Laura Marling

CD CHOICE:A Creature I Don't Know Virgin ****

Has anyone got a better track record in music today? Still just 21, Laura Marling is the only artist to have her first two albums nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and she has also picked up a Brit award for Best British Female (a strong category this weather).

Eschewing the auto-tune, AOR ballad route, Marling has always been patronised with “the new Joni Mitchell” label and has struggled to separate herself from the nu-folk crowd headed up by Mumford Sons and Noah the Whale.

The key to appreciating Marling is to understand that the album that first sent her into a musical spin was by Bonnie Prince Billy; the same type of introspective emotional expression informs most everything she does.

She kicks off this fantastic album with The Muse, which has a surprisingly upbeat and light jazz cafe feel but contains the first of many references to a beast. "Don't be scared of me, I'm nothing but the beast and I'll call on you when I need to feast," she sings, and not for the first time you're left feeling that Marling is settling some personal scores.

That kookiness of her previous work is largely absent on A Creature I Don't Know. Marling pulls everything into a tight focus and sonically places herself somewhere between Suzanne Vega and Neil Young. Don't Ask Me Whyis probably the most traditionally Marling- sounding song here, and shows how deftly she can match a vocal line to a melody to ensure maximum impact – if not damage – on her intended subject.

The guitars go from quiet acoustic to loud electric to countrified; intentional or not, she gets quite a Laurel Canyon sound going as the more obvious folk cadences are given the weekend off.

One of the album's highlights is Sophia,which starts off in Damien Rice territory – but with quite scary and accusatory lyrics – before building to a cathartic end with faux choral touches. Played live, it will be quite something.

A splendid musical progression, A Creature I Don't Knowis poised, layered and brimming with skilfully executed emotions. A great album. See lauramarling.com

Download tracks: The Muse, Salinas, Sophia, The Beast