far and they have been Celtic in origin.

From the Waterboys we have 'Old England' which charts the demise of a post-colonial master. I love this song although not for its sentiment as, deep down, I'm fiercely patriotic. I think I can spot a good tune when I hear it though. It's on the 'To the Sea' album which remains to this day one of the greatest albums ever written. I often wonder about this song and it's true meaning and whether I've properly understood its message.

The Proclaimers - Cap in Hand this time asks the question about Scottish Independence. A tad disingenuous in my opinion considering the disproportionate number of Scottish MPs, the white Elephant of Holyrood. It's often too easy to write off the Proclaimers as a novelty band but they come from a very fine Scottish folk tradition that has Fife at its heart. I think the Proclaimers are best experienced live so here they are from a Belgian tour in 2007.

To balance this out I'll also include a song about England from one of England's greatest songwriting talents. Laura Marling is precociously talented and this song is what can best be described as a love letter to her motherland. The album 'I Speak Because I Can' was a coming of age for Ms Marling and she is destined to be one of the great British female singers