Laura Marling Album Covers

Laura Marling is a British Folk singer who has three studio albums out. Her sound is often soft to listen however; her lyrics are habitually full of sinister melancholy. Each album cover reveals a position in her musical life and put together can describe clearly how she has developed as an artist.

Her first album Alas I Cannot swim (2008) is punctured with vibrant, warm colours. The cover is of whimsical drawings of things such as mushrooms, crocodiles, flowers, insects and the sun; while her name is written in fluent jointed writing in the middle of what looks like a flower. These natural images reflect the style of music that she plays; folk/ pop folk music can be interpreted by some as to having connections with natural things such as animals and plants. Often being simple and solitarily played, this abundance of images from her album cover can be seen as an imprint on what type of person she is.  The colour scheme is warm, happy and fresh; reflecting the feeling of summer and joy. Moreover, the messiness of it reflects the scruffiness of her career and youthful flair.

On the other hand her second album, titled as I Speak Because I Can (2010) clearly demonstrates how her music and whole persona has changed dramatically. The colour scheme is extremely different, bland grey tones are used. However, unlike her first album cover she has an image of herself as the focus; this could be due to her increase in popularity, such as Lady Gaga her image becomes an icon and instantly recognisable. The feel of the cover is more ridged and strategic in the sense that there are lines all over the cover and the text is neatly placed in the top left hand corner on lines. Nonetheless, a hint of colour is still evident which could be an indication to her ‘roots’; reflecting her first album and telling her audience that she is still the same person she was before despite what the cover portrays, keeping her fans loyal.

Moving onto her third studio album A Creature I Do Not Know (2011), Laura reverts back to her first album in the sense that she uses drawings opposed to photographs, nonetheless the style is a big difference and compared to the whimsical style of the first album feels a lot more downhearted and heavy. However, the colour scheme is very similar to that of the second album and could be seen as a pattern and an inclination to what to expect of the music, that it’s more like that of I Speak Because I Can and less like that of Alas I Cannot Swim.

To conclude, each album cover is very different but in its own way very compelling. As one of my all-time favourite artists I found that every time one of her albums were released they appealed to me in different ways and always made me expect something new because of their differences in styles. Whereas the album covers of Taylor Swift are very similar meaning that you don’t necessarily expect and coverage of new ground and you know what you’re buying.