With the release of New Radiations, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler has amassed ten official albums in a vast body of work that includes two compilations, four EPs, ten singles, and nearly a dozen self-released collections ranging from demos, outtakes, and covers. Hers is a lush sound, warm and resonant, with fingerpicked guitar as the foundation. With this batch of 11 songs, she’s evincing no signs of slowing down. The set is out August 15 on vinyl (white, black, moonlight radiation), compact disc, and digital through her label of over a decade, Sacred Bones of New York City.
Fingerpicked and darkly moody, “It Hits Harder,” the opening track from New Radiations, radiates an early 2000s aura, although it’s not tidily pegged as neo-New Weirdness or Freak Folky. Strengthened by an undergirding of electric guitar, the song travels a long stylistic road in its five minutes. The following track, “Bad Dreams Summertime,” is more concise and pop-oriented in a Mazzy Star sort of way. “You Called Her Carmellia” expands on this scenario, unfurling a gorgeous tranquility, this time fortified with peals of hazy, distant pedal steel.
“Smoke Screen Selene” is a much darker affair, although no less atmospheric, oozing a decidedly 1990s Lynch/ Badalamenti/Cruise feel. Of course, the Lynch-affiliated work of that era regularly tapped into ’50s-early ’60s pop, and New Radiations finds Nadler continuing to explore similar territory, and in particular during the title track and “If It’s an Illusion,” the latter offering an ample dose of those James Burton by way of Twin Peaks guitar stylings.
Next is “Hatchet Man,” another gradually developing beauty move, and “Light Years” glistens right from the start, moving once again at Nadler’s preferred pace, a speed that some might describe as glacial but is better assessed as a sunbaked slow-motion crawl. For some, this lack of variation in momentum will become monochromatic, but for others, it will register as a consistency that becomes immersive. “Weightless Above the Water” doesn’t deviate, though there is a prettiness in Nadler’s vocal that assists the track in standing out.
With “To Be the Moon King,” New Radiations enters its homestretch by maintaining expectations, and then “Sad Satellite” delivers the album a highlight by stretching out a bit and leaning into a breathy country-folky feel for the close. The album reinforces Nadler as a master of sustained mood, but with an extra boost through songs with clear emotional depth.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
