Laura Marling, “Where Can I Go”

Updated:

March 11, 2013 1:42 pm

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Laura Marling, “Where Can I Go”
Rating: 4.5 out 5 stars

Laura Marling changes gears on her new single, leaving behind her old reputation as England’s go-to source for leisurely, bare-boned folk music and chasing after a fuller, upbeat sound. She breaks a light sweat with “Where Can I Go,” an Americana-soul song about choosing the right path before kickstarting your journey. “All I see is road… where, where can I go?” she sings over B3 organ, rattling percussion, and the rhythmic strums of her acoustic guitar, sounding like a Blue-era Joni Mitchell backed by a scaled-down version of the Band. Lyrically speaking, the rest of the song is pretty downcast, but it’s Marling’s voice — a bluesy, unaffected thing, with casual vibrato that’s far less fluttery than her late-‘60s/early-‘70s influences — that keeps this ship pointing forward.