Marissa Nadler has been gifting the world with her melancholy, soothing yet unsettling dark folk music for over 23 years now. Between 2004 and 2011, Marissa released six albums but it was her 2014 release July that found Marissa Nadler truly making her mark and setting a foundation that would have her becoming an influential artist in her own right. It’s hard to believe that Marissa Nadler’s groundbreaking album July is turning 10 years old this year. Not only is it a really special album to her but it’s an album that means a lot to me. At a time when I was finding myself at a crossroads of sorts as a songwriter, July served as a map for me that took me into a creative direction that changed me forever.
Marissa had this to say about the re-release via her social media accounts:
July is a very special album to me, for all sorts of reasons, and it’s 10 year anniversary is this week.
“I’d had 6 albums before this record, and have made lots more since then – but it’s definitely still one of my favorite albums that I have made. The songs encapsulate a pivotal time in my life and the album revitalized my connection with music after a truly dark period. When I think of the album, I vividly recall laboriously working on those harmonies and lyrics in my old apartment outside of Boston. It snowed a ton that year, and in the morning I would dig my car out and drive to the therapeutic school that I was teaching art at. In the evening, I would just dissect those songs. Music can be the ultimate time machine and when I thing of these songs, that time, and who and what the songs are about, the feelings that inspired them come flooding back.
People have been pursuing alchemy for centuries, trying to to turn lead into gold. While no one has ever achieved that feat, art does it every single day— where you take something perceived as a negative and literally give it a new life force. In the case of July, I took a series of calamities and transfigured them into songs that truly seemed to resonate with people. To my surprise, the songs even seemed to reverse or undo some of the loss in my real life too.
For the anniversary, @sacredbones has put together a very special limited edition silver vinyl. It comes with a screenprinted wraparound cover that I designed with a drawing I did around the ghost image. It also has a flexi disc with a previously unheard demo of drive. The link is in my link tree in the bio and there’s only 250 of them. This anniversary also marks ten years with both @sacredbones and @bella_union – two labels I’m proud to call home.”
July was produced by @randallbdunn , with players @philip_wandscher , @eyvindkang , @jonashaskins, @jonashaskins , @theuglycowboy , @stebmoses ,and @thatmanpatschowe . I’ll be performing the album in full during a series of soon to be announced concerts. Nashville was just announced for July 13th @theblueroomnashville w/ @scoutgillett / w/ more to come like @preparethegroundtoronto. photo by @ebruyildiz
The limited edition Silver vinyl with alternate artwork by Marissa herself is going fast so hop on this one ASAP.
ORDER THE JULY RE-ISSUE ALBUM HERE!
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