At first, Marissa Nadler's Songs III: Bird on the Water doesn't seem especially notable. It's a 12-track breakup album detailing Nadler's pervasive loneliness, her gentle finger-style guitar augmented with cello, percussion, mandolin, synthesizers, and electric guitars. Her voice is remarkable from the outset-- a sad, husky air that climbs to perfect grace notes with ease-- but by the time Nadler sings, "Oh my lonely diamond heart/ It misses you so well," 100 seconds into opener "Diamond Heart", you're pretty sure you've heard this one before.
Not so fast: As Nadler and her gorgeous, incredibly isolated Songs III would have it, there's plenty worth waiting for. Nadler doesn't want empathy for the hurt that caused her to write "Diamond Heart" in a hotel room bathtub in New Jersey or "Bird on Your Grave" for a friend who died mysteriously; she's just trying to ease some of that monumental pain into the next space. And-- though its micro-payoffs may come in the form of a solitary harmony here, a hushed mandolin chord there, or the eerie bells lending a richer atmosphere to the beautiful "Dying Breed"-- such a feeling makes Songs III one of the most focused and engaging singer-songwriter releases so far this year.
Of course, that can be a tough sell for folks accustomed to concentrated emotional whomp. Aside from its presiding atmosphere of pain, little about Songs III feels direct. It peels free in slow, steady layers, Nadler's sorrow ensconced in impressionistic phrases and careful musicianship. As a songwriter, she's still painting relationship trauma in grayscale sadness, occasionally calling on stunning images-- "eyes as deep as brandy wine," "red-painted lips and a jezebel crown," "breaking on the daylight"-- to better realize sullen torment. But that latter layer makes Songs III much more effective than Nadler's 2005 debut, The Saga of Mayflower May.
Nadler's a bandleader now: With acoustic wonderment still in place, she brings most of Philadelphia's Espers to bear here. They augment without distracting, building on her gravitas with quietly breathtaking nuance: A cymbal-scrape pallor from Otto Hauser, or Jesse Sparhawk's weeping mandolin; like Helena Espvall's doubled cello parts smeared over Nadler's "rose-colored dreams" on "Thinking of You", these sounds highlight the words. Even the album's loudest moment, Greg Weeks' piercing electric lead on "Bird on Your Grave", won't wow you from afar, but it will pull you close enough to identify with Nadler's pain.
As a vocalist, Nadler stretches this environment towards infinity: By doubling and tripling her vocals and lacing several distinct interpretations of one melody, she implies that her despair is now as it was then as it always will be. During a splendid, organ-and-guitar take on Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat", for instance, the narrator's desolation comes doubled in verses, tripled in the chorus, and chased consistently by the organ. Doom follows her like a rain cloud, it seems, soaking her feelings but powering this, her best set of songs yet. Sure, that's a mundane thing to say about an artist, but on Songs III, it's notable after all.
Rating: 8.1 --Pitchfork.com
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Marissa Nadler initially released her third album, Songs III: Bird on the Water, outside of the United States way back in the chilly winter months after the dawn of 2007. Its introduction perfectly coincided with the air's frosty chill and the descent of the final leaf upon the ground, soon to be covered with snow (which came late last winter, remember?). Yet now that the album is finally being stocked here in North America, it hits the shelves right square in the middle of summer, which makes very little sense aesthetically. Nadler's music is winter music, melancholy and delicate, graceful and morose, eschewing the lowbrow hedonistic qualities of summer and embracing whistling gusts and slowly spreading sheets of frost.
Alas, as our sweat collects in pools and Amy Winehouse and Rihanna trade off being the diva du jour, Nadler offers a reprieve from it all, beckoning the impending autumn with her spectral coo. On Songs III, Nadler is joined by Philadelphia baroque folksters Espers, who share a common ground in their intricate and pastoral sensibilities. Likewise, both have been associated with their freak-folk brethren, but neither Espers nor Nadler share much in common with artists like Devendra Banhart or Animal Collective, aside from acoustic guitars. Rather, Nadler has a mystical and mysterious quality, beautiful and wispy rather than primal and rugged, and far less prone to manic yelps or tales of multiplying Chinese children.
