''Semper Femina'' is the sixth studio album by British singer-songwriter,

Laura Marling Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990) is a British folk singer-songwriter. She won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and was nominated for the same award at the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 Brit ...

, and was released on 10 March 2017, on More Alarming Records. The album was produced by

Blake Mills Blake Mills (born September 21, 1986) is an American songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer based in California. Biography Blake Mills was born in Santa Monica, California, United States, and grew up in Malibu, where he attended Malib ...

. The album's title is taken from the song "Nouel".

Themes

Described by Alexis Petridis of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' as a "

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. So ...

about femininity and female relationships", the title ''Semper Femina'', borrowed from the ancient poet

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, is an expression from a longer line of Latin poetry, which roughly translates to “woman is ever a fickle and changeable thing".

Reception

''Semper Femina'' received critical acclaim upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 31 reviews. The album earned Marling a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album nomination.

Accolades

In ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

''s Pazz & Jop, a poll regarding the best albums of the year as voted by more than 400 American music critics, ''Semper Femina'' tied with

Valerie June Valerie June Hockett (born January 10, 1982),Hubbell, John (2009),, ''The Commercial Appeal'', May 28, 2009.(aged 27 in May 2009). known as Valerie June, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Memphis, Tennessee, United ...

's '' The Order of Time'' (2017) at the 89th spot, both LPs garnering 84 points.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *Laura Marling – vocals, guitar *Matt Ingram – drums *Nick Pini – bass *Pete Randall – guitar *Blake Mills – guitar * Rob Moose – strings, arrangements * Matt Chamberlain – additional drums *Sebastian Steinberg – additional bass

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Albums produced by Blake Mills Concept albums Laura Marling albums