Marissa Nadler
[2011; Box of Cedar Records]
listen.
Marissa Nadler's voice is irresistibly melancholy and beautiful. The Massachusetts native is a self-taught guitarist and RISD graduate from a family of artists. She lists Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, and Nina Simone among her influences and, not surprisingly, has a discography full of chilly tunes about love, loss, and the pendulum-swing of emotions experienced throughout the course of relationships both failed and fortunate. Her music is difficult to classify; however, it is distinctly American, nestling itself somewhere in the dreamily ambiguous space between folk, country, and gothic. "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You," a song lamenting a lost lover, employs the dreamy reverb of lap steal and dirt road imagery to sound distinctly country, while other tracks such as "In Your Lair, Bear," make use of Nadler's gentle finger-picking guitar, mournful strings, and hushed cymbals to sound sleepily folkish. Her bell-clear soprano is described by Pitchfork Media as one "you would follow straight into Hades," but I like to think she has the type of voice to which we cling as we ascend through the darker moments and towards catharsis. Nadler allows us to identify with her sadness because it is unmistakably familiar, undeniably universal. Her anguish is heavy and crushingly sorrowful but, simultaneously, it is life-giving: "that old familiar fear / creeps up your arms / and runs through your veins / like blood through your songs." She is an artist who deserves more credit than she is currently receiving, and she belongs to that camp of below-the-surface American songwriters that quietly devastates us with its melancholic beauty and unwavering consistency. Enjoy.
Marissa Nadler - The Sun Always Reminds Me Of You by Peaknuckle Publicity Co.
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