To put it crudely, Songs III is a sad album. That may be over-simplifying, a bit, but there's more than a passing thread of mournfulness on this delicate collection. Even if it may be playing in some American households for the first time in August, its very presence will invite a snowflake or two in with its subsequent play. Of the eleven songs on the album, at least half describe or allude to death, but the overall feeling is eerie rather than mournful, as each song feels like a voice calling back from beyond, telling its unfortunate tale. That isn't to say they won't draw a tear from the listener, however; given the aching beauty of each and every gently plucked note, it seems almost inevitable.
Really, everything on Songs III: Bird on the Water is spooky and stunning, right down to the double-exposure photo of Nadler upon a field of barren trees. It's enough to send shivers down one's spine, which is surely a welcome feeling in the dead of summer. --Treblezine.com
On this 11-song set, ten are originals, and the lone cover is daunting: Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat," which adds new meaning to the songwriter's words and even Jennifer Warnes' excellent interpretation. The standout tracks -- though all are excellent, deeply moving and emotionally taut -- are "Feathers," "Diamond Heart," "Silvia," and "Mexican Summer." They talk of loss, death, grief, the brokenness in love, transgression, and the appearance of being able to move freely among these very strong emotions while becoming so informed by them: her world view and her heart's view are not only informed by them, but inseparable from them. Nadler has written a song suite here that fully articulates her strongest gifts: she never has to reach for notes, only to open her mouth and they pour like honey, slowly, purposefully, and look at the smaller entrances where her imaginative narratives enter the human being and root themselves there for lifetimes. There are no seams in this album, and to quote her lyric poetry out of the context from the music would be an injustice.
Song III is not to be compared with any of the recordings of her contemporaries. She falls for none of the traps, she communicates with a kind of gentle candor that is unsettling, elegant, and utterly graceful. This is music that is violent in its ability to shift the listener's attention toward it, but it is delivered gently, slowly, and purposefully. For those who have been seduced by the works of Buffy Sainte-Marie's Illuminations album, Tom Rapp's later solo work, the recordings of Bill Fay, late Current 93, Antony, Michael Cashmore, Leonard Cohen's early material, or the middle period records of Pearls Before Swine, this is certainly for you. For anyone looking for early Joni Mitchell or Joanna Newsom, search elsewhere. Disturbing, beautiful and unforgettable, Song III: Bird on the Water is among the most arresting recordings of 2007 thus far and sets a new high-water mark for this seemingly limitless songwriter. [The purchase of the CD comes with a coupon for an Internet download -- in 192 kps, MP3, or FLAC -- for an additional four-song EP which includes a stunning reading of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer."] --allmusic.com
Songs III is one of the most engaging singer-songwriter releases this year Pitchfork (8.1)
The most exquisite thing happening right now **** Mojo
The most enchanting record from the folk underground since Joanna Newsom s Ys **** Uncut
Haunting folk; the first heartbreaker of 2007 The Sunday Times
Wistful new-folk so perfectly in thrall to its influences that it could pass as a lost treasure from the early 60 s Q Magazine
Songs III: Bird on the Water is a dark and atmospheric record, and Nadler s most personal to date. Thematically she relates to characters living on the fringes of society. The songs revolve around the demise of a love relationship as well as eulogies and dirges. For the uninitiated, Marissa Nadler grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, where perhaps the brutal winters bred into her a chilly disposition and an early propensity for the darker and more melancholy side of things.
Marissa s first LPs were of home recordings. Ballads of Living and Dying was a release that Pitchfork called a landscape you may want to get lost in for a century or two." A second album of home recordings, The Saga of Mayflower May has garnered the same acclaim with Pitchfork calling it simply an "enthralling album".
It was inevitable that Marissa would rise from the underground to reach a wider audience. Her music is dreamy and spectral: an amalgam of traditional folk, paisley underground, shoegaze, and dream pop. Almost all of the songs are very sad about broken hearts, death, or simple burdens. Her voice is what most people immediately respond to, with the writing and playing yielding a slow burn subtlety. Excelling at a Fahey-esque finger-picking technique, she plays homage to some of the great early American blues players.
Songs III is certainly her most cohesive album to date and exquisite, essential listening for fans of the 4AD canon, Joanna Newsom, and Jolie Holland - for starters.
