March 9, 2007

Marissa Nadler

Songs III: Bird On The Water (Peacefrog)

7 / 10 Despite being signed to the same label as new folk pin-up, José González, Marissa Nadler does not make dinner party music. Well, not unless you want your guests to spend an hour chasing a potato around their plate, locked in a 1,000-yard stare. Because that’s what Nadler can do to you. On ‘Songs III: Bird On The Water’, little passes by at anything faster than funereal pace. Add Nadler’s ethereal, porcelain-thin voice – part Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser, part folk goddess Vashti Bunyan – and you have the recipe for some Gothic acoustic alchemy. But while ‘Dying Breed’, all clanging bells and ghostly feedback, and ‘Diamond Heart’, with its gossamer-light mandolins, both focus on loss, it’s far from depressing. It’s beautiful, comforting music to hanker down in your duvet to.

Stephen Worthy

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