Songs III: Bird on the Water

Backed by the revered Philly psych-folk group Espers-- and produced by that band's frontman, Greg Weeks-- singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler's latest outing is her best yet, ensconsing songs of sorrow in impressionistic phrases and careful musicianship.

Not since Leonard Cohen turned the sound of a snowy day into a folk-music career has one guitar-playing singer-songwriter brought such a thick, lovely frost to acoustica as Marissa Nadler on her third album, Songs III: Bird On The Water. The album's title and the song "Bird On Your Grave" even nod to Cohen, as does…

Songwriter Marissa Nadler's first two albums of home recordings, 2004's Ballads of Living and Dying and 2006's Saga of Mayflower May, were both issued by Eclipse and got plenty of traction from reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic.