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 Nadler's cover of "Famous Blue Raincoat." But her resonant, almost operatic voice is more expressive, and on songs like the beguiling "Mexican Summer" and the baroque "Feathers," Nadler shows a unique fascination with sounds that drift gently, vibrating and rumbling. Songs III presents moments of drama, enticingly packaged.
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