In which we wonder (and ponder) if this truly is all her rage…
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Jer Fairall: The secret weapon of last year’s A Creature I Don’t Know, “All My Rage” bounds forth at the end of the album (and directly following the mighty “Sophia”) feeling like a throwaway, brisk, spry and unfinished. The latter has less to do with the clipped length than the incompleteness of the narrative; we never even get a complete inventory of her children lost to the sea, as hysteria swallows up our Job-like narrator with the same fierce vengeance that the ocean swallowed her family All that’s left to do is to kick up her heels, tip her hat to the heavens and wink to God, “you’ve won.”
[8]
Anthony Easton: The sea and the sun do the raging, so Laura doesn’t have to — it’s a neat trick.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Emmylou Harris provides the trills, Dolly Parton the macabre subject filtered through sun and light, and Marling the gravitas to hold it together. Barely.
[6]
Pete Baran: Ah, I love a good catharsis song. Not sure if it needs the storytelling aspects which fit it in some faux-folk, Wessexy 18th century tradition, but I guess you can’t fight the genre tropes. This builds impressively leaving the listener wanting considerably more at the end. Since there is no more, you go back and play its 2.45 again – which is a victory of sorts.
[8]
Brad Shoup: Although we’re nearly about to take New Weird America off our maps, Marling still recalls the beautiful close-harmony choirs of her forebears, and the line “tip your cap to the brave old girl” ends with a few Robin Williamsonesque flat notes. Otherwise, it’s a bright, confident folk track, accumulating instrumentation at a steady clip. Come out of the woods, everyone: spring is near.
[8]
Jonathan Bogart: Pretty sure this is just some of her rage; you’d think all of it would be a little less sweet.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Any Laura Marling song will be frighteningly accomplished, and little will be wrong with it. I prefer confessions, though, to traditionalist curios.
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