Детали релиза : Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim (2008) [FLAC (image + .cue)]

Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim (2008)

Label: Virgin, Virgin
Catalog: CDV3040, 5099951688028
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 04 Feb 2008

Credits:
Arranged By (Strings) - Tom 'Fiddle' Hobden
Artwork By (Creative Direction) - Joy Elton
Artwork By (Woodcuts) - mockettandmoquette.co.uk
Composer - Laura Marling
Design - Alex Cowper
Engineer - Phill Brown
Featuring (Also) - Emily Dreyfus, Emily Thomas, Guy Kustav, Jesse Quin, Johnny Coates, Laura Dickson, Lotte Johnson, Nick Murray, Rob Greenwood, Winston Marshall
Mastered By - Guy Davie
Mixed By (Assisted), Recorded By (Assisted) - Anna Tjan
Mixed By, Recorded By - Guy Katsav
Performer - Charlie Fink, Laura Marling, Marcus Mumford, Tom Hobden, Rob Greenwood, Nick Murray, Jesse Quin, Emily Thomas
Producer - Charlie Fink
Recorded By (Additional Recording) - Phill Brown
Songwriter - Laura Marling

Notes:
Standard Jewel Case with 12 page insert booklet including lyrics and illustrations.
Mastered at The Exchange, London
Recorded at Eastcote Studios, Eden Studios, Kore Studios
Mixed at Soho Recording Studios
® & © 2008 Virgin Records Ltd.
Printed in the EU.
Barcode: 5099951688028
LC03095
BEL/BIEM

Track 12 contains 3 sections:
12.1 Your Only Doll (Dora) (3:14)
followed by a period of untitled bird song (1:50) followed by
12.2 which is an untitled hidden track (2:14), the lyrics of which the album's name is taken from.

Review by Stewart Mason :
Due to her youth (16 when she first hit Myspace, 17 when signed to an imprint of EMI, and 18 when her debut album came out), perky-cute looks and extremely British diction, singer/songwriter Laura Marling got a lot of comparisons to Lily Allen in her early buzz, but the quietly compelling Alas I Cannot Swim is not at all a frothy pop confection. A folk-tinged AAA pop record based on Marling's alluringly husky voice and graceful acoustic guitar, Alas I Cannot Swim would be more aptly compared to the likes of Feist, Keren Ann, or Regina Spektor. (In the album's press kit, Marling reveals her primary influence to be Bonnie "Prince" Billy, which also seems appropriate.) Although not to draw too forbidding a comparison, opening track and first single "Ghosts" is most strongly reminiscent of Joni Mitchell circa For the Roses, both in Marling's expressive vocal phrasing and the expert shifts in the arrangement between solo acoustic passages and full-band sections, not to mention an excellently deployed string section. That old-school '70s singer/songwriter vibe predominates throughout the album, in fact. There's one straight-up pop song here, the deceptively chipper-sounding "Cross Your Fingers" ("...hold your toes/We're all gonna die when the building blows" continues the sweetly sung chorus), but aside from that, Alas I Cannot Swim is the kind of album that takes a couple of listens for its charms to completely sink in. Rather than swath every track in prominent, ear-grabbing hooks, Marling and producer Charlie Fink choose to keep the decorations off in the distance on songs like "The Captain and Hourglass," where swells of pedal steel stay buried deep in the mix under Marling's hypnotic guitar line and quietly insistent vocals. There's every chance that Laura Marling will get lost in the shuffle as the unexpected commercial success of Feist's The Reminder leads major labels to unleash hordes of similarly talented female singer/songwriters, but Alas I Cannot Swim is far better than the average coffee house-endorsed girly pop.