Ribbon Music is pleased to announce a deluxe re-issue of Laura Marling’s critically acclaimed album; Alas I Cannot Swim on LP. Alas I Cannot Swim was the young British singer/songwriter’s debut album originally released in 2008. The recording features contributions by Charlie Fink and Tom Hobden (Noah and The Whale) and Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons).

“Alas I Cannot Swim” is a collection of British folk classics in the making, with hints of psychedelia and the odd rock riff that was enough to catch the attention of Neil Young’s people (she landed herself a suitable support slot for Young recently). She’s definitely a Joni Mitchell fan, but there’s so many other references in her unique style it’s as entertaining picking them out as it is listening to those fresh, heartfelt tunes!

Since her emergence onto the London music scene in 2007 Laura Marling has steadily secured her position as one of the most exciting musical talents of her generation. By the tender age of 21 she has already won a BRIT award and been nominated for the UK Mercury Music prize twice. While so many artists of any age attempt to locate their inner child, Marling with a sometime steely gaze, measures the prerogatives of youth against the looming realities of adulthood, the specter of mortality, the betrayals of love, the balm of sex, the yearning for companionship, the need for independence. As the Times recently posted, “Who else is making music as ambitious, as haunting, as centuries-straddling, as thought provoking and artistically tenacious as this? And the answer is: nobody. No, really. Not a soul.”

Marling, who started out, briefly but auspiciously, with a stint in the group Noah and the Whale, was a mere 16 when she independently released her first singles and almost immediately gained serious stature as a key figure on Britain’s burgeoning young folk scene, alongside such artists and friends as singer/actor Johnny Flynn and Mumford & Sons. The startlingly self-assured album that followed, Alas I Cannot Swim (2008) brought the self-effacing and relatively shy Marling an extraordinary level of acclaim in her homeland, with it being nominated for the U.K.’s prestigious Mercury Prize. Re-mastered on 180g vinyl with deluxe gatefold packaging and MP3 download code.