It's a failing of good music journalism that we haven't come up with a good moniker to slap on the likes of Marissa Nadler, Emily Jane White, Alela Diane. These songstresses have been at work for the past years bringing some of the most consistently rewarding listens, spawning imitations, homages, and crafting their own fantastical, tonal, spectral sound. "Dead City Emily," from Nadler's new record July which arrives Feb. 4 2014 via Sacred Bones (see the delightfully retro cover art above), is vintage Nadler. Pushing a spare and minimalist sound, Nadler focuses on the interlocking of harmony and melody which is as haunting as it is elegiac. Nadler's own moniker for her record label Box of Cedar doesn't seem to fit with the expansiveness of her sound. Here, the listing tones of a luminescent keyboard play off her fingerpicking as the song moves into a sly crescendo. Nadler's less interested in song structure as she is formal tone which makes "Dead City Emily," like many of her songs, achingly and hauntingly beautiful.
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