Marissa Nadler
Strangers

Marissa Nadler is definitely one of the most fascinating songwriters in the independent pop music scene. We're talking about an artist and a singer with a particularly melodious voice, an excellent songwriter and musician, known especially for her peculiar guitar technique with a style similar to fingerpicking, which is typical of her songs.

An all-around artist (she's also a painter) born and raised in Massachusetts, USA, and residing in Boston, she is about to release her new album on May 20. The album will be titled 'Strangers' and will be released by Sacred Bones, the same label she collaborated with for the release of 'July' (2014), her last record which received excellent reviews from both the public and industry insiders: more than a consecration, a true triumph.

But rest assured: this new album will surely not receive a less positive reception. First of all, because after six studio albums ('Strangers' will be the seventh), Marissa has become a very popular and appreciated singer not only among those who are into independent music but also by what could be defined as a broader and more 'mainstream' audience.

Secondly, and most importantly, 'Strangers' picks up on the same type of sounds and atmospheres that made 'July' what we could define as a 'dark gem'. It's no coincidence that the album's producer and main collaborator is once again audio-engineer Randall Dunn (also known for his project Masters Musicians of Bukkake) and already known for his work with other artists like Akron/Family, Sunn O))), Six Organs of Admittance (among others).

Preceded by the release of two songs, 'Janie in Love' and 'All the Colours of the Dark', the album's sounds are much like those of the last album. Compositions that I prefer to describe as dreamy and hypnotic folk songs instead of categorizing them under 'gothic folk' or 'dreampop', two classifications I don't really like. The first is, in my opinion, too heavy and too pretentious and this even in cases like this, where we can recognize and grasp a certain sweetness, a kind of ideal open-armed welcome in her music and especially her voice; the second because it is now overused and mostly applied to sounds far more 'pop' than those of this album.

However, the most interesting aspects of this album probably concern the lyrics and the overall creative process used by the artist. In a certain sense, Marissa had to reinvent herself and employ techniques typical of literature or poetry, gradually immersing herself in a process of depersonalization. No title could have been better for this album than 'Strangers'. But who are these strangers, these unknowns? It's too easy to think of one of Jim Morrison and the Doors' most famous songs. But Marissa Nadler's is actually the true application of a method and a therapy that leads you to look at others to be able to look and explore within yourself and your deepest soul. You know how it is. It's like when, for example, you say you're unlucky. When you say you're unlucky, in the end, isn't it the same as when you claim to be lucky and/or better than others? In both cases, you're doing the same thing: you're putting yourself on an ideal pedestal. You're saying that you're different from others and for some reason, 'special', but the truth is you don't accept yourself because you're afraid, not so much of others but of yourself and what you truly are. So, like in a hall of mirrors, you can listen to this album and do the same as Marissa did in writing these songs. You can lose yourself in these dark yet light and dreamy atmospheres, and then reflect your face in the eyes of an unknown person and then magically dissolve into thousands of pieces inside shadows of all colors, and then come back down to earth and maybe be different from what you were before or maybe just realize that you're the same, that you're just as you were before, but you're not alone.