Marissa Nadler seems to be my concert white whale.  I have friends who have seen her live and raved about her unique “do more with less” stage show, and that eventually put me on to her music, which won me over with her gossamer-delicate voice.  Plus, she’s always coming to Chicago supporting the coolest bands, but always on a weekday or a day where Angela and I are out of town.  Knowing that New Radiations, Nadler’s tenth full-length album, is out means a tour is certainly on the horizon.  I guess I need to prepare my schedule now so I don’t miss it. 

Marissa Nadler might not have the same level of brand recognition as, say, a Chelsea Wolfe or an Emma Ruth Rundle, but she has been 1) grinding it out for quite a long time now, with New Radiations being her tenth full-length album, and 2) on a real kick of momentum as of late.  2021’s dual release of The Path of the Clouds and its companion EP The Wrath of the Clouds saw a fresh wave of critical acclaim wash over Nadler, in part because of her deeply haunting and unique take on songwriting, and in part because of the collaborative spirit Nadler brings to each release with her bevy of guests invited to partake in the sessions.  On New Radiations, however, Nadler puts forth something of a return to form, with an increased focus on her voice and signature fingerpicked guitar as the focal point of each of the eleven tracks that make up the album.  Of course, there are still the requisite organs, synths and electric guitars that have also contributed to Nadler’s signature sonic stew, but they take on more of a supporting role underneath her Darnielle-esque character explorations.  New Radiations is very much an introspective and intimate album, but Nadler explores themes of love, loss, violence and horror through a series of vignettes featuring different mostly-nameless figures and their observations about the world crumbling down around them in different ways.  Interestingly, vehicles also play a large role in the interweaving narratives, from getaway cars and Cessnas to rockets and satellites.

Nadler produced New Radiations herself, and upon starting the album the first thing I notice is a signature wispy thinness to the sound of the record.  Thin production is usually synonymous with “bad,” especially when you look at it in a metal context, but in the case of the folk music Nadler makes, it supports her really well and allows her beautiful voice to really stand out.  Everything has a sort of fuzzy haze over it, and it works really well to accentuate the dream-like quality of the songwriting.  Nadler is, in my opinion, one of the more criminally underrated storytellers of today’s singer-songwriters, and her work here is exceedingly clever and poignant.  Opener “It Hits Harder” follows the inner musings of a pilot trying to escape a lost love by flying as far as their passenger plane will take them, backed by Nadler’s self-taught style of fingerpicking and lilting vocal melodies.  “Hatchet Man” similarly features a chilling tale of murder and cosmic visions in a hotel room, and “To Be the Moon King” tells the story of an engineer scrawling equations backwards on his bathroom mirror and building models in his backyard, all underpinned by a wash of graceful and understated vocals and plaintive guitar melodies.  The organs, synths and slides are indeed few and a little far in between, but that leaves all the more space for Nadler herself to shine, and it makes their appearance all the more memorable, as in the climactic closer “Sad Satellite.”

I’m pretty excited to see how Nadler is going to take these songs and translate them live.  Are they going to be even more stripped down, or maybe built up to a full band arrangement?  Maybe something in between, which is more of her current loadout?  Time will tell, I guess.  In the meantime, New Radiations is another huge win for Nadler, and it’ll be really great to see her continue to ride the momentum she is on into the certainly bright future that awaits her.

— Ian

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New Radiations is available now on Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union Records.  For more information on Marissa Nadler, visit her official website.