Photo Credit: Tamsin Topolski
Laura Marling has announced her eighth record, Patterns in Repeat, set to release on Oct. 25 via Chrysalis/Partisan Records. To preview her full-length album since 2020’s massively acclaimed Song for Our Daughter–and the birth of her daughter–the British singer-songwriter has shared the lead single “Patterns.” To support her forthcoming release, Marling has booked a pair of residencies at London’s Hackney Church and New York’s Bowery Ballroom this fall, immediately following the record debut.
Written, produced, and recorded at her home studio in London, Marling’s latest offering documents the process of adjusting to life as a new parent while balancing her role as an artist. Whereas Song for Our Daughter shows Marling broadcasting imagined messages for a child yet to arrive, Patterns in Repeat imbues this prophecy with reality. Though Marling prepared to place her various musical projects–including LUMP, a duo alongside Mike Lindsay–on hold for new motherhood, she realized soon after that her roles as mother and musician were united in her distinct, yet common experience of womanhood. “[F]ollowing a youth spent desperately trying to understand what it is to be a woman,” the artist explains, “I am at the brow of the hill, with an entirely new and enormous perspective surrounding me.”
This new river of understanding courses through the entirety of Patterns in Repeat. On today’s preview “Patterns,” Marling explores the cyclical nature of growing older. She starts the song–echoing the title track of her last solo record–with an address to a young child: “Zena, you’ve squared your toes / But your family nose hangs around / You’re still a ballerina, everybody knows / But your feet are on the ground.” As the track unwinds, the song’s recipient does too, with Marling singing, “But as the years go by and points comply / With ever more relief / Then patterns in repeat can begin.” In a stunning final passage, the narratives converge as Marling melds her own coming of age with her daughter’s; as the title suggests, the pattern repeats.
“Patterns” is available on all streaming platforms now, and fans can pre-order Patterns in Release here. Tickets to Marling’s London and New York residencies go on sale July 19, and more information is available at lauramarling.com. Read on for a full tracklist and complete list of upcoming tour dates.
Laura Marling – Patterns in Repeat:
01. Child of Mine
02. Patterns
03. Your Girl
04. No One’s Gonna Love You Like I Can
05. The Shadows
06. Interlude
07. Caroline
08. Looking Back
09. Lullaby
10. Patterns in Repeat
Upcoming Laura Marling Tour Dates:
Oct. 29 – Hackney Church – London, England
Oct. 30 – Hackney Church – London, England
Nov. 1 – Hackney Church – London, England
Nov. 2 – Hackney Church – London, England
Nov. 11 – Bowery Ballroom – New York
Nov. 12 – Bowery Ballroom – New York