Laura Marling turns Raffi covers into a surprisingly tender left turn

Laura Marling releasing a full album of Raffi covers is the kind of headline that sounds like a joke until you remember that Marling has always been deadly serious about tenderness. Laura Sings Raffi arrives as a surprise release, self-produced at home in London, and it works because it does not treat children’s music as something beneath serious artistry. Instead, Marling approaches songs like Baby Beluga, Down by the Bay and Going to the Zoo with the same care she might bring to an ancient folk melody or a quiet confession. That is the charm. The project is funny without becoming silly, sincere without becoming syrupy and gentle without losing its spine. In a music culture often obsessed with scale, shock and reinvention, this is a small, humane gesture that reminds us songs do not need adult misery to matter. Sometimes kindness is the whole point.

Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/laura-marling-surprise-releases-new-album-of-raffi-covers