“Once” is one fifth of the title track from Laura Marling’s upcoming album, Once I Was an Eagle (which seems like it could be a weird Bill Callahan reference), and the song is the very slight and very singular acoustic meditation that its name implies. Marling’s voice buzzes with an adulthood that she is physically incapable of having experienced and grown tired of (the singer is only 23). The profundity of the line “I was a child once” – sung in a reflective whisper – seems like it should be lost on someone like Marling, but the emotion behind it feels authentic. Once I Was an Eagle is out on May 27th, and after the rambunctious “Master Hunter”, “Once” has quietly reset the score for this LP.
