Two latex-clad female bodies intertwine in Laura Marling's self-directed video for Soothing, an intimate dance performance choreographed by Alexander Green which turns out to be less private than it first appears. 

Soothing is the first track released from Marling's forthcoming album Semper Femina, which continues her move into a more electric sound, started on her last album, Short Movie. She also began directing her own videos for tracks on the previous record, but this is her most assured effort yet, reflecting the lyrics, and the new album's themes of gender, sexuality and the female gaze. 

She told The FADER: “I started out writing Semper Femina as if a man was writing about a woman. And then I thought it’s not a man, it’s me — I don’t need to pretend it’s a man to justify the intimacy of the way I’m looking and feeling about women. It’s me looking specifically at women and feeling great empathy towards them and by proxy towards myself.”