Song You Need to Know: Laura Marling, ‘For You’

Laura Marling’s new album ends with a lullaby: “For You,” a sparsely strummed ballad with a harmonizing light-gospel quartet, neatly sums up the gentle folkiness of Marling’s new album, Song for Our Daughter, which arrives three years after her off-kilter roots experimentation with Blake Mills on 2017’s Semper Femina. 

“For You” is a soft-spoken ode to finding lasting love after years of searching in vain. “I had called out for you/Almost every night,” Marling sings in a near whisper. “Precious things are hard to find.”

The song’s a cappella harmony gives it the feel of a long-forgotten midcentury gospel gem, but it turns out the track is a “little homage” to Paul McCartney. “My forte, I think, is ambiguity, which is definitely still on there,” she recently said. “But on some of the songs, there’s just a very straightforward sentiment.”

On “For You,” Marling toys with what it might mean to surrender fully, unconditionally, and without hesitation. The result is one of the most quietly memorable moments of the singer’s storied career. “I thank a God I’ve never met/Never loved, never wanted,” she croons.