Laura Marling - Short Movie
Critic Score
Based on 34 reviews
2015 Ratings: #61 / 1021
Year End Rank: #48
User Score
Based on 248 ratings
2015 Rank: #242
Liked by 11 people
March 23, 2015 / Release Date
LP / Format
Virgin EMI / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Loud and Quiet
With it we see Marling rediscover her love of music, shed any lingering anxieties and come out the other side with a new found stoicism.
90
Clash
‘Short Movie’ is the record of an artist shaking her life up, spending a little more time peering at the stars and resisting the lure of the familiar.
90
PopMatters
The eclectic guitar thus becomes a tool that complements Marling’s lyrics on this pivotal album, at times articulating visceral anger and, at others, obliterating psychic barriers and clearing space for something new.
89
Paste

Short Movie is her way of making up for that lost time and continuing to push toward greater personal and musical progress.

83
Pretty Much Amazing
This is a bolder, brasher work, and Marling demonstrates a continued knack for trawling the sounds of her contemporaries without compromising her own carefully shaped identity.
80
The Guardian

It’s less musically intense than its predecessor – as well as the usual neo-Brit folk rock, there’s spindly and angular rock and even, on Gurdjieff’s Daughter, an unmistakable debt to Sultans of Swing.

80
Drowned in Sound
This is Marling at her finest, but as she’s proved five times in a row, the best is always yet to come.
80
musicOMH

It’s natural that a musician will want to explore new ideas and influences as their career matures, and Short Movie finds Marling doing just that.

80
Uncut

It's more defiant and distinct than anything she’s done before, testament to her first go at self-production. But what really sets it apart from her catalogue is her desire to break the cycle, to let go and let herself be young.

80
FasterLouder

Short Movie plays very much like an album of seeking rather than settling down, of picking away curiously at life choices rather than committing to one.

80
Exclaim!
The resulting album sounds like a brave, at times combative, fresh start, not least because of the fact that Marling has revamped her relationship with the guitar by switching mostly to an electric.
80
The Line of Best Fit

What Short Movie does do is remind us of the poise with which Marling carries her prodigious ability as a songwriter, and reaffirm that she’s genuinely ambitious, too; she sounds excited again, and so should we be.

80
DIY
While ‘Once I Was An Eagle’ was a master of taut, stringently forensic string arrangements, ‘Short Movie’ has a cinematic, wide-eyed joy, and Marling’s writing seems freer, and less rigorous.
80
No Ripcord

Marling has a talent for instilling in her work an awareness of what listeners are thinking, and this self-awareness goes hand-in-hand with one of the album’s most compelling features: the urge to push the boundaries of artistic mediums.

80
SPIN
The new developments in sound and style of Marling's fifth album — and the way her leading-lady status continues to evolve — leave it as her most captivating yet.
80
NME
Marling is her own protagonist - flawed, like anyone else, but utterly compelling all the same.
75
Consequence of Sound

Short Movie lacks the seamless thematic and tonal cohesion of Once I Was An Eagle, but it offers more immediate pleasures.

75
A.V. Club

She’s at odds with the part of herself that likes the feeling of being comfortable, of finding her voice, and that tension drives Short Movie to places she hasn’t explored before.

74
Pitchfork

Without an overarching conceit like Once I Was an Eagle, Short Movie comes off sounding like a transition record, a short movie in the sense that it’s a prelude to something bigger.

70
AllMusic
It may lack the cohesion of her last outing, and her steadfast derision of anything resembling a hook can be taxing, but it makes up for its meandering with a strength of character that eludes many of her contemporaries.
70
Rolling Stone

It's a flash of lyrical left hooks on a set where the British singer-songwriter goes all Judas, like Dylan before her, recording with electric guitar and broadening her palette without sacrificing her subtly badass folkie persona.

60
NOW Magazine
Marling, much like the Weather Station and Jennifer Castle (similar local artists with superior albums), offers a welcome modern spin on an age-old craft.
Felix_96
80

8/10

exceptional

Fav tracks: Warrior, False Hope, I Feel Your Love, Strange, Don't Let Me Bring You Down, Easy, Gurdjieff's Daughter, Divine, How Can I, Howl, Short Movie

winitheju
79

For some reason I thought this album sucked but it turns out I suck and this album doesn't suck

KingIsCole10
67

One of Laura's most pleasant to listen to records. Really interesting switch to more electronic elements with Laura's lyrics being personal and introspective. I really prefer the last half of the album with the first half not offering much for me personally. I thinks it's good but I think it could of been so much better with this sound.

Felix_96
80

8/10

exceptional

Fav tracks: Warrior, False Hope, I Feel Your Love, Strange, Don't Let Me Bring You Down, Easy, Gurdjieff's Daughter, Divine, How Can I, Howl, Short Movie

sorrowfulsoil
85

short movie is delicious and comforting

KingIsCole10
67

One of Laura's most pleasant to listen to records. Really interesting switch to more electronic elements with Laura's lyrics being personal and introspective. I really prefer the last half of the album with the first half not offering much for me personally. I thinks it's good but I think it could of been so much better with this sound.

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Added on: December 17, 2014