With her gorgeous mezzo-soprano voice, Boston-based dream-folk artist Marissa Nadler has been likened to a siren who lures star-crossed sailors into whirlpools of doom. Nadler's past five albums have focused almost exclusively on dark themes like death and sorrow, but her newest, The Sister, indeed guides listeners into uncharted waters.
Though this release serves as a companion to 2011's melancholy Marissa Nadler, the quasi-gothic songstress plunges deeper into the lives of her richly imagined narrators to explore concepts like kinship and hope. "The Wrecking Ball Company" opens the album with a slow, guitar-driven waltz arrangement that complements chilly lyrics about seclusion and longing. The chill gives way to warmth by mid-album, when "Apostle" arrives, with its musings about loving embraces.
