You midnight dreamer

“The idea of women as muses, a mere vessel rendered more attractive by pretending not to be aware of a male gaze, has been around for centuries.
And it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. “I like it when you sleep,” said The 1975 in the title of their second album, “for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it.” One Direction said much the same thing a few years ago – “You don’t know you’re beautiful. That’s what makes you beautiful.” On Semper Femina, on which the electric guitars and Bob Dylan-esque speak-singing of 2015’s Short Movie have largely dissipated, in favour of a gentler, bucolic sound, Marling dryly skewers this sentiment. “You always say you love me most when I don’t know I’m being seen,” she sings on Wild Fire, over the muted strum of an acoustic guitar, “Maybe someday, when God takes me away, I’ll understand what the fuck that means.””