Artist: Marissa Nadler
Title: Little Hells
Label: Kemado
Genre: Indie
Bitrate: 176kbit av.
Time: 00:42:32
Size: 57.14 mb
Rip Date: 2009-01-29
Str Date: 2009-03-02
1. Heart Paper Lover 4:10
2. Rosary 3:58
3. Mary Come Alive 4:46
4. Little Hells 2:28
5. Ghosts And Lovers 4:18
6. Brittle, Crushed & Tom 3:14
7. The Hole Is Wide 4:41
8. River Of Dirt 4:26
9. Loner 4:49
10. Mistress 5:42
Release Notes:
To attain memorability, artists often strive for a consistent
tonal resonance to align with the occasionally overlooked
aspect of cohesion. Whether one hears a punk group achieve
success through energetically volatile three-chord
progressions or listens to an electronic artist successfully
emulate certain emotions or experiences through a fusion of
samples and original melodies, there is an undeniable
responsibility placed upon the atmosphere found on a given
album. 'Soundscape' has been a word thrown around to describe
these audible atmospherics, specifically in electronic music.
But despite what anyone chooses to call it, there is no method
in which to teach an aspiring musician how to master audible
atmospherics. This is especially the case as recent years have
shown, with an ample array of technological innovations in
music allowing for more artistic flexibility (for better or
for worse) in an area of songwriting that is one of the most
accurate factors in determining natural ability. Along with
the increase in production-based technology, the expectations
of listeners are rising as the degrees of innovation within
'soundscapes' appear to becoming just as relevant as the
melodic content itself. Though many exist who still prefer the
lo-fi side of things, there is a broad audience that heavily
values the art of atmospheric dependability. And for this,
very few artists reign supreme for a reason that relates to
both natural ability and technological comprehension.
Unanimous association with tranquility can be a turn-off for
some, as they may perceive such a style to lack the vigor
necessary to result in something memorable. But as Marissa
Nadler has proven with her past three albums, haunting
serenity can be one of the most powerful forces at work. This
appears to be especially the case in folk music, where minimal
instrumentation is often prevalent and effective lyrical
imagery is vital toward success. On her fourth and finest
album, Little Hells, Nadler's arrangements are not bare by any
stretch of the imagination with tinges of throwback
synthesizers, distorted bass, and chilling organs. However,
they do attain a quality that never allows her works to be
overwhelming or stylistically desperate. In addition to her
majestic songwriting, it can be traced to one thing: Nadler's
uniquely empowering voice. She is able to instill beauty,
temptation, and pensive melancholy through a voice that sits
somewhere between that of an airy ghost and an undeniably
beseeching angel. In other words, it sounds like it is not
quite from this earth. These aspects may sound great to new
listeners (as they are accurate), but longtime fans of Nadler
since her 2004 debut, Ballads of Living and Dying, are already
familiar with it all by now. In fact, the only thing they are
asking themselves by now is what separates Little Hells from
her previous three albums.
In a rapid succession of sorts, there are few that will argue
against the belief that Nadler's releases seem to be improving
with each sequential release. What makes Little Hells so
brilliant is surprisingly not her approach, which is the
similarly ethereal style she mastered on her third album,
Songs III: Bird on the Water, but the songwriting itself. Fans
of her previous releases will not notice any major stylistic
changes apart from a more prevalent usage of synthesizers and
several more instrumentally involved tracks, but even these
are subtle enough to blend into the style of half-beautiful,
half-haunting elegance that captured so many fans in the first
place. Instead, it is the songwriting that makes the best use
of her style. The enthralling 'Rosary' is a track that could
have easily fit on her previous album with its delicate
acoustical progression and gradually implemented backing vocal
harmonies. And like the most prevalent highlights on Songs
III: Bird on the Water, the most beautiful moments are usually
the ones that appear after several listens. 'Rosary', in
particular, involves what seems to be a very effective slide
guitar soaked in reverb under a vocal melody that complements
the aforementioned beautifully. While it is one of the album's
more subdued and less demanding tracks along with other
efforts like 'Ghosts and Lovers' and 'Brittle Crushed and
Torn', it provides as one of the greatest examples of Nadler's
subtle elegancies.
When moving on to the album's more instrumentally involved
tracks, one must keep in mind that the beauty of Nadler's
music is not decided by the number of instruments involved or
how technically demanding the song is. Basically, since
Nadler's vocals often serve as a separate entity of their own
with unpredictably effective melodies, there is no use in
saying that a boastfully progressive track like the
outstanding 'Mary Comes Alive' is more intricate than
something like 'Rosary' or 'Ghosts and Lovers'. Though the
tracks on Little Hells boast varying structural advantages and
melodic techniques, they all appear on a level playing ground
that exemplifies Nadler's cohesive tonal, melodic, and
atmospheric consistency more than anything else. 'Mary Comes
Alive' is distantly reminiscent of classic Portishead with a
ghostly female voice crooning over a bustlingly repetitive
guitar progression, thick bass drums, and a synth line that
first appears sporadically before it emerges as a central
point of the song. Here, Nadler sounds like she is on the
verge of tears, which is effectively appropriate considering
the tone of her lyrical delivery. After a burst of synths, she
proclaims, 'I know we had a beautiful life, but things
changed.' The entire track speaks to both emotional death and
rebirth, a theme that Nadler has explored successfully before
on her past three albums.
'Loner', with its eerie organ and gentle acoustical strum, is
one of the efforts on Little Hells that heavily benefits from
Nadler's natural ability to infuse ingenious atmospherics with
a haunting cohesion of lyrical and melodic arrangements.
'Loner' is indeed one of the most structurally repetitive
tracks on the album, but it is also an aspect that Nadler
clearly recognized as she was constructing the song. This song
is simply an example of the pure atmospheric beauty that
Nadler is able to concoct. The droning effect of an acoustic
guitar resonates similarly throughout the entire track, but
slight variations in the gothic-esque organs and synth pads
(which resemble the sound of blowing wind) are what carries
this song - along with the obvious (Nadler's voice) ╣ to great
heights. And even on more expansive tracks like 'Mistress' and
'River of Dirt', where her first accompanying 'full band
shows off their powerful effect - Nadler's beautiful
subtleties resonate very powerfully. Though Little Hells is an
effort that continues utilizing the aspects that made Nadler's
previous releases so memorable, both solid songwriting and the
addition of a backing band makes Nadler's fourth album a
release of pure beauty that surpasses the material of all of
her previous releases.