Still only 23 but with four albums and two Mercury nominations behind her, Laura Marling has the world at her feet.

The part of the world she currently sees from her window is Los Angeles, more commonly associated with hip-hop but, in past decades at least, home to the sort of Laurel Canyon troubadors whose spirit Marling evokes in this ambitious, sprawling 16-song set.

Change the droning, open-tuned acoustic guitars to a growling Fender Telecaster and this could almost be another convert to Americana, PJ Harvey. "You should be gone, beast," Marling scowls on opener Take The Night Off, her voice so close and so intimate it feels like she's singing from inside your head.

The following three songs are conjoined, making the album's opening 15 minutes a continuous slab of snarling melancholia. By the time we reach Master Hunter, the album's first single, the clattering drums have kicked in and Marling is spitting out a song of defiance complete with a nod to Bob Dylan: "You want a woman who will call your name? It ain't me, babe."

Things loosen up in the album's second half, but this is darker fare than Marling has previously served up – and all the better for it.