ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Patterns in Repeat,’ Laura Marling Finds Inspiration in Motherhood

Laura Marling’s latest album, Patterns in Repeat, was inspired by the birth of Marling’s daughter and the singer-songwriter’s initiation into motherhood, but still covers broad thematic ground. Throughout the venture, Marling reflects on her life and the world into which she has brought her child, translating myriad questions, memories, hopes, and anxieties into a series of beguiling yet accessible songs.

Opener “Child of Mine” is a guitar-and-vocal tribute to family (“You and your dad are dancing in the kitchen”), “slowing down,” and the Edenic nature of childhood (“Everything you want is in your reach right now”). Marling’s voice is relaxed yet compelling. The track sets the stage for her forays down various descriptive and narrative rabbit holes. This includes “Patterns,” a portrait of a ballerina named Zena. Functioning like a flipbook, the song portrays a handful of well-executed strokes illustrating how each of us, without exception, is subject to ageing and the decline of the body.

Patterns in Repeat is Marling’s least mercurial project. Although she puts her signature steaminess on the backburner, she makes up for it with an emphasis on lyrical subtleties. The breathy “Your Girl,” for example, on one hand portrays a love affair that never came to fruition, but on the other could be regarded as a tribute to an imaginary friend or even a part of Marling’s own personality. Either way, the track emerges from Marling’s desire to resolve internal conflicts and mirror positive values as a parent. If we want to impart wholeness to our children, she might agree, we have to seek that wholeness for ourselves.

The “you” in “No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can” is similarly elusive. Is Marling alluding to an on-again, off-again lover or a part of herself with which she can’t reconcile? Complemented by thin piano and strings, the mix brings to mind a VHS home video. “Caroline” merges the love song, the stoner reverie, and a diary entry for a late-summer day spent at the park. Marling is part of the unfolding scene and removed from it, cast as both participant and observer.

If “Patterns” shows Marling exploring the inevitability of ageing via another character, “Looking Back,” in which she imagines herself as an older woman, lands as a confessional monologue (though Marling has always been adept at using first-person to flesh out a persona). The title song, meanwhile, is a free-flowing collection of images, narrative elements, and declarations. As with “Patterns” and “Looking Back” (and “Caroline”, to a degree), Marling adopts an aerial view. If birth accentuates possibility and newness, it also reminds us of the parameters within which we exist. Marling acknowledges her daughter’s individuality – that she has/will have her own path and muses – while reiterating that we’re all destined to age and ultimately die.

Patterns in Repeat spotlights Marling as she works with a relatively equanimous stance. Some listeners will miss the simmer and boil of earlier sets, particularly 2013’s Once I Was an Eagle and 2017’s Semper Femina. Others will be intrigued by Marling’s adoption of a more neutral tone. Even if some of these tracks unfurl like a dream you soon forget, the sequence as a whole points to Marling’s versatility, how her experiences feed her art, and how she’s committed to embodying her one and fleeting life.

Laura Marling’s Patterns in Repeat is out today on Chrysalis Records.