Marissa Nadler is renowned for her distinctly gothic aesthetic, vulnerable lyrics, and delicate croon. With the pair of confessional new tracks she’s shared — “Poison,” which features the Velvet Underground legend John Cale, and “If We Make It Through The Summer” — she delivers on these expectations and more. Her last full-length album, her eighth, was last year’s For My Crimes.

“Poison” is a minimal, mournful ballad. A reverberant guitar is the most prominent instrumentation, but Nadler’s vocals — and her apparent struggles — are the centerpiece. “Said I’ve never been happy in my life/ And I never will be as your wife,” she sings. As Nadler comes to heartbreaking conclusions, Cale joins her in a duet as comforting as it is sorrowful. They harmonize, “Daze in the barrel of a gun/ Are we nothing but poison?”

“If We Make It Through The Summer” is a much-needed, hopeful reprieve. The guitar strums rise upwards and the drums pound in the rhythm of a still-beating heart. “It’s been a hard year/ I’m not over it/ Trying to stop the fear of changing,” Nadler knowingly sings.

Listen to the pair of songs below.

“Poison”/”If We Make It Through The Summer” is out now via KRO.