Semper Femina

Semper Femina is the sixth studio album by British singer-songwriter, Laura Marling, and was released on 10 March 2017, on More Alarming Records. The album was produced by Blake Mills. The album's title is taken from the song "Nouel".

Semper Femina
Studio album by Laura Marling
Released	10 March 2017 (2017-03-10)
Recorded	2016
Genre	Folk, folk rock, alternative rock
Length	42:19
Label	More Alarming Records
Producer	Blake Mills
Laura Marling chronology
Short Movie (2015) Semper Femina (2017) Song for Our Daughter (2020)

Themes

Described by Alexis Petridis of The Guardian as a "concept album about femininity and female relationships",^[1] the title Semper Femina, borrowed from the ancient poet Virgil, is an expression from a longer line of Latin poetry, which roughly translates to "woman is ever a fickle and changeable thing".^[2]

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.2/10[3]
Metacritic	85/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
The A.V. Club	A[6]
The Daily Telegraph	[7]
The Guardian	[1]
The Independent	[8]
NME	[9]
The Observer	[10]
Pitchfork	7.7/10[11]
Q	[12]
Rolling Stone	[13]

Semper Femina received critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, 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.^[4]

The album earned Marling a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album nomination.

Accolades

In The Village Voice'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's The Order of Time (2017) at the 89th spot, both LPs garnering 84 points.^[14]

Publication	Accolade	Rank	Ref.
The A.V. Club	The Best Albums of 2017 So Far	—	[15]
ABC News	50 Best Albums of 2017	31	[16]
AllMusic	Best of 2017	—	[17]
Consequence of Sound	Top 50 Albums of 2017	27	[18]
Digital Trends	50 Best Albums of 2017	46	[19]
Drowned in Sound	Favourite Albums of 2017	9	[20]
Earbuddy	100 Best Albums of 2017	74	[21]
Esquire (UK Edition)	50 Best Albums of 2017	—	[22]
Exclaim!	Top 10 Folk and Country Albums of 2017	3	[23]
Fopp	The Best in 2017	23	[24]
The Guardian	The Best Albums of 2017	19	[25]
Mojo	2017: The Best of the Year	25	[26]
musicOMH	Top 50 Albums Of 2017	26	[27]
Noisey	The 100 Best Albums of 2017	76	[28]
NME	NME's Albums of the Year 2017	49	[29]
No Ripcord	The Best Albums of 2017	34	[30]
Paste	The 50 Best Albums of 2017	31	[31]
Q	Best of the Best: 2017 in Music	42	[32]
The Sydney Morning Herald	Top 20 Albums of 2017	—	[33]
Treble	The Top 50 Albums of 2017	45	[34]
Uncut	Best Releases of 2017	21	[35]
Under the Radar	Top 100 Albums of 2017	58	[36]
The Village Voice	Pazz & Jop	89	[14]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Soothing"	4:18
2.	"The Valley"	5:40
3.	"Wild Fire"	4:50
4.	"Don't Pass Me By"	5:10
5.	"Always This Way"	4:33
6.	"Wild Once"	4:23
7.	"Next Time"	4:00
8.	"Nouel"	4:53
9.	"Nothing, Not Nearly"	4:32

All tracks are written by Laura Marling, except for Soothing which was written by Laura Marling and Blake Mills.

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

Chart (2017)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[37]	19
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[38]	53
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[39]	21
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[40]	153
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[41]	22
French Albums (SNEP)[42]	113
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[43]	42
Irish Albums (IRMA)[44]	9
New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ)[45]	5
Scottish Albums (OCC)[46]	4
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[47]	46
UK Albums (OCC)[48]	5
US Top Album Sales (Billboard)[49]	66