The intimate nature of Laura Marling’s eighth studio album is apparent before she has even played a note. We hear shuffling, voices, a yelp from Marling’s infant daughter, as they get themselves arranged in the home studio where Patterns In Repeat was recorded. Parenthood is unsurprisingly a recurring theme in Marling’s first record since she became a mother in 2023, and the first since the prescient Song For Our Daughter was released in 2020 – the longest gap yet between Marling’s albums. But Patterns in Repeat digs deeper than motherhood alone to look at ideas of family and relationships, familiarity and belonging.
Marling had said she had expected her songwriting to be put on hold once she became a parent, but the reality was different. It was when she was bouncing her daughter in her bouncer that Marling picked up her guitar and ‘Child of Mine’ came to her. It proved the catalyst – ‘Lullaby’ followed soon after and Marling had the first seeds of this record.
The format is simple but beautiful. Recorded at home, often with her daughter beside her, Patterns In Repeat is largely the sound of only Marling and her guitar, layered with string arrangements from Rob Moose. The result is immediate, revealing, and sometimes raw – adding to the strong emotions of Marling’s deeply personal lyrics. Marling has spoken of her records as capturing a moment in time, and Patterns In Repeat does just that – the intimate home life of a young family.
Songs like ‘Child of Mine’ and ‘No One’s Going To Love You Like I Can’ are direct love letters to her daughter but Marling is interested here in different generations a whole, having realised how becoming a mother had moved her up the branches of the family tree, how her own parents experienced these same emotions when they were raising her. It is in that context that Marling has re-recorded ‘Looking Back’ – a song her father Charlie wrote in his 20s.
Marling has found fresh inspiration in parenthood but even so admits she does not yet know what her future might be in music – she will not tour this record in order to stay at home with her family and has weighed putting her energies into other things. But whatever she decides, Patterns In Repeat shows she remains at the height of her powers, the most intimate and touching record yet from one of the finest British songwriters of her generation.