New Albums
LUMP
Marling and Lindsay reach seventh heaven on irrepressibly fun second outing.
By Pete Paphides
Animal CHRYSALIS/PARTISAN
8/10
Making hay: Mike Lindsay and Laura Marling
ANYONE familiar with the eponymous 2018 debut by LUMP – Laura Marling and Tunng’s Mike Lindsay – will recall that the album ended with a track called “LUMP Is A Product”, which saw Marling list the personnel involvedin making the record. The businesslike delivery was what her fans have come to expect from her. There are no outward signs of levity here. If Laura Marling derives any cathartic release from the act of writing and recording her songs, that’s something she withholds from view. Which isn’t to say that she’s a cold fish (of the hundreds of artists this writer has interviewed over the years, she remains the only one who made us soup), it’s just that if Marling is having a brilliant time, it doesn’t quite manifest itself in all the usual ways.