Once I Was an Eagle is a work that demands to be taken as a whole, another reminder of the peculiar power of the album form, despite frequent premature declarations of its redundancy.
Marling is never likely to be a fixture of the pop charts. But Once I Was An Eagle is a masterpiece, and, at 23, she’s still only getting started.
Once I Was An Eagle represents a bold, adventurous step forward that’s resulted in her most fulfilling work yet.
Whether or not Marling’s huffy folk music is your brand of gin, it’s hard to deny the markings of such a raw talent. Eagle is a master class in creation.
Once I Was an Eagle is a singular achievement: a haunting record, peopled with aural ghosts that come gradually crawling from out of the grooves.
Rarely since the Laurel Canyon heyday of CSNY, Jackson Browne et al has the confessional mode been quite so unashamedly mined for artistic ore.
For its cohesive tone and the ease with which it plumbs the darkest recesses of Marling's consciousness, Once I Was an Eagle is close to a masterpiece, a heavenly composition with just enough hell to keep things from feeling too familiar.
On ‘Once I Was An Eagle’, though, Marling proves that while she might remind people of Joni Mitchell, John Mayall, or anyone else you can shake an acoustic guitar at, she is not simply an imitative by-product.
It’s the longest and best Laura Marling record yet: a 63-minute modern folk opus that should earn the Hampshire lass her third Mercury Prize nomination.
There are two primary things that make Once I Was An Eagle take flight: Lyrics and progression, which together make the album intelligent, confident, and, perhaps most importantly, recursive.
'Once I Was An Eagle' is an intense, internal record with a clear emotional arc. The portrait it paints of the author is not always flattering, but the truth rarely is.
Once I Was an Eagle is a bold work that, in theory, shouldn’t work—a lengthy, near-concept album about emotional availability—but Marling makes it into one of the year’s essential releases.
Sandblown and enigmatic, these are English folk songs that at times sound as if they’ve been established in the canon for umpteen years, yet the filter of tradition yields strangely enigmatic results; songs that are readily self-aware, but also conjure something unknown.
Marling is at a peak of confidence, and it wouldn't be too remiss of me to suggest that Once I Was An Eagle is her best album yet; better individual songs may lie elsewhere, but her new record's cohesive nature makes it much more of an adventure than what came before.
Once I Was An Eagle is a remarkable feat of personal reflection that reveals more of its intricacies with every listen.
Marling has delivered Once I Was an Eagle with a charisma lacking in most of her peers, and the poise of a far older hand. She’s no longer one of the country’s most exciting prospects; she’s one of its greatest songwriters.
It’s expansive and ambitious, and divorced of all the tweedy preening and aw-shucks raggediness the idea of “folk” has accumulated in recent years. It's dark, it’s angry, it’s even sexy, in a sly, subtle way.
Once I Was an Eagle is a soft, sprawling thing; particularly across its opening four-track run.
Once I Was An Eagle is entirely Laura Marling's trip--beautiful, heartfelt, searching, sublime, and thrillingly open-ended.
Eagle is definitely Marling’s most considered work, and most of that comes simply from the fact she’s stripped away a lot of the decoration, and yet ultimately it feels easy for her, if not a little predictable.
On her fourth release, Once I Was an Eagle, Marling physically and metaphorically sheds any notions of fragility with songs that are captivating and complex.
Marling has always trafficked in understated elegance, but she's firmly in attack mode here. Mostly against herself.
Once I Was An Eagle is Marling's most fully-realized release yet, a quasi-conceptual record that traces a path from naivety through harsh experience and eventually to consequent enlightenment.
Marling fares well throughout the release because she’s out in the open-- no longer hidden behind walls of varying sound.
Laura Marlin's Once I Was An Eagle shows the British singer-songwriter moving even further away from her folk pop roots, and embracing a moodier sound. Not only that, but Laura's battles with love seem to take center stage as this album's prime subject matter.
Marling is an old soul through and through, and her remarkably timeless voice, idiosyncratic lyrics, and increasingly impressive guitar chops help to elevate the album's less immediate moments
To create something so ambitious and interesting almost single-handedly, and to already sound ready to head off to the next level, would give anyone a massive boost of self-confidence and drive to see what else they could achieve.
Damn Laura really hitting it out of the park with this one ngl. The album has an impeccable flow, excellent vibe throughout and is true to the traditions of folk albums yet still offers a modern freshness. Lyrically, and with her phrasing, Marling is operating at full force here. Phenominal album
1 | Take the Night Off 4:11 | 93 |
2 | I Was an Eagle 4:21 | 97 |
3 | You Know 2:30 | 98 |
4 | Breathe 5:00 | 95 |
5 | Master Hunter 3:16 | 97 |
6 | Little Love Caster 5:52 | 95 |
7 | Devil's Resting Place 3:14 | 95 |
8 | Interlude 2:15 | 90 |
9 | Undine 3:13 | 95 |
10 | Where Can I Go? 3:40 | 94 |
11 | Once 3:38 | 95 |
12 | Pray For Me 5:05 | 92 |
13 | When Were You Happy? (And How Long Has That Been) 3:53 | 90 |
14 | Love Be Brave 3:04 | 97 |
15 | Little Bird 5:40 | 95 |
16 | Saved These Words 4:25 | 95 |
#5 | / | The Daily Beast |
#5 | / | Uncut |
#7 | / | No Ripcord |
#9 | / | NME |
#14 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
#16 | / | Under the Radar |
#17 | / | The Guardian |
#18 | / | Q Magazine |
#20 | / | American Songwriter |
#20 | / | Rolling Stone |